Ed Lauter

yeah they did change his character into perhaps more of a 'former high school football star and stud who is a balding failure' type (tho Corky does ask if Duke still looks like James Dean) ... i guess they kind of simplified that role probably thinking it would take more time to develop his character as they have already established four solid characters (Corky, Peggy, Fats, and Gangreen) and let the action swirl around them ...

but as you said you didn't think Peggy could work up a lust for the Duke we see but then this Duke is starting to really skid downhill from the sounds of it (he quit selling real estate and is not selling 'sundries' lol ... that's quite a step down on the sales career ladder and just in the general job sense as well) whereas when she 'fell in love/lust' with him, he was on top of the world and his whole demeanor would have been different ... we can see he has a pretty serious sh**ty attitude in the movie and i wouldn't think he'd have been in that kind of 'permanent bad mood' back when they started dating ...

also we can consider that he really was 'like James Dean' back then since these are his peers who are saying this about him and not 'objective adults' but 'kids' who are saying he's like James Dean ... and that could be as much about him acting 'cool' as his looks ... when we see Peggy's yearbook it's from 1959 so he would have had a crewcut if he was in sports (is it ever said if he was a football player? i can't recall distinctly off the top of my head if it said he was in the book or if it's mentioned in the movie or if i'm just mis-remembering that) and would have been wearing a letterman's jacket (because we can see this Duke likes the world to see exactly what he's accomplished in his life *wink*) ... we see Peggy was a cheerleader so it could be the 'classic' great athlete/head cheerleader kind of thing back then, homecoming king and queen, etc

and since he wouldn't have a DA (slicked back hair, etc, wasn't allowed by coaches back in '59) the references to him as 'looking like James Dean' might have just been shorthand for he's cool like James Dean ...

but if he wasn't the star athlete then we could lump him in with 'the hoods' or the 'motorheads' and he would have had a serious DA haircut and a leather jacket and with Peggy as the head cheerleader, her parents wouldn't have approved of that (travelling along that stereotype of the '50s nuclear family, etc) and that might have made him all the more 'like James Dean' to Peggy just to spite her parents ...

so there's one damn long kind of look at the 'looks like James Dean' mention lol ... i can really ramble once i get going lol ... but it's a good point you bring up ... still this is a perfect 10 for me as a movie ... scared me to death the first time i saw it and still gives me the willies lol


take care,
cormac


"One star in the sky
so I named it Otis Redding"
-- John Hiatt