"To Kill a Mockingbird" has a perfect film father in Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch

It’s kind of a perfect film.

Gregory Peck is perfection personified.

I love Gregory Peck, too

Gregory Peck was one of the classiest men.

I’ve always thought Scout looks like David Keith.

Stand up. Your father’s passing.

Did Scout ever marry?

Gregory Peck on Desert Island Discs (1980)

He discusses his childhood, being a model, being a janitor, his film career, Moby Dick, wine, opera, and Abraham Lincoln.

Gregory Peck with author Harper Lee. Not only did they become friends, so did Peck with Mary Badham and Brock Peters, who spoke at Greg's funeral.

I detest message movies with perfectly moral protagonists.

With Betty Bacall on the set of Designing Women

R10. Wow. You're a real barrel of laughs, I bet.

This is why I dislike the movie. Perfect white savior. Blech.

All my scenes were cut..

I loved everything about To Kill a Mockingbird when I first saw it,...except the little girl, Scout, played by Mary Badham. She was annoying, homely and I didn't care about her. I found Dill adorable.

Scout made me think of Lily Tomlin's Edith-Ann character

The movie is good. The novel is near perfect.

We had to read the novel in school. 9th grade I think. I loved it.

He didn't save anyone, r13. Are you sure you're familiar with the story? He was supposed to be a decent person who tired and failed to stop injustice. Not perfect.

Shucks, R15! You're adorable too.

With the publication of Harper's original concept for the story, "Go Set a Watchman," I started to wonder how much of TKAM was Lee's and how much of TKAM was the editors Harper lived with in NYC.

Those books are so different and so is the Atticus character.

I love TKAM - have enjoyed the novel (and its many additional stories) and the film is a great distilation of the story to Tom Robinson.

No, I think Scout was perfectly cast.

My class also read it in 9th grade English. We read a lot of books and mostly hated them (“Death Be Not Proud” anyone?) but everyone loved reading Mockingbird.

I once (re)watched the movie with a bunch of surfer/doper bros, it was on past midnight. I expected there to be some razzing but no, could’ve heard a pin drop.

Today they'd name him Gregory Pecker and he'd have an OF.

One ☝️ f the greatest books and films of the 20th Century. Can’t believe fucking MAGA school districts ban it.

Did anyone see Jeff Daniels as Atticus on Broadway? Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit.

One of my favorite movies, but once you've seen Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank it's near-impossible not to hear Mayella Ewell's speech in Jerri's voice:

[quote] I got somethin' to say! And then I ain't gonna say no more! He took advantage of me! An' if you fine, fancy gentlemen ain't gonna do nothin' about it, then you're just a bunch of lousy, yella, stinkin' cowards, the whole bunchaya! And your fancy airs don't come to nothin,' your Ma'amin' and your Miss Mayellarin' — it don't come to NOTHIN' MISTAH FINCH!

R15- I find Parsley 🌿 adorable.

Wasn't Dill supposed to be Truman Capote in real life?

R28 Yes.

The child actor who played Dill was Connie Stevens' brother and died of AIDS.

R25 that’s your loss. The original Broadway production was lovely to see, with excellent performances from Daniels and the three actors playing the children.

I’ve read the book ten times over and seen the film a dozen times more than that. I was prepared to be totally disappointed with Sorkin’s stage play. Instead, walked out the theater more than satisfied. it was different from the book and the film in certain ways, of course, but done with nuance and great respect for both Lee’s and Foote’s earlier work.

I think this is the worst "hot take" ever!

I kid OP!

Of course, I totally agree:

Peck was perfect. The film was perfect. The book is perfect.

See this thread…it started out about Patty Duke’s Oscar and expanded to cover all of that year, including TKaM. There’s a lot more good info about the movie than on this thread, including Greg Peck’s Oscar win, Mary Badham, etc.

One of my favorite parts is so small but it’s when Scout is complaining about her dress while Atticus is sitting at the table. Peck just quietly chuckles at her - it’s such a cute little moment in a movie filled with big, important moments.

He was a Star Trek guest star among many other later roles, a Cornell grad and a teacher in the LAUSD.

Mary’s brother, stayin’ alive.

The only thing wrong with Peck's portrayal was that it was so perfect that it totally blew away Peter O'Toole in 'Lawrence of Arabia', which was a nuclear bomb of a performance and deserved to win.

It should’ve been a tie vote. My guess is the voters thought Peck was due and O’Toole was new on the scene and would have more chances.

He ended up with an Honorary Oscar in 2002. Nominated for Becket, lost to Rex Harrison; nominated for Lion in Winter, lost to Cliff Robertson. He should’ve won that one. I can see losing to My Fair Lady, the most popular movie that year but losing to Charly which is now forgotten.

You can hear the ovation from the audience when Peck wins (they didn’t stand for winners ad nauseam in those days). He was about the most well-respected actor (as a person) in Hollywood at that time. TKaM had the second most nominations overall that year, and was nominated in every major category except for film editing. It’s no surprise that Peck won.

He also knew how to say thank you—he even acknowledged the cinematographer, and press and critics!

^

R15. She is the key that unlocks the entire movie. 🤔

R31, is it true that in Sorkin’s stage version the story was told more through Atticus’ point-of-view than Scout’s?

Richard Thomas is playing Atticus on tour. He’s supposed to be excellent, and having seen him on Broadway four times, I can well imagine he would. Mary Badham was playing one of the neighbors.

No.

The major difference, in my view, was that Atticus is to a small extent seen as less “golden.” For dramatic effect, he crated a new scene between Atticus and Calpurnia, to that effect. I thought it worked. Sorkin brought Cal more front and center—and gave her a voice.

It always was odd, in the novel and the film, that we never actually hear Calpurnia’s view. After all, she’s one of only two Black characters and Scout’s mother figure (in the film at least…since Foote cut the character of Aunt Alexandra).

R45 she played, for a while, not just any neighbor. She was Mrs. Dubose! That must have been a kick for her.

How did the movie affect chifforobe sales?

Like hats after JFK—they disappeared. Tainted wood.

R28 that’s like saying Atticus was Asa Lee in real life. Not literally, just an inspiration at best.

[quote] She was annoying, homely and I didn't care about her.

You prefer Scout to look like a Kardashian?

R15 may have been beat up by a tomboy in grade school.

I saw Scout at MichFest.

no syrup at the cantine r53

Scout, I was molested.

Scout was to be the ham…curtains.

Canteen or Cantina**

Oops

“Neighbors bring food with death, flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives. I was to think of these days many times. Of Jem, and Dill, and Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson, and Atticus. He would be in Jem's room all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.“

Sigh…

Fun fact: Peck and his wife Veronique were very close friends of French President Jacques Chirac.

Years ago I read an account of a woman who worked as a cater waiter at a New Year’s Eve party in Hollywood. When midnight came, she happened to be standing next to Gregory Peck. He said happy new year to her and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. I thought that was a very sweet story.

The End

R58 here — I miscopied the full text from Foote’s screenplay…which differs a bit from the novel…still *sigh*

“Neighbors bring food with death, flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives. One time Atticus said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough. The summer that had begun so long ago had ended, and another summer had taken its place, and a fall, and Boo Radley had come out. I was to think of these days many times. Of Jem, and Dill, and Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson, and Atticus. He would be in Jem's room all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.“

[quote]Fun fact: Peck and his wife Veronique were very close friends of French President Jacques Chirac.

Did someone say "Veronique?"

Has anyone seen the version they put on at the courthouse in the county where the story was set? I was driving through Alabama a long time ago (>20 years) and was tempted to try to go, but it didn't fit my schedule, unfortunately.

Not in person—second hand, it’s very different.

The interior set at Universal Studios was a very good approximation of the actual Monroe County court. The exterior set, of course, existed on the backlot for many years—used later, most famously, in Back to the Future.

The producer and the production designer fully intended to shoot on location in Monroeville, until they got there and saw it looked nothing like the 30s. On return to LA, Henry Bumstead hit on the brilliant idea of buying old houses subject to eminent domain (for the expanded LA freeway system). He moved several houses to the Universal lot, and created a neighborhood out of whole cloth. That’s why he won the Oscar. The Radley house still exists on the backlot —with different paint and features, it’s been seen in dozens of movies and tv shows.

^ winning the Oscar

He won again for The Sting

There’s an old Hollywood adage: too many great movies came from lousy books, and too many great books made for lousy movies.

It’s a rare trick to take a great (beloved) book and turn it into an equally great screenplay. Horton Foote pulled it off, despite excising large sections of Finch family backstory, at least two major figures and multiple episodes among the children.

He later won a Pulitzer for drama. He won a second Oscar for his original screenplay starring …old Boo Radley. Horton was straight, BION.

…cum and, appparently, cocaine…

Colin Wilcox just scared the bejesus out of me when I saw the movie (in re-release in 1969, when I was 12). The most physically repulsive and vicious racist bitch imaginable.

Until Trump rallies.

This will scare you: Mayella + $6 million dollar man + Spock’ mother. Produced by Dr. Auschlander.

R69 tom Ewell was the evil racist. Mayella was the tragic by-product. She liked Tom…but that wasn’t possible in Old Sarum.

[quote]tom Ewell was the evil racist. Mayella was the tragic by-product.

When I saw the movie again as an adult, I thought there was some subtext that Mayella was being raped by her father, but nothing actually was said. It made sense that that was why she came on to Tom Robinson.

The implication was that her father fabricated the rape due to perceived shame and humiliation at his daughter’s action toward Tom. It didn’t go beyond that in context—but if it happened in Peyton Place it could happen in Old Sarum, too.

"Go Set a Watchman" made my skin crawl. An unfortunately marketed malformation.

I've always wondered if Capote assisted or if he spread that story to punish her for her success.

The latter, as is well known to all.