MovieChat Forums > The Thin Man (1934) Discussion > Cesar Romero + Hollywood's casting stran...

Cesar Romero + Hollywood's casting strangeness

posted 16 years ago by ghbbrown
7 replies | jump to latest

I think it's hilarious that this hot Cuban should be cast as a gigolo named--Jorgenson! A note in the bio says the character was originally named "Rosewater" but there were censorship problems. Why? Would the name have seemed too effeminate? Or is it too similar to the dead Greenrose?

I see that Harold Huber later played a couple of Japanese characters, which makes as much sense as having Mickey Rooney do a very unfunny Japanese turn in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S.

Then we have Werner Oland--more of a Jorgenson than Romero--showing up as Charlie Chan.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Mythical Monkey 12 years ago

Actually in the novel, Jorgenson turns out to be Rosegreen -- just one of the multiple subplots and threads in the novel that the movie dispensed with.

[–] pjwoodall1 10 years ago

There's an unintentional joke with Romero's character being named Chris Jorgenson nobody seems to have noticed. In the early 50's a former GI named George Jorgenson went to Copenhagen for a sex change operation and came back a blonde name Christine Jorgenson.

[–] doowop14 10 years ago

Considering the fact that the movie was made a couple of decades before the Christine Jorgenson event, it's more ironic than a joke.

[–] doowop14 10 years ago

Actually, Romero was the American (New York) born son of an Italian immigrant father and Cuban immigrant mother. He played so many suave "Romantic Latin Lover" roles (he favored his mother, physically) that most people believed that his Latin accent was genuine. However, in real life, he had a New York accent that was coached into a generic American accent. His parents were well to do but lost everything in the crash of '29.

[–] Prismark10 9 years ago

Nice to see the old boy not caked in white and big red lips.

Only joking!

Its that man again!!