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WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

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#1

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??


Star quality
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali
#2

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

This movie was way beyond weird for all it's intentions to be "with it" at the time it was released all it amounted too was a mess of WTF proportions. One of the most disturbing scenes was one in which Carol tries to seduce Frankie Avalon....I kid you not.
#5

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

The garbage can ballet is kind of amazing, as well as Austin Pendleton saying of Jackie Gleason after Gleason's acid trip: "He did it! He transcended his ego!"

But that yellow dress that Channing wears when she tries to seduce Avalon is unforgettable, the way it unzips itself, it has to be seen to be believed.

I do like it when Harry Nilsson sings the end credits, when Otto Preminger's voice tells the audience at the very end: "Wait! Before you Skiddoo, we'd like to introduce our cast and crew!"

Ms. Channing used to claim that she'd never seen it.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#7

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

Tis a shame. I love to hear about how "That Streisand Woman" ruined Carol's career as opposed to maybe the fact that her screen presence was...well...totally vulgar.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali
#10

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

I think there's more to it than vulgarity. After all, there are few more vulgar performances than Rosalind Russell's in THE WOMEN or AUNTIE MAME. I think it has to do with Channing's weird inability to tone it down at all.

Of course, Ms. Channing never really appeared in anything even remotely like a good film, so there you have it too. Maybe a film better suited to her particular talents might have helped her career, but I think it was always going to be a limited one as far as film went.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#11

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

She was in the finale of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"...see stood next to Tina Turner.

Actually, I assumed the answer was because she's a nutjob who can only play herself.

I LOVE "....Millie", but she's my least favorite in it...and she got the oscar nod! Should've been Lillie's
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#12

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

Hear, Hear, doodle! I too agree that Beatrice Lillie deserved the nom over Channing. Mrs. Meers was a far better, more interesting supporting character (and she's the antagonist, to boot) than Muzzy. Channing just got on my nerves each time she was on-screen, and about the umpteenth "RRRRAAAAASSSSPPPBBBEERRRRIIIIEEEESSS!!!" I wanted to shoot her out of the damn cannon myself into oblivion!
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#13

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

Being a nutjob who can only play themselves didn't stop Kevin Spacey or Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves or Marilyn Monroe from having successful film careers.



"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/

Updated On: 7/22/10 at 04:42 PM

#14

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

Like Phyllis Diller, she was one of those crazy old bats that would scare me whenever she showed up on The Love Boat, etc. when I was a kid. I could never stand Carol Channing.
#15

WHY didn't Carol Channing Have A Successful Film Career??

Did anyone ever see her screen test for Streetcar? It was pretty amazing. Hard to find now, but I remember thinking, "Wow, they gave it to that crazy Brit when they could have cast a real Southern belle? That movie might have worked if Kazan had only cast Channing.
PEACE.

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