In his 2008 memoir. "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History," producer
Walter Mirisch says that he vetoed
John Huston's desire to use his daughter
Anjelica Huston as his leading lady opposite
John Hurt in "Sinful Davey," the story of a Scottish rakehell. Mirisch was worried that the inexperienced Huston, who had appeared in only one other film at the time,
A Walk with Love and Death (1969), also directed by her father, would have to adopt a Scottish accent for the role. In addition, Mirisch felt that "...her appearance was rather more Italian than Scottish, and in stature she towered over John Hurt. John and I then had a serious falling out about casting Angelica." (For the record, Angelica is officially listed as 5'10" tall and Hurt at 5'9".) The producer and his director butted heads over Huston's insistence that his daughter play the female lead, but Huston finally capitulated, and
Pamela Franklin was cast instead. (Angelica Huston appears in the finished film in an uncredited bit part.) The picture flopped, but Mirisch believed that the casting of the leading lady had nothing to do with it.
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