Would they all (but one) have had roles in which they maintained contact with someone after death?
No. It does have to do with roles they played. All but one of them played a role (different roles each) that have something in common with one another.
Here’s a huge hint: Deborah Kerr did it twice.
Deborah Kerr played a nun twice, and at least a couple of the other actresses did once, but I can’t find enough on some of the others to make that an odd man out.
It also doesn’t really work with the other hint, “I’ll see you in my dreams”. I thought they might have all (except the OMO) played characters named Irene, but that doesn’t seem to be it, either.
This is getting very warm.
Give it a little more time, and if still no one figures it out, I’ll tell you who the OMO is, then you can see if you can figure out what they have in common.
This is a tough one, but when you get it, you’ll know it. It will be very obvious.
The name Irene is significant.
The OMO is Anne Heche.
What did the rest do (Kerr twice) that Anne Heche did not?
And there is a specific reason I picked Heche as the OMO. She wasn’t totally random. If you drew Venn diagrams, Heche would be in a big circle as having done something the others did, but in the smaller, wholly contained circle the others are in.
I’ve been looking for a Deborah Kerr/“Irene” connection and haven’t found one yet. I’ll keep at it.
I did discover that she was nominated for five Oscars in an eight-year stretch, which has got to be some kind of record.
She actually holds the record for being nominated and not winning. Find out which actress has the next highest number of nominations without winning.
Oscars have nothing to do with the answer. Just a push toward the right “Irene.”
Looks like Glenn Close, also with 6.
Not sure if I trust the internet on that; the first source I found while searching didn’t even mention Kerr.
OK. Scratch that. I didn’t know about Close-- that must be a recent “achievement.” Remember what I said about a knowledge of films from the thirties being helpful, and look for someone who was nominated 5 times without winning.
I think I’m on the right track. Give me a few minutes.
All played roles that had previously been played by Irene Dunne.
Doris Day in Move Over, Darling (1963), remake of My Favorite Wife (1940)
Jodie Foster in Anna and the King (1999), remake of Anna and the King of Siam (1946)
Kathryn Grayson in Lovely to Look At (1952), remake of Roberta (1935)
and Show Boat (1951), remake of Show Boat (1936)
Holly Hunter in Always (1989), remake of A Guy Named Joe (1943)
Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember (1957), remake of Love Affair (1939)
and The King and I (1956), remake of Anna and the King of Siam (1946)
Maria Schell in Cimarron (1960), remake of Cimarron (1931)
Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession (1954), remake of Magnificent Obsession (1935)
(There’s also Jane Wyman in Let’s Do it Again (1953), which IMDb says is a remake of The Awful Truth (1937), but the character’s names are different.)
I can’t find a conspicuous Anne Heche connection. Was she planned to be another remake of an Irene Dunne movie but it fell through?
Ding, ding, ding, ding!
Anne Heche was in the notorious almost shot-for-shot remake of Psycho that Gus van Sant did in 1999, playing Janet Leigh’s character. I thought she might help get you on the track of remakes.
Let’s Do It Again is more “inspired by” The Awful Truth than a genuine remake of it. I’d forgotten about the remake of Roberta.
It’s a testimony to Dunne’s greatness, I suppose, that such a huge number of her films were remade, but because of the fact that the remaking studio would usually buy the rights to the earlier film and withdraw it from distribution, Few people after about 1948 know who she is, as opposed to say, a Katharine Hepburn or an Ingrid Bergman. But Dunne but loved in her own time.
However, thanks to home video, streaming services, TCM, and public domain, you can see pretty much all of her movies now, fully restored and beautiful.
I wasn’t too far away from getting it last night. I thought all the actresses might have co-starred with a famous Irene, and Irene Dunne was one that I considered. I also tried to work backwards from the list, looking for interesting movies for the names on the list, and Always was one of the ones I checked. I knew it was a remake of A Guy Named Joe. If I’d noticed that Dunne starred in the original, I might have cracked it.
I wonder if there’s a good question with Deborah Kerr and Jude Law, both of whom remade two movies with the same actor. Law was in remakes of Alfie and Sleuth, both times playing roles originated by Michael Caine. I wonder if there are any other good examples.
New list:
Lionel Barrymore
Tom Cruise
Laura Innes
Terry Kilburn
Hugh Laurie
And it’s not that Laura Innes is the only woman.
This one should be easier that the Irene Dunne one, but still a bit of a challenge. The OMO has something in common with the others, but there is still a very important distinction. In fact, it’s almost the flip side of the distinction.
The picture round
I didn’t see this one until just now. Is Tom Cruise the odd man out? I think the others all had roles where they used a crutch or a cane (Barrymore in You Can’t Take it With You, Innes in ER, Kilburn in A Christmas Carol, Laurie in House; Cruise was in a wheelchair in Born on the Fourth of July.
Actually, that’s it, but Cruise used crutches for a portion of Born on the Fourth of July (Kovic fell and broke his legs using them, and after that, was in a wheelchair). They all used traditional crutches, Lofstrand crutches, which are sometimes called canes, or traditional canes, but Barrymore is the Odd Man Out. Why?
Hmm, I don’t know. I haven’t seen You Can’t Take it With You; when I thought canes or crutches would be the key I did a web search and found a still image of Barrymore from the movie. Was he faking, or was his injury on the left foot, something like that?
You don’t have to have seen You Can’t Take It with You, but you need to know a little about Barrymore personally.
If you saw It’s a Wonderful Life maybe you’ll figure it out without looking up Barrymore, but it’s probably in his IMDb bio.
They’re all human beings except the green locomotive?