Our book circle have just read Marghanita Laski’s fine 1949 novel Little Boy Lost. A dark, sombre, restrained book which I can warmly recommend.
An Englishman, Hilary Wainwright, returns to the chaos and ruins of Paris after WW2 in search of his lost son whose mother was murdered by the Gestapo. It’s an atmospheric portrait of post-war France: poverty, bereavement, black marketing and people trying to do the best they can in a very bad situation.
Wainwright is a successful avant-garde poet and not a very attractive character. He’s snobbish, judgemental, lecherous, terrified of emotional commitment and lacking in gratitude to all those who help him in his quest. His only redeeming feature is the kindness he shows to the orphan boy who he believes to be his son.
Hollywood bought the rights and made it into a film. To reach a broader audience they made the central character an American. Regretable, but not understandable. (It worked OK with John Cusack in High Fidelity). And then they did the casting. Who did they choose? That charming, affable crooner Bing Crosby.
What’s worse, he keeps breaking into song.
Laski had kittens when she saw the film.
What next, eh? Heart of Darkness – The musical!
Any other examples of horrendous mis-casting?
hubert rawlinson says
John Wayne is Ghengis Khan.
Locust says
The little boy in that Bing clip looks terrified. He’s clearly thinking that he’s being abducted by a madman; no sudden moves, humour him with a few fake laughs, and when the boat ride stops – run like hell!
Kaisfatdad says
I thought you had made that up, Hubert!
But no.
The Conqueror from 1956.
There’s a story behind the film too. 91 people involved in its making died of cancer due the radioactivity in Utah after nuclear tests.
https://gcaggiano.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/the-conqueror-1956-the-film-that-killed-john-wayne-literally/
Ralph says
Michael Caine as Alan Breck in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped springs to mind
Kaisfatdad says
Caine? The world’s first cockney Highlander?
Made in 1971 and it seems none of the cast ever got paid either.
Mike_H says
The Usual Suspects is a marvellous film, one of my all-time favourites marred only by the miscasting of Pete Postlethwaite as Mr. Kobayashi.
Kobayashi is supposed to be Japanese, which Pete Postlethwaite clearly isn’t and does not resemble or sound like in the slightest. A great shame he was so badly miscast as (1) Pete Postlethwaite was one of my favourite actors and (2) it introduces a not-easily-overlooked flaw in what was otherwise an exemplary movie.
mikethep says
I’ve always just ignored that, presuming as I did when I first saw it that it was some kind of red herring. I just think, ah, there’s Pete Postlethwaite.
Sniffity says
Might have been a nod to the three GALAXY scientists in Our Man Flint – Drs Wu, Schneider and Krupov – played by actors obviously not fitted for the part (English, Chinese and American respectively)
Sniffity says
And some find it’s a bit tricky enjoying Breakfast At Tiffany’s with Mickey Rooney’s stereotyped Asiatic landlord.
Kaisfatdad says
I agree Sniffity. The choice of Rooney for a character who is funny because of humor based on racial stereotypes was a big mistake.
Scarlett Johannsen as a Japanese lass in the Ghost in the Machine is not that much better.
JustB says
I always assumed this was intentional as, of course, – SPOILER – Kobayashi doesn’t exist. Postlethwaite’s character is who Verbal is picturing in the role of the fictional fixer for Keyser Soze, because that’s what Postlethwaite’s character (whatever his real name is) is to Verbal/the real Soze.
Since all the other characters are dead by the time Verbal recounts his story to the feds, even the idea that the gang were approached by a Japanese lawyer in the first place is highly suspect. I always felt like PP doing a silly accent in heavy makeup is Verbal amusing himself in his head, thanks to the imaginative cue of “Kobayashi porcelain”.
metal mickey says
Yes! I’ve always been mystified by the mega-love dished out to The Usual Suspects because it’s clearly just a shaggy dog story, with the Verbal character making everything up as he goes along based on the stuff lying around in the room, and populating it in his head with people he knows in real life… cute enough, sure, but not “32nd best film of all-time” stuff (as per this month’s Empire…)
Leicester Bangs says
It’s probably not miscasting as such, but I hate Michael Palin’s stuttering characters in The Fish Was Called Wanda and A Life Of Brian. I don’t find stuttering all that funny.
Gatz says
As a Ken I’m never that chuffed when, as with Palin’s character in a A Fish Called Wanda, the name Ken or Kenny is a failsafe signifier that the character is a nerdish stooge.
Moose the Mooche says
If it’s a morale boost you want, watch the Comic Strip’s GLC.
Sniffity says
Palin’s father suffered from serious stuttering, if that throws a light on anything.
(or it might have been stammering…is there a difference?)
Moose the Mooche says
I would tend to agree, except that in Brian it builds up tension for Gilliam’s intervention about having lumps of it round the back.
Ralph says
“Cor Blimey Mary Poppins! Where’s Bert?” asked Dick Van Dyke
Moose the Mooche says
That awful accent has added to the gaeity of nations. I wouldn’t trade it for a real cawkneh.
JustB says
Abshobladdylotely, Merry Pawpinsh!
Moose the Mooche says
That little Irish fellah as Moriarty. Not funny or clever or frightening, just irritating.
That show quickly got on my tits but the major casting decisions were spot on.
Gatz says
The first time he appeared a reviewer summed him up perfectly as ‘Ant McPartlin channeling Graham Norton.’
Sniffity says
No matter what nationality he plays, Sean Connery can be relied on to deliver a Scots brogue.
And the entire cast of Grease were the oldest teenagers ever on film (since Steve McQueen and his friends in The Blob anyway)…not to mention some backpedalling to explain ONJ’s Australian accent.
duco01 says
Re: “the entire cast of Grease were the oldest teenagers ever on film”
That’s right – particularly Stockard Channing, who was 33 when they started filming. Incredible!
moseleymoles says
George Clooney surely hit a career low as Batman. 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. George is many things, but a caped crusader he is not. Laid back charm and twinkly irony is not #1 on the synopsis.
Sitheref2409 says
Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in Green Lantern. Just…no.
See also the bit players in Westerns who were there for no reason except they can sing. See: Ken Curtis as Charlie McCorry in The Searchers; also Ricky Nelson as ‘Colahrahdah’ Ryan in Rio Bravo.
mikethep says
See also Roy Orbison, The Fastest Guitar Alive. I haven’t.
JustB says
Christoph Waltz as – SPOILER – Blofeld. His amiable smile and all-around corduroy demeanour makes him about as threatening as a scone.
mikethep says
Oh come now, have you never seen his deeply sinister turn in Inglorious Basterds?
JustB says
Sure, he’s great in that. So what the hell is he doing playing the Spectre role as Ernst Stavro Doonican?
Kaisfatdad says
Singing cowboys! There’s something once so common that you never see these days.
Elvis’s first role was as a singing cowpoke in Love me tender.”
So many young pop stars that are missing their big chance. Poor Justin Bieber! He must be gutted.
Sniffity says
You really think he could do Billy The Kid justice?
Black Celebration says
Reg Varney – On the Buses. 53 years old. Character still lives with his mum and spends much of his time fumbling on the top deck with seemingly willing 19 year old girls.
Moose the Mooche says
See also the “boys” in Please Sir, many of them older than the teachers.
Kaisfatdad says
They sound more like old boys.
When it comes to a difference between an actor’s age and the age of their character, I suspect the Carry On films were major offenders.
Easy to imagine that Babs Windsor was playing a nubile schoolgirl well into her forties. Or am I being unfair?
metal mickey says
Slightly unfair on Babs, I think the last time she actively played a schoolgirl was in “Camping” when she was 32, though she was pretty much always playing way below her age regardless…
An interesting example of actor ages is “The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3” and it’s remake… the superb 1974 original starred the grizzled Walter Matthau (54 at the time) and Robert Shaw (47), whereas the 2009 remake starred the vibrant & sexy Denzel Washington and John Travolta… who were both 55!
Gatz says
Carry on Christmas in 1973, when Babs was in her mid 30s, is a bit of a shocker. She plays a 14 year old, uniformed schoolgirl called Virginia in a sketch centred around Sid James’ department store Santa ogling her boobs.
Black Celebration says
Carry on Camping I think featured Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw hoping for some young lady action despite their ear trumpets and Zimmer frames.
Gatz says
No, Camping had Windsor Davies and Bresslaw because Sid was booked on a theatre tour. Here are The Flowerbuds rocking the easily led youth of the day.
Rigid Digit says
Winsor Davies was in Behind – the point when the rot started setting in.
The only Carry On Sid missed since his debut was Follow That Camel due to a heart attack.
He was replaced by Phil Silvers – not totally successfully, but not unsuccessfully either
Rigid Digit says
He also missed Jack and Screaming which I forgot about – damn my idiot brain and Hop House 13 Lager.
Moose the Mooche says
Phil is pretty good in Camel. You’d probably have to like him in the first place, mind.
He comes across very badly in the Kenneth Williams diaries – needy and self-pitying. Shame. But then KW doesn’t have a decent word for anyone in the CO set-up apart from Bernard Bresslaw.
Sewer Robot says
Was he actually that old? I always thought he was one of those victims of premature aging you used to see in the 60s/70s, like how half your favourite team back then looked at least twenty years older than the present day manager..
(A quick check reveals that when I started watching Bob Wilson on Football Focus he was in his late 30s, but he didn’t appear a whole lot younger to me than Gary Lineker (56) on MOTD today..)
Rigid Digit says
Reg Varney was indeed in his early 50s when On The Buses started, his oppo Bob Grant was nudging 40, and their characters were supposed to be mid-20s/early 30s
Conversely, Stephen Lewis (Blakey) was 40-odd, but played a character nearing retirement .
I suppose chronologically everything balanced out
Mike_H says
Everybody who wasn’t a teenager looked like they were in late middle age in those days. That’s why nobody noticed the ridiculousness until now.
Rigid Digit says
I have never understood the casting discussion that saw Elijah Wood transported from Mordor to East London footy violence (Green Street)
Kaisfatdad says
I imagine he was desperate to prove he was not just a one-trick pony. And as footy violence is not too frequent in the Shire, this must have been a golden opportunity.
Iggypop1 says
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves…i don’t know what was worse, Kevin Costner or that bloody song.
Sitheref2409 says
‘cos Morgan Freeman just oozed authenticity.
And let’s not start on Christian Slater…
JustB says
Pah, you people! RHPOT is bloody excellent, mostly *because* of the daft-as-a-brush casting. And Bryan Adams. 🙂
Moose the Mooche says
Rickman scorches as the Sheriff, and Mike McShane is a nicely menacing Tuck. It’s a bloody silly story anyway, a few mullets and bad accents won’t make any odds.
bricameron says
Simon Pegg as ‘Scotty’. Just horrible awful casting. They got everyone else right from the original series except ‘Scott’.
Black Celebration says
I saw a minute or so of a Michael Jackson bio pic on TV the other day. The Jacko role was played by a deep-voiced, stocky man who looked absolutely nothing like him. Norman St John Stevas would have been better.
Kaisfatdad says
Great comment, Bob. I am all in favour of daft-as-a-brush casting. I think it can really make a film.
I’m also keen about actors who can’t adapt their accent for toffee. I would hate it if Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Michael Caine etc started to master different accents. And do them convincingly.
Gatz says
How could I forget Tiptoes? It’s an utterly dreadful film from the magic pixie girl lead to the ‘let’s ee how we can learn and grow’ themes. Mathew McConaughey has a girlfriend, but he also has a secret. He is asheamed that he comes form a family with a history of dwarfism. Cue Peter Dinklage with some pre-Tyrian Hell raising behaviour.
I bought it on one of those newspaper dvds you see in charity shops, partly because I couldn’t think how the plot above could be what the sleeve described as ‘a side splitting comedy’ (it’s not a comedy at all, it’s an ‘issues’ drama), and also because I marvelled over the unconventional casting of McConaughey’s brother as that well known dwarf, drum roll please, Gary Oldman.
Although it isn’t a comedy, no matter what the sleeve says, there is fun to be had from watching how the direction gets round the problem that a man of normal height has been cast in an important role as a dwarf. My favourite is when Oldman is ‘sitting’ on a sofa, except that he has clearly wedged his body through the back of the sofa and has a pair of false legs dangling in front of him, like a soft-furnishing Bernie Clifton.