Looked like damn fool in the part. He seems every bit of 45-50 and seemed to be playing the part of a college kid. MAJOR casting fail on the studios part. He was comical in the part! :O
shareIf I had looked like William Holden every bit of 45-50...oh how much more pleasant my life would have been...to be beefcake at that age.
shareFirst off, Holden and Robertson knew each other IN college, which the script makes clear was several years before Picnic takes place. Second, people age at different rates. Holden's character had lived a rough-and-tumble life, with many physically demanding jobs outdoors. By contrast, Robertson worked in management, after some time spent as a 'scooper' early on. It makes sense that Holden would look older. 45-50? Hardly.
As iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another
FWIW
WH born 1918
Picnic - 1955 =
37 years not 45-50.
They are supposed to be in their late twenties early thirties. College was five to ten years earlier - that's why Alan has to struggle to remember Hal when they first meet up. Also Hal had spent a year in reform school at the äge of fourteen and cäme from an impoverished background so it's unlikely he wôuld have finished school at eighteen and gone straight to college, even on a scholarship. He probably knocked around for a few years and got the football scholarship for playing in a hometown team sponsored by a company. So let's say he entered college at the age of twenty five, to Alan Benson's eighteen, and eight to ten years have gone by, making him 33 to 35 to Benson's 26 to 28. Holden was 37 at the time of ilming so there was no problem.
Maggie
I have to agree with the OP. As much as I like William Holden and like him as an actor, I felt he was wrong for Hal. Again, this is nothing personal. If William Holden had been ten years younger, sure. But I felt he looked every bit of his age and then some. Having read the William Inge play, Hal is supposed to be in his mid-twenties, not a guy who looks like he could be pushing forty. I couldn't get over how distracting it felt to watch Holden with Strasberg, Novak, and even Robertson. In the locker room scene, he looked like he could have been Robertson's father, not a former college mate.
Casting the right people makes a big difference. This movie could have been a classic if they cast someone like Paul Newman or Marlon Brando as Hal instead.
Mother, you have to laugh sometime, or people will think you're a lesbian.
I know I am arguing with William Inge, but, to me, it would make sense to me if Hal was supposed to be in his early 30'w.
If Hal was supposed to be in his mid-twenties, I don't see why Alan would have struggled to remember him. Unless it was because Hal had aged a bit more since he lived outdoors and on the run?
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
Agree with you, but OP's point is that 37 year old William Holden STILL looked too old, and that's correct--He aged drastically in the 1950's because of alcoholism and his love of cigarettes
shareAgree with you, but OP's point is that 37 year old William Holden STILL looked too old, and that's correct--He aged drastically in the 1950's because of alcoholism and his love of cigarettes
shareYes, I see what you and OP meant and I agree with you. I think all of us have learned that Holden himself hesitated to take the part as HE thought he looked to old.
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne