Maggie Smith’s early films cemented her dynamic career

It’s understandable that most film and television fans remember Maggie Smith for her dynamic work in the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey. They are more recent and far more common in their time and represent worthy examples of their outstanding work.

But even to some of the most knowledgeable cinephiles, most of her film work before the 1980s is unknown, aside from her two Oscar wins (Best Actress for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and Supporting Actress for “California Suite”). Her death at age 89 represents a chance to look back not just at roles that showcased her later brilliance but, in some cases, at roles as welloffer a broader spectrum than what has become standard – but always with nuance and uniqueness – Role of Maggie Smith later years.

When reviewing her film career until at least 2008, one must remember that she was primarily a stage actress. In the early 1960s she joined Laurence Olivier’s National Theater and was then a prominent actress on the London stage for decades. At this point, her film work complemented theater.

Not only did this give her priority, it also limited her travel to the United States. Only two of her first 15 films and none before 1973 were made outside Europe. And although it was a vital industry, British films at this time (often financed by American studios, notably MGM, which produced five of those first films) were often classified as part of the niche art market.

Her first well-known role was in Nowhere to Go (1958), an underrated end-of-life thriller from the fabled Ealing Studios, as a young debutante who faces danger when she helps a sexy prison escapee (George Nader). The film was released in British cinemas as the bottom half of a double bill, although when you see the film today you see a completely confident actress, even in her early twenties.

It took five years for The VIPs, but she took the opportunity to show she could compete with a cast that included Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton (shortly after Cleopatra), Margaret Rutherford, Orson Welles, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, and Rod Taylor. She made a lasting impression as the reserved secretary who plays a key role in saving her boss from ruin. Richard Burton attested to her more than just the ability to hold her own in their scenes together. As another scene-stealer, he said: “She’s committing grand theft.”

Olivier had Smith reprise her Desdemona, the subject of Othello’s obsession, in his 1965 film adaptation of the play directed by Stuart Burge. No one could hold their own in a Shakespeare adaptation as well as she did among the other female co-stars. This led to her first Oscar nomination (for supporting role).

That same year, John Ford chose her for a supporting role in Young Cassidy, based on the life of playwright Sean O’Casey. Ford became ill, but not before Smith filmed some scenes for him. She was one of the last living actresses to work with him.

She returned to a leading role in Peter Ustinov’s 1968 caper comedy Hot Millions. In a cast that included Ustinov, Karl Malden, Bob Newhart, Robert Morley and Cesar Romero (all seasoned veterans and scene-stealers), her role as an incompetent secretary who somehow outwits the rest stood out. The film received only a modest domestic release, but her reviews were the best of her early work, with the exception of “Othello,” and the film demonstrated her comedic abilities, which had previously been less evident.

“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969) elevated her. In that modest success earlier in the year, she was the surprise winner of the Best Actress category (against Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli and Geneviève Bujold, all strong contenders). But with the stage still her priority, it was three years before she returned to the screen in George Cukor’s Travels with My Aunt.

In the adaptation of Graham Greene’s adventure novel, she played an eccentric character with far-reaching idiosyncrasies that she incorporated into her later work. With Smith as a hedonistic older woman, accompanied by a tepid banker who may be her nephew, they traveled across Europe and got into trouble. It earned her a second Best Actress nomination, although the film was a disappointing success.

The failure of 1973’s Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing, an early Alan J. Pakula film starring Timothy Bottoms two years after The Last Picture Show, ended Smith’s attempts at starring roles to take over American films. The romance between an older woman and a younger man was filmed in Spain. That same year, Glenda Jackson, also one of London’s leading stage actresses and an Oscar winner, scored her second win with “A Touch of Class.”

Unlike Jackson, who remained active in the film industry until the 1980s (before his political career), Smith began appearing in smaller roles in often more expensive studio films after a break. Starting with Neil Simon’s original comedy Murder by Death (1976), then Death on the Nile and California Suite in 1978, she established herself as a top actress who brings that special something to every film. Smith had leading roles in smaller films, but managed to find success in higher level character roles for more than 40 years.

Few actresses have been as successful in their later years as Smith, and few have excelled in possessing the vitality that she conveyed in her later roles. The younger Smith was more complicated, rounder and less of the grande dame that she later surpassed. She was often vulnerable on the surface, never a conventional beauty, but still usually displayed self-confidence and genuine appeal that gave substance to her characters.

It’s a group of films that deserve more attention.