I was just watching John Sturges' "The Great Escape" which features McQueen, Coburn and Bronson of The Magnificent Seven, along with James Garner, and it occurred to me how perfect Garner would have been for the role of Harry Luck. No offense to Brad Dexter, but I think Garner would have been much more charismatic as the roguish, unpredictable Harry Luck.
shareMay be, but he was never in the mix.🐭
shareFrom reading these boards, there doesn't seem to be much love for Brad Dexter. Was he a relatively unknown before TMS? Btw, I agree about James Garner, it would've been a nice touch to add him to the cast.
shareHe would've been more charismatic for sure, but such an overload of stars may have felt distracting in the end. A less famous one fitted in well.
shareBut at the time, pretty much all of them except for Brynner and to a lesser extent, McQueen, were unknowns. Brynner was a big movie star, McQueen had a popular TV show, but Coburn, Bronson and Vaughn were just character actors. Bucholz may have been a teen idol in Germany, I don't know, and Dexter was just one of Frank Sinatra's buddies. Garner wasn't a big star until later in the 60s.
shareNo movie wouldn't have been better without James Garner in it.
shareJames Garner wore a cowboy hat better than anyone in movies. A superb actor.
shareI'm a Garner fan, and no doubt he would have been good. However, Dexter was perfect in the role and I don't think anybody could have topped him.
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