FOR actress Shelley Duvall, who left us aged 75 last week, 1980 was a defining year in a career that threw up many memorable screen appearances.
It was that year that she played Wendy Torrance in The Shining. Think of director Stanley Kubrick’s coldly effective horror film today and the first thing that probably comes to mind is the sight of Jack Nicholson chewing up the scenery as the hotel caretaker turned axe-wielding psychopath Jack Torrance, but the beating human heart of the film - the crucial element of any successful horror tale - is found solely in Duvall’s Wendy.
Having to play the role of the lead character’s wife and would-be victim while interacting with an actor cranking up the alpha male vibes to preposterous levels may feel like something of a thankless task, but it’s one Duvall nailed perfectly all the same.
Her remarkable performance as the nervy wife and mother - so fragile, so ragged and so utterly believable - still thrills with its stark honesty and vulnerability. It’s one of the greatest and rawest turns in horror movie history, fixing her face forever in many people’s minds - and what a face it was.
If you were asked for one single image that sums up The Shining, it’s probably that sequence where Wendy is cowering behind a door, her eyes wide open and mouth stretching out in a silent scream of absolute anguish as she clasps a kitchen knife while big bad Jack hacks through the door with that aforementioned axe.
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Of course, when you know just how gruelling that shoot was, with Kubrick forcing take after take out of the exhausted actress with a brutality and disregard for his talent’s wellbeing that wouldn’t be acceptable today, it makes the film less easy to enjoy. It doesn’t lessen the power of the performance, though.
That year also saw Duvall landing the role of Olive Oyl in Robert Altman’s Popeye. It may have been a deeply flawed film in many ways, but there’s no denying that the casting of Duvall as the spinach guzzling sailor’s lanky love interest was inspired. Long-legged, wide-eyed and beautiful in a very non-traditional way, she plays the part exquisitely.
A million miles apart as that film may be from The Shining, it’s odd to note how the actress has to play the put-upon female to the scene-stealing alpha male on both occasions, with Robin Williams hamming it up and manically muscling his way through scenes in much the same way Nicholson did in Kubrick’s moody masterpiece.
It was Altman, of course, who gave Duvall some of her finest roles. From small but perfectly formed turns in the likes of Nashville (1975) to what might just be her finest ever screen performance in 3 Women (1977), the director just seemed to know how to get the best out of the Texas-born actress.
Odd and offbeat at times, she had a subtle on-screen quirkiness that was all her own, along with an ability to connect with audiences that truly set her apart.
