Did anyone think that the age difference between Doc and Lola was distracting? Shirley Booth was 15 years older that Burt Lancaster.
shareIi looks like they tried to make Lancaster look(and act) older,and it's especially odd since I felt lola was supposed to be the younger of the two.
shareI agree. Obviously they didn't have the innovations in makeup, etc., that we have now - but it's obvious that they tried to make Lancaster look a bit older. I think the characters were supposed to be in their early 40's or so - that's the impression I get. I do think that Doc was supposed to be a few years older than Lola.
English/History MA: Symbolism rules. "Loyaulte me lie...Richard III
I found it peculiar but not detrimental to enjoying the film.
However, after learning that Bogart wanted the part that Lancaster got, I had wished it had gone to him. I think Lancaster was very good, but Bogart would have been great and was just right for it.
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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)
It is initially distracting. Doc and Lola, I gather, are the same age, or he is a bit older. She refers to them dancing and dating in high school. I don't, in any case, think BL was a good choice. There isn't much chemistry between them. And no, I don't mean romantic/sexual chemistry--it's obvious they're past that. I just have difficulty seeing them as a couple, period, and the age difference exacerbates that.
shareIt WAS distracting. Shirley Booth looked at lease 15-20 yrs older than Burt Lancaster. I kept wondering if they were hs sweethearts, how she could have aged so much and he hadn't. Then how dowdy she looked as opposed to how handsome he was. They made an odd couple indeed to the point of being distracting IMO.
shareI agree. Having watched this for the first time in my nearly fifty years, I thought the athletic and impossibly handsome Mr. Lancaster to be terribly miscast for the role of the dowdy Ms. Booth's alcoholic husband. However fine a performance he gave, his casting was simply not credible. The picture suffers a good deal because of it, in my opinion. How much more successful artistically it would have been had they cast the more age appropriate and average looking Sidney Blackmer from the original stage production (there must be a story behind this). I recently saw him in one of the first episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1955 and he would certainly have added a entire new level of believability and emotional effectiveness to this production. As it is, Shirley Booth is left to carry much of the film on her own and this certainly diminishes its power. The otherwise excellent and imposing Mr. Lancaster's unlikely presence constantly reminds us that we are watching a somewhat glamorised Hollywood adaptation of a stage play. This must be one of the oddest pairings in film history.
shareOuch! you people are mean. Even if they did some aging on BL the fact is they were supposed to be a middle aged couple (of THAT time) that didn't have much connection. SB was supposed to be somewhat dowdy. I think they matched pretty well. You all need to take perspective. It was a contemporary movie of 1952. For women of that time (often not encouraged in worldly issues) their home, partner & family were supposed to be everything for their lives. In this movie, SB doesn't have any of it. And it shows. Her husband had been drinking for years, no kids, even her little dog has disappeared. You can see this loneliness in her life that she talks to the neighbor, invites in the postman for water, how she presents conversation so hubby will talk to her, trying to find something to do with herself. All she really has is him. Having the college kids around gives her a boost. Hubby meanwhile at least has his office to go to each day. He reads the newspaper, he has a couple of friends. I liked that by the end, he dried out and she seem to look a bit better.
shareIt didn't really distract me and I thought both actors were perfect in the movie. They kind of reminded me of George and Barbara Bush. Barbara looked much older than George when he was Vice President, but I think she was actually a year younger than he was.
"Getting old is not for sissies."
Bette Davis