"What Were They Thinking?" Movies

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a wonderful movie. Then Mickey Rooney shows up. What were they thinking? It's like he's in a totally different movie.

Others?

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Updated On: 1/25/14 at 11:02 PM

Even though Amadeus is my favorite film, the casting of Elizabeth Berridge as Costanza, had me wondering "WHY?" Her Brooklynesque accent was distracting to me.

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Robert Duvall in Newsies. A Thomas Nast cartoon had more dimension than his Joseph Pulitzer caricature.

Why exactly do you think Elizabeth Berridge had a Brooklyn accent in Amadeus?

CapnHook, that made me laugh!

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That was Gus Van Sant

"Grease 2" . . . but then there was Michelle Pfeiffer who just stood out because you just knew she had "it". At least that's what I thought to myself when I first saw it in the near empty Ziegfeld Theater.

It only took her about a year and a half. Next thing I saw her in was Brian DePalma's "Scarface" and the rest, as they say, "Is history...."

Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons, Emmy Rossum, and Viola Davis in Beautiful Creatures. (Especially Emma!) Did they read the script?

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Along with the original post here (Breakfast at Tiffany's), I recently saw Sir David Lean's "Oliver Twist" again (1948 ), and the same thing happens with the grotesque, racist, caricature of the "corrupt Jew" Fagin, as portrayed by Alec Guinness, complete with a cartoonishly large hook nose that could have been provided by Sid and Marty Krofft.

By the way, I have zero objections to Elizabeth Berridge's accent in Amadeus, nor do I think it's a Brooklyn accent. If anything, she sounds like she's from Pamona, California. But nearly all of the leads in the film use American accents, a director's choice, rather than faux period British accents (since none of the actual characters are British in the first place). I'm glad Milos Forman broke with that bizarre BBC/PBS tradition, that, regardless of country or origin, any period piece must be accompanied by British accents. I find that more off-putting than anything Elizabeth Berridge (who plays a commoner in the film) says.

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No one has mentioned MAME. The film probably wouldn't have worked anyway but casting Lucille Ball in the lead -- well the rest is film history. They must have gone through a gallon of Vaseline on the camera lenses.

Madeline Kahn, fresh off the successes of "What's Up Doc?" and "Paper Moon" was hired to play Agnes Gooch. Lucille took an instant dislike to her and she was fired several days into filming and replaced by Jane Connell.

Gene Saks said years later in an interview that Ms. Ball was total b*tch during the entire shoot. I am surprised he didn't have a nervous breakdown.

My opinion is that once Lucy stopped focusing on acting and started running a studio, she never again found the on-screen success she once had. She was too busy taking over the planet as a top executive and one of the most powerful women ever in Hollywood. She switched from "talent" to "management," and once you do that, it's hard to go back (although she tried many times). She was too busy controlling things to concentrate on her own performances. It's happened to other people as well, who have left performing for "the other side" as directors, producers, or choreographers, etc. It's tough to go back to focusing on "just performing."

I suppose a good companion to "Mame" would be "what were they thinking" by passing up Ethel Merman for the film version of Gypsy, but she was in serious consideration for it (along with Judy Holliday and Judy Garland). And Roz got the part.

Two others for "what were they thinking?" ...

I love everything about the movie "A Christmas Story" and all of its vintage charm, with the exception of Melinda Dillon's hideous, early 1980s perm! Her hairstyle is so out of step with the rest of the movie, and she's the main female character. It's beyond distracting to see her with that hairdo. Even the extras look more appropriate.

Saturday Night Fever, while far from a masterpiece, is a good, solid film that made Travolta a star and has one of the biggest selling soundtracks of all-time ... but what's with Karen Lynn Gorney (talk about a Brooklyn accent, albeit an appropriate one!), cast as Stephanie ... and SHE CAN'T DANCE? She's absolutely terrible. A total klutz. And it's essential to the plot that Stephanie is terrific and Travolta is swept away by her "talent" on the dance floor. It makes me laugh every time I watch her at the ballet barre, almost teetering over with her knee bent, doing her daily exercises. It's like a bad Carol Burnett sketch, except it's legit.

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Updated On: 1/26/14 at 08:33 AM

"Madeline Kahn, fresh off the successes of "What's Up Doc?" and "Paper Moon" was hired to play Agnes Gooch. Lucille took an instant dislike to her and she was fired several days into filming and replaced by Jane Connell. "

So it wasn't because of Madeline's cocaine use?

I've always wondered what exactly happened there. Lucy was always very supportive of the younger guest stars on I Love Lucy. She sewed sequins onto Barbara Eden's dress! (Even while Desi was trying to chase her around the set.)

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"Lucy was always very supportive of the younger guest stars on I Love Lucy. She sewed sequins onto Barbara Eden's dress!"

And helped Vivian Vance scrub the toilets.

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