Although the 1953 film Sabrina has been acclaimed as a timeless classic by millions, there is a significant number of people who have carped and kvetched that Humphrey Bogart's Linus Larrabee was simply too old to convincingly be the love interest for Audrey Hepburn's Sabrina Fairchild. I would argue that casting someone like Bogi was absolutely crucial for the story to work. In the film, Billy Wilder's best in my opinion, Sabrina was convinced that she was in love with William Holden's David Larrabee. The character of David was a young impetuous pretty playboy plagued by serial matrimony. Linus was a gruff no-nonsense middle-aged jowly ultra-successful businessman. They were, intentionally, complete and utter opposites.
Casting someone like Cary Grant, who was considered for the role, simply wouldn't have worked because he was far too good looking, which would have sharply narrowed the psychological distance between the characters Linus and David. The naif Sabrina simply wouldn't have responded to to Grant the way she did to Bogart. The older Larrabee brother was the perfect persona for Sabrina to transition from her teenaged infatuation with dilettante David to real love with the mature and serious, if rather craggy, Linus.
Significant age difference was something of a hallmark of 40s and 50s romantic comedies, especially so in Audrey Hepburn's case. In addition to Sabrina, there was Roman Holiday, Love In The Afternoon, and Charade. It was also a feature of many other flicks such as, South Pacific, Susan Slept Here, The Big Sleep, To Have And Have Not, Key Largo, The Prince And The Showgirl, North By Northwest, Teacher's Pet, Houseboat, To Catch A Thief, and That Touch Of Mink, to name but a few. I note that Cary was extremely over-represented in these efforts. More recent entries include On A Clear Day, Last Tango In Paris, Network, and Manhattan. There are even May/December rom-coms featuring older women and younger men such as Harold and Maude and 40 Carets. It almost seems as if the M/D scenario is the rule rather than the exception.
In any case, these age differences have never mattered a whit to me in terms of my enjoyment of these films over the last 60 years. As for Sabrina, a movie has rarely, if ever, been cast as perfectly or directed and acted with more skill by everyone involved. And Audrey's four M/D films are some of the best ever made, with Roman Holiday atop the heap. Holiday is a stunningly fine film, with an utterly luminous Audrey in her major film debut, but I note that it was her only rom-com that had a less than happy ending.
