Martin Balsam v. Stacey Keach as Col. Cathcart
Mike Nichols, who had some pretty bizarre ideas in casting this film, originally has cast Stacey Keach as Colonel Cathcart, who is 36 in the novel and a former corporate executive in real life. (Was it advertising, or was that Colonel Korn?) Nichols fired Keach for being "too young" and "light" -- which enraged Keach, who accused Nichols of being as much a meglomaniac as Col. Cathcart in the novel.
Martin Balsam is totally alien to Heller' conception of Cathcart, who is a big, beefy man.
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"Why do people always laugh in the wrong places?"
Old Hamlet, King of Denmark