Ann Miller at 15 playing a married girl...
Creepy.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU STARVE FIRST?!" - Humphrey Bogart, 'Dead End' (1937)
No it isn't. Does she LOOK 15?
shareWell, she doesn't look 18. Atleast not for me.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU STARVE FIRST?!" - Humphrey Bogart, 'Dead End' (1937)
She doesn't look like a kid, she's perfectly believable for adult roles, which is HOW she got started in acting anyway, because she did lie about her age and she looked the part for it.
shareBut that really doesn't have anything to do with my post. I said that for me it was creepy for her at the age of 15 playing a married girl. It doesn't matter if she looked it or not, and btw she sure as hell does not look like an adult to me, it was just weird 'cause I kept thinking about how young she looked.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU STARVE FIRST?!" - Humphrey Bogart, 'Dead End' (1937)
What is so creepy about a 15 year old girl playing a married woman?
shareAt 15 you're still a child, and you shouldn't be married (and having sex with) an older man. You seriously can't see how this is creepy?
"WHY DIDN'T YOU STARVE FIRST?!" - Humphrey Bogart, 'Dead End' (1937)
No I can't because 1. In the 30s it wasn't uncommon for 14 year olds to be married to 30 year olds, it wasn't against the law back then.
2. This is a 30's movie as in they have a production code so there is no sex.
3. It is a freaking movie and she is ACTING. Is it creepy if a child plays Lady MacBeth because she killed her husband?
I KNOW it wasn't AGAINST the law, but for me living in the 21st century, it is very creepy.
So we're supposed to assume they didn't have sex because it wasn't shown? And don't try to lecture me about 30s films with the production code, I know all that.
I know that it's a MOVIE and that she's ACTING, but that doesn't mean that we can't be creeped out by what happens in films.
Just give it a rest, will you?
"WHY DIDN'T YOU STARVE FIRST?!" - Humphrey Bogart, 'Dead End' (1937)
Me? You're the one who lets themself get creeped out by an actress doing her job and ACTING, PRETENDING to be an older woman who is married. The character of Essie in the play is supposed to be 29 and she looks more convincing as that to me than she does as a 15 year old girl, which is HOW she got her job acting in the first place.
shareBoy, you're lucky you weren't around 100 years ago. Your head would explode. What you need is a little perspective.
Let's just say that God doesn't believe in me.
Indeeeeeeed.
shareHi novastar 6,
I saw Miss Miller a few months prior to her death. She was still lovely and quite lively. She spoke about her film roles and while she didn't mention "You Can't Take it With You", she explained that she hit puberty and couldn't do children's roles. She was the breadwinner of the family and had to support her mother. She became a showgirl at thirteen (so apparently did Betty Grable) and produced a false birth certicate claiming to be eighteen. She was thirteen when she made "Stage Door." It wasn't until years later, that journalists discovered her true birth certificate and confirmed that she was underaged when she began her career.
During the silent era, it was not uncommon for teen girls to take on leading lady roles. Loretta Young played opposite Lon Chaney in "Laugh, Clown, Laugh" at the age of fourteen. There are also examples in the 30s and 40s, teen actresses like Linda Darnell, Ida Lupino, Joan Leslie and Elizabeth Taylor were cast opposite older actors.
It's never easy to peg somebody's age but I find it especially hard with people from that era, the women and the girls because they do, once they reach a certain point they all look so grown up, or so young, or sometimes both, it's so hard to tell.
shareHi novastar 6,
The make-up and phoography of the time also make girls look more mature. No one had the well-scrubbed look then.
A bit later, Ann had a nose-job which softened her features quite a bit but if you look at the contours of her face, she has the round features of a teen.
"... for her at the age of 15 playing a married girl. It doesn't matter if she looked it or not ..."
Ah, you seem to agree that Ann Miller looked the proper age for her part, BogartHanksPresleyDelon, so had you not read somewhere that she was only fifteen when she appeared in You Can't Take It With You you could have enjoyed the movie, instead of being creeped out. Sometimes a little learning is a dangerous thing, isn't it?.