A good movie with a serious plot line goes awry with the horrible casting of Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell in the lead roles.
Granger is supposed to be a 23 year old, imprisoned for 7 years, a bank robber, on the lam. I can't believe he was chosen for the part. Even when he speaks, he sounds like a college sophomore.
O'Donnell who was perfect as Charlton Heston's condemned sister in "Ben-Hur" and Harold Russell's sacrificing girl friend in "The Best Years of Our Lives" is called upon to be his new found girl-friend, who flees with him from the law and marries him while they're both on the lam! Believe me, Bonnie and Clyde they're not.
They try to philosophize what life can be like if they can get out of this turmoil.
Naturally, there will always be someone to turn them in. Dreams can become wicked, you know.
Robert Mitchum and perhaps Audrey Totter would have been certainly more suited for the roles. Hard-boiled Ida Luppino would have been perfect and so would a young Shelley Winters. They possessed that vulnerability that is missing in the two performances here.
What was the casting director thinking of when he had Granger and O'Donnell for the roles?
Granger is supposed to be a 23 year old, imprisoned for 7 years, a bank robber, on the lam. I can't believe he was chosen for the part. Even when he speaks, he sounds like a college sophomore.
O'Donnell who was perfect as Charlton Heston's condemned sister in "Ben-Hur" and Harold Russell's sacrificing girl friend in "The Best Years of Our Lives" is called upon to be his new found girl-friend, who flees with him from the law and marries him while they're both on the lam! Believe me, Bonnie and Clyde they're not.
They try to philosophize what life can be like if they can get out of this turmoil.
Naturally, there will always be someone to turn them in. Dreams can become wicked, you know.
Robert Mitchum and perhaps Audrey Totter would have been certainly more suited for the roles. Hard-boiled Ida Luppino would have been perfect and so would a young Shelley Winters. They possessed that vulnerability that is missing in the two performances here.
What was the casting director thinking of when he had Granger and O'Donnell for the roles?