ABSTRACT
In Otto Preminger’s World War II epic In Harm’s Way , Patricia Neal appears as Naval Lieutenant Maggie Haines, a character whom Bosley Crowther described as a “weary” and “tough” nurse. Lieutenant Haines delivers her life story matter-of-factly: first she divorced her husband, and after that went to nursing school and joined the navy. Throughout the film, she appears in uniform. Her affect is consistently practical and calm. One can see what attracted Neal to the role of Lt. Haines in In Harm’s Way : the chance to play a competent, professional, three-dimensional woman. Women, Method Acting, and the Hollywood Film is an inaugural study of the work of this often-overlooked group of Method actors in Hollywood, grounded in close analysis of significant performances. Even though Woodward and her contemporaries often generated such compelling and memorable screen performances, the women of the Method have often been left behind in both popular and academic memory.
