Casting call

[laughingrat]

Every so often I'll hear someone say, "That movie would have been so much better if X was cast in it instead." I'll admit it, though: I'm terrible at envisioning that sort of thing (although I am pretty happy that George Raft turned down The Maltese Falcon), although it's always interesting to hear others' thoughts about it. Are there any classic films you think would have been better with a different cast?

Comments

[ar]

I'm feeling kind of ill at the moment, so the best I can do is real-life missed chances as opposed to imagined onces:

The choice of Rosalind Russell over Ethel Merman for Gypsy is a tragedy for the ages, and full of stupid Hollywood politics to boot. The fact that we have so few film versions of Merman's greatest stage roles with her actually playing her part never fails to make me sad.

I feel like musicals tend to be good hunting grounds for shoulda-coulda-wouldas. I love Audrey Hepburn, but man, I want to visit the alternate universe where Julie Andrews gets to play Eliza Doolittle. I love Danny Kaye, but ever since I found out Donald O'Connor was supposed to have his part in White Christmas (damn you, Francis the Mule), he looks like a pale shadow of what could have been. You can see O'Connor all over that role if you're looking for it--you just can't see him. I love them both, but I'm willing to give up Danny in White Christmas for Donald to have had a more lasting adult career.

On a more recent note, as much as I love Amadeus as-is, consider that Mozart and Salieri were played onstage for quite a while by Tim Curry and Ian McKellan. Then try not to feel like you missed out on something by casting Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham. The latter two are great, but Curry and McKellan! Or even just Curry. Let's be honest, I'm much more interested in seeing Tim's performance than Ian's.

I'd also be a lot more willing to watch a James Bond film if it starred Cary Grant.

...On the other hand, imagine Marlon Brando as Lawrence of Arabia. While I'd like to visit that world, I'm not sure I want to stay there.

[laughingrat]

I love to hear about these too! It's kind of like Hollywood gossip, but interesting. (My apologies to folks who really do like Hollywood gossip.)

Hahaha I especially agree with you about the last one. Cary Grant as .007 would be pretty damn interesting, too.

[themis]

I think The Lady from Shanghai, which is sort of a really interesting mess, would have been better if Welles had just directed it. There's something wide-eyed and innocent/gullible about the main character, but there's nothing wide-eyed about Orson Welles.

Granted, I'm not sure who would be a better choice! Maybe Montgomery Clift? It's such a weird movie anyway, I'm not sure the casting question matters that much in the scheme of things, haha.

[laughingrat]

but there's nothing wide-eyed about Orson Welles

Too true. He sort of radiates sleaze, just involuntarily. Amazing, really. I watched The Stranger recently and was stunned that the Good Townsfolk didn't immediately pick up on the fact that he was a bad guy, because Orson Welles. You know?

[themis]

It is amazing! It really works in some instances - The Third Man, for example, where he is sleazy and dangerous. And I'll confess to sort of loving how that quality plays out in Jane Eyre, because it makes the whole Jane/Rochester relationship sort of kinky. (And also like you're supposed to add "in my pants" to all of his lines.)

But other times . . . it holds back the film.

[klia]

Funny you should mention The Maltese Falcon. I've always wished another actress had been cast as Ruth Wonderly. I just never bought Astor as a femme fatale, especially in TMF. For the life of me, I could never figure out why Sam fell for Astor's Ruth, or her treacly-sweet helplessness.

Not sure who I'd cast instead -- maybe Ida Lupino? She could play very vulnerable with those big, luminous eyes, but she also that tough, brittle edge. Or, I would've loved to have seen someone like Joan Fontaine really stretch beyond her usual sweet, innocent roles.

[laughingrat]

Ida Lupino played well with Bogart in High Sierra, too! That could totally have worked.

[klia]

Yes, she did. MAN, now every time I watch TMF, I'm going to wish it had been her! :(

[franzeska]

Hey, isn't she the one who said she'd never work on another picture with him?

[laughingrat]

No way! Do tell. :-D

[franzeska]

I know I read it somewhere. It seems to be a common anecdote. Here for example:

"By 1940, although she was only twenty-two, Lupino already seemed an ideal fit for the emerging genre of film noir. She had been perfect as tough-minded dames in pictures like They Drive By Night and High Sierra, opposite Humphrey Bogart, who was himself getting ready to jump into noir with both feet. (Alas, Lupino and Bogart did not get along, and she refused to work with him on subsequent pictures.)"
http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2011/07/ida-lupino-noirs-indispensable-dame

Or here:
"he was to star again with Ida Lupino in Out of the Fog. Lupino objected; refusing to work with Bogart again"
http://www.backalleynoir.com/showthread.php?1582-High-Sierra-%281941%29

I have no idea if anyone knows exactly why, but if biographies of Bogie are anything to go by, he sounds like he was a womanizing pig, and any woman who managed to get behind the camera back then probably wasn't the sort to put up with that. But that's just speculation.

[franzeska]

All the yellowface ones? :) I've just been watching the Mr. Moto collection, and while I think Peter Lorre was fantastic, they'd still have been better with an Asian actor in the role and especially with better writing for some of the other Asian characters. I loved Charlie Chan as a kid, and those movies are, if anything, much worse. It's a real pity so many interesting movies were ruined by racist casting and fortune cookie dialogue. They've got these hints of promise, but the sum total is... not so great.

[themis]

I have constructed an alternate universe where Sessue Hayakawa and Anna May Wong landed a serial where they are Batman and Catwoman.

Oh, the opportunities racism wasted! So many talented actors kept in obscurity. And you're right: potentially interesting movies often get ruined by explosive racism.

[laughingrat]

I would go see that serial. That would have been amazing.

There was a children's book about Anna May Wong that came out in the US a few years ago--it was great! Such an unusual subject for a picture book, but the art was excellent and it actually talked about the yellowface problem in Hollywood, too.

Sometimes I watch Baby Face and wonder what the movie would have been like if Theresa Harris was cast as Lily Powers, rather than the maid/companion. It's a great movie, but I think that might have made it even better.