Enjoying the movie, but LOL, that's not working out for me. Some old-age makeup would have helped, even if she's supposed to be a young mom. She doesn't look like she aged the 20 years that were supposed to have passed.
share She moved slowwwwly: That was the age component. That and the floppy hat. I love Carol in this. Didn't make me cry but she came close enough.
"Chains, my baby's got me wrapped up in chains."
You think that's something: in What's Love Got To Do With It, Jenifer Lewis is supposed to be the mother of Angela Bassett despite being only 17 months older.
"I'm in such bad shape, I'm wearing prescription underwear." Phyllis Diller 1917-2012
I've got another. Paul Newman's mom in "Young Philadelphians" is younger than he is. And Mrs. Mondello is about 50 years younger than Spencer Tracey in "Adams Rib."
Kisskiss, Bangbang
The same thing happened with the actress playing Queen Gertrude opposite Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.
"I'm in such bad shape, I'm wearing prescription underwear." Phyllis Diller 1917-2012
Angela Lansbury was nine years older than 'son' Elvis in Blue Hawaii, and was only three years older than 'son' Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate. Agnes Moorhead played John Wayne's mother in The Conqueror, and was only seven years older.
Angelina Jolie in Alexander, Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover in Back to the Future... Heck, Rosemary De Camp played James Cagney's mother in Yankee Doodle Dandy and he was 11 years her senior!
To OP, When a character is supposed to age, it's normal to get a younger actor.
I think Carroll at least looked believable as one of Karl Marlden's eligible daughters in the River sequence. Debbie Reynolds (at 30) looked way too old. As it was I think she played the older sister and Carroll who is older than her, played the younger one.
"Well I'll be... Why didn't he come shoppin' at the right store?"
I always thought Baker was the older sister.
"I'm in such bad shape, I'm wearing prescription underwear." Phyllis Diller 1917-2012
To be honest she very well could have been. I just reckon Carroll looked younger and seemed to act like the younger sister.
"Well I'll be... Why didn't he come shoppin' at the right store?"
Carroll's character was the more naïve and talked like a romantic schoolgirl, while Debbie was more cynical. Debbie seemed older for that.
shareEarly in the movie Eve's father grumbles that Eve is 20 years old and still unmarried, which certainly would have been unusual for that era. If Lilith were older, he would have mentioned her age and been even more critical.
shareMmmm, honestly, I think she did a great job either as the young daughter and then as the mother, and actually she and Debbie Reynolds were my most favorite thing about this movie. What was hard to believe was that she could fall so desperately for James Stewart, who was very handsome in most of his movies, but his looks in this one wasn't much becoming, to say the least...
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop
And to think Gary Cooper was originally cast as Linus. The character (Linus) is supposed to already have led a full and eventful life, but someone in his forties might have been preferable considering the romance angle.
shareThe father said he had one daughter who was 20 and that was Eve but then background on the movie says that Eve was 18 and Linus was 28 but played by a 52 year old man
shareWant to see something REALLY out there? In the 1948 version of "Hamlet", Laurence Olivier as Hamlet was 11 YEARS older than the actress playing Queen Gertrude, his mother!
"There will be blood. Oh, yes, there WILL be blood."-Jigsaw; "Saw II"
Well . . . that's theatre!
shareIs it normal that no mention was made that James Stewart was considerably older than Carroll Baker in real life and most definitely in the movie? Didn't Karl Malden mind? Or anyone for that matter? That's the only weird age difference I saw, but maybe in those days it wasn't a big deal at all?
shareMr. Prescott wanted his daughters married off. In one of the earliest scenes he's critical of both girls for being too picky, as if they've had proposals already and turned them down. Maybe he's so relieved that Eve is interested in Linus that he isn't going to split hairs.
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