“I've always felt a prisoner of my image, felt that people preferred the myths and didn't want to hear about the real me at all. Because I was promoted as a sort of a siren and played all those sexy broads, people made the mistake of thinking I was like that off the screen. They couldn't have been more wrong… Hollywood, however, saw a lot of money in promoting me as a goddess, and that process moved into high gear with One Touch of Venus.” – Ava: My Story
This original, American poster for the 1948 film One Touch of Venus is in the Ava Gardner Museum collection and currently on display in the Museum’s main gallery.
In the tongue-in-cheek romantic comedy One Touch of Venus (1948), Ava Gardner portrayed the titular Venus, or rather a statue of Venus that comes to life and falls in love with a department store owner named Eddie Hatch, played by Robert Walker. While not a completely critical success, the film was a milestone in Ava Gardner’s career in several ways. It contributed greatly to the public image of Ava Gardner as a goddess or siren; it was one of the few comedies that she appeared in during her five-decade career; and it inspired the creativity of a young artist who would go on to paint over 30 portraits of Ava.
The musical film was based on a 1943 stage show written by S.J. Perelman and Ogden Nash. With music by Nash and Kurt Weill, direction by Elia Kazan, choreography by Agnes de Mille, and starring Mary Martin, the original Broadway musical was a hit – running for 567 performances. The motion picture adaptation from Universal Pictures was directed by William A. Seiter and also co-starred popular singer Dick Haymes and character actress Eve Arden. Only a portion of the original songs from the stage musical were used in the film – including “Speak Low” and “That’s Him”. The remainder of the songs and some of the lyrics from the stage show were replaced by work by composer and lyricist Ann Ronell, who was also married to the one of the film’s producers, Lester Cowan.
Although Ava Gardner had a very nice singing voice, her vocals in the film were dubbed by Eileen Wilson. Ava was always extremely disappointed when her singing voice was dubbed in a movie, but, if a studio was going to do it, she preferred Wilson to other vocalists of the time. Wilson, who was a noted big band singer in her own right, had a quality to her voice that closely matched Ava’s own speaking and singing voice. Wilson also dubbed Ava’s singing in 1947’s The Hucksters.
A promotional still from the film showing Robert Walker and Ava Gardner.
The male lead role in the film was played by Robert Walker, who Ava affectionately called “Bob.” In her autobiography, Ava recounted the struggles Walker faced with alcoholism and his concerted efforts to stay sober while filming. Unfortunately, he failed to do so on several occasions during the production. She recalled a time in which she and Rene Jordan, Ava's dear friend and personal assistant, took him in for the night in order to make sure he got safely to bed and back to the studio in the morning. Walker tragically died at the young age of 32 in 1951, only a few years after working with Ava, due to an adverse reaction to alcohol combined with medication administered by his physiatrist.
This advertisement for the film describing Ava as “The Gal Who Invented Love!” appeared in print media. This piece is part of the Ava Gardner Museum’s extensive collection of ephemera.
For Ava, One Touch of Venus came after her breakout success in the 1946 film noir The Killers. Her stardom and transition to leading roles was on the rise in the late 1940s. In 1947, after her big-screen breakthrough, Ava starred in another film noir entitled Singapore alongside Fred MacMurray, followed by a comedy/drama called The Hucksters with Clark Gable and Deborah Kerr. While the latter was filmed at Ava’s home studio of MGM, she was loaned to Universal for The Killers and Singapore, and there she remained for One Touch of Venus. MGM often loaned Ava out to other studios, especially early in her career as she was working to establish herself in the industry.
According to film historians Anthony Uzarowski and Kendra Bean, coauthors of Ava: A Life in Movies, “One Touch of Venus was to become an important step in creating the myth of Ava the screen goddess.” The role was one of the earliest to form Ava’s rising public persona; however, Ava herself did not feel totally comfortable with her ever-increasing public reputation as a sexy siren or unattainable goddess. The process of preparing for the role of Venus made her feel no different.
This magazine clipping in the Ava Gardner Museum collection shows Ava Gardner posing alongside the statue of her as Venus and the work’s creator, sculptor Joseph Nicholi.
In order for “Venus” to come to life, a statue of Ava had to be created by the production team. Universal Pictures hired sculptor Joseph Nicholi to create Ava as Venus. The sculptor’s original artistic vision required Ava to pose topless. No surprise, Ava had a strong, negative response when this was asked of her. She recalled in Ava: My Story, “Nude? Me? Not even MGM had that in their contract. Bare my breasts? What would Mama have thought? Jesus, I had a hard enough time with two husbands and one boyfriend. No one darted into bed faster than I did. I had a fine time with sex, but the thought of exposing my body was something else again. I guess my mother's puritanical zeal had left some marks on me after all.”
Ava ultimately did bare all for the sake of art; however, the studio was aghast, and the statue had to be remade wearing an off-the-shoulder gown created by Academy Award-winning costume designer Orry-Kelly. This satisfied the studio’s censors and according to Ava in her autobiography, “America’s morals survived to fight another day.”
The studio had 12-inch-tall replicas made of the sculpture of Ava Gardner as Venus from the film. These sculptures were made out of Bakelite, an early synthetic plastic. They were presented as promotional items to theater owners and members of the media. This sculpture is currently on exhibit at the Ava Gardner Museum.
One Touch of Venus featured one of relatively few comedic roles that Ava Gardner played during her long career. Her friend and assistant Rene Jordan wrote in her memoir of her time with Ava, Living With Miss G, that Universal was “quick to recognize Miss G’s potential as a comedienne. Anyone who knew her recognized that she had a great sense of humor, a quick wit, followed by a noisy, joyful stream of laughter, and most importantly when needed, a wonderful wide-eyed air of innocence.”
Despite the impact on Ava’s image, the film itself received both negative and positive reviews from the critics. The New York Times called it a “cheap, lackluster farce.” In contrast, a critic for Variety wrote that the film “comes to the screen as a pleasant comedy fantasy.” They went on to praise Ava’s performance. “Gardner steps into the top ranks as a goddess, Venus. Here is a sock impression, bountifully physical and alluring, delivered with a delightfully sly instinct for comedy.”
Despite the mixed reception, the light-hearted comedy helped bolster Ava’s rising stardom – demonstrating her talents at comedic timing, improving her public image, and leading to a pay increase from MGM. Ava’s agent used her performances in several films, including Venus, to push Ava’s home studio to realize the talent and versatility she could bring to a production. The pay increase led to Ava purchasing her very first home, a small house in Nichols Canyon in the Hollywood Hills. Ava’s newfound star status also got her cast in MGM’s 1949 foray into the film noir genre, The Bribe. This film cemented Ava’s sultry screen image.
One of Bert Pfeiffer's portraits of Ava Gardner that is now part of his collection at the Ava Gardner Museum. A little mouse can be seen running up Ava's arm. Ava’s hairstyle in the portrait also appears to be inspired by her hair in One Touch of Venus.
Apart from the impact on Ava and her career, the film also served as inspiration for the Dutch artist Bert Pfeiffer. One Touch of Venus was the first film starring Ava Gardner that Pfeiffer saw, and it inspired him for the rest of his life. Despite a rare hereditary disease, acute intermittent porphyria, that caused his hands to be paralyzed and drawn into fists, Pfeiffer set out to paint one portrait of Ava Gardner a year after seeing the film. Over 50 years, Pfeiffer collected hundreds of images and clippings of Ava Gardner and produced over 30 portraits. His works incorporated whimsical signature touches in each portrait. These hidden details include objects such as a dragonfly, a waterlily, a locket containing his own portrait, and a little brown mouse running up Ava’s arm. Prior to her death in 1990, Ava Gardner received three of his portraits as gifts and displayed them in her London home. Following Pfeiffer’s death in August 2001, family and friends completed his wish to donate his collection to the Ava Gardner Museum, adding to the twenty-six portraits previously purchased by the Museum’s founders, Tom and Lorraine Banks.
