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Roles Lucy Could Have Played


Neil

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The Geraldine Page part in Carol Burnett's "Pete n Tilly" movie.

Not to take anything away from the great Geraldine who received an Oscar nomination for her acting.

I saw the scene in the police station where Geraldine is forced to give her age and stutters and stammers (and then faints).

Then the subsequent scene where she and Carol have a knock-down fight that includes Carol spraying with a garden hose.

I wonder if Lucy would have taken this supporting role--if only to work on screen with Carol.

Maybe Carol would have expected to play Gooch in 'Mame' as one of their exchanges.

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Maybe Carol would have expected to play Gooch in 'Mame' as one of their exchanges.

 

Now that would have been interesting!

 

I would have loved to see what Lucy would have done with Cactus Flower. Ingrid Bergman was wonderful in the role, but having Lucy and Walter Matthau work together would have been brilliant. A Guide For The Married Man doesn't count. LOL

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Carol was supposedly rumored to play the role of Gooch at one time. I don't know if this was before or after Madeline Kahn was cast.

 

Cactus Flower would have been great for Lucy. I would have LOVED to have seen Lucy as Mrs. Iselin in "The Manchurian Candidate." Another part I would have loved to have seen Lucy play on film is the Jean Arthur role in "A Foreign Affair." Lucy is terrific in The Screen Directors' Playhouse radio version. Marlene Dietrich pretty much steals the film from everyone else. I would have loved to have seen Lucy play opposite her in it.

 

I totally think she could have done "Hello, Dolly!" as well. (And maybe work with Walter Matthau here too!)

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Carol was supposedly rumored to play the role of Gooch at one time. I don't know if this was before or after Madeline Kahn was cast.

 

Cactus Flower would have been great for Lucy. I would have LOVED to have seen Lucy as Mrs. Iselin in "The Manchurian Candidate." Another part I would have loved to have seen Lucy play on film is the Jean Arthur role in "A Foreign Affair." Lucy is terrific in The Screen Directors' Playhouse radio version. Marlene Dietrich pretty much steals the film from everyone else. I would have loved to have seen Lucy play opposite her in it.

 

I totally think she could have done "Hello, Dolly!" as well. (And maybe work with Walter Matthau here too!)

OMG what an interesting thread. Carol as Gooch? Lucy with Matthau, oh yes. Manchurian and Cactus, definitely!

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  • 1 year later...

Despite the late great Katharine Hepburn perfect in the part, I think it would have been interesting to see LB reunited with her Big Street/Yours, Mine and Ours leading man in Mark Rydell's On Golden Pond.

 

Just imagining Big Red calling Fonda "you old poop!" really makes me smile. ;)

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Margo Channing in All About Eve? I mean, Bette Davis is incomparable in that role, but Lucy was around the right age and could've brought some of her "Big Street" dramatic chops to it.

 

Lucy never had that "rough around the edges" look that Bette had and that I think was essential to Margo Channing. Maybe this is just because All About Eve is one of my all-time favorite movies, as phenomenal an actress as Lucy was, I really can't see ANYONE but Bette Davis playing Margo Channing. Even though Margo was supposed to be 40 and Lucy was around the right age, I think she looked a little too youthful for the role. Very interesting to think about, but I can't quite wrap my brain around it!

 

I absolutely adore Barbara Stanwyck, but every time I watch Ball of Fire I think about how terrific Lucy would have been as Sugarpuss O'Shea.

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Lucy never had that "rough around the edges" look that Bette had and that I think was essential to Margo Channing. Maybe this is just because All About Eve is one of my all-time favorite movies, as phenomenal an actress as Lucy was, I really can't see ANYONE but Bette Davis playing Margo Channing. Even though Margo was supposed to be 40 and Lucy was around the right age, I think she looked a little too youthful for the role. Very interesting to think about, but I can't quite wrap my brain around it!

 

I absolutely adore Barbara Stanwyck, but every time I watch Ball of Fire I think about how terrific Lucy would have been as Sugarpuss O'Shea.

 

I agree. It's hard to think of anyone but Bette doing that part. It's the same as envisioning Lucy as Scarlett O'Hara. Vivien Leigh made such an impression that no one else will do anymore.

 

I LOVE the idea of Lucy alongside Henry in "On Golden Pond"

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Lucy could have been an interesting Margo Channing in the musical "Applause." In reality, she would have been too old for the part, but that didn't stop Eve Arden from playing it at 68.

 

And didn't Bacall do it first? She was probably well past 40 too when she did it but certainly to much acclaim. :D

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And didn't Bacall do it first? She was probably well past 40 too when she did it but certainly to much acclaim. :D

 

Lauren Bacall originated the role in Applause when she was 45, which is in the right age range. I don't remember if Margo is specifically referred to as being 40 as she is in All About Eve.

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Lauren Bacall originated the role in Applause when she was 45, which is in the right age range. I don't remember if Margo is specifically referred to as being 40 as she is in All About Eve.

Okay, I guess I just thought I remembered her being a good ten or more years older. lucyhorror.JPG
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Lauren Bacall originated the role in Applause when she was 45, which is in the right age range. I don't remember if Margo is specifically referred to as being 40 as she is in All About Eve.

 

In "Who's That Girl?" she refers to herself on television

"Look at her. Miss 1946.

Teenage Margo: Queen of the 40s flicks"

"Applause" was 1970? So 1946 was 24 years previous, so her character could be anywhere from 37 to 45, though most likely in the upper range.

 

Eve did "applause" at 68? Which (depending on your source) would have been 1976 or 1980. Where?

 

Lucy in "On Golden Pond"? Well, I'll have to think about that one. Instead of "you old poop" she'd say "OH, NORMAN!" the same way she said "Oh, Harry!" in just about every HL episode.

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Eve did "applause" at 68? Which (depending on your source) would have been 1976 or 1980. Where?

 

Eve did Applause in Australia in 1975-1976. Her husband Brooks West played the Addison DeWitt-esque character. Eve got great reviews, but there was some kind of shady business dealings going on. I think the producer embezzled all the money and Eve paid the cast and crew herself. Eve writes a lot about the experience in her autobiography.

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Eve did Applause in Australia in 1975-1976. Her husband Brooks West played the Addison DeWitt-esque character. Eve got great reviews, but there was some kind of shady business dealings going on. I think the producer embezzled all the money and Eve paid the cast and crew herself. Eve writes a lot about the experience in her autobiography.

Not surprisingly....what a class act! peachonthebeach.JPG
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I think Lucy should have bought the rights to a couple of 1930's Marie Dressler or Edna May Oliver starring vehicles and made tv movie remakes of them in the 1980's. I think she would have been sensational in Edna May's LADIES OF THE JURY playing a talkative busy body who is the only one on the jury who believes in the innocence of the person on trial.

 

Another great project for her in this era would have been a remake of THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC which had been a Broadway sensation in the 1950's for the elderly character actress Josephine Hull (HARVEY) and was rewritten as a younger woman when the movie was filmed in 1956 with Judy Holliday. Lucy could have played it more to the playwright's original conception of the character, and it's a play that could be "Lucyized" very successfully.

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Another great project for her in this era would have been a remake of THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC which had been a Broadway sensation in the 1950's for the elderly character actress Josephine Hull (HARVEY) and was rewritten as a younger woman when the movie was filmed in 1956 with Judy Holliday. Lucy could have played it more to the playwright's original conception of the character, and it's a play that could be "Lucyized" very successfully.

 

It was announced in 1984 that Lucy was in talks to do a Broadway revival of Solid Gold Cadillac. Lucy denied this and said it was only a rumor. She said it was already done perfectly by Josephine Hull and Judy Holliday and she would not even consider doing it. She did not want to do a revival of anything. It definitely would have been an interesting project for her, though.

 

 

 

Wasn't Lucille considered for the title role in the movie "The Star" which Bette Davis did?? I bet Lucille would have been great in that...

 

Lucy was supposed to do The Star in 1950. It was written by her good friends Dale and Katherine Eunson, who really wanted to do a project with Lucy. Supposedly, they could not raise enough money on Lucy's name alone to get the movie produced. A couple of years later, when the movie was finally produced with Bette Davis, Lucy was the biggest star in the country.

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  • 2 weeks later...

How about Lucy as Susan Alexander Kane in Citizen Kane? I wonder if any serious consideration was given to Lucy for the role. Orson Welles was certainly impressed by her. Dorothy Comingore, who was one of the few in the cast not to be a member of Welles's Mercury Theatre, was up for the same roles as Lucy at RKO at the time. This would have been a very interesting "what if."

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How about Lucy as Susan Alexander Kane in Citizen Kane? I wonder if any serious consideration was given to Lucy for the role. Orson Welles was certainly impressed by her. Dorothy Comingore, who was one of the few in the cast not to be a member of Welles's Mercury Theatre, was up for the same roles as Lucy at RKO at the time. This would have been a very interesting "what if."

 

A natural role for her and she would have been great.

And how about Hans Conreid as her vocal coach---pounding out her note on the piano and Lucy/Susan searches for it, before taking her through her vocal exercises: "Now you're going to chew your tongue and hum"

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  • 4 months later...

I re-watched part of Titanic recently, and I paid particular attention to Frances Fisher this time around. Considering she played Lucille, it occured to me that Ruth de Witt Bukater was easily the type of icy matriarch that Lucille could've played well back in her movie days. The ice-queen nature of the character reminded me of Lucy in The Big Street. I then imagined Lucille speaking Ruth's lines and I could really see it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Margo Channing in All About Eve? I mean, Bette Davis is incomparable in that role, but Lucy was around the right age and could've brought some of her "Big Street" dramatic chops to it.

YOU know what.. that would have been VERY interesting.. I mean to see how Lucille would have done it.. Amazing, I never thought of Lucille for that part since Bette pretty much made it her own!
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I think Lucy would have been just wunnerful in the Captain Jack/Johnny Depp role in those pirate movies of his. She showed us how well she would play the role as Ironman Carmichael doing stunt work on that ship. But i think those movies came out after she passed away damnit, that's always a major deterrent in doing a role.

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I think Lucy would have been just wunnerful in the Captain Jack/Johnny Depp role in those pirate movies of his. She showed us how well she would play the role as Ironman Carmichael doing stunt work on that ship. But i think those movies came out after she passed away damnit, that's always a major deterrent in doing a role.

 

Holy shit! That's hilarious. I even thought when I first saw that character of hers that she could've played a pirate in those "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.

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