Who are your favorite movie villains?

(BTW, he basically played himself in "The Sun Also Rises" as you could characterize that as a sociopathic villain, albeit he wasn't bumping anyone off).

Yes, the drugs and booze got to him, but the bio pointed out that he never got over the so-called rape case and much of his rebellious activities were a result of that. Whatever! He was a handsome Captain Blood and Robin Hood - and he had the loveliest speaking voice - and I never think about an actor's personal life when I go to the movies. (Unless they were one of the squealers at the McCarthy hearings.) (lol)

BTW, it's an interesting bio. Catch it if you can.

I watched the Errol Flynn whitewash of Custer one Sunday when I was under the weather. The man had wonderful diction.

Plainoldme: Yes, "They Died With Their Boots On" was indeed a whitewash. I mentioned Flynn here, because it does seem, at least to me, that certain celebrities are chosen to be persecuted by the Press until the end of their careers. And some of them have the misfortune to be more vulnerable than others.

Has anyone mentioned Jack Palance in "Shane"? He gave me the chills.

Actually it was probalby the press who got him acquited by stirring up so much publicity -- the evidence was marginal but I have a hard time believing there wasn't some truth to it. The press also, in the tabloids of the day like Hollywood Confidential Magazine, were getting close to pulling off the wrapper on Rock Hudson's homosexuality and the studio contrived to have George Nader take the fall.

(Nader now lives in Palm Springs with his lover, Martin Milner, the star of TV's "Route 66").

LW (AKA the "Walking Encyclopedia0,
Did you get my e-mail? At first I had rhe wrong address, but then I changed it, and tried again.
I have an unusal villain for you guys. Remember "Singing In The Rain"?
When supposedly, "dumb blonde", co-star, (Jean Hagen, I believe) suddenly proved to be shrewd and conniving, with her blackmail attempt, I thought that was rather chilling, in the context of a feelgood musical comedy. Didn't you feel the same uplift when she got her comupance, that you do when the usual "Dudley Dooright" thrashes "Snidely Whiplash"?
The innocent vulnerability of Debbie Reynolds really helped the mood.

Well, LW, we'll never know the whole truth about the rape episode, but inasmuch as the girls were "party girls" I just find it unlikely that it was rape -- and maybe that's because that's what I want to believe. (lol) I do hope you can catch the TCM documentary the next time it's on. It's very interesting.

I will try to catch it -- there have been many TV bios on Flynn throughout the years.

The girls were "party girls" as you say but it looks like Flynn neglected to find out if any of them were under-aged. Isn't that something like having sex with an intern and foolishly believing they won't blab it all over the place? Social intelligence was not Flynn's strong point.

Rambo is pretty evil, and he has about as many morals as a goldfish smoking crack. Who in their right mind detonates a grenade / gunpowder in their side to get rid of shrapnel? Thats live pulling a thorn out of your foot and replacing it with a knitting needle.

"Rambo" is more the anti-hero than a villain with a bit of social commentary about the mental condition of the men who fought in Vietnam. Actually the small town red neck sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) and his men are the heavies.

How about Johny Depp in Dead Man Walking? (Or was it just Dead Man?)
(Oh, was he a villain?)

obviously, i need to watch more movies, ain't good at this. haven't seen four fifths of the movies mentioned here...

I think you are referring to Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man," and the character goes through a metamorphosis that kind of leaves him as the hero (or, again, anti-hero) of the twisted plot. Not my favorite Depp or Jarmusch movie -- it gets tangled up in metaphysical mumbo jumbo that we're suppose to believe is significant but falls flat. The real villain is Robert Mitchum as the perverse Western, Mafia inspired, boss.

The ever modest Christopher Plumber, discussing his role as Cardinal Law in the made for cable movie, "Our Fathers," about the Boston priests as pedophiles, said he plays an excellent villain. Here's a real life "Prince of the Church" as villain.

So... no reaction to my "Singing In The Rain" , opinion huh?. I thought sure LW, would leap in.

Speaking of Brian Dennehy, he did a tv movie some years ago playing a town bully. Can't remember the name of it but he was an awful, despicable character, finally killed in the end by several townspeople, if I recall. May have been a true story even. I'll have to look it up.

Oh darn.

Forgot the name of it.

LW, at the school Foreign Film Club, they recently promoted a movie I really wanted to see--but couldn't work it out.

Wanted to see if you'd seen it, or had heard anything.

It has a critically acclaimed but not box office successful older British (I think actress). Judy Densch?

The title...I am unsure of. The Cook, The Gangster, His Wife, and her Lover? It is supposed to be disturbing but great acting. Heard anything?

Villian talk made me think of it. The gangster is supposed to be the worst!

Brian Dennehy was a pretty good villain in Silverado, or some other movie by the Michigan film scripter who did The Big Chill. But, then, he's good anyway.

Lash -- The movie's title includes the elements The Thief, The Cook, His Wife and Her Lover but I am uncertain of the order. Surely, you don't mean Judi Dench, who is more than 70, short and rather dowdy but one of the greatest actresses of the 20th C. The female lead of Thief was played by a woman every man who was ever interested in me had a crush on . . . and now, I've forgotten her name!

I loved get this: Andy Griffith, as a BAD boy in
"Murder in Coweta County".

Really, it's pretty good....good ole boy stuff.

Just thought of the female lead in The Thief: Helen Mirren. For a certain type of man in the late 60s and early 70s, she was sexuality.