Yeah, I know it’s dubbed by Nixon, but I still want it. I love the music.
(And I do have the track of Audrey doing “Wouldn’t it be Loverly?” She did a damn good job, too.)
If anyone’s a bitch, it’s Jennifer Love Screwitt for casting herself as Hepburn and doing that attrocious biopic.
Kid, Audrey herself was NOTHING like Holly.
I just finished watching Breakfast at Tiffanys a few minutes ago, and once again, started crying and had to go hug MY orange tabby-Buffy.
Did someone just call Audrey a bitch?
'Cause I know I didn’t hear that right.
Yep. KidCharlemagne.
Audrey Hepburn was many things. A “bitch” was NOT one of them.
Durn tootin’ Guin! I have yet to see a woman that exuded as much beauty, grace and class as Hepburn did.
WTF is a “huckleberry friend?”
JDM
I know Quickdraw had Baba Louie, and Yogi Booboo, but…
I was going to say that! But since it’s been said, now I have a question.
Why was Eliza not played by Julie Andrews in the film version of MFL? I’ve heard several reasons (Andrews refused to do a screen test; Warner Brothers didn’t want to take a “chance” on a stage actress), but I’m not sure which is the right one. In any case, she wuz robbed!
“Huckleberry friend”-I’m thinking it might allude to Huckleberry Finn-you know, two people, floating down a river?
I’ve heard the latter reason before. And it wasn’t so much that Julie Andrews was a stage actress, just that nobody had heard of her. She was known only in England and this was the most expensive film Warner Brothers ever made (up to that time, of course). Then, as now, the studio bigwigs wanted a reliable, bankable star. And I don’t know how “robbed” she was, she wound up playing the lead in Mary Poppins that year and won an Oscar.
I prefer the story about Cary Grant being offered the role of Professor Higgins. He said not only would he not do it, he wouldn’t even go see the movie unless Rex Harrison got the part.
The IMDB says that happened with James Cagney turning down the part of Eliza’s father, played by Stanley Holloway. Can anyone clear that up?
[shuffle]Well, yeah, Robot, you’re right about MP. I’m just thinking of how it must have burned not to be able to carry over the role she originated. Oh well, every silver lining has a cloud.
Really not all that crazy about B’fast . . . I agree that Martin Balsam, Patricia Neal and Buddy Ebsen were terrific in it, and we mustn’t forget the gowns (by Givenchy, Edith Head and Pauline Trigere!).
But Mickey Rooney was indeed an embarrassment (then again, isn’t he always?), George Peppard is dull and bland and sexless—and as much as I like Audrey Hepburn, she was totally miscast as Holly Golightly. Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for the part, and she would have been much better as a mixed-up, self-destructive, charming airhead.
No, no, no. I was not calling Audrey a bitch. Nor Holly reallyyy. The comment was aimed at Holly but was for emphasis on some of her annoying exuberance.
BaT is one of the five movie’s I own if that gives you an idea as to how much I still like the movie.
I don’t think Audrey was miscast - I think her delicate stature was a great compliment to her emotional vulnerability. I suppose I’m one of the few who really like Peppard as Paul Varjack.
Okay, I’m glad that we have that cleared up. I was so busy defending Audrey that I kind of missed the point of the OP.
Yunioshi makes me cringe every time I see him. When they had a showing of it in our local theatre, everyone was laughing at that part. I was thinking “that’s not funny, it’s horrible!”. I also thought about kids who saw that back then, and if they had it burned into their little brains that it’s okay to mock people who are different than they are. It was yet another bastardization of Capote’s original idea. I can just hear the studio bigwigs saying “that ending is just too depressing! make a new one!” “there’s entirely too much talking!! make a racial stereotype for comic relief!”. IMHO, the movie should have been called Audrey Hepburn Wears Pretty Dresses in a Movie With Character Names from Truman Capote and A Wacky Racial Stereotype. I really thought when I first saw it, that it would follow the book more closely. But, it did not. Yet another fine example of Hollywood thinking they can out-write literary geniuses. I prefer Roman Holiday anyway, a film whose creation is another thread in itself.
I couldn’t have cared less about “Fred Darling.” But if she didn’t go back for Cat, I would’ve been pissed. So that’s what’s kind of shying me away from complaining about the ending.
To me, this reeks of the same revisionism that led TV Guide to call Hogan’s Heroes one of the worst TV shows ever.
I think it’s more important to able to recognize and contrast the context that the movie was originally made in and today’s social climate. In other words, it would only be wrong if the character didn’t make you think, “Wow, that’s really insensitive,” as it did to the OP. But I don’t think it warrants a blanket condemnation of the film.
Without criticizing the inestimable Hepburn one little bit, I agree that Julie Andrews was, in fact, robbed. She should have been in the film version of MFL. It would then have been an entirely different film, of course, and we’ll never know if we would have liked it better than the Hepburn version.
I personally can’t stand Andrews, and I adore Hepburn. However, perhaps they could have let Andrews do the singing?
I just want you guys to know that this thread has caused me to spend six bucks I don’t have.
Yesterday I went to the used book store for my weekly allotment of new books. I found a copy of BaT. I had just read this thread that morning, so I said “Wow, fate!”. But the book was pristine and cost nine bucks. I said “Damn you God! Why must you give me signs and not give me the cash to follow up on them! Screw your fated book!!”
Then I picked up an identical copy. Marked at six bucks. Damn.
I figured I better buy it before lighting started striking me down.
Ditto. I finally saw it recently, and I was excited for this classic everyone seems to love. Very disappointing.
BTW, I don’t think I could ever watch this movie without thinking of The A-Team whenever George Peppard was on screen.
This was certainly an unfortunate turn for Mickey Rooney, but he is very far from being a no talent hack. In his prime he was considered the most talented actor in Hollywood, no less a luminary than Laurence Olivier declaring Rooney the “most talented actor America ever produced” (cite).
I’m not saying that all his work was first rate, but he was nevertheless a huge talent.