I love Kerr in "The Innocents". I think it's her best work. So did she! But if it was someone other than her,in that time period........Jean Simmons.
"Forget it Jake,It's Chinatown."
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Deborah Kerr did a wonderful job, but I think Barbara Steele would've been pretty good in the role as well.
I've been waiting for you, Ben.
You wrote "Barbara Steele", but at first I only saw the name in the corner of my eye and I thought you wrote "Barbra Streisand" and I had myself quite a belly laugh before I went back and saw what you actually wrote. Barbra Streisand as Miss Giddens!!! ROTFLMAO!!!
shareOh, no, I think that would have been wonderful! In fact... and why not, it could have made a terrific musical:
Funny Ghost, in which a naive but plucky young Brooklynite comes to an old English country house to care for two children who just need love, songs, and elaborate production numbers, such as -
People (Who Need Psychics)
I'm The Greatest Spook
You Are Woman, I Am Evil
I'd Rather Be Dead Thinking of You
His Is the Only Music That Makes Me Scream in Fear
Sadie, Sadie, Haunted Lady
Don't Rain On My Paranormal Activity
His Love Makes Me Terrified
Second Hand Ghost
My Miles
Oh more people should have seen this!!!
shareWhen Marilyn Monroe was in England filming The Prince and the Showgirl, this was another property Milton Green considered developing for her.
While the idea at first seems kind of preposterous, there are qualities about her as a performer that could have been used in an interesting way in this.
For one thing, Monroe was basically CRAZY, like Miss Giddens. And she herself had a kind of "corrupted innocence" about her persona, that went back and forth between childlike and carnal. Also, Monroe had a strangely wistful, desperate connection to children (being unable to have any of her own) and her attachment and interaction with the child performers could have been suitably intense
Wow,that would have been wild. I don't think she would have been able to pull it off though. I have read that that the 1964 remake of "Of Human Bondage" was conceived as a Marilyn Monroe film,instead of Kim Novak. That,I do think she could have been successful in. But I agree with you about her attachment and interaction with children. One can see it in the outtakes of "Something's Got To Give". She's heartbreaking.
Just because something can't be explained,doesn't mean it becomes yours!
I think the other possibilities mentioned for Monroe's production company at that time were Daisy Miller and Leo Tolstoy's 1899 novel Resurrection...which had once been filmed in 1934 as We Live Again with Anna Sten.
Critic Pauline Kael once commented on those three possibilities, saying "Not one of those girls is American...and how could Monroe play anything but?"
It's weird that Monroe was striving for respectability and originality in her choice of roles, but then did The Prince and the Showgirl. It's an okay film, but not really a stretch for her!
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Really? Wow. I would have absolutely preferred Marilyn Monroe to Miss Kerr (even though Monroe could never affect a UK accent).
Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor... The only problem with Stanwyck and Joan Crawford is that they're much too old for the role (even Kerr was nearly 20 years too old for it).
But I'd take them all over Deborah Kerr, God bless her.
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Non-sequiturs are delicious.
I know you don't care for Kerr in the film.
Just because something can't be explained,doesn't mean it becomes yours!
Even though I agree with Yort that MM would ultimately not have been able to pull it off, the idea of Marilyn in this kind of role, playing this kind of woman really does set off the imagination - and for all the reasons you mention.
shareJennifer Jones was always good at characters with nervous, mysterious energy. Kerr though is quite excellent.
shareDeborah Kerr was much too old for the role; it's the movie's only flaw. Throughout, there are references to the character being supposedly an inexperienced, pretty young woman. It's supposed to be her first job, and she's compared to the previous governess, a young, attractive woman, the idea being that this is the kind of women the uncle hires. And her mental unraveling at the thought of the previous' occupants' sex life makes sense in the context of her being herself a repressed virgin with a psychologically immature understanding of sex.
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