Ms. Vera Miles never attained the level of fame that so many of her contemporaries enjoyed. Rather, as an up and coming Hollywood starlet, she constantly managed to sidetrack the studio -and hence, her own career!- in order to fulfill her own life's priorities. Whether by design, fate or even happenstance, Ms. Miles managed to divert her own star trajectory, though often in a very positive, uplifting and joyous new direction.
If a film called for worldly, smart, beautiful, sophisticated and almost seductive, you can be sure Ms. Miles was at the top of anyone's list of coveted actresses for the part. Her own blend of smart, sophisticated and beautiful left many an impressionable boy's mind wander back in Grover's Corners. After all, some of the clothes she wore (and the shoes!) were to die for. I can think of at least a half dozen boys back in the day that would sit around the TV and watch a movie (or TV show) starring Ms. Miles. All the while they wondered about the following questions: How can she walk in those things? How can she look so good after running through the woods in heels with a strangler chasing her? How can she stay so cool when someone is trying to kill her? and finally, How many ways can she think of to try and catch the bad guy and still not break a sweat or wrinkle that dress let alone smudge her makeup?
Though she had an extensive career, she will always be remembered primarily for two roles. The first is the famous (and infamous) movie, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. In it she plays the caring and worried sister of good-girl gone slightly bad, Janet Leigh. On the hunt for her missing sister she inadvertently stumbles into the evil which is found at the Bate's Motel.
The second role she will always have linked to her is in the Susan Hayward vehicle, Back Street. Always a favorite back in Grover's Corners, the film centers around a fashion designer, Hayward, in love with a married man. The man in question is none other than Ms. Mile's character's husband. In it she plays the beautiful and sophisticated (and incredibly drunk!) wife of the man caught between two women.
Though there is no way to do the film justice in a short post, the movie's best scene takes place while Hayward's character is put in her place in a most embarrassing and public way by the woman who happens to be married to the man Hayward loves. Needless to say, Vera Miles steals the scene and steals the movie in the process. Anyone who watches Back Street can expect two things to come to mind: a) Is he crazy? Look at her! She's gorgeous! She's just a little drunk! And, b) How the hell can the movie end like that with those two brats! :-) (If you watch it, you will think the same things!)
When I searched for the perfect picture to send to Ms. Miles I happened on the one below. In it Ms. Miles is both glamorous and pensive all at once. Hardly sad, she looks like a woman thinking about all of life's possibilities and how to best tackle them.
Ms. Miles had many a start -and then sputter- on her rise to the top. Due to marriage, pregnancy, family, or divorce, she made it a point of putting her own life first. Due to this simple law of survival, she eventually turned her back on Hollywood. Ms. Miles has been married to two of the most handsome men the planet has ever produced, and she has had beautiful children and grand-children. Through it all she has been beautiful, resolute, sophisticated and incredibly smart. For those things alone she will always be a beacon of light to all young boys in Grover's Corners where she is openly worshiped as a true cinematic goddess.
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