Giuliano Gemma on Van Johnson

Giuliano Gemma: In IL PREZZO DEL POTERE (aka THE PRICE OF POWER) by Tonino Valeri, I worked with Van Johnson. He was a sixtyish "signora", a little bit of a mess and very nice. When I first saw him I felt kind of bad because I didn't realize he was in such a shameful state. I'd asked where I could find him so I could introduce myself, and I was told he was at the bar. I found him there, with a big straw hat from which hung a long ribbon with which he dabbed himself like handkerchief, and with those big black eyes... Why he seemed just like Garbo! When we got to be friendly, he told me that the best working years of his life had been sucked dry by Metro and the contract he'd signed. They let him live in a villa, they made him the boy next door, he got to play the all-American type, but they'd banked all his real earnings.