According to Richard Schickel in his biography of Elia Kazan, Frank Sinatra had "a handshake deal"--but no formally-signed contract--to play Terry Malloy after Marlon Brando's original refusal to play the role. Sinatra--who was producer Sam Spiegel's first choice for the role--actually attended one wardrobe fitting to prepare his costumes for the film. However, Kazan still favored Brando for the role, partially because Brando's casting in the film would assure a larger budget. Kazan was actually contacted by Brando's agent, Jay Kanter, to assure the director of the agent's continuing efforts to persuade the actor to perform in the film. Kazan in the meantime enlisted Karl Malden--whom he considered more suited to a career as a director than a career as an actor--to direct and film a screen test of a "more Brando-like" actor as Terry Malloy, in an effort to persuade Spiegel that "an actor like Marlon Brando" could perform the Terry Malloy role more forcefully than Sinatra. To that end, Malden filmed a screen test of Actor's Studio members Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward--neither of whom had as yet appeared in a film--performing the love scene between Terry and Edie. Finally persuaded of the point by the Newman/Woodward screen test, Spiegel agreed to reconsider Brando for the role, and shortly afterward Brando was persuaded by Kanter to reconsider his refusal. Within a week, Brando signed a contract to perform in the film. At that point, a furious Sinatra demanded to be cast in the role of Father Barry, the waterfront priest. It was left to Spiegel to break the news to Sinatra that Malden had already been signed for that role. Later that year Newman appeared in his first motion picture, Il calice d'argento (1954), which was a critical and commercial failure. Newman and Woodward married four years later.
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05-03-2025 alle ore 08:54
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