Trivialidades for
The Last Tycoon (1976)

photos

board

trailer

details

• Sam Spiegel had wanted Jack Nicholson for the part of Monroe Stahr, but Elia Kazan had opted for Robert De Niro.
  
  
• Based on the life of MGM producer and executive Irving Thalberg.
  
  
• Originally Mike Nichols was going to direct.
  
  

• Mike Nichols tried to sign Dustin Hoffman for Monroe Stahr.
  
  
• Al Pacino rejected the leading role.
  
  
• Anjelica Huston tried out the lead of Kathleen, but Spiegal preferred Susan Sarandon. But Ingrid Boulting got the role.
  
  
• This is Theresa Russell's first film.
  
  
• Elia Kazan's last film
  
  
• Producer Sam Spiegel considered Elia Kazan, who directed On the Waterfront (1954) (which won Spiegel his first of three Best Picture Oscars), one of his closest friends. He chose Kazan, who was virtually retired, to direct The Last Tycoon (1976). According to Spiegel biographer Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, Spiegel had a father-son relationship with "Tycoon" screenwriter Harold Pinter, the great playwright. Spiegel was quite taken with Pinter's genius, so much so it hurt the film adaptation of The Last Tycoon (1976), wrote "Tycoon" director Kazan in his own autobiography, as Spiegel treated the screenplay as sacrosanct and wouldn't let Kazan change it to create more dramatic tension. Ironically, when Spiegel had first seen a screenplay written by Pinter in the 1960s (The Servant (1963), he had been appalled by its lack of professionalism.
  
  
• 'Romy Schneider' turned down the role of Didi.
  
  
• Bonnie Bartlett's film debut.
  
  

Related Links