Question: My wife and I were having dinner recently at an Italian restaurant and the background music was Dean Martin singing songs from Guys and Dolls. We agreed that Martin would have been much better than Marlon Brando in the movie — was Martin too new on the Hollywood scene to be considered, or was the studio pushing Brando?
Answer: Producer Sam Goldman wanted Gene Kelly to play Sky Masterson in the movie version of the Broadway hit Guys and Dolls (1955), but Kelly couldn't get released from his MGM contract. (Though MGM stands for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sam Goldwyn was only part of the studio, which was formed by merging three existing companies, for a couple of years; in 1923, he formed his own Samuel Goldwyn Productions. MGM kept the
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Kirk Douglas, 88, who has just had double knee surgery, is on a walker and in pain. But that doesn't stop him and Michael, 60, from sitting in Kirk's sunroom to discuss Lee Grant's riveting, warts-and-all documentary about them, A Father… a Son… Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (premiering Aug. 13 on HBO). Though these two Oscar winners are movie royalty, they are willing to talk about how they've maintained a close bond despite deep hurts, as well as their legendary successes.
TV Guide: Why did you do the documentary?Michael Douglas: A couple of reasons. Initially we thought we were just going to talk about how [the entertainment] business has changed. Then we got into discussions about how one man is a rags-to-riches immigrant Russian Jew born two years after his father (who cannot read or write) came here. That's an incredible story. And then there is the story of the second or th
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