Fourteen Hours 1951 Directed by Henry Hathaway 20th Century Fox B/W

Jeffrey Hunter and Debra Paget

This semi-documentary was based on a true story about a young man who stood on the ledge of a New York hotel window for 14 hours threatening to jump. The main players were Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart and Barbara Bel Geddes with support from Agnes Moorehead, Jeffrey Hunter and Debra Paget. Grace’s role is so small she has no name…just a "lady in the lawyer’s office”! And then there is Ossie Davis and Harvey Lembeck as “cabbies”.

Grace was still feeling overshadowed by the males in her family…a father and brother who were Olympic oarsmen and Uncle George, a prominent playwright. To the family, she was just little Gracie who couldn’t get into college and had to settle for a drama school.(the AADA being regarded as just a drama school was like classing the Louvre as some French picture place).

It was a sad year for her, too. Her first love, Harper Davis was dying of multiple sclerosis (he died in 1956). This was the first of her romances trounced by the family just before Harper went off to WWII. In later interviews, it was the story of Harper that Grace told when asked if she was ever in love before.

High Noon 1952 Directed by Fred Zinneman United Artists B/W

At the railroad station

This movie was apparently too hot for John Wayne to handle. He couldn’t imagine any honorable sheriff angrily stomping his badge into the dust and in a script written by an alleged Communist to boot! (Carl Forman, the scriptwriter was under investigation by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee). So the role fell to Gary Cooper. Coop wasn’t having his best year with a separation from his wife Rocky and a very rocky affair with actress Patricia Neal. His last two pictures had bombed and most thought his career was about over.

But he was a prime target for a Grace infatuation. So when she was spotted rehearsing sitting on his lap, the press began buzzing. Ma Kelly immediately sent little sister Lizanne to stay with Grace and eliminate any occasion for hanky-panky. But that wasn’t necessary because while, both Coop and director Zinneman were captivated by Grace, nothing serious was going on.

Mogambo 1953 Directed by John Ford MGM Color

Grace and Ava Gardner

It was 1932’s “Red Dust” all over again but Malaysia had been replaced by an African locale. Clark Gable still played the lead and Ava Gardner took over for Jean Harlow, Grace Kelly took over for Mary Astor and Donald Sinden took over for Gene Raymond (remember him?). Grace had now risen to third billing. She even signed that dreaded 7-year contract to get a chance to work with the “King” but Actors Equity almost dashed her chances by denying her a permit to work in Africa. They later relented.

Clark was 28 years older than Grace and he had false teeth but Grace was in love again. They were together most of their free time in Africa but it ended shortly after they returned to civilization. Unfortunately Grace was serious, Clark was not. When the film ended so did the romance and Grace was devastated. She was loaned out for her next 3 pictures so meeting him in the commissary didn’t happen to rub salt in her wounds.

Grace got the 1953 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress but lost out to Donna Reed for “From Here To Eternity”.

Dial M For Murder 1954 Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Warners Color

Robert Cummings, Ray Milland and Grace

Hitchcock was the only director other than Cecil B. DeMille whose name was usually above the title and the names of the stars. And he felt that Grace would be perfect as the heroine in his film of Frederick Knott’s play. It was Grace’s first leading role.

She was doing the Goodyear Playhouse production of “Way of an Eagle” on television at the time with Jean Pierre Aumont playing John James Audubon and still reeling from her brush-off from Gable. But the handsome Frenchman soon had her smiling and they began a short, sweet romance with no regrets. In fact, they remained friends for her lifetime. Aumont was a 40-year-old widower and war hero so he fit right into Grace’s romantic profile.

Everyone on the Hitchcock set fell in love with Grace, including the director, but none fell harder than her leading man, Ray Milland. Ray was 24 years older than Grace and not living with his wife at the time. The chemistry was all there and little sister Lizanne, also there, couldn’t do a thing. So the frequent flyer family called in the reserves and Ma flew down herself to clip her daughter’s romance in the bud. Then Ray’s wife joined in the fray and told him to shape up or face a nasty court battle.

And Hitchcock wasn’t through with Grace yet!

Rear Window 1954 Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Paramount Color

Grace and Jimmy Stewart

Grace was faced with a dilemma. She had been presented with two scripts and she wanted to do them both….”On the Waterfront” with Marlon Brando and Hitch’s movie with Jimmy Stewart. “Waterfront” meant she could stay in New York but she finally opted for Hitch, Jimmy and Technicolor in Hollywood.

Hitchcock personally selected every wisp of clothing Grace wore in the film to enhance what he called her “sexual elegance”. But he had to work very hard to get her to loosen up for this role. The final product was sensational.

Only one thing was missing…..her usual romance with her leading man. Jimmy Stewart did not have an affair with Grace. However, he later admitted to taking her flowers from his garden on several occasions. “Everything about Grace is appealing. I’m married but I’m not dead”!

The Bridges at Toko-Ri 1954 Directed by Mark Robson Paramount B/W

Frederic March and William Holden

Grace made 5 films in 1954. “Bridges..” was made first and released last. Her role as a Navy wife was very small. In fact she was only on the screen for 15 minutes. But acting married to William Holden, according to sister Lizanne, wreaked havoc on both of them. At that time Bill’s nemesis, alcohol, wasn’t the problem but working with Grace proved to be a big one. “We fell head of heels in love with each other”, he would later confide to friends. But he suffered the same fate as Grace’s other romances…the “cold and hostile” meeting with her family.

At one point, Grace decided the only answer was to have Bill convert to Catholicism which, she thought, would negate his current marriage. She still as naïve as ever, falling in love so quickly with older, unattainable men and hunting for ways to make it work for the family after the fact.

The Country Girl 1954 Directed by George Seaton Paramount B/W

Grace and William Holden

This was the 2nd collaborative production of William Perlberg and George Seaton in a row for Grace but Seaton directed it himself. An adaptation of Clifford Odets play, the role of dowdy Georgie Elgin was supposed to go to Jennifer Jones, but when Jennifer got pregnant, it fell right into Grace’s lap!

Now Grace found herself in a strange situation…working with two men she was presently dating…Bill Holden and Bing Crosby. But, for once, she concentrated on the script and Bill and Bing agreed to do that, too. Her performance left them both breathless.

Bing, who was 50 at the time, proposed to Grace after they finished the picture. She promised to talk it over with her family when she got back from South America where she was going to film her next picture. When Ma heard about it, she thought maybe Grace had got it right this time.

At the Academy Awards on March 30th, 1955 William Holden handed Grace Kelly the Oscar for Best Actress of 1954. She broke into tears. So did Judy Garland, expected to win for “A Star Is Born”!

It certainly wasn’t a deal made with the devil but it was a bad deal made with Dore Schary, the trade-off Grace made to do “The Country Girl” at Paramount. This MGM potboiler about emerald-hunting in Colombia had a script no one could save.

Life magazine was predicting that 1954 would be “a year of Grace” and the press was now in full pursuit of her. She had everyone’s attention except her family. Jack Kelly was heard to remark that he was just “glad she was making a living”.

On the set Grace was totally disenchanted with Stewart Granger especially when he grabbed her bottom with both hands during a kissing scene. She was also furious when she caught a look at the large poster outside the Mayfair theater in New York….they had superimposed her head on the busty body of a model in a green strapless dress. Grace swore that would never happen again. “And that dress wasn’t even in the picture” she said.

To Catch A Thief 1955 Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Paramount Color

Grace and Cary Grant

Asking MGM for a fifth loan-out in 8 months was like pulling teeth but Grace did it. She knew that MGM wanted William Holden and that was the carrot she used. In the deal, Paramount gave MGM $50,000 and Bill Holden to get Grace Kelly. She finished the wrap-up of "Green Fire” at 11a.m. one morning and was on her way to France at 6 p.m. the same day.

Oleg Cassini followed her and before filming was over, had won her heart.

He got no competition from Cary who was accompanied by his wife, Betsy Drake. Betsy was taking no chances! In a scene near Monaco, Grace was asked to drive a sports car along the bends and precipices of the Corniches.

She said later that she must have steered too close to the edge because Grant turned absolutely white under his tan. It was in almost that same spot 28 years later she met her death.

The Swan 1956 Directed by Charles Vidor MGM Color

Grace and Jessie Royce Landis

The movie story: Princess Alexandra is promised to a distant cousin, Prince Albert but she in love with her tutor, Nicholas who is penniless. The real one: Cinderella is in love with a fashion designer but is being pursued by a prince who needs an heir. Letters were already winging across the Atlantic between Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco. They were friendly letters in answer to his more questioning ones.

In “The Swan” Grace was given single top billing (only her name above the title) the only time she was ever “solo”! Alec Guinness Played Prince Albert to Louis Jourdan’s Nicholas. But the script, on the whole, lacked luster. When it wrapped in December, 1955, Grace went home to Philadelphia for Christmas. She found the Prince was also planning to come and had already alerted the family.

He arrived Christmas Day with his priest and his doctor in tow. The priest got Jack Kelly’s attention but Grace knew immediately why the doctor was there. She was glad when it appeared that the doctor believed her story that she lost her virginity in a sport accident. It also seemed as though the good friar Tucker had made Jack an offer he couldn’t refuse until Jack got the bill for the dowry. But before they left, the bridal agreement had been signed.

High Society 1956 Directed by Charles Walters MGM Color

Grace sings with Bing Crosby

The movie was a musical remake of “The Philadelphia Story” with America’s top crop of popular movie makers Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong heading the ensemble cast with Grace. Musical Director Johnny Green wanted to dub Grace’s voice for the “True Love" duet but she went over his head to Dore Schary and was allowed to use her own voice. The soundtrack recording of “True Love” went platinum.

On the homefront, Grace was seething over a series of 10 articles that her mother had written (and forgot to edit) for the Los Angeles Examiner. Titled “My Daughter, Grace Kelly: Her Life and Romances” it also ran in Hearst papers all over the country. Ma counted up 49 romances gone awry and detailed all the pitfalls in every one.

“High Society” was Grace Kelly’s last feature film.

Grace and Rainier newly engaged	Arriving in France
The Palace!	Grace, Albert and Caroline
Family Portrait	"Selia" a bed and breakfast design inspired by   pressed flower collages created by Princess Grace for Springmaid