1958: Is wooed by MGM to sign a multi-picture deal, beginning with playing The Reluctant Debutante. Lynley opts instead for Walt Disney and The Light in the Forest. Sandra Dee is loaned to MGM from Universal to co-star in their comedy with Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall.

1960: She rejects the role of a coed in the Bing Crosby comedy High Time, directed by Blake Edwards, because she doesn’t want to work with Fabian again. (They co-starred the previous year in Hound-Dog Man.) She explains it is nothing against the young singer, but she wants better roles. Tuesday Weld happily takes her place.

1961: Lynley’s ex-husband, Mike Selsman, revealed in his autobiography that due to her pregnancy, she has to turn down starring opposite Tony Curtis in the comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble, which she really wanted to do because of director Norman Jewison, and the role of Olivia de Havilland’s mentally-disturbed daughter in MGM’s lush The Light in the Piazza, filmed in Italy. Suzanne Pleshette and Yvette Mimieux, respectively, step in.

1962: Loving sleek blondes, it is no surprise that Alfred Hitchcock considers her for the female lead in The Birds, but deems her too young. Newcomer and TV model Tippi Hedren gets pecked instead.

June 25, 1962: Is scheduled to appear with Ann-Margret, Diane Baker, and Barbara Eden in Jerry Wald’s production of All the Beautiful Girls from a script by Gavin Lambert for 20^th Century-Fox. It never happens.

June 21, 1963: She is red hot after filming Under the Yum Yum Tree and The Cardinal. MGM courts her to star in either the comedy His and Hers, or the romantic college drama The Young Lovers. Garson Kanin wants her for his comedy The Pink Stuff originally penned for Natalie Wood. She does none of them. His and Hers becomes Honeymoon Hotel with Nancy Kwan in the female lead opposite Robert Morse and Robert Goulet. Sharon Hugueny takes the coed role opposite Peter Fonda in The Young Lovers, while The Pink Stuff never comes to fruition.

September 2, 1963: The bosses at Columbia Pictures were so delighted with the performances of Lynley and Dean Jones in Under the Yum Yum Tree that each was signed to a picture deal. There was talk to reteam them in a remake of the musical Cover Girl starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. Thankfully, some would undoubtedly say, it did not come to pass.

1964: Lynley tests for director George Axelrod for the role of a dead playboy who comes back to inhabit the body of a beautiful blonde in Goodbye Charlie, co-starring Tony Curtis and Pat Boone. Debbie Reynolds is cast instead. The film is panned by the critics, but is a big hit with the public.

November, 1964: It is announced that she and Jeffrey Hunter are to begin filming the Warner Bros. thriller My Blood Runs Cold with Troy Donahue as a psychotic young man. For unreported reasons, they drop out at last second and are replaced by Joey Heatherton and Nicholas Coster.

httpV://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALHgVxYr7eY

September 30, 1965: It is reported by Hedda Hopper that after she helps Otto Preminger promote Bunny Lake Is Missing, she goes right into production of End of a Wild, Wild Summer opposite Alain Delon. After that she is scheduled to work for Preminger again in the comedy Genius by Patrick Dennis about an egocentric movie director who terrorizes everyone who works with him. Sounds like the Otto Preminger story. Neither comes to pass for Lynley—too bad, as she and Delon would have made one sexy couple.

1966: Lynley is legendary director John Ford’s first choice to play the innocent, young missionary to China in Seven Women, but MGM pushes contract player Sue Lyon on him. He relents.

1966: According to Vanity Fair’s Tales of Hollywood, she is #9 (after Suzanne Pleshette, but before Elizabeth Ashley) on producer Larry Turman’s wish list to play Mrs. Robinson’s daughter in The Graduate. Katherine Ross is cast and gets an Academy Award nomination.

July 8, 1966: Alex Freeman reports that she is wanted for the role of the nineteen-year-old babysitter opposite Burt Lancaster as The Swimmer, but is deemed, at age twenty-four, too old for the part. Newcomer Janet Landgard gets the role.

July 22, 1966: Mike Connolly writes that she signed a contract to star opposite James Mason as a drunken barrister in producer Anatole de Grunwald’s Stranger in the House. She was to play his teenage daughter who begs his help in defending her boyfriend, falsely accused of murder. The movie is made as Cop-Out with Geraldine Chaplin in the role meant for Lynley.

September 13, 1966: Director/writer Noel Coward announces that Carol Lynley will be his Pretty Polly for Universal Pictures. They worked previously on Bunny Lake Is Missing and became fast friends. The film, based on his short story “Pretty Polly Barlow,” is about a shy, young girl who accompanies her wealthy spinster aunt to Singapore. When the older woman unexpectedly dies, Polly is free to grow from a girl to woman when she falls for a local boy. Coward was replaced by director Guy Green and his script tossed, though he did get a story credit. With Coward out so was Lynley, and Hayley Mills got the part in the re-titled movie, A Matter of Innocence.

1967: Warren Beatty seriously considers her for the role of Bonnie opposite him in Bonnie and Clyde after he sees photos of her from Harlow and likes her Thirties-era look. But that is as far as it goes. Per Carol, “For the record, I never met with Warren Beatty to discuss Bonnie and Clyde, nor did I ever see the script.” 

May 12, 1967: Director Victorio de Sica reveals that Carol Lynley would be seen “parading semi-nude downRome’s Via Veneto” in Carlo Ponti’s new film. Unfortunately, it never came to pass, but what a stunning sight it would have been.

1969: Producer Tony Tigon offers Lynley the opportunity to star opposite Frankie Avalon as partying college kids in his British thriller, The Haunted House of Horror. Her rejection surprises Tigon, who touts working with the fading pop singer like he was Paul Newman or something. Fresh off her successful run on Broadway in Cabaret, Jill Haworth takes the bait, I mean part.

1970: Carol admits to turning down the role of Jack Nicholson’s sister-in-law in Five Easy Pieces (Susan Anspach steps in), yet she does Weekend of Terror and Beware! The Blob around the same time. Huh? She explains, “I really wanted to play the waitress role, but it was already cast with Karen Black. Since the producers were only paying scale, I passed on the other role—big mistake!” You, think? The movie received almost unanimous critical acclaim and earned a number of Academy Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture.

December 17, 1972: Lynley reveals in the Chicago Tribune that the producers of Play It As It Lays sent her the script, but she did not pursue the part (Tuesday Weld played the neurotic actress) because she needed a commercial success. Soon after, she landed The Poseidon Adventure. It became more of a hit that she probably could have ever imagined. She also says she is being considered for the female leads in the western The Man Who Loves Cat Dancing opposite Burt Reynolds and The Great Gatsby. She loses out to Sarah Miles and Mia Farrow, respectively.

1974: Lynley reveals in a few interviews that she will be reprising her role of Nonnie in the official sequel to The Poseidon Adventure. Producer Irwin Allen has promised her 3 costume changes as the survivors trek via train to a hearing about the ship’s sinking and crash under a mountain range with terrorists on board. This never came to fruition. Instead, Allen gave us one of the worst sequels of all-time, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure in 1979—piece of crap.

1961: After Juliet Prowse plays diva making too many demands to reunite with Elvis after their success in G.I. Blues, producer Hal Wallis’ offers Tiffin the role of Maile, the half Hawaiian girlfriend of returned G.I. Elvis Presley in Blue Hawaii (1961). She turns it down. Joan Blackman takes the part in one of the King’s biggest hits.

1962: Hal Wallis wants her to play Laurence Harvey’s Asian love interest in A Girl Named Tamiko. Pamela recalled, “I spent hours in makeup and did look Japanese. I thought, ‘I’m under contract, I’ll do whatever they want, but this is rather ridiculous.” Wiser heads prevailed, andTiffinis replaced by France Nuyen.

1962: Wallis offers her another chance to go to Hawaii to frolic opposite Elvis Presley this time in Girls! Girls! Girls! She rejects a second chance to work with the King and the role of a rich girl, who hides her wealth from the proud singer/fisherman. It goes to newcomer Laurel Goodwin.

1962: It is reported that Tiffin was in negotiations to play Cordelia, the lady love of Dirk Bogarde’s Soren Kierkegaard, a real-life nineteenth-century philosopher, in Diary of a Seducer. James S. Elliot was schedule to produce for Howard Koch’s Holly wood Artists Productions with Mexican Benito Alazraki directing a script by novelist Robert Payne. Elliot described the tale as “a chase, or a pursuit of perfection in love.” Filming was to begin in September 1962 on location in Greece. It never came to fruition. – New York Times, Feb. 18, 1962

1962: 20^th Century-Fox announces that she and Ann-Margret will star in Love in a Cool Climate “taken from” Frederick Kohner’s novel. They don’t. – Los Angeles Times, Mar. 1, 1962

1962: Director Robert Wise reveals that she will star in his next movie A Rage to Live, from John O’Hara’s bestselling novel about a nymphomaniac, for the Mirisch Corp. Film is released in 1965 with Walter Grauman directing and Suzanne Pleshette as the star. – Los Angeles Times, Apr. 3, 1962

1963: Tiffin once again rejects Hal Wallis’ offer to star opposite Elvis Presley this time in Fun in Acapulco. First time Bond Girl Ursula Andress takes the part. Wallis finally gets the message and never offers her an Elvis movie again.Tiffin explained, “Everybody told me not to do Elvis Presley movies. Peter Glenville and Dolores Hart in particular poisoned my mind against it.  I felt obligated to do these films but Mr. Wallis said it was up to me.  Here again I listened to other people.  I even met Elvis.  I thought he was adorable and an amazing gentleman.  But I still didn’t do the films.  I regret it deeply.” What is head scratching is where were these advisers when she accepted roles opposite Pat Boone and James Darren?

1963: Otto Preminger asks her to test for the role of the priest’s ill-fated sister Mona in The Cardinal. She doesn’t get the part, which goes to Carol Lynley. She remembered, “Preminger frightened me to death.  I knew he would.  He kept yelling, ‘No! No! No!’  I thought, ‘this isn’t for me because I can’t do anything right for him.’”

1963: Popular Pamela is wanted by author Dick Condon to star in the movie version of his comedy western novel A Talent for Loving, while George Goodman is writing The Venus Package especially with her in mind. A Talent for Loving is delayed until 1969, though never released theatrically in theU.S., with Genevieve Page in the female lead. – Hedda Hopper, Sept. 14, 1963

1964: Tiffin reveals that she is in discussion to star opposite Robert Morse in a New York City-set film to be called The Unusual Life of Willy Wildy. She commented, “He’s an embezzler and I’d play his wife, who’s crazy about cats.” However, it is the role of the kidnapped girl in The Collector that she really wanted. She admitted, “I’d love to get the part…but so many girls have tested for it that you never know.” Alas, Samantha Eggar got the part and an Academy Award Best Actress nomination, while the Morse flick never came to be. – Hedda Hopper, Feb. 9, 1964

1964: She tests for the female lead in the comedy The Great Race starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Though producers Martin Jurow and director Blake Edwards were “thrilled” with her reading, the role goes to Natalie Wood. – Hedda Hopper, Mar. 9, 1964

1964: Is reported that Warner Bros. wants Pamela to play the role of Honey in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She later tests for it with Robert Redford as her husband, but they lose out to Sandy Dennis and George Segal. – Hedda Hopper, Jul. 6, 1964

1964: Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin think “she would be adorable” for their next movie together, Community Property. It is re-titled Marriage on the Rocks and nepotism wins out, as Frank gives the role of his daughter to his real-life daughter, Nancy Sinatra. – Hedda Hopper, Jul. 6, 1964

1964: Pamela Tiffin’s agents are vigorously trying to get her the lead role in Candy figuring “it will guarantee her stardom.” Frank Perry is slated to direct from a script is by Terry Southern based on his novel. Movie cannot get financing and is shelved, but revived in 1968 with miscast Swede Ewa Aulin as the amorous innocent blonde. – Dorothy Kilgallen, Oct. 14, 1964

1965: She is one of only a very few “Hollywood” actresses allowed by director Sidney Lumet to read for a role in The Group. This is probably because she lived inNew York. She craved the role of the bitchy Libby, but it goes to Jessica Walter.Tiffin remarked, “They told me I was too funny. I was devastated, but Sidney Lumet did write me a kind note. A lot of people told me I was best for comedy, not drama. They were probably right.”

1966: She is #12 (after Yvette Mimieux but before Patty Duke) on producer Larry Turman’s wish list to play Mrs. Robinson’s daughter in The Graduate. Katherine Ross is cast and gets an Academy Award nomination. – Vanity Fair’s Tale of Hollywood

1970: Tiffin reveals that when she was offered the lead role in The Libertine (1968) she had a trusted female friend take photos of her topless to see if she felt comfortable. The role of a recent widow who learns her husband had a secret apartment for sexual encounters and decides to use it to discover her own sexuality required on-screen nudity. Tiffin decided to turn the part down (Catherine Spaak stepped in). However, the photographer sold the photos to Playboy magazine and published them in a February 1969 pictorial spread called “A Toast toTiffin.” And what a toast it was! The actress’ lawyers advised her to sue, but she did not want to cause a scandal bringing even more publicity to it and let it go. – Earl Wilson, Jan. 7, 1970

 

Movie screen that is, you dirty. Click here for information on the Widescreen Weekend Film Festival to be held in Bradford, England during the month of March. Among the epic films to be shown in 70mm on a huge curved screen  are Operation Crossbow with George Peppard and Sofia Loren, Doctor Zhivago with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, The Great Race with Jack Lemmon, Dorothy Provine and in a small role Christopher Riordan, and How the West Was Won with Carroll Baker of the infamous Harlow.