Film roles you would like to have seen Kate play

[Judy]

Ooh. This is fun:

The Quiet Man, replacing Maureen O'Hara - had it been made in 1942. By the time it WAS made in 1952, she would have been too old for the part. But it's said that John Ford based Mary Kate on her anyway, so I guess she DID find her way into the movie, if only figuratively.

All About Eve (1950), replacing Bette Davis. I adore Davis and think this was one of her best roles (there are so many others to choose from), but I think Kate could have played the hell out of this. It would have been so different from Davis, but sensational.

Father of the Bride (1950), replacing Joan Bennett. She and Spencer Tracy would have made a great team. Pity they never worked together.....

...Oh, wait..... :-)

JS

[Judy]

Re KH in ALL ABOUT EVE. Kate was a big old movie star but she was really also "of the theatre." I see her looking like she did in ADAM'S RIB - you know, that sophisticated look (and also how she looked in AS YOU LIKE IT, sans the tights :-) )- and see her playing it as if Tracy Lord had gone into the theatre - more hearthfires and holocausts than b-tchy. Also, there was a sensual side to Margo Channing - who was clearly living with Bill Sampson - well, maybe on and off. Davis was wonderful here and I think KH could often surprise people with that side of her as well - as she did in THE PHILA STORY, WOMAN OF THE YEAR, SUMMERTIME and even in THE LION IN WINTER....And I certainly think she could have played the hell out of the private Margo - the neurotic actress who believes she is losing her appeal and being usurped.....Plus, nobody but nobody played drunk scenes like KH and I would have killed to have seen her play that party scene..."Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night..."

[karina]

I see what you're saying Judy, but I'm not sure. It's just that All About Eve was such a definitive BD role that I can't see anyone else doing it better. Kate would have taken it on probably very much as you describe, but it would have been a quite different rendering of the character. Nothing wrong with that in itself of course, but I think I'd prefer this particular film left as it was.

What about the all time favourite Gone with the Wind? Anyone agree with Kate herself that she was born to play Scarlett? Again, I'm not 100% sure about this myself.

I agree with Valles suggestion of His Girl Friday and it'd also have been interesting to watch Kate & Cary in a recasting of It Happened One Night

And in later life, she could have replaced Dame Peggy Ashcroft in A Passage to India - I'd like to have seen her do another David Lean film, albeit only a supporting role.

[Judy]

Hi,

I'm not suggesting the film would be better...Just that it would be interesting to see what KH would have done with it....

And I agree that this was Davis at her all-time best - which is saying a lot because she was so good so often (in my opinion, I think her perf. in THE LETTER gives Margo a run for her money).

But I'd almost say the same about HIS GIRL FRIDAY as you did about EVE...I think it the role fit Russell like a glove....but still wouldn't mind seeing Kate take a crack at it...

GONE WITH THE WIND is not a favorite movie of mine...wouldn't even make my list of top 10 - don't mean to offend anyone who loves it....I think Kate and Scarlett would not have been a match made in heaven. I think she thought it was the role for her because at that point in time it was the most talked about thing in Hollywood and she desperately needed a part - a high profile one - in a hit. I have heard her in an interview tell the story of how she told David that this would be just the thing to get her going again and that he could hire her for nothing. And she'd do it. Cause she needed the job. And then if he found someone else and then let Kate go, she said she would not have been able to withstand that. The quote from her was "I've been sujected to some pretty odd things in my career, but that would be too much even for me" - or something like that. So that's when she made him the offer to be sort of "on call." If it got to within days of shooting and he couldn't find anyone, Walter Plunkett could costume her immediately cause he knew her so well and she would go into the part. And then, of course, she said (on Cavett) that she was smart enough to know that Selznick wasn't stupid enough to have conducted this huge search for Scarlett to NOT find someone new....

KH was a pretty savvy woman.

[Judy]

Oops. I just reread your message, Karina - and I see that GWTW is a favorite of yours....Didn't mean to offend with my message....We have to disagree on SOME things, right? Else life would be too boring.

[alucino]

karina said:

What about the all time favourite Gone with the Wind? Anyone agree with Kate herself that she was born to play Scarlett? Again, I'm not 100% sure about this myself.

I have been wondering about this many times, whether I would want her in GWTW... The movie is one of my absolute favourite movies so in that way it would be great to have my fave actrees in my fave movie. Esp. since she was considered to get the role as Scarlett. But still, I'm not 100% sure about it either. But you can never know whether it would be a good match or not, since it never happened, so I like to think that she would be perfect for it

btw Judy, I didn't get offended at all.

[karina]

And Judy - neither did I. In fact if you look closely, you'll see I wrote THE all time favourite, not MY all time favourite.

I do like GWTW but it's not a film I like to watch too often - too long & truth to tell, I can't say I'm all that keen on Clark Gable. And for any CG fans amongst you -Judy's right, we have to disagree on some things!!

[alucino]

I do like GWTW but it's not a film I like to watch too often - too long & truth to tell, I can't say I'm all that keen on Clark Gable. And for any CG fans amongst you -Judy's right, we have to disagree on some things!!

Don't seem we have to disagree on that one tho, even if I'm a true GWTW fan. I've never really liked Clark Gable either. I would love GWTW with or without him (maybe even more without him;) ).

[karina]

I also think she'd have given a great performance in the title role of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - on condition the story was transported to New England though. It wouldn't have worked with the patchy Scottish accent she gave us in Little Minister

[Judy]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE....I think this is a terrific movie and one of the genre. Cukor did a brilliant DAVID COPPERFIELD, Wyler did a brilliant WUTHERING HEIGHTS and Leonard did a brilliant PRIDE AND PREJUDICE....

She looked beautiful with Olivier in 1975 and would have looked sensational with him in 1940....

Of course, had she worked with him in 1940, we would not have had one of her best lines to Dick Cavett, when he asked her in 1973:

Are you sorry you never worked with Olivier?

And she responded:

Well, neither of us is dead yet.....I speak for Larry as well as myself.

And, by the way, thank you, Mr. Cavett for possibly planting the seed that eventually became the gorgeous LOVE AMONG THE RUINS.

JS

[Judy]

Hi,

I have to say...I don't consider Oberon so much a weak link as I think the character of Cathy is....well....I just have never liked her....She annoys me....I think the movie is gorgeous, but I never liked the come to me/go from me trait about Cathy.

Whereas I LOVE the character of Elizabeth Bennet in P&P. I think it would have been more suited to Kate.

JS

[Richard]

Later in Kate's life... perhaps Sunset Boulevard replacing Gloria Swanson. Now don't get me wrong, Gloria is amazing and Sunset is one of my favorite films, but at some point during that movie I just pictured her in that role.

[Hepburner]

I personally would love to have seen her play Cruella DeVille in a non-kids film version of 101 Dalmatians.
Wouldn't she have been insane in that role?

It could have been a kind of gothic comedy.
It would have been great. This maniacal lunatic of a spinster kidnapping puppies...

hmm. It actually might not have come off that well as picture.
As a fleeting moments thought maybe, but not a whole picture.
I dunno. Anyone else agree?

[CrazyForKate]

I'd like to have seen a biopic of Elizabeth I.

As for actual films (let's ignore time for a moment),

A lot of Judi Dench characters (Mrs Henderson, Chocolat, Notes on a Scandal, Shipping News...funny, she also played Queen Elizabeth)

Rachel Weisz's character Tessa Quayle, The Constant Gardener

The Meryl Streep nun (Sister Aloysius?), Doubt (if she channeled some Mrs Venable)

Although I don't think she would have suited Crawford's character in Baby Jane, I would have loved to see her work with Davis at some point.


And as a Canadian I would have loved to see her portray Nell Shipman or Isobel Gunn. Also, I totally have a film adaptation of Clara Callan figured out.

Ooh, and Vicky in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Yes, I know Kate hated Woody Allen. No, I don't care.

[CrazyForKate]

Okay, I watched The English Patient, and remember speaking with someone about KH being perfect for Katharine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas), and whoever you are, you were SO right! I could have also seen her as Hanna, the Canadian nurse played by Juliette Binoche, although they would have had to make her English-Canadian. But both roles were superb...that movie was very "Old Hollywood" in some ways.