Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
Tonight, let’s talk about Sneakers! (sort of)
Shortly after he died, I recorded a bunch of Sidney Poitier movies on Tivo but never watched most of them. My Tivo got to be about 95% full, so after the election I started catching up on some of the recordings that have long gone unwatched.
I recently watched In the Heat of the Night and The Defiant Ones, and last night I watched Sidney Poitier In His Own Words, which will be the lead-in for another Medium Cool post in the next few weeks.
Anyway, on Saturday I started watching Sneakers, a film I had wanted to see when it first came out, but I never did. Wow, I was flabbergasted as the names of the actors flashed across the screen in the introduction. I would never have guessed that someone would cast a movie with this motley collection of actors. Sidney Poitier and Robert Redford, sure. But adding Dan Ackroyd and River Phoenix and Ben Kingsley in the mix? Big surprise. And Mary McDonnell. That must have been a fun movie to film!
As I write this, I am only 10 or 15 minutes into the movie, and loving it.
Slight digression for a moment: I had watched a British show the night before, and I had the captions on for that. I hadn’t taken conscious note of the fact that they were still on. So I’m watching the first scene, trying to figure out what’s going on, as you do with a new movie, and I’m unconsciously reading the words on the screen. So here’s the dialogue:
Person 1: “What’d we just do?”
Person 2: “The Republican Party just made a generous donation to the Black Panthers.”
Person 1: “Farm Out.”
Person 2: “Right arm”
Wait, what? I guess the person responsible for captioning wasn’t familiar with “far out” and “right on” ??? Too funny.
Anyway, here’s my question to start us off in tonight’s Medium Cool:
Are all the best movies made with actors that only brilliant casting would put together?
So talk about that, talk about casting, talk about chemistry, talk about what makes a film, a play, or a show great.
Have fun!
Climate Solutions: Much Good News
Quaker in a Basement
Maybe. But in my day, those two phrases (as rendered in the captions) were frequently used parodies of hippie speak, usually employed ironically and dismissively to indicate a poser.
Melancholy Jaques
@Quaker in a Basement:
Same in my day. Maybe it was the same day?
I don’t recall all the details of Sneakers, but I remember that I liked it. Probably due for a rewatch.
Rugosa
@Quaker in a Basement:
Out of state!
Phylllis
I’ve been listening to Tim Matheson’s memoir, Damn Glad to Meet You. He talks about the casting of Animal House; apparently Chevy Chase really wanted the Otter role, but ended up doing Foul Play instead. Talk about a different movie with Chase in the role.
Almost Retired
I feel like I always answer “Casablanca” to these movie threads, but the casting backstory is almost as good of a story as the movie’s plot itself.
German Jewish refugees playing Nazis, only two Americans in the cast (Bogart and the girl in the gambling scene who was a relative of a studio exec.). And in 1942 the outcome of the war was still in doubt. Imagine what that set must have been like?
Fun fact, some long forgotten French actress was tentatively cast as Ilsa but demanded too much money. So they told her they could get a certain Swedish actress for half the price. And it’s an urban legend that Ronald Reagan was considered for the Rick role. Hal Wallis always insisted on Bogart.
My best friend works for one of the legacy studios so I pick up a lot of useless movie trivia by proximity.
prostratedragon
@Quaker in a Basement: By the time Sneakers was made, they would have been considered ironic, especially under the circumstances.
prostratedragon
@Rugosa: 😆
NeenerNeener
@Phylllis: And TIL that Tim Matheson was the voice of Jonny Quest.
eclare
Whenever I catch Primal Fear I’m reminded of the amazing cast: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton, John Mahoney, Alfre Woodard, Frances McDormand, Andre Braugher, Maura Tierney. Good movie with some great performances.
lollipopguild
The Sting, Newman, Redford and one of the best group of supporting actors to be in a movie.
prostratedragon
@Almost Retired:
Well in your defense, that was a great ensemble cast. I kind of feel the same about All About Eve. Among the veterans, George Sanders was never more brilliantly cast, and then at the other stage of careers, there was Marilyn Monroe.
Chris
Sneakers is one of these movies I always think would never get made today… simply on account of the closing lines where it’s revealed that the main character has gone back to his old ways and is robbing the Republican Party to finance liberal causes. These days, it’d be considered horrible to single out the GOP that way.
BretH
Sneakers is indeed a fun movie. Has a good balance between serious and silly. Definitely a popcorn movie for us.
WaterGirl
@Quaker in a Basement: Okay, now I’m gong to have to rewatch that part and see what they really said. I’ll be right back
edit: Oh my gosh, you are right! I closed my eyes and turned the volume way up listened.
edit 2: I must be younger than you guys. :-)
Adam
Aside from it being a great Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon play, it was just a thoroughly fun movie. Like not going to win any Oscars, but every bit of it was enjoyable
Phylllis
@NeenerNeener: And Jace on Space Ghost!
Chris
Chemistry:
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the best of the Indy movies largely because Sean Connery and Harrison Ford have fantastic chemistry together. And despite being mainly known for being action stars, pretty great comedic timing together.
kalakal
An unusual film for casting is The Long Riders which had 4 sets of actor brothers playing 4 sets of real life brothers. It’s about the James-Younger Gang and has 3 Carradines, 2 Keachs, 2 Guests, and 2 Quaids as the gang
Almost Retired
@prostratedragon: Excellent example of a magical ensemble cast. Also with Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter and quite a few old silent movie actors who were probably already mostly forgotten by 1950.
NeenerNeener
Ghost Story had a fabulous cast for “The Chowder Society”: John Houseman, Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Unfortunately the script was weak and not scary at all. So a great cast doesn’t always make a good movie. I wish somebody would take another run at that story and really do it justice, because that book scared the crap out of me when it first came out.
BellaPea
I know a lot of people like to diss it, but Love Actually had a terrific case. Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Allan Richardson, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson–really talented group, and the story rounded everyone up at the end. Plus the kid that ended up on Games of Thrones!
zhena gogolia
@BellaPea: I won’t diss it! It’s a fantastic cast.
ETA: I’ll add that the much-maligned Shakespeare in Love has a fantastic cast as well.
zhena gogolia
Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech are a magical combo that I wouldn’t have foreseen.
Chris
Brilliant casting:
The Rock. Michael Bay only ever made one good movie in his life, and it’s that one. Nick Cage, Sean Connery, Ed Harris, and John Spencer elevate what could have been a by the numbers action movie into something legitimately great.
Rachel Bakes
@Almost Retired: Are you familiar with the book, “Round Up The Usual Suspects: the Making of Casablanca “? Full of these anecdotes and lots more.
NetheadJay
Sneakers is genuinely one of my favorite movies, though it’s been a while since I last rewatched it. And yeah, fantastic cast. Hope you enjoy it. And since you mentioned In the Heat of the Night, I rewatched that recently too and man that is still one of the greatest movies ever in my book.
Rachel Bakes
Love Sneakers and how the whole cast works together. James Earl Jones is on that amazing cast list as well. We almost rewatched it after he passed but life got in the way.
High Society is another fun cast: Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong (and band), Celeste Holme, Grace Kelly
kalakal
Everybody ( with good reason) always praises Alec Guinness for playing 8 characters in Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Always seems unfair to me on Dennis Price who was fantastic as the villain yet is never mentioned when anyone talks about the film
narya
Bull Durham. Yes, I know.
agree on Shakespeare in Love. Eight Men Out and Baby, It’s You in the John Sayles category.
WaterGirl
River Phoenix was in both of the Sidney Poitier movies I watched this weekend. Guessing that Sidney Poitier must have thought he was a great guy or great talent, or possibly both, for him to have been in Sneakers, too.
I vaguely remember that he died very young – a quick google says he was just 23, and he already had a lot of films under his belt. But everything was quite vague about his passing – that makes me think he must have been really well thought of – and googling how did he die seems ghoulish.
Sad that such a young talent was gone so young. Maybe someone here can fill me in? Drugs? Fluke accident?
(Answered, thank you!)
JoyceH
I remember Sneakers and they indeed said “farm out” and “right arm”.
Matt McIrvin
How about when it doesn’t work? On paper, it seemed like the cast of The Avengers (not that The Avengers, but the one that purported to be the feature film about Steed and Mrs. Peel) could be dynamite–Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, a cameo by Patrick Macnee, Connery as the villain–but somehow they failed to have any chemistry at all. I guess Fiennes was really the wrong choice for Steed, no twinkle in his eye.
Almost Retired
@Rachel Bakes: I was not. Thank you! Heading over to the LA library website right now to see if it’s available so I can avoid giving any trade to Bezos. I get a lot of great book suggestions from these Medium Cool threads.
ETA. ..reserved a copy at the Culver City branch. Thanks again!
WaterGirl
@Rachel Bakes:
Amazingly, James Earl Jones was not in the credits shown at the beginning of the film.
I recently watched Field of Dreams again (which I love). I love James Earl Jones, of course. So many great actors in that movie.
Yutsano
I’m going for The Princess Bride here. The casting was spot on especially Billy Crystal and Carol Kane. They all meshed with each other so perfectly that I can’t think of any other actors that could replace that cast.
WaterGirl
@NetheadJay: In the 30-minute “In His Own Words” show that I referenced up top, Sidney Poitier again tells the story of the slap in that movie.
He insisted that the studio commit to never showing him being slapped in the greenhouse without also showing him slapping the white guy back. He said that doing so would be an insult to every black man (person?) in America.
Sidney Poitier was a great man who absolutely fulfilled his role as trailblazer better / more than anyone I could imagine.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Drugs.
Chris
Another Ford one;
The Fugitive, which was on TV all the time when I was growing up in the 2000s. Nobody my age even knew that it was a remake of a 1960s TV show. It was just a great opportunity to see Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones bounce off of each other for two hours.
eclare
@WaterGirl:
IIRC drug OD outside a club in Hollywood.
zhena gogolia
Notorious — everyone is perfect, from Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman & Claude Rains to Louis Calhern and the redoubtable Madame Konstantin.
Chris
Finally, one that didn’t happen:
The original Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy miniseries. It’s absolutely criminal, and not just from a sci-fi nerd POV, to cast Alec Guiness and Patrick Stewart as archenemies and never have them exchange a single word. (That’s 100% faithful to the book, of course, but come on!)
zhena gogolia
@eclare: Called, I believe, the Viper Room.
Who needs google?
NeenerNeener
@WaterGirl: If I remember correctly he overdosed and dropped dead outside of a nightclub.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: @NeenerNeener: @eclare: @Almost Retired:
Thank you all. Such a loss. So many talented people lost.
Almost Retired
@WaterGirl: He died of a drug overdose at a Sunset Strip Club (The Viper Room) that was owned partly by Johnny Depp. For several years afterwards those stupid double-decker Hollywood tour buses would stop across the street for photos.
WaterGirl
@Almost Retired: Ugh.
lowtechcyclist
@prostratedragon:
I’d never heard of the movie – when I saw the title, I thought this thread was going to be about footwear!
funlady75
I loved Helen Mirren in the Prime Suspect series as the best female British detective. great casting.
espierce
@WaterGirl:
”I was older then and I’m younger than that now”
TBone
I just watched Bufferfield 8 again and the casting of Eddie Fisher in his supporting role still surprises me, despite his thing with Liz. It’s the only thing I’ve ever seen him do that shows any real talent, IMO. I can almost see what Debbie & Liz must have seen in him. Liz said of this film:
I guess it was that anger that helped her win the Oscar! (My childhood telephone exchange was Sunset 9.)
YY_Sima Qian
Ha! I was obsessed with Sneakers for a spell, way back in high school. What a fun movie!
persistentillusion
@Chris:
Chris – we had just moved from Chicago in 1993. When I got homesick, I watched The Fugitive.
lowtechcyclist
@espierce:
Dylan, “My Back Pages”
zhena gogolia
@TBone: I tried to watch it once, got about 15 minutes into it. I think Liz was right about this one!
Chris
@persistentillusion:
“If they can turn the river green for Saint Patrick’s Day, why can’t they turn it blue the other 364 days of the year?”
Spanish Moss
Much Ado About Nothing – Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Robert Sean Leonard, Kate Beckinsale, Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, and more. We have watched that movie so many times!
TBone
Nobody ever mentions Rod Steiger, but he was so great in everything! Dr. Zhivago, Heat of the Night, The Longest Day, Fistful of Dynamite…
zhena gogolia
@Spanish Moss: It’s the only movie I ever saw on a plane that held my attention. Keanu is dreamy in that one!
Tim in SF
Sneakers filmed a scene in a San Francisco courtyard of the old Folgers building where I ate my lunch every day. It’s a brick archway with the Bay Bridge in the far background and the famous Fireboat in the near background. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it on a rewatch. It’s such a nondescript little spot. Crazy to see it pop up like that.
Tim in SF
The Big Lebowski has, I think, the most amazing cast. Almost everyone in it went on to do big things.
NetheadJay
@WaterGirl: I made a note to track that title down (“In His Own Words”).
I think I’ve read that story about Poitier and that scene in an article about him. Great man indeed.
Chris
@Tim in SF:
You just reminded me of True Grit, one of my favorite Westerns, another one of Jeff Bridges’ greats.
(Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon were already great, but the movie also launched Hailee Steinfeld).
TBone
@zhena gogolia: she won her first Oscar for it, and she really deserved it. Hard to digest, sometimes melodramatic subject matter, but she aced it.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Sneakers is a great little movie! And another vote for The Princess Bride.
Two of my all-time favorite old movies with fabulous casts (besides Casablanca, Notorious, and All About Eve) are Some Like It Hot (Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, Joe E. Brown, and George Raft), and Red River (John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, Noah Beery Jr., Harry Carey Sr, Harry Carey Jr, John Ireland, and Chief Yowlachie). Personal note: Red River is where my nym comes from.
WaterGirl
@espierce: love that song, the version sung at his birthday bash.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: That’s the one!
Melancholy Jaques
It’s a common thing to say, but The Wire was perfectly cast.
TBone
Movie with an amazing cast:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Hollywood
kalakal
A couple of the greatest hero-villain pairings
Cary Grant & James Mason in North by Northwest. The 2 smoothest men in cinema
Errol Flynn & Basil Rathbone in The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood – the greatest swashbucklers ever
NotMax
@TBone
Also too playing against type in The Loved One.
;)
Tehanu
My Favorite Year (Peter O’Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Bill Macy, Joe Bologna, Adolph Green, Lainie Kazan, Jessica Harper, Selma Diamond, Anne De Salvo, Cameron Mitchell, Gloria Stuart, Lou Jacobi)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp)
L.A. Confidential (Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell, Danny De Vito, Simon Baker, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin)
The Death of Stalin (Jason Isaacs, Steve Buscemi, Michael Palin, Jeffrey Tambor, Simon Russell Beale)
Spanish Moss
Twelve Angry Men – Henry Fonda, Lee J Cobb, Martin Balsam, Jack Klugman, John Fiedler, Jack Warden, E.G. Marshall, … The whole movie takes place in a sweltering jury room and it is absolutely spellbinding.
p.a.
Someone already mentioned Eight Men Out, and one actor there appears in another well-cast film, Guardians of the Galaxy. Although can you really praise a movie when the best character is CGI? (Exception, Andy Serkis/Gollum)
raven
Bad Sneakers
Yes, I’m going insane
And I’m laughing at the frozen rain
Well, I’m so alone
Honey, when they gonna send me home?
Melancholy Jaques
@Spanish Moss:
One of my favorites. Let’s not forget Michael Keaton’s Dogberry. Some people don’t like his performance in that role, but I loved it.
Hard to believe it was the first English language film of that play. How many variations of the Beatrice & Benedick rom-com relationship have we seen in other films?
kalakal
Cool Hand Luke – Paul Newman, George Kennedy ably assisted by (amongst others) Harry Dean Stanton, Joe Dan Baker, Dennis Hopper. and Anthony Zerbe.
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest everybody in it was fantastic espescially Louise Fletcher and Brad Dourif. ( who should have won an Oscar
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Tehanu: I like the way you think!
Rachel Bakes
Met Sidney Poitier back in 2002(ish?). He was a charming and interested man who listened well. I came home from
work that night and told my 31 yo husband that if I ever left him it would be for. 70-something Bahamian man. Wisely, husband heard the story and conceded gracefully.
Shana
I am enormously fond of Diner which I think is beautifully cast. Paul Reiser, Steve Guttenberg, Tim Daly, Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Kevin Bacon, etc. Written and directed by Barry Levinson. Maybe because it was about guys in their early 20s, when I was in my early 20s (although not a guy) that it resonated with me so much.
Rachel Bakes
Met Sidney Poitier back in 2002(ish?). He was a charming and interested man who listened well. I came home from
work that night and told my 31 yo husband that if I ever left him it would be for. 70-something Bahamian man. Wisely, husband heard the story and conceded gracefully.
TBone
@NotMax: yes!
Rachel Bakes
@Almost Retired: I read it years ago and then received it for Christmas last year. Just started my reread. Author did the same thing work on a book about The Wizard of Oz.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
The Pride and Prejudice remake with Keira Knightly (2005) has a perfect cast, too.
TBone
@raven: love it
zhena gogolia
@Tehanu: I thought I was going to hate The Death of Stalin, but I loved it, especially Buscemi!
zhena gogolia
@Melancholy Jaques: I wouldn’t think this would be your favorite Shakespeare play, Jaques!
NotMax
One vote for the granddaddy of “Look at that cast!” films: Grand Hotel.
kalakal
@TBone: He and Christopher Plummer made for an excellent Napoleon & Wellington in Waterloo
Shana
@narya: I have always thought that Return of the Secaucus Seven was a better movie than The Big Chill.
TBone
@NotMax: great one!
Just look at that parking lot
Sometimes actors get cast in roles for certain characters and you wonder who the hell thought of this would work.
Think Ed Harris as an Hell’s Kitchen Irish gangster in State of Grace, Martin Balsam playing a Mexican stagecoach driver in Hombre and Kurt Douglas portraying a French WW1 army colonel in Paths of Glory.
Strangely, it works in all three examples and it’s because none of them try to play into the ethnicity of the characters. Because they’re all such good actors , you don’t even notice (or care)how mismatched they are to their roles.
TBone
@kalakal: he’s such a great actor, almost a chameleon like Paul Muni.
Jud, in the 1955 film of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!”
latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jul-10-me-steiger10-story.html
Tehanu
Yes, indeed, I love him in the part!
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Thanks! And I agree with you about the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice — at least, about the casting; I enjoyed the movie, but I kept muttering to myself, “Where are their hats?!”
@zhena gogolia: Buscemi’s great, but for my money, Jason Isaacs steals the whole movie.
MagdaInBlack
@Shana: I really like “Diner” too, but I’ve been told I’m “weird” for that.
It’s when I started liking Mickey Rourke.
Spanish Moss
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Agreed, I love that version of the movie. And such gorgeous music and scenery! Another movie our family has watched many times.
Mai Naem mobile ¹
I loved Sneakers. Kind of a really good movie version of Leverage. I can’t imagine Beetlejuice with other actors. The actors were all cast so well for their roles. Also A Fish Called Wanda, Trading Places and The Help.
kalakal
The Longest Day seems to have had just about every actor active at the time in it. Perhaps the oddest role was that of Richard Todd who’d actually taken part in the parachute assault on Pegasus Bridge playing his immediate boss Major Howard who commanded the operation while another actor got to play Captain Todd.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Tehanu: I read that the director or producer didn’t want to put bonnets on Elizabeth because she was the star (or some other stupid reason). It’s really striking in a couple of scenes in town when everyone else in her family (mother and sisters) have on bonnets, and Keira does not. The historical advisor reportedly put her foot down about the scene in church because there was no way Lizzie would have been in church without a bonnet.
I love the way Matthew Macfayden plays Darcy on the spectrum – I think it really works.
Mr. Bemused Senior
The scene between Smiley (Alec Guinness) and Karla (Patrick Stewart) is classic. As you pointed out, it’s not a dialogue, only Smiley speaks. The acting is magnificent and faithful to the story.
At the very end of Smiley’s People they meet again and this time neither character speaks, but the action speaks volumes.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@kalakal: I had a major crush on Richard Todd when I was in Junior HS, and loved The Dam Busters. My boyfriend (and now husband) was astonished to discover a girl who loved that movie.
zhena gogolia
Sorry, but Colin Firth IS Darcy.
zhena gogolia
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Have you seen The Hasty Heart? 💜
narya
@Shana: OMG, we are spirit siblings. Love Secaucus Seven, loathe Big chill, in part because I saw the former first, but also BC is…trite?…in a way that only Lawrence Kasdan can be.
Shana
@MagdaInBlack: He got weird, but was great in Diner.
narya
@zhena gogolia: no need to be sorry when you are absolutely correct.
Mr. Bemused Senior
How about It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World? Amazing cast and a hoot.
sab
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Wow. I wouldn’t have gone into an Anglican church in 1970 without a hat.
lowtechcyclist
@Shana:
Hell yeah! If you’re gonna see one, see the original!
I and the friends I went to see The Big Chill with when it first came out, we all thought it was terrible, and were surprised as hell that so many people liked it.
Shana
@narya: Absolutely. The dialog seems so real in Secaucus Seven, as if Sayles was just filming these friends as they had a weekend reunion. So much more realistic characters. I watched it again a few years ago and it still holds up.
Your complaint about Kasden echoes my frequent complaint about Spielberg. He’s frequently overrated.
narya
@Shana: if you haven’t read Sayles’s fiction, I highly recommend it. The Anarchist’s Convention is a great collection, and his ear for dialogue is on full display.
piratedan
Matewan and Shawshank Redemption
Doug R
Tombstone with Kurt Russell, Sam Elliot, Bill Paxton, Val Kilmer (where’s his Oscar?), Dana Delany, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Stephen Lang, Jason Priestley, Thomas Haden Church, Michael Rooker and Charlton Heston in a brief role.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@narya:
Selected Shorts did a reading by Jerry Stiller of At the Anarchist’s Convention. It’s great.
“Mind the shuttles!”
kalakal
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
He was a huge star in the 50’s and just seemed to vanish in the 60’s. He did quite a bit of TV and radio work in the UK but it was small scale stuff. I loved The Dambusters.
ThresherK
A Civil Action, 1999. The two leads are Robert Duvall and John Travolta.
The murderer’s row supporting cast: William H. Macy, Tony Shalhoub, John Lithgow, Kathleen Quinlan, Peter Jacobson, James Gandolfini, Stephen Fry, Dan Hedaya, Sidney Pollack, and more.
Kathy Bates, Harry Dean Stanton, and (unconfirmed) Edward Herrman are not even credited.
narya
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I must have tracked that down, because I can hear him in my head (speaking of can’t-imagine-anyone-else-in-the-role).
BlueGuitarist
@narya:
Unfortunately Jerry Stiller’s brilliant reading of the Anarchists Convention seems to have disappeared from YouTube.
eta Mr. Bemused Senior there first.
BlueGuitarist
@raven:
Thanks!
Love your taste in music, Steely Dan, and the movie Sneakers.
TheflipPsyd
I’ve always loved It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World — the cameos and laughs are just over the top spectacular.
The other movie that I think has unexpectedly great chemistry with the cast is Trading Places. Eddie Murphy was a kid when that movie was made and held his own with Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche.
TBone
Another great cast classic. One of my favorite funny scenes with Marie Dressler and Jean Harlow at the end.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_at_Eight_(1933_film)
m.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNQqwFK-OM
Sister Golden Bear
@Quaker in a Basement: When the “safe for TV” version of Repo Man was made, director Alex Cox hated having to use euphemisms, so he deliberately made them ridiculous, e.g. “melon farmer.”
Given the satiric aspects of the movie, it actually worked pretty work
Won’t say it’s a brilliant movie but the casting of a number of prominent figures from LA’s punk scene (sometimes uncredited) was inspired. Plus a very young Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton and Tracey Walters.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Doug R: agree about tombstone. came here to say that.
lemme add:
silverado- scott glenn, kevin kline, john cleese, kevin costner, danny glover, brian dennehy, jeff goldblum, linda hunt, jeff fahey and patricia arquette.
miller’s crossing- gabriel byrne, albert finney, marcia gay harden, steve buscemi, j.e. freeman, john tuturro and john polito.
the untouchables- robert deniro, kevin costner, sean connery, andy garcia, charles martin smith and billy drago
eta- fuck yeah, sneakers is awesome.
stinger
Enchanted April: Miranda Richardson, Alfred Molina, Polly Walker, Michael Kitchen, Jim Broadbent, Josie Lawrence, and the wonderful Joan Plowright. Say, it’s about the time of year to re-watch it!
stinger
@Melancholy Jaques: The Beeb did a TV version in 1984 of Much Ado, starring Cheri Lunghi, Robert Lindsay, and Vernon Dobtcheff as Don John. I have it as part of a DVD set; don’t know if it’s streaming anywhere.
West of the Rockies
Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but While You Were Sleeping had an excellent cast.
Oh, and Class Action had a great cast, including Hackman and Fishburne and Mastrantonio.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
As already mentioned, supporting cast of ‘The Sting’ is arguably the best.
Not mentioned, Peter’s Friends.
Not mentioned, even better, Kelly’s Heroes.
RevRick
@Spanish Moss: Definitely Twelve Angry Men
RevRick
@TheflipPsyd: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is the one movie I saw multiple times on the big screen.
stinger
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Yes!
kalakal
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Eastwood, Wallach, and van Cleef were perfect as the titular characters
Anyway
Reminds me — Room with a view with Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina Simon Calloway etc
Tim in SF
Interesting how Dan Aykroyd portrayed a conspiracy-theory nutcase in Sneakers and then slowly turned into one in real life over the next decade.
(or maybe he was already one by then?)
Anyway
Reminds me — I read the Claudia Gray books that Anne Laurie mentioned — starring Jonathan Darcy. They were a fun read over the holidays.
Matt McIrvin
@Tim in SF: I think Aykroyd always did have a lot of strange beliefs. His contributions to the script of Ghostbusters were based in part on his actual interest in the paranormal.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Trivia:
Aykroyd, it is said by those who ought to know, has webbed feet.
Splitting Image
Young Frankenstein had a dream cast, and even the minor characters, like Kenneth Mars and Gene Hackman, get their licks in.
Other people have mentioned 12 Angry Men and The Princess Bride. I agree with both. Terrific casting right down the line, and no fat to be trimmed. It’s hard to pick a stand-out performance from either movie because just about everybody gets a good scene at some point.
I don’t think anyone mentioned Dr. Strangelove. As much as Peter Sellers steals the show, the other actors, especially Sterling Hayden, George C. Scott, and Slim Pickens, are also perfectly cast.
At the other extreme, there are a few movies that began with a dream cast, but turned into a bloated mess. The 1967 Casino Royale is one. It does have its good points, but a film with David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, Ursula Andress, and Orson Welles (and some other top names) ought to be way better than it actually was.
I just re-watched the 1995 Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Aside from the two leads, who were excellent, the series also had great performances by David Bamber, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Alison Steadman, Benjamin Whitlow, Anna Chancellor, and Julia Sawalha.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: I remember The Big Chill as a movie distinctly targeted to a demographic that clearly did not include me. (My parents really liked it.)
But, then again, the movies that were blatantly targeted at my demographic mostly didn’t interest me either.
prostratedragon
@NotMax:
Similarly, Dinner at Eight.
Matt McIrvin
And, by the way, Ghostbusters is itself a movie with a dream cast, even though it wasn’t the cast that was originally imagined. The movie hasn’t necessarily aged perfectly (certain aspects of it seem very Reagan-era), but it largely still works and it’s in part because that whole cast is brilliant comic actors giving 110%.
The other thing about it is that the script has the bones of an engrossing light fantasy-horror adventure even if you ignore the jokes. The much-maligned 2016 Ghostbusters had a cast as funny as the original, and a lot of laughs, but I think the one thing it was missing was that structure of a good story underneath the comedy. It kind of falls apart in the last act.
Splitting Image
I don’t think anybody mentioned Airplane! It’s not a movie that comes to mind as a triumph of casting, since it is almost entirely a collection of sight gags and non sequitors, but a lot of the humour works because the cast (Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, and Leslie Nielsen) were almost entirely known for playing sober men of purpose and they all become more and more ridiculous as the situation spirals out of control.
prostratedragon
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Hey, that’s a good movie! Admittedly, I was way no longer a girl when I saw it, but young me might have liked it, too.
NotMax
@Splitting Image
Arguably, at the pinnacle of that peak was Skidoo.
Matt McIrvin
@Splitting Image: Yes! It’s hard to remember now that Leslie Nielsen wasn’t known as a comedy guy at the time. He’d been the stalwart leading man in Forbidden Planet! Though, actually, in hindsight there’s a subtle comic element to his performance even there.
Matt McIrvin
…Raising Arizona. Nicolas Cage, giving one of his early “frazzled loser” performances, and Holly Hunter are just amazing together, and the rest of the cast is great too. I remember noticing that John Goodman was in all the good movies around this time.
Actually, the Coens do this a lot since they have a great pool of actors they keep drawing from. Fargo, my God. Immortal performances from Frances McDormand and William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi.
NotMax
If we’re talking great casts who play well together, gotta toss in Network and also Tom Jones.
On TV, would go with Wonderfalls</em. A cast who truly come across as a well-oiled ensemble. Same might be said of Car 54, Where Are You? and Dobie Gillis.
Gloria DryGarden
@Matt McIrvin: Fargo knocked my socks off. I don’t usually go for gruesome, but Frances Mcdormand was such a great character actor in that. There were some cool Swedish American accents offered up with a wry sense of humor, too.
in general it’s deeper character acting that gets me. And characters who make sparks fly, are fun to watch, but I don’t know what makes the chemistry.
A few favorites are “like water for chocolate”and “the piano.” I saw both of these twice, which I don’t usually do. Often I’ll watch several movies starring a particular actor. But it’s not just the character acting that draws me in. It can be a character I like, or a story I relate to, or that is haunting, or real, or poignant. or interactions I find inspiring.
It would be easier to list 10 or 20 actors who I’d watch in anything. Andrew scott. Benedict cumberbatch, frances mcdomand emma Thompson,Ben Kingsley, Jeremy irons, Meryl Streep , Colin firth. Kristen Scott thomas, Scarlett Johansson. Vigo mortenson.
Lynn Dee
@Quaker in a Basement: Yes. Classic misstatements from the time.
Perhaps that’s what they actually said here? I haven’t seen it.
prostratedragon
@stinger:
Spealinhg of Alfred Molina, Boogie Nights. Burt Reynolds, William Macy, Juilanne Moore, Don Cheadle, Mark Wahlberg, Phillip S. Hoffman, Hesther Graham, Luis Guzmàn, John C. Reilley, …
NotMax
@prostratedragon
The dick that launched a thousand quips.
;)
prostratedragon
@NotMax:
🙄 What are we to do with him, ladies and gentlemen?
Matt McIrvin
The Heroic Trio. Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui and Maggie Cheung as a super-team!
lowtechcyclist
@Splitting Image:
And who can forget Barbara Billingsley, previously best known as June Cleaver, as the jive translator?
@Matt McIrvin:
As best as I could tell, it was targeted at Boomers, who were in their 20s and 30s at the time. I was 29 when it was released in 1983. It was still a piece of dreck.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: Late to the party (per usual), but I’ll take Shakespeare in Love over Love, Actually any day of the week and twice on Sundays, even tho’ the latter cast is a virtual who’s who of my favorite movie actors.
And speaking of movies that had a who’s who of brilliant actors in it – It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
DFH
@Quaker in a Basement:
Thank you for expressing it more eloquently than I could have.
The phrases were mildly derisive of ourselves and others, and not at all uncommon.
agorabum
@Miss Bianca: Shakespeare in Love is a good movie that gets unfairly attacked today because it won best picture instead of Saving Private Ryan. The Golden Globes figured out how to get around this by having a best picture – musical or comedy category.
Ray Ingles
Late to the party, but… I maintain that Ruthless People (Bette Midler, Danny Devito, Judge Rheinhold, Helen Slater, Bill Pullman, Anita Morris, etc.) is the most perfectly cast movie ever. Every single actor absolutely nails their part.