Perfect Movie Casts

All About Eve. As much as I love Claudette Colbert and Jeanne Crain I don't think it would be the classic it is without Davis and Baxter. And every other role is perfectly cast down to a novice Marilyn Monroe and Barbara Bates as Phoebe.

Pulp Fiction. Impeccably cast. Even Tarantino, who usually gets on my last nerve, was good as Jimmy.

Network.

Muriel’s Wedding. Toni Collette, who was phenomenal as Muriel/Mariel, and the actors who play her siblings and parents, all look related. Great cast of actors in all roles, right down to the dykey store detective

I’d say Four Weddings and a Funeral except for the plank of wood known as Andie MacDowell.

"Requiem for a Dream"

6 replies and no mention of "The Lion in Winter"? Perfect cast in every respect, from the veterans right down to the newcomers. The film wouldn't have worked as well as it did with any other actors, even individually replaced or en masse.

An Unmarried Woman

A Man for All Seasons in similar ways to The Lion in Winter including the Vanessa Redgrave cameo

Every EARLY John Waters movie.

Wouldn't Nashville own this thread?

"Victor/Victoria"-Every part was perfectly cast!

"Cockroach"

"A Room with a View." What's particularly remarkable about the cast is that so many of them were barely known at the time: Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Day-Lewis, Julian Sands, and Rupert Graves. Merchant and Ivory could really spot talent. Add in pros like Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Denholm Elliott and Simon Callow and you have a perfect cast.

The Departed

What's Up Doc. Yeah, Madeline Kahn was the stand-out, but every single cast member was funny!

Badlands

[ R 11 ] Nashville is beautifully cast and I would also nominate Altman's "Gosford Park".

Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. Perfectly cast.

The Last Picture Show

Carrie

The Third Man

^ The Last picture Show was perfection.

The Godfather Part 2

OMG! "Laura"

The Nice Guys.

A portly Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, and the wonderful young Australian actress Angourie Rice, plus smaller roles for Margaret Qualley, Keith David, TV Buck Roger's Gil Gerard (very briefly) and others. Just great casting.

Moonstruck

Coming to America

Koyaanisqatsi

Triumph of the Will

Clue!

All of those actors in a group throughout the whole movie with amazing chemistry amongst all of them.

Peggy Sue Got Married

Pee Wee's Big Adventure

The entire casts of both are excellent

Garbo Talks has a wonderful cast even down to the actors with only one or two lines.

Doubt

I know we love to make fun of snotty Viola, but she did nail that scene. Meryl was excellent, as were Philip Hoffman and Amy Adams.

The Sting

Death Becomes Her

R28

I’ll see your Clue and raise you one Murder By Death:

Maggie Smith, Peter Falk, Eileen Brennan, David Niven, Alec Guinness, Pete Sellers, and Truman Capote!

(See also Young Frankenstein)

One more: Broadcast News. Everyone is perfect.

Gone with the Wind. And a very large cast too!

Shawshank Redemption

Just mentioned it- The Purple Rose of Cairo!! Great cast, wonderful movie.

Except for Diane Keaton, R22. I saw it last year and she really stuck out, she was so bad in it. I don't normally hate her: she just wasn't even nearly up to that cast.

I know this isn’t considered a classic plus it was directed by Joel Schumacher and based on a Grisham book but Time to Kill (1996) had an incredible cast. Samuel Jackson, Matthew McC, Sandra Bullock in a surprisingly small role, Donald Sutherland, Patrick McGoohan, Brenda Fricker, Chris Cooper, M Emmet Walsh, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Ashley Judd, Octavia Spencer in her first role. Just note perfect everyone.

To R39-It should be considered a perfect cast because it is, on our Sat. movie night a month ago we watched this movie. All of agreed this was a great cast in a great movie

Also, "Absence of Malice" with Paul Neuman, Sally Fields, Wilford Brimley, Melinda Dillion (LOVE HER) and Bob Balaban.

Back to the Future once they dumped Eric Stoltz for Michael J. Fox. But this shows how important the lead is. You could've put almost anyone into the other roles and the movie still would have seemed perfect because of Fox.

R16. Including the fabulous Mabel Albertson in hot pants! What a wonderful character actress she was.

Taxi Driver

^^^^ Can you be specific?

The Women

Oh gosh yes, R45. Especially the smaller roles -- Mary Boland as the Countess, Marjorie Main as Lucy, Hedda Hopper as Dolly, Virginia Grey, Lucile Watson ("lay around in bed like a swastika [!!!]"), and especially the maid and cook at the Haines residence ("You can't trust men any further than I can kick this lemon pie!").

I agree that The Women was perfectly cast with the sole exception of Norma Shearer. Hers is a somewhat thankless role, but shedid

^ but she makes it too sugary and over the top

R47, Norma Shearer was perfectly cast in "The Women". Her performance was excellent; everyone in that film was too.

R49, that is your very valid opinion. To me Norma Shearer’s hamminess irremediably dates the film performance wise, all others are perfectly modern.

R47: “It’s wrong, shockingly wrong!”

Blue Sky with Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones. Very undeservedly overlooked movie. She’s simply great as a military wife who wants more than her life has given her and he is, too, as the man who loves and understands her and simultaneously won’t take her shit when she’s shaking her shapely ass all over the base and even right in front of him with an officer who outranks him.

Putting this up for discussion because I cannot make up my mind: The real Murder On The Orient Express (1974). It's a great example for an ensemble movie, great actors all the way, playing their roles at their best. But somehow I feel like hardly anybody had the right chemistry with anybody else. It could be the writing and direction. For a long stretch of the movie it is a variety show with lots of one-on-one scenes where everybody could shine individually. Am I wrong?

Paper Moon

Casablanca

The Boys in the Band. Thank goodness no Hollywood actors wanted those roles because the original off Broadway cast was so perfect. I felt like I was eavesdropping instead of watching actors act.

Widow's Peak, with Mia Farrow, Joan Plowright and Natasha Richardson& Jim Broadbent.

Heaven Can Wait

Laura

Tootsie

Happy Texas

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

Rear Window

Vertigo

Gilda

Stage Door

Stage Fright

Witness for the Prosecution

“Dodsworth”.

“The Little Foxes”.

“The Women”.

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”.

“Network”.

“Giant”.

“Working Girl”.

Almost Famous

The Birdcage

Sunset Boulevard

Fiddler on the Roof. Down to the last villager.

R53, that's an interesting take on MOTOE -- another hallmark film by Lumet who can handle large casts by giving everyone their chance to shine. See: 12 Angry Men, The Verdict, Dog Day Afternoon, and especially Network. (How he lost the Oscar to Avildsen't Rocky, I'll never know.) I loved the setup of Murder, mostly because of the vignettes. Rachel Roberts really shone, as did Gielgud, Bacall, and Redgrave.

Beetlejuice

Goodfellas

The Best Man

Amanda Mackey was the best casting director in the business. If you see her name in the credits the casting is impeccable.

Mystic River

Cats.

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