the list of 9 for october 29, 1998:
NINE GREAT SCREEN VILLAINS
Here is a look at some unsung villains from films past. You won't find the standard Draculas or werewolves here; this crowd will give you the creeps of a decidedly more human kind.
- BRUNO ANTONY in "STRANGERS ON A TRAIN". One of Robert Walker's last roles in one of Alfred Hitchcock's most genuinely thrilling films, the murderous, mama's-boy Bruno is so obsessed with turning the tables on Farley Granger (who refuses to "swap murders" with him) that he'll go to any length to destroy him. Cold-hearted, charming and thoroughly psychotic, Bruno is one of Hitchcock's best villains.
- HAL 9000 in "2001". Douglas Rain's monotone-voiced HAL, the computer who will not let humans take control of "his" spacecraft, is chilling. Director Stanley Kubrick succeeded in making us fear and hate something that can't even move.
- JAME GUMB in "SILENCE OF THE LAMBS". Forget Anthony Hopkins' famous performance as Hannibal Lecter for a moment. Serial killer Jame Gumb, played by Ted Levine, was the real terror - a warped, barely-coherent loner who dispenses with clever dialogue and gets down to the dirty work of torturing people. Absolutely ghoulish.
- THE LITTLE BOY in "JU DOU". In this somber Chinese film, a woman secretly conceives a baby boy with her infertile husband's younger nephew. She then must raise the boy as her husband's heir without revealing his true father's identity. Later, the boy grows into a mute, skinheaded nightmare - a child so devoted to his now-dead "father" that he is hell-bent on revenge against his biological parents.
- TELLY IN "KIDS". Macho New York teenager Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick, who also co-wrote the story) boasts of his true calling - to deflower young virgins - and sets off to do just that. What Telly doesn't know is that he's HIV positive. A frightening portrait of a "kid" whose selfishness launches a mini-epidemic.
- HARRY LIME IN "THE THIRD MAN". Orson Welles is rightfully celebrated for his role as a callous black marketeer in post-WWII Vienna. A testament to the power of this character is that most people consider him the star of the film, even though he's only in three scenes!
- FRANK BOOTH IN "BLUE VELVET". Few filmmakers create characters as evil as those found in David Lynch films, and Dennis Hopper's legendary performance as the gas-huffing Booth cannot be topped.
- T-1000 in "TERMINATOR 2". Arnold got the money, but Robert Patrick, playing a robot assassin made of "liquid metal," was the one who gave you the chills. His stone-faced, relentless pursuit of the Connor family is now the stuff of myth.
- AGUIRRE in "AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD". Klaus Kinski's reptilian performance as the insane Spanish explorer who leads his troops into the wilds of the Amazon is terrific. He starts off mad and just gets worse, until the "empire" he seeks to reign over is a raft full of monkeys. If you've never seen a Werner Herzog film, this is the one to start with.
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