Forget Novak - Susan Strasburg is the beautiful one

I forgot.... Kapo. I saw Susan in that movie a few months ago, and she was just as stunning.

troy

Susan Strasberg was very beautiful in this film.

Don't get me wrong, I think Kim Novak is/was/will be very beautiful in this movie -- but every time I watch it I'm just shocked at how attractive Susan Strasberg is. And I use the word 'attractive' because she's not just beautiful, she also puts a lot of soul and personality into the charcter of Millie. I think a big part of it is that she's just so real and authentic. Not that Kim Novak is fake and plastic, but many of the classic leading ladies in the last 75 years have been. In fact, when I first saw this movie in my late teens I couldn't believe how well she compared to -- and often exceeded -- the beauty of the teen actresses at the time in the mid-90s.

...Also, do the math based on that timeframe -- I wasn't even *born* until over 20 years after the movie came out and she *still* made that much of an impression on me! I think that goes a long way in proving the point that the original poster was trying to make.

Both are beautiful women. I prefer Kim Novak, though. She really looks like a goddess to me, and "haunting" is a great word to describe her. There is just something about her. I'm a woman and I'd kill to know how it feels to be so stunning! Susan Strasburg is beautiful too, but in a totally different kind of way. I first saw this movie when I was about 14, and I remember thinking back then that I'd love to look like Susan. I guess my opinion has changed as I've grown older. Anyway, I love them both in this film.

In the scene in which Howard says that he hadn't realized what a good looking little lady Millie is, and she says "blech," and Hal says "He's right, kid, he's right!" it is clear that Millie, and Susan Strasberg in turn, is really quite beautiful. Although we're not dealing with Ugly Betty by any means, Millie/Susan's beauty has been obscured by her boyish shirts and jeans, and her refusal to flaunt her femininity.

So "presentation" is the real issue. And in her career, as well as in PICNIC, Susan Strasberg clearly avoided the trap of being known primarily for her beauty rather than her acting ability. But even twenty years after PICNIC, Susan Strasberg could still turn heads with her class and beauty playing such roles as a Countess on THE ROCKFORD FILES...

I don't know about Kim Novak. To me, there was something bovine in her prettiness. Then again, that may have been Madge, and not Kim.

I thought Susan had a lot more refinement and delicacy in her face.




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Susan was cute,..no doubt about it. But Kim Novak was breath takingly beautiful, pretty, sexy and just drop dead gorgeous. She and Bill Holden had tremendous "presence" on the dock during that dance scene.

As I watched the movie, I kept feeling that Millie would be a lot more fun to hang out with. She was attractive, smart, and had a great sense of humor.