This message has been deleted.
-
-
key_grip — 17 years ago(August 24, 2008 09:27 PM)
All of this is ridiculous!!! Who cares about the size of her breasts??! Really?
Yes, she was 27 when the movie came out. She was 23 when she began rehearsing the play. She wasn't trying to fool anybody.
In the theatre, particularly in the 30s, 40s and 50s, before TV and TV stars, real live actors played on the stage and we were all able to suspend our disbelief and accept the reality of the play. That's what the theatre is about.
At that time Julie Harris was giving a performance that was considered new and boldmuch like the early performances of Brando and Dean and Kim Stanley.
I don't want to see some TV-fed phony, skinny 12-year old brat playing this partI'll just watch the WB if I want to see that kind of acting. It is highly doubtful that a 12 or 13 year old girl could give the role the fully realized performance it needs. It takes an older actor to have lived through those aching adolescent years to be able to do the part justice.
The film needs to be seen in context. This is called heightened reality. It's a filmed play. It's supposed to be theatrical.
If you watched this movie and think that the film makers were trying to trick you into thinking Julie Harris was actually 12, then you missed the point. If that's what you took away from the film then stick to Hannah Montana and all of those movies about fat, ugly, horny teenage boys. There is not a short supply of that crap out there. -
wtl471629 — 18 years ago(July 07, 2007 01:37 PM)
I agree with you in that when I first saw this movie years ago that she didn't look 12 at all. It is not to the credit of the Academy that MS Harris got an oscar nomination for it because she was very much too old for the part and they should have given it to a younger actress. Ms Harris is a great actress but this role just wasn't right for her in my opinion. I don't know how Natalie Wood would have done but she was about 12 when this movie was made. Ethel Waters was the one that made this movie and I felt she should have got the nomination.
-
novastar_6 — 18 years ago(July 28, 2007 09:03 PM)
The first time I saw her in the movie was last year, and I missed the first hour, didn't know who she or anybody was, but she struck me as a boy at first. Then when I realized she was a girl, I thought she looked 14 or 1512 that's pushing it a bit, but what can you expect? She had done the same role 3 years before at 24, and the director hired all the original players for the movie, just like they did with the play of Peter Pan. Mary Martin was 47 playing a boy, and she'd done it before at 42 and she did the part very well. Women who are gifted with good looks can often pull off younger roles very well.
-
artistathome — 18 years ago(February 28, 2008 03:11 PM)
For some reason which I cannot imagineeveryone accepted the idea of Julie Harris as Frankie being only 12, even tho she was almost 30 years old! In some ways it made the movie more strange and famous!
This is similar to Mary Martin playing Peter Pan on the tv version and she was 47 We accepted it even tho she looked and acted older than an actual boy.
The audience agrees to suspend belief I guess and accept these women in these two roles. I can't think of any more instances in which this happened. Not well-known roles anyway, because NO ONE would accept it today. I wonder why the producers of these two shows did this?
Nina -
glentom1 — 17 years ago(October 12, 2008 01:14 AM)
Just watched the movie early this morning. I had seen parts of it before, but this was the first time I watched it from beginning to end.
Right in the beginning of the movie she proclaims she is 12 years old, and I thought yeah right! I thought she was joking.
That certainly changed the way I watched the movie. I don't know why they couldn't have edited the screenplay slightly, to say she was 16. That would have made the movie much more watchable for me. -
techniscope — 17 years ago(October 12, 2008 01:45 AM)
while she didn't look 12, she definitely didn't look like a lady going on 27. she looked more around 16 - 18, which i didn't mind at all, and i found julie harris to be quite convincing in the role and she gave a brilliant performance.