The last thing that dreams should do is come true. It would end in futile tears if they did, much as it would for the autophagist who chomps away at himself from the legs up until he comes to his head and realises that he can never achieve the final consummation. Dreams are for dreaming about. The Hollywood dream-masters got it right when they had Judy Garland playing a star-struck teenager gazing at a pin-up of Clark Gable and singing 'If you were the only boy in the world'. It's if, not when. Mix them up and you remember the story of Gable resting on set minus his false teeth shouting gummily at another passing icon: 'Look here, Marilyn, America's sweetheart.' It adds enormously to Gable's individuality, but plays havoc for ever after with the moment when he's frank with Vivian Leigh.

LRB 20 October 1994 | PDF Download