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Marlon Brando (1924-2004)
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Marlon Brando (1924-2004)
To me the perversity of Marlon Brando’s career is unparalleled in the history of cinema. His first appearance in movies during the early 1950s sent a shock wave of seismic proportions throughout the world of motion pictures. He was young, handsome, inarticulate, sometimes brutish and even crude. But somewhere in the middle of all that was a sensitive poetic soul trying to break through and often did in flashes and glimpses. And frequently, as in the case of his performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954), for the duration of the entire film.
He was a powerful presence on screen. There is no doubt about it. So powerful in fact that even when the film wasn’t very good and lacking in many other areas (writing, direction etc) like The Wild One (1953), he could still tower over its ineptitudes and make the experience unforgettable for the audience…Critics of the day puzzled by his power and appeal tried to pigeonhole and parody what he did with phrases like; “The scratch and mumble school of acting”. But then just at the moment when they thought they had him categorized or more properly his acting style figured out, he would switch things around and confound them once more with something unexpected and excellent. Like the time when he decided to tackle the one thing they thought he could never handle namely Shakespeare, an author whose works were thought to be the exclusive province of British actors. Yet his performance as Mark Anthony in Joseph Mankiewicz’s Julius Caesar (1953) has redefined the way the role is thought about and performed everywhere. Then there are the other classic performances that everyone of a certain age talks about and praise. A Street Car Named Desire first on stage in 1948 and then on screen on 1951, Viva Zapata (1952),the previously mentioned The Wild One and On the Waterfront and later on just when everyone, critics and audiences alike, figured he was finished, The Godfather and the controversial Last Tango in Paris both in 1972. But between these films there were several great or near great performances that went unnoticed in films like Sayonara (1957), The Young Lions (1958), The Ugly American (1963), Gillo Pontecorvo’s curious yet compelling revolutionary drama Burn (aka: Quiemada- 1969). It is in this film that Brando says he gave his best performance. These along with his short but eye-catching turn in Euzhan Palcy’s apartheid drama A Dry White Season (1989) attests to the quality of work he was doing even when not many were paying attention. My favorite performance and I think it’s a great one is his role as the severely repressed homosexual Major Penderton in John Huston’s adaptation of Carson McCullers Reflections in the Golden Eye (1967).
He directed one film which critics at the time dismissed as “a method western”. But I thought it was terrific and still do. That film is One Eyed Jacks (1961). In recent years I’m happy to say, there has been some reassessment and appreciation of the film and its various virtues. Perhaps this will continue and maybe lead some company like Criterion into providing us with a completely restored version. All that’s available now are badly printed versions usually housed in cheap box sets of grade C westerns. For those of us who love this film, and there are many of us I suspect, such a restoration is long overdue.
His choices were eclectic and perverse to say the least. How else does one explain a career that includes such titles as Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), The Countess from Hong Kong (1967), Night of the Following Day (1968) and the execrable Candy (1968). Yet in-between were some respectable misses; like The Chase (1966) and The Nightcomers (1970).
Then somewhere along the way, during the late 60s it seems, Brando became disillusioned with both acting and the movies. He at one point even dropped out of films for eight years (1980 to 89), gained a lot of weight and started giving deliberately disinterested and oddball performances in films like The Missouri Breaks (1976), The Formula (1980 and Apocalypse Now (1979). In one of his rare TV interviews with his friend Larry King Brando said that he didn’t like acting. When King then asked why then did he do it his response was if they paid him the same amount of money to cut sausage then that’s what he would be doing. During this time any number of people both publicly and privately were criticizing him for “squandering his God given talent”. For by this time it was almost universally accepted that he had what some people, Elia Kazan included, referred to as a “genius” for acting. It was felt that with such a proven talent he should’ve been tackling the great parts instead of frittering his time away with things like Superman (1978), Christopher Columbus- The Discovery (1992), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) and Free Money (1998).I never went along with that opinion. My feeling was/is that it was his talent to squander if he felt so inclined. I was and am still grateful for the great performances he had already given and ambitions that they inspired. And during those years he again gave what to me is yet another great performance as Carmine Sabatini in The Freshman (1990).A film where he masterfully recreates yet parodies his own iconic performance in The Godfather.
I still wish that he had been able to realize the last dream of serious acting that he had been contemplating. It was to be in David Lean’s film adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo. An all star cast had been put together by Lean director of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) including Paul Schofield, Peter O’Toole, Anthony Quinn, Dennis Quaid, Isabella Rossellini, Christopher Lambert and Marlon Brando. It was said that Brando was very excited about the project and was looking forward to giving it his most serious effort in years. But Lean died six weeks before production was to begin and the film was never made. Shame.
Brando’s film career went its jokey way for another ten years ending in 2001 with The Score. And three years later in 2004 Brando was gone too…He might not have cared much for acting but he left an indelible mark with the great performances he gave. And as perverse as his career might have been he still left a legacy in acting that has not been matched by anyone thus far.
-GE.
Tags: A Dry White Season, Apocalypse Now, Burn, Candy, David Lean, Elia Kazan, Godfather, Joseph Conrad, Julius Caesar, Last Tango in Paris, Marlon Brando, mutiny on the bounty, Night of the Following Day, Nightcomers, Nostromo, On the Waterfront, One Eyed Jacks, Reflections in the Golden Eye, Sayonara, Streetcar Named Desire, The Chase, The Formula, The Freshman, The Wild One, Viva Zapata, Young Lions
Some Brief Notes on: Frank Sinatra, Sandra Bullock, and Deborah Kerr
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Some brief notes on: Frank Sinatra, Sandra Bullock and Deborah Kerr
Frank Sinatra (1915 – 1998)
We of a certain age all grew up with Frank Sinatra. At least his music. He came after Bing Crosby and somehow somewhere in the late 1950s surpassed him as America’s most popular singer. By this time he had gone through several highs and lows that had not only deepened and matured him but left a residue of anger and bitterness as well. It was during this period that he recorded so many of his classic albums with Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Gordon Jenkins. Now he had been in movies for nearly a decade already but it wasn’t until his famous “comeback” in From Here to Eternity (1953) that anyone ever paid much attention to Sinatra the actor. But even earlier Frank was beginning to show his chops as an actor in films like Meet Danny Wilson (1952). And after his Oscar winning performance as Best Supporting Actor he quickly moved into playing dramatic leading roles with such distinction that Elia Kazan, arguably the best director of actors in America, selected him for the lead in On the Waterfront (1954) when Marlon Brando at first refused to play the role. Later when Brando changed his mind and accepted, the film’s producer Sam Spiegel had to financially settle with Sinatra out of court. My point being that Elia Kazan in selecting Sinatra was indicating how high in his esteem Frank was as an actor. Right up there next to Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift who were then thought of as America’s finest.
I feel that this estimation is correct. At the time Sinatra was among America’s finest dramatic actors in the movies. One only has to revisit films like Suddenly (1954), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), The Joker is Wild (1957), Some Came Running (1958) and of course The Manchurian Candidate (1962) which he also produced. But his skill was not just relegated to dramas he was as good at comedy in films like The Tender Trap (1955) and one of my favorites Frank Capra’s A Hole in the Head (1959). Then came the “Rat Pack” when he seemed to be mostly playing host to his friends rather than acting a role that he started giving lazy uninteresting performances. Apparently, for some reason he became bored and decided not to try anymore. (Note: Marlon Brando seemed to have fallen victim of the same malaise as well.) But at his best very few could match him. Today he is legendary as a singer/ interpreter of songs but he was also an actor of rare power and range. I would say unequivocally the best singer turned actor in the history of motion pictures.
Sandra Bullock
She won the Academy Award as Best Actress in 2009 for The Blind Side but I still contend that she is an underrated dramatic actress whose skills have still not been fully appreciated. I have felt this way since films like Murder by Numbers (2002. It wasn’t much of a picture but she was terrific in it. Also Crash (2004), Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993) and the Truman Capote film that nobody saw Infamous (2006). She plays in that one Harper Lee and does a very good job at it. Truthfully I liked this film a lot better than the more celebrated and critically acclaimed Capote that came out earlier the same year. And I sometimes wonder if the release dates on the films had been reversed would both the critical and box office response been the same.
Sandra Bullock came to the public awareness as the spunky young woman who drives the bus in the hit film Speed (1994). Everyone was won over by her energy, quick wittedness and sense of humor in that role and she quickly became type cast as that kind of character. But via other roles that she played I could tell that behind the winning smile and tough girl vulnerability there was an intelligent, sophisticated woman who had been through some of the rough patches of life and was drawing on some of that in her acting. And no, I’m not referring to the tabloid stories about her recent breakup and divorce. This was before all that. There had always been a edginess to her performances that was dramatically surprising and sometimes bracing too. Even in things like the popular Miss Congeniality (2000) it can be spotted. But my favorite role and performance by her thus far is in the film 28 Days (2000). Again nobody saw it. At least nobody I knew and I can’t think of seeing any review that praised or even acknowledged it. Portraying alcoholism is a very difficult task. Nick Cage[O1] nailed it in Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and so did Ms. Bullock in 28 Days. Nailed it better than just about anyone in recent memory.
We have a tendency to mentally type cast actors in our minds and not support their efforts to change or expand their range. Hopefully this won’t happen with Ms. Bullock and she will get the opportunity to show us how much more she is capable of. I say this knowing that dramatic stories in movies are a rarity these days. Cable TV seems to be the outlet for these types of stories. But wherever Sandra Bullock has the chops let’s let her show them.
Deborah Kerr (1921- 2007)
Deborah Kerr was one of the great ladies of cinema. An actress of superior skills who also had poise, understated good looks and a quiet presence that complimented every male co star she appeared with. She was one of those women who didn’t have to compete with the male in order to be his equal. And co starred with just about every big male star of her time. Clark Gable (The Hucksters -1947), Robert Taylor ( Quo Vadis- 1951), Stewart Granger (King Solomon’s Mines-1950), Burt Lancaster ( From Here to Eternity – 1953), Robert Mitchum ( Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison – 1957), Cary Grant ( An Affair to Remember – 1957),Gregory Peck (Beloved Infidel – 1959), Frank Sinatra ( Marriage on the Rocks- 1965),Gary Cooper ( The Naked Edge – 1961), Kirk Douglas ( The Arrangement – 1969), David Niven (Separate Tables -1958), Van Johnson (End of the Affair – 1955), James Mason ( Julius Caesar – 1953)and with Yul Brynner in The King and I (1956.She became famous for two iconic roles. The troubled wife in From Here to Eternity (particularly for the beach scene) and as the school teacher Anna Leonowens in the musical The King and I although she didn’t sing. Marni Nixon dubbed the musical numbers. She was also an actress of nearly all genres as well, appearing in Costume epics (Quo Vadis),Mysteries ( The Naked Edge), Classics ( Julius Caesar), Historicals ( Young Bess- 1952), Horror ( The Innocents – 1961), War stories (The Journey), Melodramas (The Arrangement), Musicals ( King and I),Comedies ( The Grass is Greener- 1960) a near western ( The Sundowners – 1960), Adventure ( King Solomon’s Mines), Biographical ( Beloved Infidel ), and multiple play adaptations as well. In fact the only genre she seems to have missed completely was science fiction.
She was nominated for the Academy Award six times but never received a competitive award. She was given an honorary award in 1994 for the excellence of her career overall.
I met Ms. Kerr in 1954 in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands when she was filming The Proud and the Profane and remember her to be everything she seemed to be on screen. Gentle, thoughtful, considerate and very refined. I had met the entire cast of the film and interviewed most of the principals for the radio station I interned at. I was fifteen at the time and totally in awe of them all. I remember Ms. Kerr as being very approachable and easy to interview. But my most memorable encounter with her occurred a week later when I was going home from school. This was around two in the afternoon and they were filming at the central market place one block away from my school. A crowd had gathered to see what they were doing. So I joined the crowd behind the ropes to look at things too. I watched them do two takes and then break for another setup. As she was heading to her trailer dressing room Ms. Kerr looked over and saw me near the front. She quickly walked over, called my name and bid me to step under the rope and join her. I did and she invited me into her dressing room where we talked about the scene that had just been shot and how movies in general were made. When she was called for the next scene she invited me to sit on her chair so I could more closely see what was going on. I can’t tell you how special that made me feel. And to this day I still look back on it as one of the nicest days of my life. Years later I went to see her on Broadway in Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Seascape. After the show I sent a note back stage sort of reminding her of that day in St. Thomas and thanking her for her kindness. I gave it to the guy at the stage door exit for delivery. I never heard from her but I hope she got it.
All this is to say that, from my point of view, Deborah Kerr was not just a great actress on stage and on screen. She was also a very lovely person as well.
-GE
Tags: 28 Days, Academy Award, Affair to Remember, Arrangement, Billy Mae, Blind Side, Burt Lancaster, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Crash, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Elia Kazan, End of the Affair, Frank Capra, Frank Sinatra, From Here to Eternity, Gary Cooper, Harper Lee, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, Hole in the Head, Infamous, Innocents, James Mason, Joker's Wild, Julius Caesar, King and I, Kirk Douglas, Leaving Las Vegas, Manchurian Candidate, Marlon Brando, Meet Danny Wilson, Miss Congeniality, Murder by Numbers, Nelson Riddle, Nicolas Cage, Quo Vadis, Robert Mitchum, Robert Taylor, Sam Spiegel, Sandra Bullock, Some Came Running, Stuart Granger, Suddenly, Sundowners, Tender Trap, Truman Capote, Van Johnson, William Holden, Yul Brynner
Elvis Presley: The Actor
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Elvis Presley: The Actor
It was and has been my contention for a long time that Elvis Presley was an underrated actor whose thespic abilities had they been allowed to develop via interesting and challenging parts might’ve turned him into a film actor of considerable talent. But he was essentially victimized by his success as a singer. So as a result he was never given the chance either by the people who managed his career, Col. Tom Parker especially or the studios that produced his films. Or for that matter by the film critics of the day. Right from the start with his first film Love Me Tender (1956) they went after him with knives and arrows. And after that every time one of his films was released it afforded them the opportunity to show how caustic and witty they could be at his expense. What did they expect? That this young rockabilly singer would reveal himself to be as skilled as Olivier or naturally gifted as Marlon Brando? I suspect not. I think they were just trying to punish him for being so damned successful as a singer/performer. There is a kind of snobbery among critics that unattractively manifests itself whenever a phenom like Presley comes along.
I mean here was a young man with no dramatic training making a genuinely honest effort in his first outing and I might add achieving some very affecting moments in the process. But it was very clear that he was new and unsure of himself. But with his next film Loving You (1956) he became more relaxed and more sure of himself. That film was followed by Jail House Rock (1957) where a lot of his pent up energy and rage found an outlet that was entertaining as well as dramatically compelling. Then came King Creole (1958), directed by Michael Curtiz, for which I think he gave the best performance of his career. Then Military service intervened. G.I. Blues (1960) was his next film and for me the turning point. After that most of his films were tailor made comedic inanities designed to showcase his musical abilities in undemanding and not very imaginative ways. All that seemed to be required were some pretty girls, a lifeless script, a few musical numbers and Mr. Presley. Yes there were a few exceptions like Flaming Star and Wild in the Country, ( both released in 1960) but the majority were what I call travelogue films with titles like It Happened at the World’s Fair, Fun in Acapulco, Blue Hawaii and Paradise Hawaiian Style where even he seemed to be bored by the lack of challenge in the roles he was given. The one exception was Viva Las Vegas (1964) the film he made with the young and vivacious Ann-Margret. They apparently sparked something in each other that brought the film to life despite the stupidity of the story. But after that it was business as usual until both Presley and the public grew weary and he stopped making fiction films.
But while all this was taking place I quietly kept hoping that somewhere along the way someone would take the chance and offer him a dramatic role that had some teeth in it. The two I thought of at the time were Sidney Lumet’s adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending retitled The Fugitive Kind (1960). Marlon Brando played the role and was good in the film but I still feel that Presley was more naturally suited to the character and would’ve surprised everyone by acquitting himself well in the part. Another was Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965), Horton Foote’s adaptation of his play Travelling Lady. The role went to Steve McQueen but again I thought it should’ve gone to Presley. Or at least offered to him for the same reasons stated before.
Now all this was wishful thinking on my part because I don’t know if Presley or his management people would’ve considered the parts even if they were offered. And I also appreciate the fact that Presley’s reputation was such that an announcement in any of those projects would’ve been met with derision and laughter that would’ve undercut the seriousness of their creators’ intent.
I know that we can’t undo the past but I always find it interesting to speculate on “what might have been”. In the case of Presley and the two films mentioned I still think that his future and his reputation would’ve been considerably altered had he been given the chance to prove that his acting abilities went way beyond the roles he was given. But we’ll never know. So all this is just idle dreaming on my part. But still it’s fun to think about.
-GE.
Tags: Ann Margaret, Baby the Rain Must Fall, Blue Hawaii, Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, Flaming Star, Fun in Acapulco, G.I. Blues, Jail House Rock, King Creole, Love Me Tender, Loving You, Marlon Brando, Michael Curtiz, Orpheus Descending, Paradise Hawaiian Style, Sidney Lumet, Tennessee Williams, The Fugitive Kind, Travelling Lady, Viva Las Vegas, Wild in the Country
A Brief Note on Elizabeth Taylor
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A Brief Note on Elizabeth Taylor
From my point of view with the passing of Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) we are witnessing the passing of the “Last Hollywood Star” in the old fashioned sense of the term. “One whose luminous being lights up the screen with the incandescence of her personality and talent.” To my mind and way of looking at things she was genuine cinema royalty. Perhaps the greatest in cinema history. The Queen. Valentino was big, Monroe is big right to this moment, Dean, Bogart, Hepburn (both Katherine and Audrey) Frank Sinatra and a few others still hold their place in motion pictures Hall of Fame. But Ms. Taylor held it for nearly seven decades in a tumultuous life filled with highs and lows that was recorded and scrutinized in pages of the popular press all over the world. At one point even the Vatican got in on the act by commenting on her relationship/ affair with Richard Burton while they were filming Cleopatra (1963) in Italy.
She had achieved stardom early and held on to it right to the end. And whenever I think about fame and stardom, the kind one achieves through motion pictures I see it as a phenomena that can harm or destroy as well as elevate. Some people can handle it some are perplexed, disarmed and even destroyed by it. But Elizabeth Taylor is the only one I can think of who actually lived with it day in and day out and not only handled it with aplomb but actually ruled it. She was the Queen and the press her unruly subjects. Sometimes they would rebel and even attack her but they always paid homage and in the end always acknowledged that she was the boss.
Now we know of the scandals, the multiple marriages, her incredible generosity, her steadfastness when it came to supporting her friends along with her personal courage in the face of adversity or opposition. So there is no need to reiterate them here. We also know of her award winning performances in the many motion pictures she made going all the way back to 1942. What I want to do now is list my favorite of her screen performances.
A Place in the Sun (1951) – her romantic teaming with Montgomery Clift is possibly the most perfect in all motion pictures.
Giant (1956) – It should’ve been a man’s film but she carries it so well that everyone else even the excellent Rock Hudson and James Dean seem supporting players to her.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) – Putting her together with Paul Newman was another beautiful match made in cinema heaven. And their dramatic clashes made for real screen fireworks.
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) – a curious mixture of melodrama and poetically articulated states of sexual aberrations. She stands out in a difficult and sometimes seemingly contradictory role.
And finally Reflections in a Golden Eyes (1967) – John Huston’s interesting adaptation of Carson McCullers novella. In this one she’s teamed with Marlon Brando and although they both seem to be in different films both are excellent. In fact I think she gives one of the most nuanced performance of her career here.
So as far as I am concerned the Queen may be dead but her performances will live on and on and on.
-GE.
Some Great Moments in Miscasting
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Some Great Moments in Miscasting
Every good director in either theatre or film when asked will tell you that 80 to 90% to successfully presenting a play or a film depends on the proper casting of its principal roles. If the actor is correctly cast it really doesn’t matter much if he/she misses a beat or two in their characterization because the properly cast actor (in the best cases) always brings additional colors, dimensions, nuances and tones to the work that more often than not, aren’t in the script or even the direction.( Bette Davis in The Letter -1940,Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek – 1964, Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday– 1953,Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady – 1964 or Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca – 1942, the list goes on.) Inversely, a talented actor cast in a role for which he/she is not suited can labor mightily to little or sometimes disastrous effect. Successful actors hate the term “type casting” and will often go to great lengths to show their versatility in roles for which they are ill suited. Nevertheless they try attempting to prove that there is such a thing as a “universal actor”, the completely talented performer who can embody any character and present him/her with grace, conviction and authority. Unfortunately such a creature doesn’t exist. Yet actors, star name actors, often miscast themselves in search of proving that he is in fact alive and living somewhere inside them like the Loch Ness monster in the Scottish Highlands.
A few years back a magazine published an article on “Great Moments in Miscasting” and I wanted to add some additional names to their list. So here goes.
Sidney Poitier as the villainous Moor in The Long Ships (1964). Poitier had a successfully long career in films. His best roles (and there were many) had him portraying men of quiet passion and steely integrity because those were the qualities he projected best. But in The Long Ships he gets to flash his eyes and walk around with a swagger that more resembled Yul Brynner (in any role) than the Moor Chieftain. The result was highly amusing but for all the wrong reasons.
Barbara Streisand as Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly (1969) Ms. Streisand was in her late 20s at the time portraying a character who was in her early to mid 40s looking for another chance at love and life. And due to the casting even the lyric for the title song (“Look at the old girl now”) doesn’t make much sense. Or for that matter neither does the entire song “Before the Parade Passes By”. Barbara Streisand in the right role was a gifted singer/actor but here due to this miscasting she was just absurd.
Laurence Olivier in The Betsy (1978). At the time Mr. Olivier was still coasting on his reputation as “The best actor in the world.” He had spent most of his considerable career on stage performing the classics but in his latter years decided to concentrate on movies accepting virtually any role that came along. One was this film adapted from a Harold Robbins bestseller. He might’ve been the right age for the part but everything else was wrong starting with his cringe inducing American accent. The film was bad but Olivier was worse. This was one time that “The world’s greatest actor” almost seemed more like the “world’s worst”.
Paul Newman in The Outrage (1964). Throughout his career Newman was among motion pictures finest actors. In his prime and also in his senior years he gave many landmark performances. He portrayed contemporary restlessness and angst better than just about anyone in films at that time. But he always seemed out of place in period pieces like Lady L. ((1965). The Outrage was a western version of the Japanese story Rashomon and in it Newman plays a Mexican bandit. Beyond a misdirected performance his accent is something from which parodies could be formed.
Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). It could be argued that Rooney was possibly the best and most versatile actor/performer to emerge out of the studio system. He could seemingly do everything from singing and dancing to straight dramatic acting. His talents even extended to songwriting. But in Breakfast at Tiffany’s he plays a Japanese photographer in makeup and with an accent that if taken seriously could’ve started another war between our two countries. This is the type of casting that makes ethnics cry “racism” at Hollywood and the makers of that film. But clearly it wasn’t meant to offend. It was just a bad, no… make that horrible case of casting the wrong actor in the wrong part.
And Marlon Brando shouldn’t be given a pass on this either. He also did a pretty embarrassing turn as the Japanese houseboy in Teahouse of the August Moon (1956).
Gregory Peck in The Boys from Brazil (1978). Mr. Peck had one of the longest star careers in Hollywood. It lasted for 56 years, a record that few could match. His was a very reassuring screen presence mixed with rugged good looks and was a very good actor when cast in the right role. Witness his Academy Award winning performance in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). And although he played cowboys and adventurers he was cast mostly as quiet men of integrity who always had a dogged persistence to “get the job done right”. Only twice in that long career was he ever cast as the villain. Once in the David O. Selznick horse opera Duel in the Sun (1946) where his “bad boy” performance is so outré that it approaches camp. And then in The Boys from Brazil where he plays the Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele it is just pure ham with a capital H due to Peck straining to indicate that he was properly cast in a role he was ill suited for.
Omar Sharif as the Jewish gangster in Funny Girl (1968) and then again briefly in Funny Lady (1975), we’ll count this as one. Then as the Cuban revolutionary Che Guvera in Che! (1964), and again that same year as the Mexican gunfighter Colorado in McKenna’s Gold. Some of this is not Sharif’s fault. Casting him this way went back to that old Hollywood practice of the “pan ethnic” wherein if the actor was somewhat exotic and spoke with an accent he was routinely cast as any nationality on earth whether or not he was suited for it. Prior to Sharif there was an Austrian actor of Turkish descent named Turhan Bey who was cast the same way and King and I (1956) star Yul Brynner as well.
Sharif came to international prominence with his sensational performance in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and after that he was cast as virtually every nationality from Russian to Greek and even the king of Armenia. Mostly he acquitted himself honorably in these roles but in the parts mentioned above he was so seriously miscast that there was not much he could do to make them plausible. And the results were both laughable and painful at the same time.
These are some cases of great miscasting that come quickly to mind, there will be more on a later date because the “beat goes on” and bad casting or miscasting will be with us as long as there are (to quote Lina Lamont in Singing in the Rain– 1953) “stars in the cinema firmament” .
-GE
Tags: Barbara Streisand, Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando, Mickey Rooney, Miscasting, Omar Sharif, Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier
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