re: are we supposed to believe Walter Mitty....

quote:

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in The Firm its obvious in a few scenes they wanted him to look taller than gene Hackman who is around 6'2"

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I'd have to rewatch it, I don't recall that

I've been watching the old western TV series The Virginian. In two-shots Doug McClure as Trampas (over six feet) is somehow the same height as The Virginian of James Drury (well under six feet).

In I Walk Alone (1947), the first teaming of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, the former (6'2") towers over the latter by at least 5 inches. But in Gunfight At OK Corral (1957, by which time Douglas had become a major star), Burt is only about an inch taller.

Some short stars through the years were secure enough to be open about it: Jimmy Cagney, Richard Widmark, Pacino, Paul Newman...

Other stars took pains to hide being short: Stallone, Mel Gibson, Bronson, Steve McQueen (in some films; in others he didn't seem to care), James Mason, Richard Burton... The most infamous example was Alan (Shane) Ladd, who usually tried to block the casting of any actor taller than him. Later when he made a film opposite Sophia Loren, he was generally shot either standing on a box or with her in a ditch. In the other scenes either one or both of them is sitting down, or in one infamous scene on the steps of a church, Ladd stands one step above her.