10 Leading Film Characters That Didn’t Really Go Anywhere
6. Carla Brody - Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
The deaths of Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and Sean Brody (Mitchell Anderson), provided the opportunity for Ellen (Lorraine Gary) and Michael Brody (Lance Guest) to hold the fort against the vengeful shark in Jaws: The Revenge. However, the wider Brody family sadly leaves a lot to be desired.
Michael’s wife, Carla (Karen Young) does little more than nag, get up to racy things in her art studio, and then nag some more. Oh, and don't forget lots of screaming!
Whilst she is understandably upset that her daughter, Thea (Judith Barsi) has witnessed a shark attack and, even worse, that her husband knew about the fish’s presence all the time because he was studying it with his friend and colleague, Jake (Mario Van Peebles), she resorts to nagging Michael again, whilst Ellen defiantly heads out to sea to finally face the vengeful beast that has tormented her family for so long.
The film - a vehicle for Lorraine Gary, wife of then-President of Universal Studios, Sidney Sheinberg - left little screen time to develop other characters, clearly impacting upon those who might otherwise have been valuable to this last instalment in the franchise and perhaps in convincing audiences that it still had its sea legs.
This left Carla, in particular, as little more than set dressing, meaning that not many audiences would really want to pay to see her fulfilling Ellen's role in a future Jaws film.