Movie Villains

[Naphtali]

Possibly the most interesting portrayal of a villain was by Humphrey Bogart in "The Desperate Hours." Like John Wayne in the two movies where he was more than adequate, Bogart's villain was simultaneously the hero of the story. You rooted for him to do the right thing while you wanted the situation he forced to end.

A less complex villain while much better recognized is Bogart as Fred C. Dobbs in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre." He is a normal, decent human being who degenerates before us. Special note: Essentially all the memorable dialogue in the movie is John Huston's. In the book for example, there IS NO Fred C. Dobbs -- just Dobbs.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Naphtali --

Years ago, I saw High Sierra and felt bad because I knew what was going to happen to "Mad Dog" Earl at the end.

karol

 

[cooncatbob]

Patty McCormack as Rhoda in "The Bad Seed"

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Oh, yes, villainous children! Let's see, there was also Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Possibly the most interesting portrayal of a villain was by Humphrey Bogart in "The Desperate Hours." Like John Wayne in the two movies where he was more than adequate, Bogart's villain was simultaneously the hero of the story. You rooted for him to do the right thing while you wanted the situation he forced to end.

A less complex villain while much better recognized is Bogart as Fred C. Dobbs in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre." He is a normal, decent human being who degenerates before us. Special note: Essentially all the memorable dialogue in the movie is John Huston's. In the book for example, there IS NO Fred C. Dobbs -- just Dobbs.

Not to discount his In a Lonely Place performance.

 

[jazzzbaby]

Vincent Price in several films
Bette Davis ~ Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?
Jack Nicholson ~ The Shining
Margaret Hamilton ~ The Wizard of Oz

 

[DanielJones]

Jason Isaacs. He's played some good guys before, but his villains are the kind you just loathe. The kind of person you wouldn't hesitate watching getting his come-upings. It's a great testament to his acting abilities. When an actor makes you hate the character he plays you know he's doing a good job.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Lady Day]

Al Swearengen

**been watching Deadwood Season 3

LD

 

[Diamondback]

+1 on Ironside, but add:

Henry Czerny. A real gift for playing the "Poindexter 'Crat Gone Bad"--he played both Ritter in Clear and Present Danger and Kittridge in Mission: Impossible, both characters I woulda liked from first sight to take out sharkfishing--as bait.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Once in awhile, someone plays a villainous creature so notoriously that he or she becomes part of the pop culture and perhaps even an anti-hero.

Here is one such villain, played by the most able actor, Anthony Hopkins:


http://www.britfilms.tv/images/news/lecter.jpg

What others come to mind?

I opt for Godzilla. He went from being a terror to being a savior for Japan.

karol

 

[BeBopBaby]

Al Swearengen

**been watching Deadwood Season 3

LD

I just got disk 1 from Netflix! I love Al! But the beauty of Deadwood is - you start to realize that he's really not the bad guy. He's got to be one of my favorite anti-heros though.

Some of my other favorite villians:

Burt Lancaster - The Sweet Smell of Success
Orson Wells - The Third Man
Barbara Stanwyck - Double Indemnity
I forget his real name, but the gent who played George Grisby in the Lady from Shanghai
Anything that Christopher Lee plays a villian in

And my number one favorite bad guy - Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

And then there was Arnold, who was the evil cyborg in Terminator, but returned in Terminator II to protect the woman he tried to kill in the first film.

Or at least another machine that looked just like him returned to protect. Whatever, it was the same actor if not the same character.

karol

 

[Hondo]

Thoroughly agree but with Robert Mitchum ~ Cape Fear.
Honorable mention "Night of the Hunter"

Vincent Price in several films
Bette Davis ~ Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?
Jack Nicholson ~ The Shining
Margaret Hamilton ~ The Wizard of Oz

 

[BeBopBaby]

What about Kaiser Soze?

And I almost forgot - I think I love him even more than Robert Mitchum!

Lon Chaney Sr.

 

[Naphtali]

Here are some memorable villains from my archives:

Dirk Bogarde as Alec Guiness' nemesis in "Damn the Defiant!" (1962).

Iago in any version of Othello.

Paul Scofield as Burt Lancaster's nemesis in "The Train" (1965)

Jon Voigt as Gene Hackman's nemesis in "Enemy of the State" (1998)

Keyser Soze, the unseen nemesis of everyone in "The Usual Suspects" (1995)

The monster (of the Id) in "Forbidden Planet (1956)

Angela Lansbury as Lawrence Harvey's nemesis in "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962)
***
more anon

 

[Ellie]

Boris Karloff in "The Body Snatcher"

 

[Hondo]

Westerns

Before he became known for as a western comedian in his later years, the late actor Jack Elam was one bad dude when he was young.
I also recall the old western “The Dakota’s” plus many note worthy movies, such as “High Noon” Jack Elam was one heavy weight character actor as a villain. R.I.P. Jack. we miss ya

 

[Shearer]

Before he became known for as a western comedian in his later years, the late actor Jack Elam was one bad dude when he was young.
I also recall the old western “The Dakota’s” plus many note worthy movies, such as “High Noon” Jack Elam was one heavy weight character actor as a villain. R.I.P. Jack. we miss ya

Jack Elam was great!

And not really a villain, per se, but he plays a rather twitchy bank robber in Kansas City Confidential.

 

[Diamondback]

And then there was Arnold, who was the evil cyborg in Terminator, but returned in Terminator II to protect the woman he tried to kill in the first film.

Or at least another machine that looked just like him returned to protect. Whatever, it was the same actor if not the same character.

karol

Considering how Model 101s were all supposed to be programmed alike, and to have their "learning" capabilities disabled in solo operation (remember the #2 Model 101's self-description, "My CPU is a neural network processor--a 'learning computer', but SkyNet presets the switch to read-only when we're sent out alone...", and the scene having to pull the chipset out and reset Da Switch), I'd say they were effectively the same character even in spite of their different mechanical hardware (for all we know, it may even have been the same chipset, though!)

 

[Shearer]

I'm totally bogarting a movie conversation I had with someone last week by mentioning these but...

No Magua yet?

And since Hondo mentioned westerns, how about Gene Hackman as Little Bill in Unforgiven?