Dargo

Well, yeah, I suppose. (...but unlike that OTHER "Wild One" who ALSO rode motorcycles, I don't have a nasally voice and I don't mumble!!!)

Interesting stuff, Swithin. However, I'm STILL scratchin' my head a little here tryin' to see how casting Hepburn in Lean's "Summertime" significantly changes the "underlying meaning" of his story, because basically it's a story about a woman raised in more puritanical environment, and then has an "awakening" when exposed to a different and more, let us say, "relaxed" culture.

Well, to be honest with ya here SG, THIS Centrist HERE would have probably smacked some kid in HIS face TOO if he'd had come up and gotten in right in MY face in an incidence like THAT! (...though of course unlike Wayne, I'd have probably apologized to the kid afterward, thinkin' as I do that apologizing ISN'T a sign of weakness!!!) LOL

So, we're basically talkin' here in the same vein as how Capote absolutely hated that another woman named Hepburn(no relation of course) was cast in the film version of his story "Breakfast at Tiffany's" instead of HIS choice of Monroe, and who would've come across as more "common", right?!

Nope, it wasn't so much the common political factor that Stewart and Wayne shared, but more the idea that Jimmy was NEVER the overtly in-your-face "never apologize 'cause that's a sign of weakness" macho BS that Big Duke almost always presented himself as being, and which NOW seems "dated". (...yep, THAT was the freakin' difference here!)

btw, and SPEAKIN' of Frederic...errr...FREDRIC here... I just wanna say I do NOT think of him or his acting style as dated in the least. The guy, ESPECIALLY in "The Best Years of Our Lives" comes across as natural and as believable in THAT role as any actor in ANY film I've ever watched! And even in some of his later roles than that, such as the President in "Seven Days In May" he STILL comes across to me in that same manner...totally natural and believable. (..nope, the dude was TIMELESS, and just because many people don't know of him anymore might say more about THEM than it does about him)

Yeah, and not only THAT hep, but one of the freakin' stagehands even spelled Fredric's name wrong on his nameplate!!! LOL (...I remember this from seein' it a few years back while being hooked on those GSN reruns of this program)

Yeah hep, like I said here, I don't care if Kate is still somewhat striking looking with those cheekbones of hers in this thing, and even though they had her made as plain looking as possible, because I STILL totally buy her as that repressed schoolmarm, and could imagine MUCH more some Italian shop owner being attracted to her from afar and then enticed and intrigued by her enough to begin a romantic relationship, than I EVER could Shirley Booth, especially, like I also said, once Shirley would have opened her mouth to SPEAK!!! LOL (...eeh, maybe I'm just thinkin' too much of Shirley as that matron who pines for her little dog "Sheba", and then later on that forgettable sitcom where he's the maid...yeah, maybe that's it...maybe she COULD muster a reasonably attractive voice...naaah, but then maybe not)

I GOT IT! I GOT IT!!! It's "Curb Your Dog", starring Robert Young, Loretta Young, the forgotten Milo Young when he was old, AND Rex the Wonder Dog. (...whadda I win here, Kid?...if I gotta choice, I'll take the cash...I don't need no Buick)

Ya know, I think I'll add another point to this here... Now, while I'll admit I never saw Shirley Booth in Mr. Laurents' play('cause of course I would've only been about 2 or 3 y/o at the time), I have to wonder how the heck he would have figured a guy like Rosssano Brazzi would have ever fallen for a Shirley Booth anyway, ESPECIALLY once she would have opened her mouth and spoke with that voice o' hers? As HER voice was CLOSE to be being as grating as Shelley Winters' ever was! LOL (...oh, wait...was the Italian guy in the play as dumpy as Miss Booth's character was?...yeah, maybe THAT 'splains it here, EH?...sort of a variation on the whole "Marty" thing here, RIGHT?!) LOL

Well, sorry Swithin, but while Kate always had those GREAT cheekbones and that strong as hell jawline, I STILL, despite Mr. Laurents' laments, TOTALLY buy her as the repressed schoolmarm in that flick. (...and I don't think the women needed to be as dumpy as Miss Booth in order to carry that whole thing off either...no offense to any Miss Booth fans out there, of course!) LOL

Very interesting premise for a thread topic, SG. I like it. First, I would guess the reason Leslie Howard might now seem, well, "anachronistic", might be his penchant for playing the "vacillating intellectual", as it seems in today's world, that sort of persona isn't considered as "attractive" as it perhaps might have been decades ago. Just a guess, of course. I think I'll add another Brit here...Ronald Colman, though for a slightly different reason...the idea that perfect diction employed by actors of that era, now days almost seems an "affectation" and less natural somehow. (...don't get me wrong here however, as I STILL enjoy watching both Leslie AND Ronald in many a movie they're in)

I thought it might diminish the impact of your punchline if I did that, ol' buddy.

LOL (...great "punchline" down there, Tom)

LOL Yeah, but my point wasn't so much about being forced to "go along", but more the thought that for some people to alibi for those two clowns for years afterward and after how they would ultimately cause the ruination of their own countries...well...ya HAVE to be pretty darn freakin' DENSE to do THAT, wouldn't ya say?!

I guess Fred here must've missed my mentioning the other day of how "we all go through those gangly years" after you posted those pics of James Dean in the late-40s, eh Joe?!

The primary difference of course being Hepburn wasn't underage when SHE broke into the movies! (...well, okay...maybe not THE "primary difference" anyway)

Yeah, well, I suppose I gotta admit those little smiley dudes aren't quite as cool lookin' as that pic of Spacey you use as your avatar, dark.

And let us not forget the picture of that dude with the big ears and thin mustache stride that cool old Harley-Davidson motorcycle down there too, wouldbestar!

Yeah, it's pretty amazing what some people will forgive if a guy can get the trains to run on-time for 'em, isn't it. Yeah, yeah, I know that's actually what was said about his Italian counterpart, but I think it's somewhat fitting here too, as many Germans would eventually use a various of this excuse for going along with many of that crazy egomaniac's policies, and sometimes even for years later after he had offed himself in 1945.

Yeah, I know what ya mean. But in a way, I think that fact adds even more "gravitas" to the film. (...btw, do people still use the word "gravitas" anymore and since it was being overused a few years back???)

Yeah, I think you're right, GR. (...but as I recall, there's no fingernail clippers in THAT one!) LOL

SUMMERTIME (1955) - David Lean's Technicolor travelogue containing a wonderful performance by Katherine Hepburn et al, and filmed in one of the most "magical" of places on earth, Venice Italy. THE STORY OF G.I. JOE (1945) - William Wellman's gritty tale of the life of WWII war correspondent Ernie Pyle and the soldiers he encountered and would befriend during that conflict, and starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. THE JOURNEY (1959) - Anatole Litvak's film about what happens to a group of vacationers who become captives of an invading Soviet Russian force during the Hungarian Revolt of 1956, and with special emphasis placed on the personal dynamics which result between the Russian officer played by Yul Brynner in charge of the captives and a member of those captive, a British lady played by Deborah Kerr. DUCK SOUP (1933) - The Marx Brothers' zany antiwar satire that..well...excuse me while I break into a rousing chorus of "Hail, Hail Freedonia" here!

Yeah Tom. PLEASE don't tell us that there's now gonna be some reference to "fingernail clippers" here! LOL

...and of course Bogie's breakthrough performance in HIGH SIERRA.