Prissy Ceorge Chakiris
and that West Side Story hair as a Mayan. hysterical.
shareI agree he is out of place in this movie, but doesnt do that bad of a job after all.
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MovieChat Forums > Kings of the Sun (1963) Discussion > Prissy Ceorge Chakiris
I think "prissy" is out of line.
Sure, you can make fun of the hair, but as a king - I would expect him to look "prettier" or more regal, etc - than his subjects. He was an aristocrat and gave just such a bearing.
I thought his performance was sufficiently masculine. We have seen, thru history, that not all heirs to the crown have been big bad dudes.
Also, I thought his fight scenes were pretty decent - no doubt aided by his West Side Story role.
This movie could have been an all-time classic if not for some ruthlessly absurd casting of some of the lead roles.
I'll give credit for George Chakiris putting in sufficiently masculine performance. The acting was fine all around, hats off.
But all the whiteskinned anglo lead characters strutting around just destroyed the entire mystique of the movie for me. The musical score didn't do it justice either, musically this film had no ethnic flair at all. Other than some hakney tomtoms in the Native American village which would have sounded more at home in a cowboy movie.
But, I can't help but be willing to put it in context of 1963 hollywood. In that respect it was a daring and unusual movie.
Amen about the casting - we wouldn't see such a mismatched bunch of actors again until Rapa Nui came out.
shareTotally agree about the music. I grew up (in the 60s) with Elmer Bernstein in my pantheon of movie composers. Now everything he did in that decade sounds alike, with the exception of his non-action-oriented scores like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.
It's all MAGNIFICENT SEVEN Lite. Jerry Goldsmith seems much more versatile in comparison.
As for the casting, Richard Basehart? Is it me or did he not have nipples. And Brad Dexter forever sucking in his bountiful gut was pretty hilarious. I guess Yul liked him enough as a poker buddy to have him string along as a gunslinger, a cossack and a Mayan warrior.
I can understand having Caucasians portraying Native Americans at that your but they didn't even try getting more ethnic looking actors with brown eyes.
shareYul Brynner was the only sensible casting choice IMO. His character at least has a degree of charisma and establishes some chemistry with Ixchel.
Many of the other cast just couldn't be taken seriously in their roles as Mayans...wigs and head pieces notwithstanding. I'm giggling again just thinking about them. (E.G. I always loved Richard Basehart as Admiral Nelson, but his take as the Mayan head priest was hilarious...and it wasn't meant to be!
I felt George Chakiris was hopelessly miscast as Balam and suffered in comparison to Brynner's Black Eagle who at least looked the part of an indian chief.