Can I digress with a bried story of why I love that movie so much?
I can even remember the day I saw it in the theater, December 6, 1980. That morning I’d awakened late, too late for an important appointment in another town. It might have made the difference in getting a really good job. I was miserable and grouchy all day long. That evening I went to the movie just to distract myself. When I left I felt great! Sounds crazy, but it was almost impossible not to be in a good mood after that film. I even went again the next day! Blessed was my favorite character too, but I loved just about all of them. Everyone was a scenery chewer. One of my favorite scenes was the one in Ming’s bedroom when the slave was serving that green liquor to Dale. Dale asked “Will it make me forget?” and the slave replied “No, but you won’t mind remembering.”
Witness For The Prosecution is basically “Well, yeah, but what if Winston Churchill had dedicated his talents to showily pulling off theatrical tricks in the courtroom?”
“Do you know what ‘nemesis’ means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an 'orrible cunt… me.”
Quite correctly there have been several mentions already of Brian Blessed.
I feel it useful to point out that Blessed chews far MORE scenery while being ‘himself’ - So in, for example, Flash Gordon what you see on screen is actually a toned down, diluted, restrained Brian Blessed. For a better appreciation of the ‘full fat’ version find any TV interview with him or even read his biography.
Coincidentally I just read an anecdote from Brian Blessed regarding the late John Hurt which amused me. I’ll add it here.
Blessed recalled John Hurt made his TV debut on the BBC crime drama Z Cars which had Blessed as a policeman. Back then, in the 1960s, the show was broadcast live.
The episode had Hurt as a suspect and the script required eight minutes of tough interrogation. Unfortunately Hurt was so overwhelmed by the occasion (and the bombastic Blessed) he immediately confessed and the BBC had to go to the news five minutes early.
James Purefoy as Mark Antony in HBO’s ROME was spectacular in every single scene he was in due to the fact that he played Antony with such verve and pomp with ego for days. He was perfect and by God, you couldn’t take your eyes off him.
Rod Steiger In The Heat of the Night. That book was made into a movie for Sidney Poiter, one of the hottest actors at the time, and Steiger just totally upstaged him. “I got a motive for the murder and a body that is dead.”
At that, how big a movie star was Harrison Ford when – after each STAR WARS movie was the biggest box-office draw of its year, sure as each INDIANA JONES movie was the biggest box-office draw in each of their years – THE FUGITIVE spent six weeks at #1 on its way to getting nominated for Best Picture?
But it’s Tommy Lee Jones who stole every scene and won the Academy Award.
I saw an old episode of The Avengers recently with Brian Blessed, which would have been from about that same era, but I didn’t recognize him. It was one of those “I’ve seen that guy before but I can’t remember where” things. You’d think it would be impossible to not recognize BRIAN BLESSED!!, but he wasn’t his familiar, bombastic self yet.
I may have also been slightly distracted by a young Charlotte Rampling. (Diana Rigg is not in that episode until near the end.)
Speaking of scenery chewing, Will Smith did a fair amount of it in Men in Black, but I thought Tommy Lee Jones owned that movie. The scene where he’s interrogating the dog, and plays it absolutely straight, is hysterical.
I always figured that Men in Black worked because Smith wasn’t the coolest character. In most films, he’d be the too-cool-for-school guy mocking the uptight establishment types, but it’s made repeatedly obvious that his clowning around is both counter-productive and betrays how completely clueless he is, while it’s Jones (and to an extent Brolin) who knows the score.
Speaking of totally upstaging the star of the movie, Graham Greene does this a lot.
He did it to Val Kilmer in Thunderheart.
He did it to Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves.
He did it to Mel Gibson in Maverick.
That’s five Academy Awards between those men, btw. Only Harris hasn’t won one, and he’s better than many who have.
In terms of single scene dominance, you show me someone else who just completely stole the movie from five actors of that caliber and still had the movie in his pocket after the scene even though he’s not in the movie again.
I think a really interesting question would be who ate the most scenery in an Oscar-winning performance. Denzel in "Training Day, where I think he gained about thirty pounds during the shoot eating parts of the set, is the most egregious example I can think of. Al Pacino devoured a lot of set during “Scent of a Woman,” too.