From NEWSWEEK CONDENSED BOOKS (c) 1978
MONTGOMERY CLIFT: A Biography
by Patricia Bosworth

Howard Hawks offered Montgomery Clift the role of John Wayne's foster son in a western he was preparing called "RED RIVER," in February 1946.
It took three days to make Monty look good enough to be pitted against Wayne because he didn't know how to punch or move when rehearsed. The fight scene with Wayne was the beginning of a series of bloody film fights in which he always played the idealist and loner. In "FROM HERE TO ETERNITY," "THE YOUNG LIONS," "WILD RIVER," and "THE MISFITS" he was subjected to incredible beatings of one kind or another.

Monty and Wayne did not get along. Wayne told a LIFE magazine editor, "Clift is an arrogant little bastard." Although Monty wanted to relax when he finished "RED RIVER," the screenwriter Peter Viertel introduced him to a young Austrian-born director named Fred Zinnemann who was then working with Viertel on "THE SEARCH." Zinnemann described the movie to Monty in a Beverly Hills coffee shop. THE SEARCH was about the fate of concentration camp survivors; the plan was to film it like a documentary on location in Europe at the actual cities of the U.N. rehabilitation centers. monty read Viertel's treatment and was intrigued with both the theme and the character Zinnemann wanted him to play - that of a carefree G.I. who inadvertently gets involved with refugees. monty made some suggestions to zinnemann but no real commitments. He wanted time to think.
The idea of losing his privacy terrified him. He told the novelist james Jones later, 'I watched myself in RED RIVER and I knew I was going to be famous, so I decided i would get drunk anonymously one last time.'
There were several script revisions causing an angry Peter Viertel to bow out; he refused, unsuccessfully, to eliminate any reference to "Hitler's final solution."
This ommission upset Monty as much as Viertel; he believed the movie-going public should be reminded of the mass killings. bothered by the "goody-goody" dialogue, he told Kevin, "It's like The Yearling with sugar added." Monty signed with Zinnemann for the part in March 1947.

On March 26th, 1948, THE SEARCH opened all over the United States to Unanimous acclaim. Suddenly Montgomery Clift was famous. He went to Hollywood to star opposite Olivia deHavilland in THE HEIRESS. He was paid ,000. Just before THE HEIRESS finished shooting, RED RIVER opened around the country. The picture received great notices, and Monty superlative ones. With the tremendous personal success from RED RIVER ("Clift is the hottest actor since Valentino," wrote Look), Monty foud himself in even more demand. He finally signed with Paramount for three pictures with the then unheard-of stipulation that he have script approval and the movies be directed only by Billy Wilder, George Stevens, or Norman Krasna. He also had the freedom to work at any other studio of his choice.

James Jones and Monty got into a big discussion about FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. Jones had just sold his best-selling novel about corruption in the U.S. Army before Pearl Harbor to Columbia for ,000. "I'd like you to play Prewitt," he recalls telling Monty. "Monty got all excited - he loved the idea. I told him Harry Cohn wanted John Derek for the part, but that I didn't want him. 'But can I play a fighter?' Monty wanted to know. I told him he sure as hell could!" Monty had been waiting to play Prewitt in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY for almost two years, but in spite of entreaties by author James Jones, Harry Cohn wanted Aldo Ray. For months, director Fred Zinnemann fought with Cohn over casting. Zinnemann finally threatened to quit unless Cohn agreed on Monty. Columbia's president asked why. "Because," Zinnemann answered, "I want to make a good picture and Clift is the only actor who can play Prewitt." He rolls over on the grass and Zinnemann calls cut! And someone says, 'Pew's dead,' in a hushed voice.

As soon as shooting concluded for Monty, May 2nd, 1953, he made plans to go to the Kevin McCarthys on Cape Cod. There were only signs that summer that all was not well. Monty swam, lay in the sun, and read a great deal, but he complained to the McCarthys of having blackouts.
During his blackouts that summer on the Cape, Monty drove his car into a ditch on the way to the dump with the garbage. He had no memory of the incident, nor did he remember running over a friend's herb garden. at a restaurant in Provincetown he addressed a waiter, "Hey, fuck-face!" but he expressed disbelief when chastised about it later. "I didn't say that!"

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY went on to win the New York Film Critics Award for best director, best movie, and best actor (Burt Lancaster). It won seven Academy Awards (Sinatra and Donna Reed both won best supporting Oscars). Monty was nominated for best actor, but he lost to William Holden, who won for STALAG 17. Monty and Sinatra remained close. For a while they phoned each other constantly; and they drank together in Hollywood and New York. Monty idolized the singer. He played his records until they wore out, he kept his photograph in a place of honor in his duplex, and he showed off the gold lighter Sinatra had given him on Christmas that was engraved "Merry merry buddy boy. I'm with you all the way. Maggio."
The two kept in close contact until one night Monty got very drunk and came on sexually with a man at a party in Bel Air. Sinatra witnessed the incident and he had his bodyguard throw Monty out.

He needed constant sexual reassurance, and he was able to get that from men more easily than women. According to record producer Ben Bagley, Monty had a small penis and was extremely embarrassed about it.
"He talked about it all the time to me," said Bagley. "I think it was the secret tragedy of his life. A lot of homosexuals gossiped about Monty's problem because gays put great importance on . . . size." In the unexpurgated version of Kenneth Anger's HOLLYWOOD BABYLON, Monty is called "Princess Tiny Meat."
At the beginning of the summer, screenings of A PLACE IN THE SUN were held. Charlie Chaplin attended one of them in Hollywood, and afterwards told George Stevens, "This is the greatest movie ever made about America." That quote was repeated in the press, and an excellent word of mouth began on the film. A PLACE IN THE SUN became one of the emblematic films of the 1950s. "A new generation of soul searchers reacted to the tormented youth portrayed by Clift," wrote Joe Morella and Edward Epstein in their book, The Rebel Hero in Films.
Film critic Andrew Sarris, who saw the movie countless times, says, "Clift and Elizabeth Taylor were the most beautiful couple in the history of cinema. It was a sensuous experience to watch them respond to each other. Those gigantic close-ups of them kissing was unnerving - sybaritic - like gorging on chocolate sundaes."
Then, of course, there was Monty's cruising sexual swagger (which Brando and James Dean pick up on). Few audiences in the 1950s were aware of the meaning of that androgynous swagger - it was very subtle and Monty only did it for a few seconds on film.