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Audrey Hepburn sipping coffee and nibbling on a Danish pastry while gazing into Tiffany’s front window in the early sunlight of a New York morning became an iconic movie moment when BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S opened Oct. 6, 1961.

Had things gone as planned, Marilyn Monroe would have been standing there with John Frankenheimer directing instead of Blake Edwards. Truman Capote, who wrote the 1958 novella the Paramount film was based on, had envisioned Marilyn as his elegant lady-of-the-evening, Holly Golightly. But after she was cast, Marilyn’s drama coach, Lee Strasberg, warned that playing that sort of part would hurt her image.

So, the search was on for a new Holly. Shirley MacLaine & Kim Novak were among those who passed. When it finally went to Hepburn, Capote was very unhappy. That made Hepburn highly self-conscious whenever the bestselling author turned up on set. In fact, Hepburn thought she’d been miscast and felt that way even after receiving a best actress Oscar nomination.

Hepburn did, however, insist on having a new director, saying she’d never heard of Frankenheimer. She wasn’t wrong as he’d only made one small film prior to 1960. After Frankenheimer was paid off, he was available to direct what became the classic thriller THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, starring Frank Sinatra & Laurence Harvey. George Axelrod, its screenwriter & producer (with Frankenheimer), also happened to be the screenwriter for BREAKFAST.

Hepburn definitely knew of Edwards, who’d already directed the 1959 comedy OPERATION PETTICOAT with Cary Grant & Tony Curtis. Edwards went on to direct a long list of hit movies, including THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962), THE PINK PANTHER (1963) and many of its sequels.

Edwards had his hands full from the start. The first scene they shot was Holly eating her Danish at Tiffany’s. Hepburn, however, hated pastries. That was bad enough, but the scene was complicated, although it doesn’t look it, and many takes were necessary — meaning many bites of unwanted Danish. The role was particularly difficult for Hepburn, who was quite introverted while Holly was an extreme extrovert.

To score the film and create a song for Hepburn, Edwards hired composer Henry Mancini, who’d done the theme for the PETER GUNN series (1958-61) that Edwards had directed. Mancini brought in lyricist Johnny Mercer and together they wrote “Moon River,” which almost was titled “I’m Holly” or “Blue River.” It was composed to fit Hepburn’s limited vocal range and was along the lines of what she’d done so well in Paramount’s 1957 musical comedy FUNNY FACE.

At a studio meeting after an early BREAKFAST screening, an executive said of “Moon River,” “I think the first thing we can do is get rid of that stupid song.” Whereupon, Hepburn reportedly stood up and replied, “Over my dead body!”