I've always thought that Natalie Wood was very good in a thankless role. The music,the dancing,the set design are all great, but in "West Side Story",Natalie Wood lingers in my memory.
Just because something can't be explained,doesn't mean it becomes yours!
Being Human

I wouldn't say Wood "stunk," but she was wooden and didn't really do anything special with the role and was miscast.
Emojis=
Emoticons=

To each their own, but I kind of
liked
Natalie Wood in the film version of
West Side Story
. I thought she did okay as Maria. As for Richard Beymer, wellgiven the fact that the Beymer-bashing really has gotten out of hand in some circles, I'm more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt than I previously was. Imho, directorial constraints put on him by Robert Wise, the way in which both the scripts for the original Broadway stage versions and the film versions of
West Side Story
had been written, and the fact that Natalie Wood showed such open hostility and resentment towards him during the filming of WSS (Natalie Wood actually
did
attempt to get Richard Beymer kicked off the set on several occasions!) all hampered him from playing an even stronger Tony with a bit more of an "edge".
As for George Chakiris's role as the Shark gangleader, Bernardo, I thought he was excellent and did a fabulous job playing Bernardo, and he wasn't effeminate at all, imho.

Natalie Wood is
PERFECT
. In anything. Period.

I liked her performance for the most part but it was pretty uneven at times.
Esta es mi firma

hired more for her fresh looks and right off Splendor in the Grass, she was a litle affected in this & self conscious, it was a great polished effort but yes Rita srtole the show.

Yes Rita Moreno was terrific and won an Oscar, but it was Natalie that had the emotional power that made me cry. As wonderful a movie that WSS is, it's also almost too sad to watch.

She was better than Al Pacino's over the top performance in the vastly overrated Scarface.

the whole movie stinks

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"I never saw the original Broadway stage production of "West Side Story" that had Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert in it"
Well, THAT makes two of us! I was TOO young! I missed Carol Lawrence in "West Side Story," Julie Andrews in "Camelot" and "My Fair Lady" and Mary Martin in "South Pacific." Whatever happened to American musical theatre?
NOTICE TO MITT ROMNEY: A BAD DAY FREELOADING, IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK.

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"I thought she (Natalie Wood) carried the part of Maria off quite well."
So did I, but NOT as well as Carol Lawrence did on Broadway. Natalie just had a bigger name, is all.
NOTICE TO MITT ROMNEY: A BAD DAY FREELOADING, IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK.

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I think YOU are entitled to YOUR opinion, but I also think YOU are totally nuts!
Natalie WAS out of her element (musicals were NOT her forte), but she WAS a big star and this movie didn't HAVE any other big names. They NEEDED her name above the title in order to put fannies into seats.
NOTICE TO MITT ROMNEY: A BAD DAY FREELOADING, IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK.

Marni Nixon did
not
dub Marilyn Monroe. This is one of the claims she has made in her old age, but it's bogus. Marilyn did her own singing, always.
I'm amazed at the length of this thread! Why do so any people respond to the posts of trolls?

agreed.
evidently, one of Marnie's great skills was being able to mirror the voice she was dubbing. Listening closely, it totally sounds like Wood. Ditto, her dubbing of Kerr in "King and I" and for An Affair to Remember. And she nailed Hepburn.
?who is imdb-vits, anyway? what a silly review. did you click on the link? ridiculous!

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Maybe that's what draws Maria to him, as a contrast to all the dripping, steaming machismo that surrounds her every day.
You are spot on.
natalie was perfect for this the right amount of demure, shy, naive. And she didn't have to be a dancer, so her one dance sequence was easily choreographed for the young girl she portrayed (the rooftop meeting). So what if her singing was dubbed? In those days, Marnie Nixon had a great job filling in for so many of Hollywood's actresses whose roles required it but they didn't have the skill (Deborah Kerr, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe.)

Are you really claiming that Jimmy Dean *
wasn't

• slight, pretty and effeminate? Really?? He was a brilliant actor, but come on
  Anyway. I thought Natalie Wood was a great choice for the role. True, she didn't look Puerto Rican, she was noticeably less physically assured than most of the others in the cast, and her accent sounded like an actor's voice exercise rather than a real person speaking, but she handled the role well, she was sweet and appealing but still with an underlying strength, her emotions were convincing and she probably bridged the gap adequately for the predominantly-white audience between them and the Puerto Rican characters.
  George Chakiris all I can say is that his dancing and singing were spot on, I thought his accent was mostly good, and I had no trouble believing they would have accepted him as a leader of the gang. What he lacked in physical menace he made up for in commanding presence and auhtoritative bearing. To be honest, I thought the most lacking thing about his performance was his makeup.
  And Richard Beymer yes, he was wet. But to be fair, so has every Tony I've ever seen been wet and (honestly) more than a little annoying as was Romeo before him, in fact. I've never warmed to the character of Tony in any production, so I figure that's just the way it is with him. Maybe that's what draws Maria to him, as a contrast to all the dripping, steaming machismo that surrounds her every day.
  You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

This:
WSSlover, I heard that Natalie resented Richard because of the whole Rebel Without a Cause audition. Wasn't Richard made to audition by his agent for Sal Mineo's role? And didn't Natalie, James Dean, and the director make fun of him because he was so much taller than Dean?
I didn't know, StrongRex, but I
am
aware of Natalie Wood's extreme hostility towards Richard Beymer, and the fact that Natalie Wood did actually try to get Richard Beymer kicked off of the set (inotherwords, fired) on several occasions.

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WSSlover, I heard that Natalie resented Richard because of the whole Rebel Without a Cause audition. Wasn't Richard made to audition by his agent for Sal Mineo's role? And didn't Natalie, James Dean, and the director make fun of him because he was so much taller than Dean?