Post by chaney on May 20, 2010 10:59:45 GMT -5
A Spencer Tracy courtroom drama released in 1951, Charlie has a one scene bit part in one of his first films. He plays the brother of the criminal Tracy has on the stand. Tracy visits the family home and all the brothers are eating soup around a table. Charlie's mostly silent as Tracy talks about his brother, then suddenly stands up and says, "Brother? Jerk! Lunkhead!" in that clipped Charlie speech. He then says something else in slavic and that's it for his part.
It's not much, but in hindsight Charlie still has the most presence of the brothers. Would be interesting to know how these kind of parts were perceived by the industry at the time. Was Charlie being noticed? It's easy for us to see the roles now and focus only on Charlie and his part. Were viewers back then drawn to watching him due to his presence and looks as opposed to the other bit players?
It's not much, but in hindsight Charlie still has the most presence of the brothers. Would be interesting to know how these kind of parts were perceived by the industry at the time. Was Charlie being noticed? It's easy for us to see the roles now and focus only on Charlie and his part. Were viewers back then drawn to watching him due to his presence and looks as opposed to the other bit players?