Folks you love to hate! Tell us your Favorite Film Villains!

[skydog757]

Amy Elliott Dunne as the vindictive, lying, manipulative wife who frames her husband for her murder in Gone Girl (2014); then murders a man who would do anything in the world for her and blames him for her kidnapping, rape and other assorted drama. Her sense of entitlement and total lack of scruples or empathy just chill me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Every single person in "Mildred Pierce." Right down to the extras.

 

[Fading Fast]

Every single person in "Mildred Pierce." Right down to the extras.

After chuckling out loud, I tried to think if anyone had any redeeming characteristics. One thing that is screwing my small brain up is that I saw the HBO / Kate Winslet version a few years back so the two are a touch jumbled in my head. The only character who might have developed some decency (and this might be from the HBO version) was Mildred's first husband - didn't he try to help her toward the end when she was basically being blackmailed into a second marriage? That said, he was narrow-minded and a jerk when he was married to Mildred.

 

[Worf]

Every single person in "Mildred Pierce." Right down to the extras.

Yipes!!!!! Remind me never to cross you! You've a long memory... and an even longer list!

Worf

 

[Denton]

Harry (played by Danny Glover) working his unexplained malign influence in To Sleep With Anger:

This should also go in the Unappreciated Masterpieces thread.

 

[Worf]

From Television:

Weyoun - "Star Trek DS9"

Cigarette Smoking Man - "The X Files"

Sarah O'Brian (aka The Ladies Maid from HELL!) - "Downton Abbey"

Miss Denker (Understudy to the above) - "Downton Abbey"

The One Armed Man/Lt. Phil Gerard - "The Fugitive"

Dr. Zachary Smith (at least in the beginning) - "Lost in Space"

John Locke - "Lost"

Lady Mary Crawley (aka The Sister from HELL!) - "Downton Abbey"

Oswald Cobblepot - "Gotham"

The Governor - "The Walking Dead"

Da Worfster

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^What the heck, nothing's new - so here goes, once again, my Mary defense.

But first, yup, Sarah O'Brian truly scary - even more so, just a bitter, angry woman who hates others as her default setting - didn't she basically cause Cora's miscarriage?

Now, on to Mary. Edith was no wonder sister herself. While Mary was a brutal older sister, Edith was the one who went nuclear first by sending the letter to the Turkish Embassy implicating Mary in Mr. Pamuk's death. Just the hint of a sexual, let alone a murderess, scandal would have finished Mary in that world.

And as seasons went by, Mary grew, matured, became less two dimensional and showed empathy - even toward Edith. While she always had a bit of that me-first attitude, she was at least learning that "me-first" isn't always right or becoming. I love that her character grew the way real people do - they become either hardened or attenuated versions of their younger selves - no full 180 degree change, but, in Mary's case, she developed a gradual softening of the edges and a more thoughtful reflection on the morality of her actions and their impact on others.

I thought by the last season she had become a pretty decent person, but with - and kudos to this true-to-life attribute - a still underlying bit of the "old" Mary.

No saint, but IMHO, no villain either.

But in truth, I just like to have this argument with Worf every six or so months - kind of like checking in with an old friend that I don't see often.

 

[Worf]

^^^What the heck, nothing's new - so here goes, once again, my Mary defense.

But first, yup, Sarah O'Brian truly scary - even more so, just a bitter, angry woman who hates others as her default setting - didn't she basically cause Cora's miscarriage?

Now, on to Mary. Edith was no wonder sister herself. While Mary was a brutal older sister, Edith was the one who went nuclear first by sending the letter to the Turkish Embassy implicating Mary in Mr. Pamuk's death. Just the hint of a sexual, let alone a murderess, scandal would have finished Mary in that world.

And as seasons went by, Mary grew, matured, became less two dimensional and showed empathy - even toward Edith. While she always had a bit of that me-first attitude, she was at least learning that "me-first" isn't always right or becoming. I love that her character grew the way real people do - they become either hardened or attenuated versions of their younger selves - no full 180 degree change, but, in Mary's case, she developed a gradual softening of the edges and a more thoughtful reflection on the morality of her actions and their impact on others.

I thought by the last season she had become a pretty decent person, but with - and kudos to this true-to-life attribute - a still underlying bit of the "old" Mary.

No saint, but IMHO, no villain either.

But in truth, I just like to have this argument with Worf every six or so months - kind of like checking in with an old friend that I don't see often.

Ahem.... in a word...... no!

(LOL)

Worf

 

[DNO]

Ma Jarret (Cagney's mother) in White Heat. What a nasty bit of work! She made Cagney's character look like a boy scout.

 

[skydog757]

Piper Laurie as the mother in Carrie (1976) was no prize either. Although Nancy Allen and John Travolta (as pretty despicable high school bullies) were the catalysts for Carrie lashing out at the prom, it was Carrie's mother who gave her a lifetime of abuse. That abuse culminated in her stabbing her own daughter, who had come to her for comfort after feeling betrayed at the very moment she had thought that she had finally been accepted by her peers.

 

[AmateisGal]

Loki from Thor and the Avengers movies. I do love to hate him! And Tom Hiddleston plays him so very well.

 

[AmateisGal]

Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber the "exceptional thief," in Die Hard.

Both Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb and Robert Shaw as "Red" Grant in From Russia with Love.

Totally agree with these!

 

[emigran]

Warren William as Paul Kroll in "The Match King." In fact, Warren William in just about anything.

GREAT movie Lizzie...!!!
But he's often a likeable buffoon too (Goldiggers with Kibbe as his foil ) and the Lone Wolf series with Eric Blore...

 

[emigran]

Robert Ryan in Crossfire...
and I forget the one where he tries to steal Barbara Stanwyck from Paul Douglas...
and lest we not forget Richard Widmark either...

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Skydog757's post reminded me of the ultimate Mother From Hell, Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). In a movie full of despicable people, she was a standout.

 

[emigran]

Saw another Warren William ... Skyscraper Souls 1933... Owns a huge skyscraper he loaned himself $30 million on ... now can't pay the loan off... Double deals banks with crooked mergers, cheats on his secretary with HER secretary... wants to keep the building at all costs.... Gets shot and killed by secretary who immediately jumps off balcony... long suffering wife ends up with building which she sells anyway and young secretary ends up with goony boyfriend...
Alll in a three piece suit and Homburg

 

[Fading Fast]

Saw another Warren William ... Skyscraper Souls 1933... Owns a huge skyscraper he loaned myself $30 million on ... now can't pay the loan off... Double deals banks with crooked mergers, cheats on his secretary with HER secretary... wants to keep the building at all costs.... Gets shot and killed by secretary who immediately jumps off balcony... long suffering wife ends up with building which she sells anyway and young secretary ends up with goony boyfriend...
Alll in a three piece suit and Homburg

And if memory serves, that all takes place in a breathtaking 90 minutes or so. They didn't waste time in too many of those early '30s movies.

 

[Denton]

Can we include Cary Grant's performance in Suspicion in this category? In his best roles (including Only Angels Have Wings and Notorious) he tends to play heroes as though they were villains. He goes further in Suspicion -- the happy ending doesn't erase the implication that he wants Joan Fontaine's money and has been thinking about murder.

 

[MisterCairo]

Every single character in the Wes Anderson film the Royal Tenenbaums.

The only film I've ever watched where I wished fictional characters could all get a fatal disease and die onscreen.

 

[Fading Fast]

Can we include Cary Grant's performance in Suspicion in this category? In his best roles (including Only Angels Have Wings and Notorious) he tends to play heroes as though they were villains. He goes further in Suspicion -- the happy ending doesn't erase the implication that he wants Joan Fontaine's money and has been thinking about murder.

Could not agree more. The "code," or the studios belief that happy endings equal better ticket sales made them slap a happy ending on "Suspicion" which is not how it went in the book "Before the Fact" that "Suspicion" was based upon.

Grant does that "good guy - bad guy - I don't know" thing really well again in "To Catch a Thief" where you don't know for a good while if he is the cat burglar or not and his performance leaves you unsure until it is fully revealed.