MovieChat Forums > Fate Is the Hunter (1964) Discussion > Dorothy Malone's unbilled role???

Dorothy Malone's unbilled role???

posted 14 years ago by miriamwebster
10 replies | jump to latest

Anyone know real story why Dorothy Malone received no billing for her scene? Although there's a certain cachet in doing unbilled smaller roles in recent years, that was hardly the case in the mid-Sixties, when plugging even small star appearances was typical box-office movie bait: Jane Russell, for instance, received special guest star billing in same movie for basically doing nothing but singing a song. (Exceptions include blink-and-you-miss-them gag appearances by, say, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in comedies--no sustained dramatic vignettes with Oscar-winning performers come to mind.)

And if Dorothy Malone (then enjoying career revival in Peyton Place), was in the movie, why not advertise it? One imdb trivia post suggests she'd originally appeared in only one scene with Rod Taylor (which, if actually filmed, no longer even appears in movie) but preview audiences where so enthralled with her performance studio went back and shot lengthier scene with Glenn Ford; supposedly credits had already been filmed but, again, raises questions why she hadn't received billing for Taylor scene (if it ever existed) in first place. Also, the Malone/Ford scene (allegedly not in original script but added after preview) involves plot detail that is later reiterated by other characters later in film, suggesting that this scene was part of movie all along.

At this late date, probably impossible to know for sure what actually transpired but I'm open to any feasible alternative theories. Maybe something as simple as someone spilling coffee on credit sheet?

[–] billgbg 13 years ago

Well Malone looks fantastic, has a very sixties but timeless look, and I don't
like any of her other films, even anything from Beach Party.

I just saw Fate is the Hunter but didn't see any scenes with her and Rod Taylor together, only her with Glenn Ford.

The movie is on You Tube, but saw it as an eight year old for the first time. It shouldn't be shown to kids that young. I really like it as an adult though.

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

As to the OP's question, having major stars do an unbilled cameo was very definitely and frequently done in the 60s, 50s, 40s and before. As was usually the case with such appearances, having DM play this small but memorable part was intended to add a bit of surprise and interest to the film. The unexpected appearance of an Oscar-winning actress gave the movie a little extra buzz, and with the TV series Peyton Place just coming on the air from Fox, a little subliminal advertising never hurt.

Until the 70s -- and especially from the 40s through the 60s -- most Hollywood films omitted many, even most, of a film's actors from the credits. Fate is no different, but Miss Malone falls into this "extra added attraction" category. Another fairly well-known actor with a crucial role in this film whose name is not in the cast is John Hubbard, who'd been in movies for 25 years in supporting parts and a few B-movie leads. He played the co-pilot on the simulated flight in the climactic scene. I think his name was also deliberately omitted to give audiences yet another (if less well known) cameo by a recognizable star.

One unbilled character actor is Stanley Adams, who played the fat bartender. While his being unnamed isn't in the same category as Malone or Hubbard, Adams was pretty well known at this time and should have been listed in the cast. He had just appeared as a Mexican laborer in Fate director Ralph Nelson's previous film, Lilies of the Field, which is probably how he was given this small part. He was also the silent Nassau County detective (no dialogue whatsoever) with Ed Binns in Hitchcock's North by Northwest -- the guys who accompany Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), his mother and lawyer back to the mansion where he'd been forcibly intoxicated the night before. Adams's most famous TV role was as Cyrano Jones, the gabby trader who brings tribbles aboard the space station in the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles". He died a suicide in 1977.

As for the second poster's comments, of course whether you like a film or not is purely a matter of individual taste. But to say you don't like any of Dorothy Malone's other films, "even anything from Beach Party", is pretty weird. Ignoring Miss Malone's Academy-Award-winning role in Written on the Wind, and some of her other good films, and remarking only on her appearance in one of her lesser movies, Beach Party, seems kind of silly. Beach Party is a harmless little movie but it was hardly a major film in any of its actors' careers.

[–] billgbg 13 years ago

Thanks for the informative response. My comment about not liking her is just my personal opinion. I'm nobody of importance, just an anonymous person expressing stuff online.

I like "Fate is the Hunter" for many reasons, and she is good as the fickle, sexy socialite. I never saw her in many other things from the fifties, because mainly I was born in the fifties, so missed that period.

I didn't realize that mainstream Hollywood films didn't list all the actors...something I should now pay attention to.

Again, thanks for commenting.

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Thanks, billbg. My only point was that I thought citing something like Beach Party, an unimportant film, seemed odd given Malone's many superior movies.

I was born in the 50s, too, but I've still seen hundreds of films from that decade, even if only on TV and not in theaters. I grew up with them on television in the 60s. Luckily, even if you didn't live in an era, or were only a child in it, you can still watch films from such periods.

The business of mainstream Hollywood films not listing all the actors back then is so capricious and illogical that you wonder what was up. For example, often a studio would give screen credit to some minor starlet they were promoting, whose role in a film was negligible, while ignoring well-known actors with far bigger and more important parts. It's all pretty annoying. But deliberate, unbilled "star cameos" like DM's here were different.

[–] waldenpond88 8 years ago

The old Hollywood movies unfortunately only listed the first 15 to 20 actors and gave no complete cast lists like it has been done over the past 20+ years.

[–] waldenpond88 8 years ago

I was born in the fifties, too, and yet I managed to watch many DM movies on TCM since 2008. My all-time favorite however was her role as Constance MacKenzie in the "Peyton Place" TV series.
She also played Sharon Stone's mother in "Basic Instinct". Almost unrecognizable.

[–] mmcloughlin 9 years ago

RE hobnob53's reference to North by Northwest, Roger Thornhill was not married at the beginning of the film. It was his *mother* (Jessie Royce Landis) who went with him and his lawyer (Ed Platt), along with the others, to Lester Townsend's Long Island Home. It's not until the very end of the movie that Roger is married, to Eve Kendall (Eva-Marie Saint).

[–] hobnob53 9 years ago

You're absolutely right, mmcloughlin, and for the life of me I don't know how I made that dumb mistake and worse, didn't notice it. I just re-read that post while going through this thread and passed right over it again. Losing my mind I guess.

Anyway, thanks for the correction, and I'm going to amend that post right now. Good catch.

(Funny thing is just last night I was having a conversation about Jessie Royce Landis after seeing her in her final film role in Airport -- talk about another airplane disaster movie -- and spoke of her playing Cary's mother in NBN, as well as Grace Kelly's mother, and Cary's future mother-in-law, in Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief. So I really can't figure out that slip of four years ago.)

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gary-64659 8 years ago

Hope you're looking at this six years after your original post, Miriam. To get down to specifics, I'm only guessing, but explanation(s) below of Dorothy Malone's non-billing for the film would seem to fit.

From memory, "Peyton Place" would have premiered on network tv in September 1964 -- with Dorothy Malone as the series' one big star for the middle agers watching, at least by tv standards of a big star (and not counting Barbara Parkins, Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal being introduced as new stars for the youth audience). Then a few weeks later along comes this new movie Fate Is the Hunter -- a bit of a blockbuster, and the producers of "Peyton Place" have to find a way of disguising the fact that their new megastar is in a tiny film role swamped under Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, Rod Taylor, even Suzanne Pleshette and Jane Russell. So Dorothy is fourth banana in the female contingent -- potentially bringing her status down in the eyes of her tv audience -- a lot of the younger set not realising she was something of a movie star back in the mid Fifties. My guess is either the tv contract demanded that Dorothy be officially unseen (so not publicised) if the tv producers were a rival company to the movie company -- I haven't looked it up -- or even if it was the same company and she was working under the same contract for both the movie and the tv series the idea would be not to promote Dorothy as a tiny movie bit player. Those who knew her would assume it was just a cameo she did as a favor to someone, and those who didn't know her wouldn't care either way.

Sad to reflect that this was around the time Dorothy Malone started being taken advantage of her employers: see her reminiscences on this site under her page.