Monday, June 10, 2013

Monday movie

Sean Connery and Michael Caine in a scene from that splendid adventure movie, The Man Who Would Be King.

10 comments:

Spiny Norman said...

Great minds think alike: I just bought the DVD of that movie on Friday.

Paco said...

Certainly one of my favorites.

Robert of Ottawa said...

Damned good movie, what?

Paco said...

Indeed. It was directed by John Huston, who had been trying to make the film for decades, but always had trouble getting the actors he wanted for it (I believe he originally wanted to get Gary Cooper and Clark Gable). The ultimate selection of Connery and Caine would be hard to top.

Spiny Norman said...

Huston's original choices were Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable, actually. The project was shelved when Bogart died.

Spiny Norman said...

TMWWBK had a long and interesting history. Per IMDB:

John Huston tried to launch the film version of "The Man Who Would Be King" many times before completing it. It was originally conceived as a vehicle for Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart in the fifties, and later as a vehicle for Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. When it was considered as a vehicle for Robert Redford and Paul Newman, Newman suggested Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

I met Paul Newman twice, once my dad was in SCCA racing school with him in the early 70s (another student in that class was then-drag racer Danny Ongias - the instructor was my dad's friend Lee Mueller, who Newman later beat for his National Championship title), and then again much later at a CART race in Fontana, CA. His politics may have been "Hollywood Liberal", but he was really down-to-earth among racing people.

Paco said...

Spiny, you actually met Paul Newman? Sweet!

Spiny Norman said...

Just a couple of "Hi, glad to meet you" things. My dad talked to him a bit more at Fontana (I'm not entirely sure he remembered my dad from racing school, but he did remember my dad's friend Lee). Roger Penske is a pretty cool guy, too. We were guests of his (well, guests of one of his business managers who's a close friend of my dad's) at the Fontana CART race.

Spiny Norman said...

One more thing: even though Connery and Caine are have been very close friends for more than 40 years, I believe TMWWBK is the only film where they appeared together.

mojo said...

One where he actually played a Scotsman. Which was a good thing, because he always does.