Matthew Broderick in Glory.
Don Rickles stood out like a sore thumb in “Casino.”
He didn’t have many lines. All he had to do was try to look like a tough guy. And he was pathetic.
The Maltese Falcon was probably not expected to be a great movie, but it turned out that way: it had a great cast and excellent acting, great direction, and the script followed the book pretty closely. And it was a breakout movie for Bogart where he gets to play a hero, as a prelude to Casablanca.
But Gladys George? First, she got third billing, for two speaking scenes and one quick shot of her face. Second, the two scenes she does have were awful with a capital A. She stank like fish off the ice. My theory is she got the part and the billing on the strength of a few films just before, but when Huston saw how bad she was, they quickly cut her part to the bone, but they were contractually stuck with the billing. Anyway, whenever I see the movie I dread those few minutes when she’s on the screen.
I’d like to shake things up and say that Rodney Dangerfield was brilliantly menacing in Natural Born Killers. Wish he could have done more drama.
I actually thought he was brilliant in that. The weirdness of the performance made him seem even more threatening.
Gladys George had a great reputation as a stage actress, and Leonard Maltin lamented that she never got a good chance in films.
I have to say I liked Pitt in 12 Monkeys (which is one of may favorite movies). His character was supposed to be over-the-top crazy so there wasn’t a need for subtlety and Pitt delivered.
But what I admire is that I feel he avoided the opposite temptation; a lot of actors would have pulled back on the craziness in an attempt to make their character more sympathetic. Pitt was willing to make the character unlikeable.
Glenn Campbell in True Grit. He just wasn’t able to go toe-to-toe with John Wayne (not many people could), but he also lacked the gravitas of Kim Darby. Just a bad casting call.
As for Tom Hulce: I thought he was fine in Animal House and Amadeus. His shortcomings as a screen presence were precisely the shortcomings of the characters. And he stole the show in Parenthood. One movie he was expected to carry (and couldn’t) was Slam Dance, and I’m not entirely convinced he was the weak link there.
The role practically screams that it was written for Buscemi. What, he didn’t have two days to knock out the part?
John Dall in Spartacus. I remember my entire classroom laughed when we watched the movie and you get to the scene where Crassus, his wife, and brother-in-law, Glabrus. (Dall) are watching gladiators fight. During the fight, Crassus reveals his scheme to make Glabrus commander of the garrison of Rome. Dall looks up and in the most wooden, awkward voice intones: “I don’t know how I shall ever be able to repay you.” And it just sounded . . . odd. Really odd, sort of robotic, almost like someone else dubbed his lines.
Dall of course played Brandon in Rope, and I thought his performance was about the same there. I don’t think critics would call him a bad actor, but I’m just not a fan of his style, and his scenes interrupted my enjoyment of Spartacus.
I will NOT stand for this!
She was* far far* worse in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Green Card.
I’ve said this here before, but if I ever win a billion dollars, I’m remaking those movies with the right true proper actress for these roles CGIed into her place, Julia Roberts.
You are wrong.
It’s a scientific fact that her worst performance was in Greystroke, where they had to bring in Glenn Close in post-production to dub in MacDowell’s dialogue.
But if they hadn’t cast Campbell, who would have sung the theme song?
I agree with all of the Andie McDowell references, I remember seeing her in commercials a few years ago for a makeup line, and thinking “you know, I haven’t seen her in a movie in years–and yeah, she really is an actress made for commercials.” It’s questionable how she was in as many relatively good and major films as she was in the 80s/90s, because she really just was not a good actor.
Gran Torino, while controversial in many ways, I think, was a pretty good film. It’s notable because the entire cast other than Eastwood in the lead and his buddy the barber (who is in like 2 scenes–and is John Carroll Lynch and has had a few memorable but small roles like Norm Gunderson in Fargo and a lot of TV guest spots) are mediocre at best, and downright atrocious at worst. Part of this is because Eastwood chose to cast local members of the Hmong community for many of the Hmong parts, and frankly, they clearly show through as not being actors of any sort, but even some of the non-Hmong roles like the Priest or the lead’s family/extended family just aren’t good.
She had a chance in Maltese Falcon, and hammed her way through it. Before that she had had a few apparently starring roles in films (Hit The Road, top billed; The Way of All Flesh, 2nd billed; A Child Is Born, 3rd billed; The Roaring Twenties, 4th billed; I’m From Missouri, 2nd billed; plus about an equal number of supporting roles, all in the three years 1939-1941). If she couldn’t make herself a good chance in all those films, I think she may have just had a problem transitioning from stage to film. The main problem with her acting in Maltese Falcon was that it was too broad for film. So pbbbbt* to Leonard Maltin.
Forgot to mention 1937 where she had the lead in Madame X. That probably suited her florid style a bit more.
- (raspberries)
That.
Also doing what was required of the role, I thought there was a plausible naturalness (peppered with his comical weariness of Mackenzie Philips) in Le Mat’s portrayal of a bored young hot rodder.
Not rrrrrrreally a huge fan of Kids. The lead little fucker with the big nose, though, needed, really, to perish in a tragic grain silo accident.
I can’t quite put my finger on why Matthew Modine in Full Metal Jacket didn’t quite work for me. I can seen his wet-behind-the-years youthful look working for him, but…
Another can’t-quite-put-my-finger-on: Adam Sandler’s character in Punch Drunk Love. While I realise he had to be a nervous dork, there was still, something… stilted? forced? too quirky to be convincing? Adam Sandlery?
Shit, Andie McDowell couldn’t even convincingly play herself in “The Player.” Her acting “ability” is best summed up in her last name–the part after Mc.
Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I don’t know which was worse, the character or the actor.
For me, it was the smugness. Maybe it was appropriate for the character but that kind of smugness is always annoying. It’s not like Modine’s character ever did anything in the movie to demonstrate he was better than anybody else; he just seemed to assume he was and everyone else could see it.
For me, if for no one else, Gladys George in The Maltese Falcon competently plays Iva Archer. It may have helped George’s performance more if the movie had also included the last bit from the book. But still she is a very small part of the movie, providing some breathing room before the tenser scenes. (As Stooges fans know, she starred in Valiant is the Word for Carrie, one year before Violent Is the Word for Curly, which includes Septimus Winner’s 1875 version of an older song that he called “The Spelling Bee”, re-titled and re-arranged as Swingin’ The Alphabet.)
Yes. Similarly, Jules Cowles as The Hired Hand in Seven Chances. (Another regret is that the receptionist at the country club is married. I prefer her to Mary Jones.)