Ingrid Bergman Candidatte; Finally Interpreted: Betty Field,
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1941.
Ingrid Bergman Candidatte; Finally Interpreted: Lana Turner
(Both stars made the film, after swopping roles. Ingrid was booked as the good doctor's fiancee. She preferred the bad mister's whore. MGM agreed after rejecting Spencer Tracy's idea of both roles played by his nursemaid, Katharine Hepburn).
The Paradine Case, 1947
Ingrid Bergman Candidatte; Finally Interpreted: Alida Valli
(Greta Garbo said no. Bergman said no. So, Valli won new teeth, diet and lingo lessons and lost her Christian name in a below par David Selznick production that director Alfred Hitchcock was plainly never interested in.)
The Blue Veil, 1951.
Ingrid Bergman Candidatte; Finally Interpreted: Jane Wyman
(Both Greta Garbo and Bergman rejected the re-make of Gaby Morlay's Maternelle.)
Senso, 1953
Ingrid Bergman Candidatte; Finally Interpreted: Alida Valli
(Luchino Visconti's dream team was Bergman and Marlon Brando. "The Americans wouldn't have him," recalled scenarist Suso Cecchi d'Amico, "as he wasn't famous yet. They were pushing Fairley Granger. I don't remember why Bergman did not stay - perhaps another film. I never thought she was right for the part. Alida Valli was a logical choice to maintain an international balance: an Italian actress v an American actor." Truth is that the married Ingrid's "scandalous" lover was another Italian film-maker - Roberto Rossellini - and so very jealous and refused to let her work for anyone but himself.")Stazione Termini/Indiscretions of an American Wife 1954
Ingrid Bergman Candidatte; Finally Interpreted: Jennifer Jones
Spartacus, 1960.
Ingrid Bergman Candidatte; Finally Interpreted: Jean Simmons
(Lover, Varinia. Elsa Martinelli, Jeanne Moreau also backed off. As did Simmons until asked to replace the unsatisfactory Sabine Bethmann).
The Graduate, 1967.
Ingrid Bergman Candidatte; Finally Interpreted: Anne Bancroft,
(On producer Lawrence Turman's handwritten wish list of a dozen stars (Ingrid, Ava to Lana, Shelley) for Mrs Robinson. "I think Anne and Mike Nichols made a very critical decision," said Dustin Hoffman, "which was not to judge the character. It's Nichols's style - he walks that edge of really going as far as he can without falling over the cliff, into disbelief. It's not caricature. That's the highest compliment for satire.")
Murder on the Orient Express, 1973.
Ingrid Bergman Candidatte; Finally Interpreted: Wendy Hiller
(Director Sidney Lumet - a surprising choice for an Agatha Christie whodunnit - first asked Bergman to be Princess Dragonmiroff. She preferred the much shorter role of Greta Ohlsson, a rather crazy Swedish nanny (the operative word being Swedish). And she won an Oscar.)
Fanny och Alexander/Fanny and Alexander, 1981
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)