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Post by marshamae on Jan 11, 2019 19:38:08 GMT
There are the famous epic fails. Lucy instead of Angela Lansbury in Mame Audrey Hepburn instead if Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady
Any occasions where you feel the transfer from Broadway ( or London) suffered because the studio insisted on a Movie Star?
any occasions where the film was actually cast better than the play?
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Jan 11, 2019 19:52:49 GMT
Amadeus was interesting since so many well known actors did the play. Hulce was good but I think Tim Curry or the original guy who appears in another role in the movie might have been more of a stand out--and Mrs Mozart, that was odd casting (I don't know who did the original play).
Obviously Richard Kiley should have been the Man of La Mancha.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jan 12, 2019 4:47:20 GMT
Obviously Richard Kiley should have been the Man of La Mancha. The entire Original Cast should have been in Man of La Mancha ditto Camelot and West Side Story Dubbing non-singers in musicals is just soooooo….
Carol Channing WAS/IS Dolly Levi …. Pearl Bailey was also a terrific Dolly! Barbra should have stuck with Funny Girl ! She was just too young and too Barbra !
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Post by OldAussie on Jan 12, 2019 6:00:19 GMT
Camelot was my first thought.
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Post by marshamae on Jan 12, 2019 6:11:13 GMT
Oh god Burton in Camelot.... but the whole film was conceived in that deconstructionist, rob- the - script- of - any - possible- magic way that was coming into favor. After deciding on a gritty Camelot, what difference did it make who they cast?
Completely agree about Hello Dolly! The one thing I did like about Barbra was the yiddische sensibility she brought to Dolly. I loved Shirley Booth in the film of the source play, the matchmaker.
I only minded the dubbing in WSS. Because We were too familiar with Marni Nixon’s voice. Despite Rita Moreno constantly throw8ng shade at Natalie Wood, I thought she was fine. Dick Behmer did not look like a kid who had ever been in a fight. The dancing was so glorious I forgive them everything.
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Post by mikef6 on Jan 12, 2019 6:30:48 GMT
Forgive me if I throw in an off-Broadway play. “The Boys In The Band” was brought to the screen with the original stage cast that had not a “name” among them, but they got William Friedkin to direct the movie which was released in 1970. The movie was a success and a few of its cast members had a modest career in movies after (Laurence Luckinbill, Peter White, Leonard Frey, Cliff Gorman).
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Post by them1ghtyhumph on Jan 12, 2019 7:01:50 GMT
Paul Newman instead of Bogey in 'The Desperate Hours'.
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Post by kijii on Jan 12, 2019 7:17:21 GMT
That was the first date I took my wife to, the night after I met her. (May 26, 1968) Film was terrible. Date was a success.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Jan 12, 2019 10:52:05 GMT
The entire Original Cast should have been in Man of La Mancha I am disappointed that a Best of Ed Sullivan compilation tape I took some trouble to get has only a 1972 Tony Awards version of the Impossible Dream when the original cast appeared on Ed Sullivan years earlier. There was a snippet of it on some internet site advertising the very same compilation!
I dont know where it is available.
I also wish the 1980 Amadeus broadway show with Curry, Ian McKellan, and Jane Seymour in the cast was taped. Surely the stage versions had to be taped by someone for archival reasons.
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Post by marshamae on Jan 12, 2019 15:53:09 GMT
I’m having trouble thinking of straight plays that were ill served by Hollywood casting.
Marilyn Monroe in seven year itch? She was brilliant and perfect
Little Foxes with Bette Davis? She was great and if they had used Tallulah ( obc) thé film would never have been made . They wisely gor Wyler to direct, and used the whole Broadway supporting cast. As a result the timing was very very good.
Shirley Booth in the Matchmaker? I’d have loved to see Ruth Gordon but Booth was brilliant .
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Post by mcavanaugh on Jan 12, 2019 15:55:44 GMT
Vivien Leigh was great in A Streetcar Named Desire, but I would have liked to have seen Jessica Tandy as Blanche, too.
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Post by marshamae on Jan 12, 2019 16:13:26 GMT
Right mick. That’s the best I can come up with. I would have liked to have seen...
Bette Davis in Watch on the Rhine - davis coming on board meant her part got expanded quite a bit, and it made some scenes a little tipsy.you could see the seams where they shoveled in a monologue for Bette . But without her the film probably would not have been made, and we would not have Paul Lukas’ brilliant performance, one of the best looks at a freedom fighter, heroic but frightened, and sickened by some of the things he has to do, trying to hold on to the human part of him.
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spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Jan 12, 2019 16:50:53 GMT
I would've loved to have seen Barbara Bel Geddes in the film version of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. I liked Taylor, but Bel Geddes would have been more down-to-earth. But the studio would never have accepted her.
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Post by kijii on Jan 12, 2019 16:56:25 GMT
I would've loved to have seen Barbara Bel Geddes in the film version of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. I liked Taylor, but Bel Geddes would have been more down-to-earth. But the studio would never have accepted her. Sorry Spider-- I just can't visualize Barbara Bel Geddes as "just trying to hold on."
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Post by mcavanaugh on Jan 12, 2019 16:57:36 GMT
I would've loved to have seen Barbara Bel Geddes in the film version of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. I liked Taylor, but Bel Geddes would have been more down-to-earth. But the studio would never have accepted her. Spider, I seem to remember having read that, while Tennessee Williams liked Elizabeth Taylor, she wasn't what he had in mind when he created Maggie the Cat. I think he said he would have preferred Bel Geddes or Elizabeth Ashley.
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Post by marshamae on Jan 12, 2019 17:13:22 GMT
Re Bel Geddes as Maggie the cat- I think I d want to see it just because I have trouble believing it. But we’re used to Taylor’s dead sexy , drop dead gorgeous Maggie. It unbalances the play because it’s completely unbelievable that Brick refuses her ( unless he’s Really not interested in women at all) did Williams prefer Bel Geddes because she was more resistible? Did Taylor make the gay subtext too plain. Hard to know when Williams chose to have some things kept silent, while Hollywood silenced others for him. Bel Geddes , i assume would have been more of a midge, a normal housewife, distraught about her husband’s lack of interest.
At least they kept Madeleine Sherwood and Burl Ives, and in one of great casting decisions, chose Jack Carson ,somewhat against type, as Goober. Carson is venal, subservient, greedy and finally, a little dignified. A beautiful performance.
Btw, did you all know that Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, famous blues men , appeared in the play as servants ? Sonny Terry was blind. Like to know how that worked.
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spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Jan 12, 2019 18:24:51 GMT
I would've loved to have seen Barbara Bel Geddes in the film version of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. I liked Taylor, but Bel Geddes would have been more down-to-earth. But the studio would never have accepted her. Sorry Spider-- I just can't visualize Barbara Bel Geddes as "just trying to hold on." We'll just have to agree to disagree, kijii. Here's a clip from the Broadway show. Like I said, I liked Taylor in the film, but I think Bel Geddes would have been more down to earth. I doubt that Elia Kazan would ever have chosen Taylor. And for the record, Bel Geddes received a Tony nomination for her performance.
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spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Jan 12, 2019 18:27:34 GMT
Re Bel Geddes as Maggie the cat- I think I d want to see it just because I have trouble believing it. See my clip of the show posted in my response to kijii above, marsha.
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spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Jan 12, 2019 18:32:53 GMT
I would've loved to have seen Barbara Bel Geddes in the film version of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. I liked Taylor, but Bel Geddes would have been more down-to-earth. But the studio would never have accepted her. Spider, I seem to remember having read that, while Tennessee Williams liked Elizabeth Taylor, she wasn't what he had in mind when he created Maggie the Cat. I think he said he would have preferred Bel Geddes or Elizabeth Ashley. Yes, you are right, Mick. And Ashley actually starred in the 1974 revival and was nominated for a Tony for it.
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Post by tommyrockarolla on Jan 12, 2019 19:55:28 GMT
Great comments about the "Williams stuff". I'd kill to see a performance of "Streetcar", 1947. There's a shortened 'radio version' of it somewhere, but it was obviously done in a recording studio, probably a few blocks from the theater. (I've been there for other plays, and during intermissions? Struck up conversations with bar maids about 'young Brando' being a game changer for NY Actors with film aspirations, right in this very room.) Tandy's "Blanche" I'd always read? Was a different portrayal than Leigh's. Whereas Vivien's "Blanche" was wallowing in introspection, Tandy's "Blanche" was fighting her demons off as well as Stanley's BS. I've read many things. "Harsher" was one word. While we'll never know for sure? I've come to the conclusion Tandy's "Blanche" had more 'fight' in her, while Leigh's "Blanche" is almost ready to be victimized. It probably provided a different 'balance' in the play. Still, Leighs interpretation was equally stunning. I'm pretty sure she'd done it in the London production. For what it's worth, it dovetails very well with her Scarlet O'Hara from 12 years earlier. (<---not saying Tandy's "Blanche" isn't vulnerable: She is. She was just more determined to hide it. She was delusional). Radio Version with Jessica Tandy: Streetcar radio edit. I'd like to have seen Bel Geddes do Maggie The Cat: I've seen both Kathleen Turner and Scarlett Johansson do it. Turner was very impressive, early 1990's.I'd also liked to have seen "The Odd Couple" with Art Carney as Felix. I don't know if it'd be 'better' than Lemmon (or Tony Randall, for that matter), but Matthau and Carney had a nice long successful run with it on Broadway. I'd have also liked to have seen Lee J Cobb do "Death Of A Salesman". Fredric March did the film, even did it justice, but? Cobb supposedly owned the part. He did do it 15 years later for a televised play, but it's a revisit. I'm sure he revised a number of things about his performance.
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