So Katharine Hepburn hated Suddenly Last Summer?

She hated the director, Joseph Mankiewicz (who also wrote and directed ALL ABOUT EVE and many others) because she thought Mank was particularly cruel to Monty Clift, who was going thru a very rough patch post-accident while making this film. Mank was verbally abusive to Monty, belittling him almost constantly.

On Kate's last day of shooting, when she was wrapped, she went over and spit in Mank's face.

Who cares what that old cunt thought?

Meryl dear have you forgotten that you always just sign "M"

Seriously the most overrated actress in American film history. She does the same fucking shaky suffragette thing in every movie. No nuance, no original character. Frankly I prefer Cate Blanchett's version of Hepburn than thing itself.

Poor Kate is probably spinning in her grave over the horrible things people on DL say about her.

Poster #4--Why do you think ahe received all those awrds and could probably have worked even more than she did. She is one of the great American actresses, possibly the greatest.

She's a dyke,right?

best film entrance ever

She is alleged to have said that she spit on both Mank and also the producer of the film not just for Clift but for herself too. She didn't like the way they treated her and the way they shot her for some of her scenes. She said that at one point she took Monty home with her to try to help him, but he was too fucked up by then.%0D %0D I'm trying to picture Kate and Elizabeth sitting around the set bullshitting about Spencer Tracy. I wonder if they got along? According to a bio of Kate, she rarely interacted with her co-stars when they weren't shooting a scene.

But she and Mankiewicz were old pals from way back, he was the one who said that Tracy would cut her down to size when they signed up for Woman of the Year (which Mank may have produced).%0D %0D She didn't like the Tennessee Williams play for starters and has to be persuaded to do it, as "she didn't understand those people" - despite having been around gays all her working life on stage and film ! But then she always denied knowning anything about homosexuality - one of her many untruths.... (she was great friends though with supergay Robert Helpmann, with whom she did The Millionairess on stage and toured Australia with).%0D %0D

Not to mention her dearest gay friend, George Cukor...

And of course, both she and Spencer had homosexual tendencies...

Mankiewicz has been quoted as saying she was "the most experienced amateur actress" in Hollywood.

Always found this movie to be a piece of shit. She hated it because it was crap.

Yeah- she did not like the way Mank treated MC and she did not like they way he shot her, which was unflattering- he did not cover up her wrinkles etc, harsh light- all I think to play up the fact that her character is dumped by Sebastian for the younger beauty played by Taylor. I think her scenes are by far the most fun.%0D %0D She did not like Tennessee Williams' plays, and frankly, I think they are all mostly over the top- understatement. This one in particular. It is a total camp riot to watch. Cannot believe it was ever taken seriously- although the topic is pretty "advanced" for its time.

It sure ain't top drawer Tennessee, even with Gore adapting.

I thought she was simply adorable in "Breakfast at Tiffany."

maybe they should have just shot the PLAY, which is a little jewel of a one-act, instead of the bloated yet eviscerated script they came up with.

Yeah so what M. I'd bet my life that she would never be talked into staring in a movie with Goldie Fucking Hawn.

Kate was also absurdly miscast as Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee's Glass Menagerie in a 1970s TV adaptation. She was pushy enough as the character but had no shred of the wilted Southern femininity.

I actually remember liking her take on Amanda in GM. That whole cast was excellent, as I recall. Haven't seen that film in years and years.

She was NOT a great actress. She was a great MOVIE STAR. As an actress, she could play one thing, and one thing only: herself. Kate as Chinese wife, Kate as kooky rich girl, Kate as middle-class business librarian, Kate as drug-addled wife, Kate as the Madwoman of Chaillot.

But they were all Kate.

And yet she's the best thing in it.

R18, I may not be the greatest thespian that ever lived, but I think I rate better than ROSEANNE BARR!!

I like campy Tennessee Williams better than "good" Tennessee Williams.

Hepburn was also aggravated because Spencer Tracy was in poor health at the time. She disliked Elizabeth Taylor because of her chronic tardiness. According to some Liz bio I read a while back Kate apparently became so exasperated with Mankiewicz that she tried to direct the film herself. He stopped shooting and told her, "we'll continue shooting when the Director's Guild card I ordered for you arrives."

What a film! Agree with elevator entrance by Katherine.%0D %0D Monte as the doctor was hot!%0D %0D Liz looks awesome in this film.%0D %0D The ending scene in Europe and the entire theme of the film riviting!

Is this the one where some gay guy is torn apart by monkeys at the end?

not monkeys...torn apart by people

She WAS the best thing in the movie.

Trailer: Suddenly Last Summer:%0D %0D "You, see Dr. We were both decoys..."

Great Still photos from the film:

Liz was never great at punctuation.

[quote]....he did not like they way he shot her, which was unflattering- he did not cover up her wrinkles etc, harsh light- all I think to play up the fact that her character is dumped by Sebastian for the younger beauty played by Taylor.

Didn't she play Sebastian's mother?!

Hepburn and Tracy were both overrated actors!

Liz's wild hysteria and her marvelous, heaving breasts were every bit as magnificent as Kate's brittleness.

I remember when they were first casting this movie and Mank really wanted Lucy in the Hepburn role, but there was no way that Lucy at the height of her fame was going to touch that one with a ten foot pole. Did Hepburn get an Oscar nom for it? Lucy might have taken that long elusive Oscar had she agreed to come on board, and I assume that Mank would've been a lot easier to work with had he had the actress he wanted in the role.

I saw this movie as a kid, about 9. The description of the birds killing the baby turtles and that THIS IS WHAT LIFE IS REALLY ABOUT began my life of existential melancholia.

Oh, look, the insane "they really wanted Lucille Ball" troll is back. First it was "The Graduate" and now it's "Suddenly Last Summer."

Your lies are pathetic. No one believes you.

How long before we find out they really wanted Lucille Ball for Jeanne in that Bertolucci film.

Why the elevator entrance? It was the elevator EXIT at end of film that was stunning --both camp and very touching at the same time. Kate's best scene in the film.

T. William's sister was given a lobotomy. That's why it meant so much to Williams and became a major plot point in film. Also, I can't recall any American film --there were some English films at that point but no American (unless "Walk on the Wild Side" with lesbian theme was released before "Suddenly") --had dealt so explicitly with homosexuality. It was a shocker in those days - the whole Sebastian thing.

With every damn film he was in, you always here that Monty was so fragile. Good God man, man up! And exactly when did his accident happen? I swear I can't see any noticeable difference in his visage pre and post car wreck except that he is obviously older as time marched on. Seems like a whole myth has been created about his vulnerability and his appearance-changing catastrophe. All exagerrated.

I've got the same blood in me as Katharine Hepboin!

I think it's one of the great bad movies of all time.

HE WAS DEVOURED!!!

HE USED US AS BAIT! WE PROCURED FOR HIM!!

No you don't - dingbat.

Watch "Raintree County," r41. He filmed it before and after the car accident, and the difference in his face is quite visible in the film. %0D %0D The accident happened in 1956, when he was driving home from Liz Taylor's house after a dinner party.

It was hard to be a homosexual back in Clift's day - and many actors are delicate crazies.

Cheryl Cole and Derek have been together, so the press says, for the last six months to a year. He was with her in the hospital in London after she contracted malaria while on holiday with him in Africa or wherever it was. He said he felt guilty because the holiday locale was his idea.

Sorry, I got my threads mixed up and thought I was on the Ryan Seacrest/Julianne Hough one.

R35, I'm as gay as they come, but I was FASCINATED by the over-ripe fullness of La Liz's breastses...

And don't forget bulldyke Mercedes McCambridge as the cousin...

R49, how could you possibly get the "Suddenly Last Summer" thread mixed up with a thread about Ryan Seacrest spending time in Paris with Julianne Hough and their respective parents?%0D %0D "Suddenly Last Summer" is about a repressed homosexual on vacation in Europe, using an attractive younger woman and her mother as decoys while he preys on young buys.%0D %0D The Ryan Seacrest thread, on the other hand, is about.....ohhhhh..... Nevermind.

Oops--"young boys."

When asked about getting to know Elizabeth Taylor on a personal level, Hepburn replied; "There didn't seem to be one."

This movie had the most over-the-top ridiculous conclusion. %0D %0D %0D It was just silly.

CATHERINE, PUT OUT THAT CIGARETTE!

AHHHHHHHHH!

{quote]The description of the birds killing the baby turtles and that THIS IS WHAT LIFE IS REALLY ABOUT began my life of existential melancholia.

Jesus, that scene remains with me too. Kate's lines were something like

[italic]The flesh-eating birds, doctor. Hideous, flesh-eating birds. Hovering and swooping. Hovering, and swooping. They were diving down on the tiny sea turtles, wripping and eating their flesh...and in those awful moments, doctor

My son Sebastian SAW the FACE of GOD.[/italic]

Mank also wanted Lucy for the Margo Channing role in All About Eve, but Lucy thought the role cheap and tawdry.

In my college costume design class this film was used as an example of the subliminal power of costuming. Liz, in her climactic confessional scene, is in a dark jacket until she takes the truth serum and then when she is ready to tell the truth she removes her dark jacket to reveal her white blouse! Aha!!!

You know, Fellini really wanted Lucy B for Anita Ekberg's role in LA DOLCE VITA. She had to turn him down because she was already committed to play Fanny Brice on Broadway, but then The Lucy Show happened so she pulled out of FUNNY GIRL.

In later years, Lucille said she always regretted not getting to do the fountain scene in LDV.

Lucy was offered to play the Terminator.

I've read in several sources that, instead of Shirley Jones for Carousel, they wanted Lucy.

Lucille Ball was first offered the role of Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker", but she already had so much on her plate. She did recommend Anne Bancroft for the role, though.

A weird flick at best

Wasn't it true that Lucy was offered the role of Cleopatra opposite Richard Burton. She was tied to the Lucy show with Vivian Vance. The commute from Spain back to Hollywood would be too grinding for the beloved red head. She suggested Liz Taylor and of course, the rest is history.

lol

Liz's white swimsuit was a sensation at the time and she was so over-ripe in it - and its almost transparent as she comes out of the water.%0D %0D Its a key Liz moment. ditto Kate. Monty is like a zombie in it though.

BBC has a good version, repeated recently as a tribute to Natasha Richardson. Rob Lowe played the doctor. Maggie Smith improved on Kate, I thought: more weathered, more subtly crazed. 'Frail' and icily wilful.

And who could forget the recent revival in NYC, with Blythe Danner as Mrs. Venable, Carla Gugino as Catherine, and DL fave GALE HAROLD as the doctor.

Liz looked wonderful.

Was it possible for Kate Hepburn to say a single nice thing about any other actress? She was such an insecure cunt beneath her tough exterior.

Here's the climax. I love that it's so over the top. Thank God we've moved beyond the days when the only queer you ever saw in a movie was a dead queer.

I like the movie. I think Hepburn was perfect casting because the mother's supposed to be a monster.

Interestingly enough, this film was made during a relatively fallow period in Hepburn's filmography. %0D %0D She hadn't made any movies in the past couple of years and it was only the very mediocre Desk Set that preceded 1959's Suddenly Last Summer; and as her next film wasn't until 1962's Long Day's Journey, she may have felt uncharacteristically vulnerable in Mankewicz's hands.%0D %0D I'm sure she (mistakenly) felt her best years on film were long behind her at the time.

Mock all you like girls, but while it is true that Lucille Ball probably was not offered the Jane Fonda role in Klute, it is a known fact that she was vociferously pursued for The Graduate, The Manchurian Candidate, The Exorcist and Dressed to Kill. She just never truly believed that audiences would accept her as anything but her zany Lucy character. A shame really because she was an actress of unfathomable depth. One simply cannot do comedy the brilliant way she and not be.

surely one of Williams' strangest pieces EVAH

[quote]it is a known fact that she was vociferously pursued...%0D %0D Yes, I now do recall people chasing her screaming for her to play Chris MacNeil. Too bad she was already slated to play Sally Bowles in "Cabaret".

"Was it possible for Kate Hepburn to say a single nice thing about any other actress? She was such an insecure cunt beneath her tough exterior."

Actually, Hepburn was widely known not to be catty towards other actresses. She thought it was awful how Taylor was pimped out in that white suit by the director.

Hepburn spoke well of many actresses, Vivian Leigh, Garbo come to mind.

This Elizabeth Taylor documentary is EXTRAORDINARY. There's a segment where she recalls Monty's accident which, although upsetting and horrific, is unintentionally and embarrasingly hilarious as Liz impersonates Monty's muffled voice as she cradles him in her arms.

Yes 68.%0D Dame Maggie was better in the role.%0D %0D

"They gave me two weeks off after Mike's death.... because I'd developed a terrible stutter... but when I spoke in a southern accent, I could get rid of it."

It's a bad play, it's a worse movie.

There isn't an actress alive who could exclaim, "They aihhyut heeeyum!" and make it work.

My mom and I used to laff at this flick...and when Liz screams, Sebastan. Oy

How was the version with Maggie Smith and Natasha Richardson?

It's so appallingly audacious, I love it. So many scenes go off the rails, and thematically, what ISN'T it about!? Pretend you are writing a last minute term paper on a pre-selected topic, and use SLS as the prime example of the topic, no matter WHAT the topic is! It works every time.

"The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower..."

that is why you never say Goodbye you say Bye.

Hepburn though was very hostile towards Margaret Sullavan and tried to do her down at every opportunity (I think Sullavan also married Leland Heyard?) - and Kate stole several of Shirley Booth's roles for the movie versions - Booth had been the photographer in the stage run of Philadelphia Story. She starred in the stage version of Summertime which Kate got.

Shirley also starred in Desk Set, I think, and did an earlier TV version of The Glass Menagerie.

"- and Kate stole several of Shirley Booth's roles for the movie versions"

Hepburn had more of a Hollywood presence as a movie star than Shirley Booth. She didn't really "steal" the roles.

Quotes from a Hepburn People Magazine interview in 1976. I always thought she was very liberal, and was a little dissapointed at reading this:%0D %0D Q: Most films today are about lunatics? %0D %0D A: And degenerates. I try to avoid degenerates, because I think too much has been done for people who are totally alien to decent society. I would line them up%E2%80%94and eliminate them. %0D %0D Q: How do you explain the popularity of "buddy" films starring men like Robert Bedford and Paul Newman? %0D %0D A: That's another popular sport. Who's doing the writing? Men. As the male of the species gets weaker and more effeminate, they find themselves more fascinating. Beats me why.%0D %0D Q: Will we see the return of male-female teams like Tracy and Hepburn? %0D %0D A: Well, we better%E2%80%94both on and off the screen%E2%80%94or the population will cease.

R36=hello Lucy troll. I heard Lucy almost took the parts in Don't Look Now, Last Tango In Paris, and the Brenda Vaccaro part in Midnight Cowboy!

[quote]Mock all you like girls, but while it is true that Lucille Ball probably was not offered the Jane Fonda role in Klute, it is a known fact that she was vociferously pursued for The Graduate, The Manchurian Candidate, The Exorcist and Dressed to Kill.

And Lucy wouldn't have needed a body double in Dressed To Kill, like Angie Dickinson did. Lucy hated Kathleen Turner with a passion, Lucy was VERY CLOSE to signing on for both Crimes of Passion and Body Heat. Also Lucy was cast in the Melanie Griffith role in Body Double but had to back out over salary issues.

I was so disappointed in The Motels' song of the same name.

R1. By the way she SPAT on him not spit...Get it right.

Do these sorts of things happen today in Hollywood? Do actresses spit on directors?

The Lucille Ball troll is one of the unfunniest, lame-ass, retarded trolls I've ever seen on Datalounge. Really, enough of this shit, it's just stupid.

I'm not surprised Katherine H wanted to take Monty Clift in and take care of him - that's the essence of her relationship with Spencer Tracy. Talk about co-dependent. She was such a know-it-all by the time she died - opinionated, too certain of herself. And she sucked as an actress. Americans are suckers for anyone they think is in the upper class and Hepburn portrayed a member of the upper class in her life and roles. Unbelievable limited range. Barbara Stanwyck could do things as an actress that were entirely beyond Hepburn's very limited abilities.

But Hepburn was smart in that she realized her limitations early on and knew how she should be cast. And it worked.

I agree 100% with R4.

She was deserving of the Oscar for "The Lion in Winter", but not so much for "On Golden Pond" or "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". In all fairness, she was overcompensated for her efforts.

I never understood that part of the film where the hungry boy ripped the fag apart and ate him. Was there some poetic or literary device used here? Was there a thematic message being said there?

"I'm DIS-GUS-TED with the movies! It's BUNK - it's 42nd street FILTH!!!! And now its respectable to go and see them!!!"

I can't believe the way she sits in that clip with her legs up. She really had a strong masculine side to her.

She's actually quite loveable in the 60 Minutes clip and speaks very honestly. %0D %0D And goodness, who remembered that Morley Safer was so cute?

I've always preferred Bette Davis.

I fingered my asshole to Lucie Arnaz in The Jazz Singer.

It's kind of revolting, r104. She also had hideous feet and insisted on wearing open-toed sandals.

I happened to start the 1978 Patricia Bosworth biography over Thanksgiving, and it says this:

***

Throughout the filming of "Suddenly Last Summer" Monty was consistently late on the set, and he had trouble remembering his lines. Katharine Hepburn became concerned. "He used to have the most peculiar expression on his face. Whenever we'd shoot a scene, big beads of sweat would pop out on his forehead."

She became so worried about his health she took him with her to her country place outside London on weekends and tried to convince him to get off liquor and pills. "None of my arguments did any good. I thought he was weak. Simpatico but weak."

His condition got so bad, director Joseph Mankiewicz threatened to cancel the picture, but Elizabeth Taylor fought him on it. She was in a foul mood. The English newspapers had been full of stories ridiculing her current marriage to Eddie Fisher.

If she was disappointed in Monty she never showed it. Instead she was unfailingly loyal, affectionate, teasing. Producer Sam Spiegel wanted to get rid of him after seeing some early rushes. Elizabeth snapped, "Over my dead body." Monty stayed.

But Spiegel, who'd been extremely friendly before the picture started (they shared caviar) no longer would speak to Monty, and Mankiewicz, worried about going over the budget, was short-tempered with Hepburn and baited Monty cruelly whenever he was inaudible or had a memory lapse. He would often sit doing a crossword puzzle while they struggled to rehearse a scene.

By the end of filming Hep[burn was so furious at both men that as soon as she completed her last take she spat--first in Mankiewicz's face, then on the floor of Sam Spiegel's office.

She was incensed by their brutality, their lack of compassion for Monty. (However, years later she told an interviewer, "I didn't just spit for Monty Clift! I spit at them for the way they treated *me*.")

Monty, meanwhile, never appeared bothered by the verbal beatings he received from both director and producer. The pills he was on relaxed his muscles, soothed his nerves, and pushed back panic. "I'm fine," he would mumble, "fantastic."

Between takes he would wander back to his portable dressing room which was stocked with fresh shirts, orange juice, and books, and he would listen to Ella Fitzgerald tapes or answer his mail with Marge Stengel [his secretary].

Has any photo ever been more DataLounge?

Cousin Sebastian, whoever he was, had a nice ass.

Definitely not my favorite song by The Motels either.

It may surprise many to know that in late 1967 Lucille Ball was given serious consideration in the search for Sean Connery's replacement as James Bond. On her husband Gary's advice she turned it down.

I have to watch this at least once a year. Yeah, it's camp, lurid- but Violet has great sarcastic lines.

It's one of those movies where the backstory is part of the final product.

Hepburn is so freaking great in this--the movie doesn't make a bit of sense, but she's fantastic.

I think Cher copied Hepburn's entrance--the descending throne--in her Farewell tour and tours afterward.

I doubt that Sebastian ever "procured" any boys when he travelled with that bobbling old hen. No wonder he got Liz and her tits in that white bathing suit.

Lucy troll and Anti-Lucy Troll Trolls, the indisputable truth is that Lucy created Star Trek, not Gene Roddenberry...to be sure Gene wrote the show bible and produced the show, wrote scripts and set the tone, but if Lucy hadn't gone against the advice of her Desilu advisors and allowed Desilu to run in deficit almost to bankruptcy by producing this risky and expensive show in an attempt to revitalize Desilu with an attention grabbing hit, Star Trek would not exist. In any meaningful sense, Star Trek owes its existence to Lucille Ball (and to Desi for divorcing her - had he still been married to her, he never would've taken a financial risk like that).

"These Star Traks gonna cos wha?! Loo thee, you got some splanin to doooo..."

[quote]There isn't an actress alive who could exclaim, "They aihhyut heeeyum!" and make it work.

What about Vicki Lawrence?

Lucy was the first choice for Mildred Pierce, but Eve Arden was already cast, and Lucy rhought Eve might be too to simular physically. So she graciously stepped aside for Joan. Many years later Joan expresses her thanks by appearing on Lucy's dog of a TV show.

That "60 minutes" clip with Katharine Hepburn was wonderful. I liked her refreshing honesty about herself and her opinions. She's superb in "Suddenly Last Summer". Of course, Elizabeth Taylor was, too. She gave one of her best performances in that movie. Miss Taylor is my favorite movie star.

Yes, that 60 Minutes clip says it all about Kate, or rather she says it all about herself. She's brutally honest and self-deprecating and all with a fabulous sense of humor about herself. Like she knows what a fraud she is.

Love her!

It is on right now.

A hot mess.

The BEST hot mess. It is insanely watchable.

Katharine Hepburn should have made one movie - Stage Door - and then called it quits, because everything else she did was a carbon copy.

Lucy was cast in Deeper Throat, the sequel to Deep Throat, but the camera her contract called for was so out of focus, you couldn't see the dicks. The film was scrapped in post after weeks of strenuous shooting.

Why doesn't Kate have a southern accent?

[quote]Katharine Hepburn should have made one movie - Stage Door - and then called it quits, because everything else she did was a carbon copy.

Philadephia Story was one of the best movies ever made.

Katharine Hepburn was one of the few genuine movie stars. A Lion in Winter was great because of her.

She was also amazing in Long Days Journey into Night. She should have a fifth Oscar for that.

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” was her best performance. She should have won over Bancroft, then Bancroft should have won over her for 1967.

I’ve never agreed with people who claim Hepburn had no range. Vocally, yes, she kept her Bryn Mawr accent no matter what she did. But she could play roles in every single genre from screwball comedy to drama to adventure movies. She could be the epitome of a modern woman or be fully at home in period pieces. That seems like a pretty broad range to me, no matter what accent she uses.

R129, you can't be serious. To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, Hepburn ran the gamut of emotions from A to ...B.

R130 That's so boring to trot that cliche out from when Hepburn was just starting.

I was really shaken up by her performance in Long Day's Journey into Night. It reminded me of my alcoholic mother.

I find Katharine Hepburn immensely entertaining.

You can’t be serious if you think a good quip by Dorothy Parker defines Hepburn’s career, R130. But good job remembering a quotation! Maybe you can move up to an original thought sometime.

I think Sebastian being torn apart by young boys was metaphorical rather than actual in the play, Tennessee did complain about the literalness of the film's ending.

She was a real bitch to Mark Rydell on On Golden Pond.

Dorothy Parker's quip was amazing. And, probably, well justified.

But it was about Hepburn when she was both new and doing stage work.

Hepburn shined on film, not stage. Her angular face photographed so beautifully.

[quote]She was a real bitch to Mark Rydell on On Golden Pond.

And yet, she is the only thing memorable about On Golden Pond.

The only thing people recall, if anything, is the "knight in shining armor" speech.

[quote]I think Sebastian being torn apart by young boys was metaphorical rather than actual in the play, Tennessee did complain about the literalness of the film's ending.

It was such a stupid, over-the-top plot shocker anyway. Just silly.

True, R136, but everyone remembers it as “knight in shining aaamaaaa.”

R136, Jane's hair and body were pretty memorable too.

Henry Fonda made it memorable.

Lucy in The Exorcist:

"Your daughter is possessed by the devil."

"WAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Suddenly Last Summer is quite shitty.

Lucy in "Gone With The Wind"

"They Yankees are comin'! The Yankees are comin'!."

"WAAAAAAAAAAH!"

I’m a fan but it would have been more brave if she spit in the face of the director in the middle of production. What would they do ? Fire Katherine Hepburn?

R10. Right. In her biography A. Scott Berg said she never really warmed up to the material. It was also a bad set they said, just in terms of stability.

She also didn’t like not being the female lead at the center of the film.

I always thought it was funny how she never “knew” much about gay people. “We’re overpopulated. The men get feminine and the women masculine.” Is what she once told dick Cavett.

I did not like it but I don't remember why.

Apparently Spencer Tracy was a mean old drunk and I never heard better about Monty. I never heard much good about Hepburn but maybe people were jealous?

Hitchcock wanted Lucy for the lead in Strangers on The Train but she could never hit the ball over the net.