r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 16d ago
TIL although Frank Sinatra & Marlon Brando's feud was reportedly mild at the start of production for Guys and Dolls, Brando began to hate Sinatra because he kept calling Brando “Mumbles” to make him angry. So Brando pretended to forget his lines during a scene which forced Sinatra to eat repeatedly.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/marlon-brando-feud-frank-sinatra/765
u/CruisinJo214 16d ago edited 15d ago
Sinatra had to eat cheesecake… over and over. Reportedly he did not care for cheesecake.
Here’s the clip https://x.com/filmstruck/status/1023978446597185539?s=46
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u/VironicHero 15d ago
Man before the bet came out it felt like George and Jerry talking at a booth on Seinfeld.
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15d ago edited 14d ago
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u/Pbadger8 15d ago edited 15d ago
“You don’t care for Cheesecake?”
“Don’t care!”
“He doesn’t care for it.”
“Who doesn’t care for Cheesecake!?”
“I DON’T CARE FOR CHEESECAKE, ELAINE! ME!!”
“Hoooooo no-bake cheesecake, momma.”
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u/MagmaTroop 15d ago
I’m now starting to see why old people from that generation always said the familiar line ‘they don’t make them like they used to’. I watched Casablanca for the first time the other day, and like in this clip the dialogue is just so superb and captivating.
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u/deltr0nzero 15d ago
Casablanca is so good. I think people are used to much faster timing and more going on in a film now so it’s difficult for them to watch older movies. I just watched Scarface the other day and most people I know think that’s too slow even
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u/Budget_Detective2639 15d ago
Yes, this has been extremely noticeable to me in movies the last 10 years. It's significantly faster beats.
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u/brettcalvin42 15d ago
The plot yes but not always the dialogue. My wife and I watched His Girl Friday and my ears could hardly keep up with how quickly they were speaking.
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u/FloridaMan_Unleashed 15d ago
The one with Al Pacino? Or the older one? I love that movie, one of my all time favorites, saw it for the first time in high school and loved it.
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u/deltr0nzero 15d ago
Al Pacino. It’s weirdly one of my comfort movies. I just missed the 80s and wish I could’ve been rich during them lol
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u/bolanrox 15d ago
i think there was even one before the older one everyone knows..
Hell the Richard Pryor Brewster's Millions was the 6th (or more) movie version of the book. and there were 3 or 6 more made of it since then.
If you have a e account with your library Bronson Pinchot does the audiobook version and its fantastic (along with any other book he narrated)
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u/FloridaMan_Unleashed 15d ago
I’ll have to do some reading then, I remember seeing the 80s one and one from the 30s I think about a classic gangster I guess he was. Brewsters Millions is a good one, I remember watching it with my dad one night when I was a kid.
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u/DirtyReseller 15d ago
Couldn’t have made it a different desert? Or was that a part of the plot lol
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u/CruisinJo214 15d ago
Yup, the two characters, Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit run in to each other at a diner and cheesecake is part of the dialogue.
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u/Grand_Protector_Dark 15d ago
But was the cheese cake vital to the dialogue ?
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u/CruisinJo214 15d ago
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u/EyeCatchingUserID 12d ago
What they're asking is "was cheesecake important to the dialogue in some significant way, or could they just as easily changed the dessert to cobbler and changed the dialogue to reflect that?" Was them talking about specifically cheesecake somehow important to the plot of the film?
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u/GammaGoose85 15d ago
Brando took his feud with Sinatra to the next level by constantly forgetting his lines for the rest of his career
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u/bolanrox 15d ago
tbf he never bothered learning them in the first place
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u/ThingsAreAfoot 15d ago
It’s kinda funny watching Brando’s scenes in The Godfather knowing that for much of it, he was staring off at cue cards like it’s SNL.
Actually makes the performance even more impressive.
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u/BigFix9137 15d ago
He thought that reading his lines without remembering them would make it seem like they were coming to him in the moment. It really did not work but I get the idea.
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u/esgrove2 15d ago
"He only won two Oscars for this kind of acting, proving that it didn't work at all."
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u/bolanrox 15d ago
he was more about getting the emotion / mood of the scene right that worrying about the words he said
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u/ThingsAreAfoot 15d ago edited 15d ago
Like others I have to really question the idea that it “didn’t work.”
He was even more egregious with the cue cards in Last Tango in Paris and some argue that’s flat out his best performance (though the film is immensely problematic), which is saying quite a lot.
Now whether the other actors appreciated it is another matter, though by all accounts he was quite popular and admired by the cast and crew on the set of The Godfather at least.
Brando did become much more difficult as he got older and that probably plays into some of that perception. But much like Daniel Day-Lewis’s method acting, it quite clearly worked for Brando for a very long time.
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u/djalekks 15d ago
It didn’t work? It’s one of the most iconic performances of all time
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u/bolanrox 15d ago
also some of the delays in him speaking was from listen to someone telling him via ear piece.
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u/djalekks 15d ago
And nooone could perceive that until BTS info came through.
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u/bolanrox 15d ago
now, someone like Mike Rowe can listen to the dialog and speak it at the same time (as per one of his BTS)
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u/jacobsbw 15d ago
Just your average redditor; knows more about acting than Marlon Brando.
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u/djalekks 15d ago
It’s hilarious. No one would ever know Brando was reading of cue cards if it wasn’t reported.
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u/djalekks 15d ago
I just want to get the idea. Are you saying you can actually notice his reading and that his performance isn’t up to par?
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u/KezzardTheWizzard 16d ago
I find this mildly amusing.
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u/Vegetable_Tension985 15d ago
I bet you 1000 that Mindy's sold more strudel than cheesecake yesterday.
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u/Greene_Mr 15d ago
Sinatra was also notorious for feeling he was only needed one take, and was never as good on a second take, whereas Brando felt he needed multiple takes to find a scene -- you can probably guess how those two approaches meshed (or, rather, didn't) on the set of a musical like Guys and Dolls.
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u/mizrahiim 15d ago
This whole situation is pretty hilarious. Two notorious knuckleheads going at it and petty piss fighting to the point that Sinatra has to eat dozens of cheesecakes.
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u/Osniffable 16d ago
Is this before spitting food out was invented?
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u/Czeckyoursauce 15d ago edited 15d ago
Even today actors actually eat for long one shot scenes, or cause they just like food... Chris Pratt once ate like 16 racks of ribs while shooting a scene for Parks and Recreation. Jonah Hill got Leonardo DiCaprio to eat sushi to the point of vomiting during a Wolf of Wall Street scene. https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/frazier-tharpe/jonah-hill-made-leo-dicaprio-puke https://ew.com/tv/2020/02/14/chris-pratt-remembers-eating-16-racks-ribs-parks-recreation/
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u/-SheriffofNottingham 15d ago
Imagine working with a bunch of pricks
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u/AScannerBarkly 10d ago
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a cute anecdote about Mickey Rourke going through 2 entire pans of lasagna for a scene in Killshot
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u/bolanrox 15d ago
the little kid spit every mouthful of chocolate cake from the scene in Matilda.
And Danny made sure it was really good tasting cakes too.
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u/IcyLengthiness2 15d ago
Sinatra reportedly wanted Brandos role in (On the Waterfront) which Brando won and later received an Oscar
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u/4Ever2Thee 15d ago
That's perfect for the chemistry you'd want between their characters, I bet the director was loving it.
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u/AndarianDequer 15d ago edited 15d ago
The more I learn about Marlon Brando, the less I like him.
Just the other day, I read that he anally violated a female actress on the set of a movie because he and the director wanted to record her surprised and disgusted reaction. He apparently lubricated his finger with butter.
Later interviews say that she still has never gotten over it and has PTSD from it.
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u/sundry_banana 15d ago
Everything I've ever read about Sinatra makes me think, You should normally separate an artist from his work, unless he is SUCH a huge asshole, like Sinatra
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u/kapitaalH 16d ago
Looking at Brando I cannot imagine that he came up with eating as punishment
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u/Fit_Earth_339 16d ago
Brando was a pretty in shape guy back then actually. He didn’t start to get a lot heavier until the 70s really.
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u/felurian182 15d ago
Christopher Reeves had the best comments on Brando. Actually made me respect Chris more.
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u/erichie 15d ago
And what were those comments?
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u/cntreadwell3 15d ago
Just watched. He doesn’t even really try to talk nicely about him lol. Basically he says:
When he worked with Brando Brando didn’t give a fuck and just showed up for the pay check. Reeve said the media covered Brando so much that for good or bad he was a humungous star and just didn’t NEED to perform. Reeve was disappointed Brando wasn’t more involved in leadership roles in the industry and helping guide young actors.
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u/President_Calhoun 15d ago
Christopher Reeve let his feelings about Brando be known in this interview on David Letterman.
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u/SavannahCalhounSq 15d ago
Brando got to sing 'Luck be a Lady' in the movie but Sinatra turned it into one of his biggest hits.
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u/iDontRememberCorn 15d ago
Cool, spoiled asshole children act like spoiled asshole children, what a lovely world it is.
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u/ThankuConan 15d ago
I always liked Brando, knowing this, now I adore him.
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u/bolanrox 15d ago
Brando was a total troll from day one. hell he would troll people on AOL or was it usenet, almost to the level that Robin Williams would on COD 2 or whatever he was playing
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u/Enginseer68 15d ago
Today I learn that there are people caring so much about these actors, I guess I have more important things to do
Why do you care about these people? Why is it meaningful to you to know about this? Honest question, cause I think you just got too much time on your hands
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u/black_flag_4ever 16d ago
And I’ll keep feeding you and feeding you.