Brando Miscast -- Paul Newman Would Have Been Better
Marlon Brando as a blues singer/Orpheus reincarnation/Elvis Presely type was ridiculous casting. He is much too HEAVY, too WEIGHTY, too GRAVE for the role. Paul Newman would have been better, as he has a lighter touch, but can achieve true tragedy. Then again, he was in a better version of this very same play, SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, on Broadway when this stinker was being shot. Newman's Chance Wayne is the real evocation of Val Xavier, in that he was a reincarnation of the spirit of Orpheus.
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"Why do people always laugh in the wrong places?"
--Thomas a Beckett