Rogues' Gallery [by David Lehman]

From The American Scholar:

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There’s a special onus on the villains in crime dramas. They have to be wicked, but they also have to make that wickedness interesting. Whether by being singular in some way, or by virtue of fine acting, or because what they do is so despicable, they offend even those of us who might ordinarily root for the scoundrel. Then again, some of them simply impress us with their roguish charm or sharp-toothed wit.

Who are the greatest rogues, then? Many can be found in Hitchcock’s thrillers, in which the culprit can be two people, himself and his murderous mother (Anthony Perkins in Psycho). Or there is madness in the man’s method, and he steals every scene he’s in (Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train). Or the villains are forces of nature wreaking havoc on humanity, which has mistreated them along with the rest of the planet (the birds in The Birds). But let’s omit Hitchcock’s bad guys, as well as the homicidal freaks in movies starring Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson, who might otherwise dominate the list.
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From “Rogues Gallery” by David Lehman in The American Scholar. Click here for the article, which includes a list of some of my favorite miscreants, with links to the films’ trailers. The picture above is of Charles Boyer tormenting Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight (1944), which donated a word to the language. Did I leave out your favorite culprits? Charles Laughton in The Big Clock maybe, or Orson Welles in A Touch of Evil? As with all of my Talking Pictures columns, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Comments

[Suzanne Lummis]

Great lists of rogues and villains, David -- and such lists always remind me of movies I've missed or haven't seen for a while. Funny, I've only seen "Gaslight" once, and to see a movie just once is almost the same as never having seen it at all. But that one's the kind of movie that troubles me, not in a fun way -- the psychological torment unnerves me more than physical violence on the screen.
But, yeah, in answer to your question, Touch of Evil, Captain Hank Quinlan, an unforgettable creation on the part of Orson Welles, visually and in every sense. The way he looks and the way those "dutch angles" capture him. All of it. A Great villain, figuratively and, er, literally.
The forthcoming They Write by Night will focus on The Sweet Smell of Success, which is and isn't a noir. Looks exactly like one -- I talk about that. Hard to tell who's the worst, who's the real villain there, J.J. Hunsecker or Sydney Falco. Both I guess. And the whole rotten business.

[David Lehman]

Thank you, Suzanne, for this wonderful comment. I love "The Sweet Smell of Success" and for some reason I cannot say I dislike the Burt Lancaster or Tony Curtis characters. The acting is great and the scenes at 21 are unforgettable.