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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 28, 2019 15:29:01 GMT
Villains who were "just doing their job" ~ but seemed to enjoy it perhaps a tad too much in the process. Starting off with two: Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) SHANE Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST
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Post by politicidal on Mar 28, 2019 16:13:52 GMT
Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton - Mutiny on the Bounty)
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Post by bravomailer on Mar 28, 2019 16:28:47 GMT
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Post by mikef6 on Mar 28, 2019 16:29:12 GMT
In a movie I review in this week's "What classics did you see..." thread, J. Carrol Naish is a hit man hired by Richard Dix to kill himself, Dix. When they meet and Dix explains he has changed his mind and doesn't even want a refund, Naish refuses telling Dix that his professional reputation is on the line. He must go through with the contract. The movie is "The Whistler" (1944). A borderline example might be Robert Ryan's violent cop in Nicholas Ray's "On Dangerous Ground" (1951). (Minor spoiler) By the end of the film, Ryan has made peace with his demons. “Why do you punks make me do it? I’m gonna make you talk. You know you’re gonna talk. WHY DO YOU MAKE ME DO IT?”
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Post by koskiewicz on Mar 28, 2019 16:47:15 GMT
Liberty Valence
Ernest Borgnine in Emperor of the North
Earp brothers in Tombstone
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 28, 2019 19:27:35 GMT
Henchmen of few words, but many talents - Harold Sakata as the aptly named Oddjob in Goldfinger: Caddie... ...chauffeur and golf ball cruncher... ...hitman... ...expert hat-tosser and likely Frisbee champion... ...defender to the death... ...and dabbler in paints on the side. Harry Morgan (when he was still billed as Henry) as Bill Womack, bodyguard and jack-of-all-trades assistant to publisher Charles Laughton in The Big Clock.
Bill will do anything for his boss, including helping to frame Ray Milland for murder or, if need be, hunt him down to rub him out. And like Sakata in Goldfinger, Morgan speaks nary a line of dialogue.
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Post by kuatorises on Mar 28, 2019 19:35:24 GMT
McMurphy caused more damage than Ratched.
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Post by teleadm on Mar 28, 2019 19:44:55 GMT
Max von Sydow in Three Days of the Conder 1975. Max liked this role and described his character in an interview "that he was only a crook when he got payed".
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Post by jervistetch on Mar 28, 2019 19:51:33 GMT
Mr. Vernon in THE BREAKFAST CLUB. He had better things to do with his Saturday morning.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 28, 2019 20:05:32 GMT
Two from OFFICE SPACE
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 28, 2019 20:39:00 GMT
Two more quiet killers: "Shotgun and a backup man...professionals." Paul Genge as Icepick Mike and Bill Hickman as Phil in Bullitt. Who hired 'em? The mob, from which John E. Ross stole $2 million? Or Ross himself, to fake his own death by having the doppleganger he set up rubbed out? The film never says explicitly, so viewers can make up their own minds, but in the end, it makes no difference. And for the record, Genge does speak exactly three lines in the film, but is otherwise stoically silent. Hickman keeps his mouth closed and his eyes on the road.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 28, 2019 20:45:54 GMT
Klaus Kinski in THE GREAT SILENCE perhaps? He was as I recall it, killing within the law... He refused to let Silence trick him into a duel (although he did lose his temper but the sheriff arrived in time to stop it).
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Post by vegalyra on Mar 28, 2019 20:55:39 GMT
A funny example... Virtucon Security Guard rolled over by Austin Powers in Part 1.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 28, 2019 21:45:45 GMT
Before he was Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker... ...Richard Kiel was Rease in Silver Streak. So described by his boss, Mr. Devereau (Patrick McGoohan): "Reace, he's like a child. You must remember him: a large man with not-very-attractive dental work. He works for me. He's my chauffeur. Not very bright, but extremely loyal."
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Post by london777 on Mar 29, 2019 4:39:51 GMT
McMurphy caused more damage than Ratched. Absolutely. She is one of the unsung heroines of American movies, if only for settling the odious Nicholson's hash.
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Post by london777 on Mar 29, 2019 5:08:48 GMT
BAT, I think you confused a good thread idea by adding "but seemed to enjoy it, perhaps a tad too much in the process." In other words were bullies, sadists, or psychopaths. These are the norm in movies, whereas "punch-clock villains" are much rarer, and IMHO, much more interesting because they are the sort of baddies we meet in normal life. You give two great examples yourself, from Office Space. We had an office manager exactly like the first of them. There is a great example of a murderous punch-clock villain in Black Rainbow (1989) dir: Mike Hodges. An apparently irrelevant scene introduces a new character, a typical American suburban father having breakfast with his family then leaving for work and assuring his wife he will not be home late. He is the hit-man of the tale. He does not enjoy his work, he just does it dispassionately to support his family. Incidentally, does anyone know if the hitman is the same actor who played the hitman in Get Carter (1971), the only other good movie which Hodges directed? Black Rainbow was a good film which was well-reviewed but then the distribution was messed up and it has sunk without trace.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 29, 2019 10:30:04 GMT
From Here to Eternity - 'Fatso' Judson
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 29, 2019 10:40:25 GMT
Percy Wetmore - The Green Mile
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 29, 2019 14:00:40 GMT
BAT, I think you confused a good thread idea by adding "but seemed to enjoy it, perhaps a tad too much in the process." In other words were bullies, sadists, or psychopaths. These are the norm in movies, whereas "punch-clock villains" are much rarer, and IMHO, much more interesting because they are the sort of baddies we meet in normal life. Oh, I dunno 'bout that, london777. Seems to me BATouttaheck's category as stated opens up discussion for a broader range of possibilities, and I can't help but note the intended (I'm sure) irony of the quote marks, acknowledging the double meaning that phrase has had longer than either of us has been alive and how often it's been used as cover by and for just the sort of people described. I'm sure you could do better than I, but I'm really at something of a loss for many villainous characters who were simply "punch-clock villains" doing their deeds dispassionately, no matter how dirty, much less interesting ones. Perhaps Edward Fox in 1973's Day Of the Jackal is one; I haven't seen the remake, and saw this one so long ago I recall little about it. Another might be Donald Sutherland's enemy spy in Eye Of the Needle, who compartmentalizes professional and personal concerns in spite of their inherent conflict, and must ultimately make a choice, as does the young wife played by Kate Nelligan, who emerges as the more complex character for the far more personal nature of the one she has to make.
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Post by teleadm on Mar 29, 2019 17:18:44 GMT
James Bond's You Only Live Twice 1967, all that personel down in the volcano lair that is soon gonna die. Where they there because they were fanatics or were they there because S.P.E.C.T.R.E. actually payed very good salaries or were they mercenaries-for-hire. But there were other personel too, doing science work and what not, they must have been payed well or being fanatics. It's the same in most Bond movies, lots of personel at some hidden place.
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