Underappreciated movie villains

[Malthus]

@Equipoise

I’ve never seen that version, but you reminded me of Robert Mitchum in the original Cape Fear. He was my first exposure to a charming, sexy psychopath, and oh my, I was repulsed by him and hot for him at the same time. It didn’t matter that I was too young to know what the “hotness” was all about, I eventually figured it out. My parents never would have let me watch it on TV if they’d known what was going on inside my mind and body. At least it didn’t warp me. I was never attracted to bad boys because of it.

Robert Mitchum…sigh.

I dunno about “underappreciated”, since to my knowledge it is highly appreciated, but in my opinion Mitchum played the ultimate movie villian bar none in Night of the Hunter. Smooth, seductive, psychopathic.

[DWMarch]

@ExTank

“The Operative,” from the Firefly spin-off movie Serenity.

I know Firefly and Serenity get mad love here on the board; I know because some of it comes from me.

But to the greater public, they’re both less well known, and thus less appreciated.

He wasn’t a bad guy. He was just an Alliance commando with a license to kill. He wiped out a lot of criminals and most of the Reavers (they don’t stop attacking because River holds them off- they stop attacking because the Alliance wins the space battle and wipes them out on the surface with follow-on forces). Mal and crew were the actual bad guys, although they can arguably be described as moral entrepreneurs.

[Jim_s_Son]

Lee Marvin in “The Big Heat”

Claude Rains as Prince John in the “Adventures of Robin Hood”. Inviting Errol Flynn to eat meat with them, bantering with him while ordering a lackey to throw a spear from the back.

Peter Falk in the role that put him on the map Abe “Kid Twist” Reles in “Murder Inc”. Any particular reason why they hired a comedian in Henry Morgan to play DA Burton Turkus? An uneven film but memorable while Falk explains what corroboration is to Morgan. Morgan is forced to acknowledge that he is right despite not going to college and Falk coldly repsonds he could teach them about what the law allows you to do.

[UncaStuart]

@RealityChuck

Marty Augustine in Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye is one of the best villains in the history of film.
<snip>
That’s what makes a superior villain – complete unpredictability.

Completely agree on Augustine. In a similar vein, Dustin Hoffman’s mob boss King in Confidence has that air of unpredictability that kept me anxious each time he was on screen.

[Lethal_Babydoll]

Reading this thread I was suddenly reminded of a villain that spooked me so bad I almost couldn’t watch the scenes he was in.

It was the film Ride With the Devil. I couldn’t remember the actor’s name so I looked him up on Imdb and was shocked to see that it was none of the Henry VIII himself,** Jonathan Rhys Meyers**

[MovieMogul]

@jjimm

I, too, sound like a broken record, but IMO nothing on celluloid beats Ben “Gandhi” Kingsley playing “Don Logan” in Sexy Beast.

@kidneyfailure

Tom Berenger as Barnes in Platoon.
DeNiro as Max Cady in Cape Fear.

@Jim's Son

Peter Falk in the role that put him on the map Abe “Kid Twist” Reles in “Murder Inc”.

If you receive an Oscar nomination for the part, you are not exactly “underappreciated”.

@Zebra

But my all time favorite is Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She is just pure evil. She even defeats Jack Nickolson!

Even moreso if you win.

[LVBoPeep]

@Jim_s_Son

Lee Marvin in “The Big Heat”

Claude Rains as Prince John in the “Adventures of Robin Hood”. Inviting Errol Flynn to eat meat with them, bantering with him while ordering a lackey to throw a spear from the back.
.

I haven’t seen this but Claude Rain as Nazi Alex Sebastian would be my pick- the scene where he realizes his wife is a spy and goes from doting husband to planning his wife’s death is chilling IMHO.

[TheBoltEater]

One of my absolute favorites is about to be remade by the only man alive who could possibly make it even better.

I give you, Sho’Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem!