Anthony Franciosa was miscast.
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Long, Hot Summer
au561 — 18 years ago(August 26, 2007 09:56 PM)
I love this movie. I have loved this movie since I first saw it on NBCs "Saturday Night At The Movies" in 1964 when I was eight years old. I have watched it over one hundred times, and every time the only performance that rings hollow is Anthony Franciosa's. I have never been able to buy him as Southern, as a Varner, or as anything but a NY street hustler. There were so many good character actors available then, why did they cast him? Who would you have cast at the time?
I await the flames. -
jedwardtipre — 17 years ago(July 01, 2008 11:47 PM)
"New York street hustler" is an unfortunate term, yet it certainly shadows some of Franciosa's roles. Difficult to take the Street out of the kid. Yet in this role, I'd have to disagree. Yes, Franciosa was from N.Y. and trained there, but his accent sufficed and he was in character as the misdirected son of a powerful man. For a 111 minute movie, not a lot of time to develop his supporting role, and the late 50's direction he acted on, Franciosa mostly succeeded.
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largeys — 17 years ago(September 28, 2008 05:42 PM)
I totally agree about Franciosa. I saw this movie for the first time in the same place you did at about the same age. It probably was the first time I saw Newman, Welles, or Woodward act. (But I recognized J. Pat O'Malley from "Spin and Marty".)
Franciosa stood out in every scene as just not belonging there. But let's give him a break - even well-cast, there was no way he could keep up with the skills of the rest of the cast. -
mariahfan-1 — 16 years ago(June 25, 2009 07:36 PM)
couldn't agree with you more bing another scene I loved him in was with Woodward when she thanks him for protecting her when she was a little girl
"why are you married to him then if you can't work with him how do you live with him?" -
PretoriaDZ — 16 years ago(July 06, 2009 06:13 PM)
I agree. I think some of what Franciosa did in his acting was good but he didn't look like anybody from the South or from the Varner family for that matter! When he said, am I your son, you could almost think that maybe Varner's wife had a little fling when Varner was out of town and Tony was the result! And maybe that's why Varner didn't seem to value him as flesh and blood.