The preacher-man in that old movie “Night of the Hunter…”
Robert Mitchum was
amazing in that role. Night of the Hunter is one of those ‘once is enough’ movies that I love but probably won’t ever watch again, like Rashomon.
Anyway, the good father has pretty kickin’ taste in his villains but doesn’t seem to have seen much in the noir section. Beyond that, there isn’t a whole lot to add unless we get into some fairly esoteric territory, so let’s do that.
I keep coming back to this movie in almost every discussion about classic film, but you know what, it really is that good. Emil Jannings’ turn as Mephisto in
Faust redefined the character. In Goethe’s original, Mephistopheles was young, beautiful, and likeable; Jannings is none of these. His devil is old, fat, and ugly, with a mouth like a frog’s, but he made it work well enough that
he is who I picture when I think of the character.
Jannings also gave an excellent performance as Tartuffe in the silent adaptation of Moliere’s play, but then Tartuffe is a wonderfully villainous character to begin with.
Some credit also has to be given to Dr. Caligari, played by Werner Krauss – the sole reason the ‘evil psychiatrist’ became a horror-movie staple.
Alpha 60 from Alphaville was one of the first great computer-villains, a direct predecessor to HAL 9000.
Peter Lorre’s character Hans Beckert from M is one of the most compelling (and horrifying) villains ever put on screen. I’m not going to spoil it, this is a movie everyone should watch.
Getting a little less strange, the title character from High Plains Drifter is the best Western villain I’ve seen.
Malcolm McDowell has put in two great villains I can think of, not having seen Caligula: Alex in A Clockwork Orange, and Kesslee in Tank Girl (I do not understand how people cannot like that movie… high art it isn’t, but it’s just so much
fun!).
Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in Blade Runner is one of the deeper villains to make it onto the screen – in fact, it’s debatable whether he’s a villain or an antihero, considering his motives are reasonably noble. I’ve usually thought of Gaff as the actual hero of the film, but now that I think about it some more, Roy’s character also changes in response to the events in the movie.
Last on the ‘serious’ list but most certainly not least, Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) from Robocop is nothing short of brilliant. Faust may be the greatest movie ever made, but Robocop is the most awesome – and Boddicker is a huge part of that. The sneer, the coke habit, the attitude, the one-liners, all of it makes for a classic villain.
Now on the ‘fun’ side, I’m just going to name one name: Vincent Price. Whether it’s Doctor Phibes, Erasmus Craven, or Despard Murgatroyd, you can’t really go wrong with Price, or if you do at least it’ll be funny.
