10 Amazing Movies With Weirdly Distracting Castings

9. Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye Arnold Schwarzenegger
MGM

Before he was an actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a renowned champion bodybuilder and athlete. He got his first film role in 1970's Hercules in New York, but it wasn't until 1982's Conan the Barbarian that his star truly began to rise. Arnie came to dominate the eighties with iconic performances in films like The Terminator, Commando, and John McTiernan's Predator - arguably the best action film ever made.

Before Schwarzenegger made a home in the action genre, however, he had several roles of varying prominence. Undoubtedly the most surprising of these is his brief turn as a henchman in Robert Altman's Phillip Marlowe adaptation, The Long Goodbye. Altman's film is one of the finest efforts in the noir genre, an exhaustive, dreamlike mystery anchored by a career-defining performance from Elliott Gould.

It's sort of the last place you'd expect Arnie to show up, but show up he does, in a scene where Marlowe is interrogated by local gangster Marty Augustine. Arnie has his shirt off and menacingly flexes his pecs. The fact he goes uncredited in this one makes it an amazing jump scare.

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Content Producer/Presenter
Content Producer/Presenter

Resident movie guy at WhatCulture who used to be Comics Editor. Thinks John Carpenter is the best. Likes Hellboy a lot. Can usually be found talking about Dad Movies on his Twitter at @EwanRuinsThings.