25 Messages
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424 Points
Why Would a Correction Be Rejected for Bad Formatting When the Correction is Obviously Right?
The other night I watched "Stalag 17" (1953) and listened to the audio commentary on the DVD, by three people who were involved in the film as actors and screenwriter. Having listened to the commentary, I realized that Larry Storch, who is credited by the IMDb, does not appear in the picture. In fact, it is his brother, Jay Lawrence, who looks much like him, who appears in the picture. And in fact, the IMDb *itself* says in the *onscreen credits* portion of the cast list (the upper part of the cast list) that it is Jay Lawrence, not Larry Storch, who plays "Sgt. Bagradian". Yet sure enough, some IMDb fan, fooled by the superficial resemblance between the two brothers, has in the lower part of the cast list added Larry Storch to the cast, as "Sgt. Bagradian". This means that the IMDb cast list *contradicts itself*, by having two different actors playing the same part. I tried to sort this out with the following correction, but it was rejected for not meeting "formatting standards" -- whatever those are. I provided links to the IMDb article on Jay Lawrence plus a reference to the DVD commentary, but apparently that did not meet "formatting standards". Yet anyone who understands the English language, and took five seconds to scroll up and down the cast list on IMDb and see that "Sgt. Bagradian" appears *twice*, should have been able to tell that something was wrong with the IMDb cast list, and that my explanation solves the problem. Here is what I wrote -- to no avail, because Larry Storch is still (wrongly) added to the lower half of the cast list:
ACTOR DELETION
Storch, Larry
Sgt. Bagradian
(uncredited)
Your Comment
“As you can see by looking at the main, on-screen credits in the top half of this same IMDb listing, it is not Larry Storch, but Jay Lawrence, who plays "Sgt. Bagradian". This is confirmed in two places: first, on the IMDb pages for Jay Lawrence, he is stated four times to play Sgt. Bagradian, three times at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0492817/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3 and once at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0492817/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm. The second of these pages provides the additional information that Jay Lawrence's birth name was "Jay Lawrence Storch" and that he is the younger brother of Larry Storch. This explains why he looks so much like Larry Storch and why an IMDb fan might look at him and think he was Larry Storch. If any further confirmation of this is needed, the commentators on the Paramount DVD commentary on the film, all of whom acted in the film or wrote the script, specifically state that Bagradian is Larry Storch's brother (i.e., not Larry Storch himself). I just listened to it today. So this entry has to be deleted. Otherwise the IMDb user will see two different actors playing the same character and will not know which entry is correct.”
ReasonBadly Formatted.
Your contribution has been declined.Your contribution did not meet our formatting standards. Please review our submission guides.
Fran
Employee
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3.6K Messages
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36.3K Points
3 years ago
Hello old_film_lover,
I have checked the submission and the duplicate credit has been removed, the changes will be on the site shortly!
Cheers!
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