Efrem Zimbalist Jr

I often wondered who Efrim Zimbalist Sr was. Well, not often. Occasionally. Actually never until now when I saw "By Love Possessed" on TCM. It's not a very good film but it has a good story in there trying to get out. Or, rather, the bare bones of James Gould Cozzens' novel are evident all right, the trouble is that that is pretty well all there is - the bare bones.
Someone in Variety magazine wrote about the film: "James Gould Cozzens' thoughtful novel has been turned into a soap opera."
The novel is excellent. Cozzens had written an even better novel a few years before - "Guard of Honour" which won the Pullitzer Prise; "By Love Possessed" was nominated for it but didn't win.
In both books Cozzens looks at a group of people who, seemingly, are the epitomy of respectability but who, on closer examination, have deep-lying moral faults. The characters are drawn with exemplary care and all are treated with a sort of respect so that their actions, when not conforming to society's values, are sympathetically treated.
Cozzens was deeply conservative and his writing is quite unlike that of many of his contemporaries ( for whom he held a deep contempt - "if I were to read a sentence of John Steinbeck's I'd be sick" he said, or words to that effect). It is classy and, you feel, purportedly so.
I thought the film wasn't as bad as most critics say. It is a trifle corny; it is soap opera stuff though with more depth; it is glossy and sexless though love and sex is an important theme; it is a typical Hollywood treatment of a best selling novel. But there's something about I like. I like it's focus on the characters' flaws; I like the actors' determination to get to the core of the characters (John Sturgis directed). And yes, I even liked Efrem Zimbalist Jr up against stalwarts like Jason Robards Jr (I wonder who Jason Robards Sr was!), Thomas Mitchell and Lana Turner. He looked the part of the town lawyer who is perfect in everything he does until he has at the last to make a decision that is criminal. He acted it well. He held the whole thing together. In short he surprised me. I had always thought him pretty wooden ("Wait Until Dark", "77 Sunset Strip").
O yes, Efrem Zimbalist Sr. Well he was a world famous violinist.