Granted he was very good in parts. But he didn't have the physique or look of a champion boxer. He didn't make a good tough guy either. Yes, I know the character is a guy who doesn't want to box, etc.
A manlier actor would have been better. William Holden comes to mind. Any others?
Or am I wrong?
He was a great contrast to Burt Lancaster. Both macho, but very different.
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Prewitt is supposed to be too sensitive for his own good, not a standardized movie "tough guy". It was not miscast, because he had to be both a good soldier and yet reveal all those feelings to Lorene, and still strong enough to stand up to Fatso. He didn't have to have a great boxer's body, because he had quit boxing.
Norman Vincent Peale: "Stay Alive All Your Life".
Great points. I thought he fit the role well.
Cheese fries...next time.
Boxers come in different weight classes and he didn't have to look like Rocky Graziano. If he was a fighter he would have had the prominent nose knocked to the other side of his face.
Yes he was too good looking but it really didn't matter. He was very believable as a hard-headed sensitive guy (important).
" See dat scenery floatin by, you're now approaching NewportRI." Cole Porter
Actually, I think Montgomery Clift really pulled it off. I don't know why the producer at the time had doubts. Didn't he see Red River? I loved Monty in Red River. Especially in the end when he stands up to John Wayne's character and hits him. He's telling him, "Come on, get up." He was great. William Eythe was gay and there was no hiding it. He couldn't. That's why he never had a career. He could only play a wimp. If they cast him as Prewitt, I'd think they were crazy. I think Monty played a great tough guy. Even though he was doubled in the fight scene with Galovitch, the shots that he is in, he's great. They say they couldn't get him to move like a boxer. Montgomery Clift is the only other actor I could have seen playing Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront besides Brando.
shareMontgomery Clift was perfect, fragile yet fearless.
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That's what I was wondering... I really don't know much about boxing but aren't there - or weren't there - classes of boxers of smaller men, like lightweight, bantamweight, and flyweight? Picturing a guy built like Montgomery Clift as a boxer is no stretch of the imagination for me.
Slightly off topic, but a true fact to further illustrate my point: guess which actor/director's movie most inspired Martin Scorsese for the boxing scenes in "Raging Bull"? This man in NO way resembled a heavyweight boxer, nor was he known as a dramatic actor... he was perhaps the greatest visual and athletic, genius comedian of all time! :-)
"Think slow, act fast." --Buster Keaton
dean martin would have been interesting.
'The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.'-Al McGuire ✈
Chito, if you're going to quote Cole Porter lyrics, you might as well get them right:
Just dig that scenery floating by,
We're now approaching Newport, Rhode I.
Chito, if you're going to quote Cole Porter lyrics, you might as well get them right:
Just dig that scenery floating by,
We're now approaching Newport, Rhode I.
I think it worked. Isn't it mentioned that he's a middle weight? If he were supposed to be a heavyweight, than physically it would have been more of a stretch. He looked a bit like Tom Cruise.
shareYes, Prewitt was a middle weight in the book. Clift was somewhat skinny and fragile for the boxing part, but he still pulled it off quite well.
shareIn the book Prewitt was presented as a relatively small man, although solidly built. Two other actors supposedly considered for the role were Eli Wallach and Also Ray. They both had much more the build of a boxer than Clift; but otherwise did not have the intensity, sensitivity or looks for Prewitt.
It wasn't perfect casting, but it was good enough, and I can't think of anyone who would have been better. Holden would have been too dominating.
Another poster said that Lancaster and Clift were both "macho," but in a different way. Lancaster was certainly macho, just as Robert Mitchum would have been. But there is no way Clift could have been considered macho.
"In the book Prewitt was presented as a relatively small man, although solidly built. Two other actors supposedly considered for the role were Eli Wallach and Also Ray."
I think you mean Aldo Ray. Wallach would have been good. Although he is athletic Aldo Ray was too big to play a middleweight. He was a big guy about 6 feet tall and about 200 pounds.
Ray and Wallach were also too ethnic-looking for the role.
After reading the replies here I am starting to reconsider. Maybe Clift was the best actor available. William Holden would have been good but he was a little too old for the role.
Montgomery Clift was good. Probably not his best role but he was good.
Thank you to all who replied to my thread.
Montgomery Clift was my favorite part of the movie. I believed him in the role. He and Sinatra did a good job.
shareI liked Montgomery Clift in the role, but an interesting choice might have been James Dean who was just about to explode on the acting world. Both for the role of Prewitt, or for the role of Maggio.
shareWhat's odd is that most of the boxers (Galovich, Claude Akins, etc) were much heavier than Prewitt, yet he was supposed to be a middleweight, which is actually one of the heavier weight classes.
share