Today on TCM, Anna and the King of Siam plays, the 1946 classic starring Rex Harrison as the King of Siam and Irene Dunne as Anna. As most people on the planet earth know, the movie was remade as a stage musical which then graduated to the movies starring the same actor that made the musical a hit, Yul Brynner. In the role of Anna, was Deborah Kerr. Now there are a lot of different critiques that could go into determining which actors did a better job with their roles and lots of pros and cons to be weighed. Or we could just bulldoze our opinion over the landscape and be done with it. I don’t normally like go that route but this time, why not? Why not every one of us pick roles played by different actors and let everyone else know who did the better job? Be warned: This post will commit several acts of classic cinema blasphemy. You will not agree with me every time or at all and perhaps even think I am crazy. So be it. Let’s begin.
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Before we move on to the more entertaining cases of picking between two actors, let’s start with what is widely considered one of the most portrayed character in film history, Dracula (this is the only big one I’ll do, as they have too many actors to choose from, like Sherlock Holmes, who we all know was best portrayed by Jeremy Brett). Now the Dracula character based on the Bram Stoker novel, first came to the screen as Dracula, as opposed to Count Orlock, when portrayed by Bela Lugosi in the 1931 Universal classic. He was also portrayed by Carlos Villarías that same year in the Spanish language version filmed simultaneously. Neither would be my choice as the best Dracula ever. Later, Dracula would be portrayed by everyone from Christopher Lee to Frank Langella to Gary Oldman, with Oldman the only one taking the time to actually affect an accent and, it would seem, make some effort to develop the Count into a character. And I love Oldman for doing that, and for giving such a delightfully loopy and “to the rafters” performance, but he’s not the best either. My favorite has always been the previously mentioned Christopher Lee, and he still is, and Horror of Dracula, released by Hammer Studios in 1958, remains my favorite theatrical Dracula. But just recently I rewatched the BBC television version starring the great Louis Jourdan, and I gotta say, he’s the best. Lee is still my favorite, but Jourdan’s the best.
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Now, let’s focus on the two choice roles, and don’t hold back.
Willy Wonka. Two actors most known for the role: Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), Johnny Depp (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
Winner: Gene Wilder, in a landslide. Okay, I know that Roald Dahl apparently didn’t like Wilder’s portrayal and, brother, I don’t care. If I actually left it up to artists to tell us which of their works were best or which adaptations did the best job, I’d be in dire straits indeed. I tried watching some of the Burton/Depp version again just a few weeks back and I couldn’t make it work. At all. But Wilder? I can watch him as Wonka again and again. I also read the book and, sorry, Johnny, but Wilder fits my image of Wonka a lot more.
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Lawrence Jameson/Jameison. Two actors known for role: David Niven (Bedtime Story), Michael Caine (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).
Freddie Benson. Two actors known for role: Marlon Brando (Bedtime Story), Steve Martin (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).
I go with the remake on this one. I like both movies very much, actually, and you can see the first version in many places, including YouTube where it is uploaded with Greek subtitles, just in case you want to know what their dialogue looks like written in Greek. And I think David Niven is excellent in the role. In fact, it’s only but a nose that I give the role to Michael Caine instead but I do. The Freddie role is tougher. Steve Martin makes it much more comical than Brando, though Brando does a very good job, comically speaking. Now, this is going to sound a little strange, but Martin seems more convincing in the role than Brando. Brando does fine but he comes off as too phony to actually con anyone. Martin, as the psychologically paralyzed Freddy, plays it just right.
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Rooster Cogburn. Two actors known for the role: John Wayne (True Grit, original version), Jeff Bridges (True Grit, remake).
Okay, this is where I fear I’ll raise the ire of many readers but the fact is, despite thinking both actors do great work as Cogburn, I think Bridges is better. And I think the Coen brothers remake is much better as a movie. There, done.
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Danny Ocean. Two actors known for the role: Frank Sinatra (Oceans Eleven, original version), George Clooney (Oceans Eleven, remake).
I think the remake is much better than the original but that doesn’t extend to the actors, necessarily. Oh, they’re all great in the remake, but nobody beats Sinatra. Period. I wish Sinatra’s movie had been better, though.
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Thomas Crown. Two actors known for the role: Steve McQueen (The Thomas Crown Affair, original version), Pierce Brosnan (The Thomas Crown Affair, remake)
Pierce Brosnan, on the surface, at least, seems more refined, classier, better able to play the high class thief, Thomas Crown. But come on, who are you kidding?! Steve McQueen all the way!
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The fact is, most of the time, I think the original actor is better but that doesn’t mean the remake actor suffers by comparison. I still think it’s impossible to really compare Fredric March’s Jekyl and Hyde with Spencer Tracy’s as they’re so different, it’s almost like two different roles. The acting in the two main remakes of King Kong is, on the whole, better than the acting in the 1933 original but, again, the roles are portrayed so differently, it’s kind of an impossible comparison. That happens a lot with remakes, from The Thing to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, remakes often take such a different approach that you can’t simply compare the two different performances. But in the ones above, I feel they’re easily comparable (in the cases of True Grit and Bedtime Story/Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, they’re practically the same exact scene order simply shot with different actors). I don’t expect everyone to agree on these things, especially when you have good performances in both cases, but it’s an interesting exercise to see what someone appreciates in one movie that perhaps someone else doesn’t. Oh, and by the way, Yul Brynner is better as the King of Siam, but you already knew that because you’re the smartest movie fans in the world. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.