Mary Astor - worst casting ever?

I thought she was quite good in the movie.
but do kind of agree that she's not as attractive as she is built-up as throughout the whole movie. she's pretty enough..
just not the stone-cold foxy femme fatale i pictured

Cut the OP some slack. At the time s/he posted this, Appaloosa had not yet been released.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800308/

Supposedly, Geraldine Fitzgerald was the studio's first choice. While not always right, in this case, I have to agree that Fitzgerald probably would have been 'perfect' as Brigid O'Shaughnessy. It's too bad she refused a role which likely would have made her a star.

Evidently, other choices were Rita Hayworth, Olivia de Haviland, and Ingrid Bergman. None of those seem like they would have worked out too well. My personal choice would have been Claire Trevor, who essentially did the same character six years later in Born to Kill.

In any event, as others have pointed out, simply having a better haircut would have improved Astor in the part exponentially.

I agree. She's terrific.

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Well I see nuts brought this thread back, which despite being a huge fan of this film I was not aware of, and so here I am responding to Honey's three year old post. heh.

First of all I think Ida Lupino was great. I want to see more of her films, but her acting in High Sierra stands out in what is not my favorite Bogart film by any means. What makes her worth considering for Falcon was her marvelous ability to make what started out as a rather unsympathetic character in Sierra into one hte viewer cares very much about. She is also that kind of woman whose beauty is greatly enhanced by her manner and the way she holds herself.

but there's a big problem with casting her in Falcon. She was born in 1918, and thus would have been far too young for hte part. As noted above many times the part called for someone who not only could hold her own and very much so against the various sordid characters in it. She also would have had to have what was euphemistically called "experience", meaning someone who had gotten to that stage of life still living life on the run, with intermittent relations with men, very much of a manipulative sort. Someone who in effect had been doing it long enough that she was not going to change, and really had no realistic options.

Brigid's near manic joining in the falcon's pursuit would have been less credible if played by a woman the age of Ida Lupino.

As for Mary Astor's portrayal, I very much agree with those here who point out that the critics have completely missed the point about her character. Brigid is not supposed to be overall sympathetic(although the degree to which she borders on the pathetic does in a backhand sort of way give reason to have some sympathy). It is hard for me to remember the first time I saw the film, but I do recall not knowing at first taht she was a phony. At first. But you can't help miss that her histrionics were false when the script finally makes clear she was not there at all for the reasons she offered in the beginning.

As for her beauty, or some would say lack thereof, that is also unfair. Comparisons to The Big Sleep are perhaps inevitable, but totally off the point. TBS is intended to be a complete fantasy. Even the cab drivers are not only female but hot. All of them were. By that time Bogart and Bacall were well known as the Hollywood couple, and that went along with Bogart's emergence as a sex symbol. Falcon preceded Casablanca, and Bogart was just beginning to get lead roles, and was not yet widely accepted as the romantic leading man. (There were hints he could so in for example his great chemistry interaction but in a small part work with Claire Trevor in Dead End, but Sierra was his first leading part in anything approaching a romantic story.)

In actuality Mary Astor was six years younger than Bogart. Forget about his later career. At the time she was a very plausible potential love interest for him and his character.

Given the difficulties of the role, not only do I think Mary Astor was an excellent choice for it, but I think her portrayal was a great one. As one of my favorite films Falcon has several great performances. But she holds her own and then some, and arguably has hte most difficult role in the film. In short I disagree with her critics, and think her work here was outstanding.