Linda or Helen

[ken123]

At TCM a member is suggesting Linda Darnell for the Helen Walker role in Nightmare Alley ! Moira ?

[JackFavell]

I don't usually like to play that game - what if so and so had played this role or that..... I guess I am just happy to have my movies, and it never occurs to me that I could somehow do it better than Hollywood did.

[moira finnie]

Well, Ken,
Gee, some people would like to recast every movie ever made, wouldn't they? I understand what JackFavell means, but since we've recently spent some time recasting Humphrey Bogart's role in Sabrina on this site, I suppose Nightmare Alley might seem a likely candidate for this treatment too.

I think that Linda Darnell did a better job than most of her contemporaries portraying both sacred and profane dames, but a Machiavellian psychiatrist with more kinks in her psyche than there are hairs on my head? I think that would have stretched credibility. I like Darnell enormously, but her alternately earthy and ethereal personas didn't seem to indicate a person who had formal education, though she could play characters who certainly knew their way around. Helen Walker could look as inviting as a bowl of home made ice cream, but there was definitely something more going on behind that cheshire cat smile, those bright eyes and that sardonic manner, making her an interesting woman whose femme fatale qualities were uniquely her own.

Jeez, next thing you're going to tell me that Tyrone Power's "Stan Carlisle" could have been played better by Dana Andrews! Hey, wait a minute....

[JackFavell]

Jeez, next thing you're going to tell me that Tyrone Power's "Stan Carlisle" could have been played better by Dana Andrews! Hey, wait a minute...

You are too funny....

Your post makes me realize I need to come down off of my high horse and have some fun recasting.....

[ChiO]

JackFavell wrote:

Your post makes me realize I need to come down off of my high horse and have some fun recasting.....

Noooooooo!!!!! Don't back down. What is on the screen is all that matters. We all know that every movie would be better if the leads were Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan, with an uncredited role for Timothy Carey, and direction by Orson Welles. So what's the point? NIGHTMARE ALLEY? Stanwyck, Ryan, Carey and Welles. LOVE ME TONIGHT? Stanwyck, Ryan, Carey and Welles. CLASH BY NIGHT? Stanwyck and.... Okay, wouldn't Carey instead of Douglas just have been perfection? Sorry, Fritz.

[moira finnie]

JackFavell wrote:

Your post makes me realize I need to come down off of my high horse and have some fun recasting.....

Noooooooo!!!!! Don't back down. What is on the screen is all that matters. We all know that every movie would be better if the leads were Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan, with an uncredited role for Timothy Carey, and direction by Orson Welles. So what's the point? NIGHTMARE ALLEY? Stanwyck, Ryan, Carey and Welles. LOVE ME TONIGHT? Stanwyck, Ryan, Carey and Welles. CLASH BY NIGHT? Stanwyck and.... Okay, wouldn't Carey instead of Douglas just have been perfection? Sorry, Fritz.

I'm shocked. No parts for Whit Bissell?

Maybe Wendell Carey would have been better casting than Paul Douglas in Clash By Night...but Tim Carey? No, no. Save him for Nightmare Alley where he might have been credible in the Ian Keith part as Pete Krumbein or Bruno (the creepy Mike Mazurki part)...

[ChiO]

I'm shocked. No parts for Whit Bissell?

I didn't mention the Whitster (or Joe Sawyer or Emile Meyer or John Doucette) because I thought they were already in every movie. Or, maybe it's just the ones I watch.

[knitwit45]

Don't forget wonderful Charles Lane.

[CineMaven]

Just chiming in from the peanut gallery (and taking a small break from editing my film project). I think "NIGHTMARE ALLEY" was perfectly cast: the cad, the drunk, the vet, the blowhard, the sweet girl next door...and Blonde Ice Queen: HELEN WALKER. She was like Angela Lansbury: beautiful, blonde, intelligent, repressed, colder than an iceberg and
more deadly.

What's to change?