Here's a ''character'' issue that George Bush neglected: What happens when two actors (like Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford) tackle the same film role? Some revealing cases from moviedom's Oddities file:
Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986)/Biloxi Blues (1988)
*Character: Eugene Jerome *Actors: Jonathan Silverman/Matthew Broderick
*Difference: His performance may be stage-stuck, but Silverman's
younger Eugene exudes more chutzpah than Broderick's supposedly older
one.
Manhunter (1986)/The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
*Character: Hannibal Lecter *Actors: Brian Cox/Anthony Hopkins *Difference: Cox's
Lecter — all oily black hair and eyebrows — is fine, but Hopkins'
Oscar-winning bad doctor is the seductive core of the second movie.
The Pink Panther (1964)/Inspector Clouseau (1968)
*Character: Inspector Clouseau *Actors: Peter Sellers/Alan Arkin *Difference: Arkin's onetime outing as the bumbling detective is wryly charming,
but no match for slap-shtickster extraordinaire Sellers.
The Sting (1973)/The Sting II (1983)
*Characters: Henry Gondorff
and Johnny Hooker/Fargo Gondorff and Jake Hooker *Actors: Paul
Newman and Robert Redford/ Jackie Gleason and Mac Davis *Difference: Glamorous buddies Newman and Redford morph into porcine Gleason and
putty-faced Davis, the characters inexplicably separated by a
generation.
Superfly (1972)/The Return of Superfly (1990)
*Character: Priest
*Actors: Ron O'Neal/Nathan Purdee *Difference: Purdee's cleaned-up,
processed Priest, a kinder, gentler version for the '90s, makes one
pine for O'Neal's ultrasexy sideburns, malevolent mustache, and long
hair.
