Villains And Villainesses

[Detective Jim McLeod]

They are often the most compelling characters in film. They can be cunning, scary, psychotic or just downright despicable.

I made a list of the ones I think are the greatest. What are yours? I made a top ten but you can list as many as you want.

1. Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) in Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)
2. Harry Roat Jr. (Alan Arkin) in Wait Until Dark (1967)
3. Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
4. Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) in Sleeping Beauty (1959)
5. Wicked Witch Of The West (Margaret Hamilton) in The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
6. Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan) in My Darling Clementine (1946)
7. Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) in Kiss Of Death (1947)
8. Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) in Strangers On A Train (1951)
9. Rosann D'arcy (Shelley Winters) in A Patch Of Blue (1965)
10. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) in Night Of The Hunter (1955)

[TikiSoo]

I made a list of the ones I think are the greatest. What are yours?

1. Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) in Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)
8. Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) in Strangers On A Train (1951)
10. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) in Night Of The Hunter (1955)

7. Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) in Kiss Of Death (1947)

Those are the few that immediately come to mind for me too (I haven't seen some of those movie roles you listed)
Mitch in CAPE FEAR would be a good one for the list, but he trumps himself in Night Of The Hunter.

The first 3 above are slow burners, a quiet menacing type of villain. Questioning what to believe is a part of the terror. Whereas Richard Widmark is a more maniacal villain & delights in his own wickedness as an achievement.

As is your 5 Wicked Witch Of The West (Margaret Hamilton)
The amazing thing about this portrayal (which I didn't realize until an adult) was that there was no standard for how a witch looked or behaved - Margaret Hamilton & Jack Dawn essentially created our idea of witches forever.

Good topic!

[Swithin]

Horror film villains come to mind, but it would be too easy to pick a monster or a mad doctor with a warped idea of science as motivation. But one horror film villain is a purely evil human being, and he is my top choice for greatest villain. (Actually, maybe this film is not strictly speaking a horror film.)

1. Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price) in Witchfinder General (1968)
2. Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) in Notes on a Scandal (2006)
3. Ballin Mundson (George Macready) in Gilda (1946)

[Feinberg]

In no particular order I thought these lead performances were notable additions ...

Richard III (Laurence Olivier) Richard III (!955)
Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz) Downfall (2004)
Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) There Will Be Blood (2007)
William Cutting, 'Bill the Butcher' (Daniel Day Lewis) Gangs of New York (2002)
Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read (Eric Bana) Chopper (2000)
Ceasar (Joe Pantoliano) Bound (1996)
Alexander DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson) In Cold Blood (1967)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin) Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Franz Becker (Peter Lorre) M (1931)
Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron) Monster (2003)
Suzanne Stone Maretto (Nicole Kidman) To Die For (1995)

[jamesjazzguitar]

They are often the most compelling characters in film. They can be cunning, scary, psychotic or just downright despicable.

I made a list of the ones I think are the greatest. What are yours? I made a top ten but you can list as many as you want.

1. Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) in Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)
2. Harry Roat Jr. (Alan Arkin) in Wait Until Dark (1967)
3. Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
4. Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) in Sleeping Beauty (1959)
5. Wicked Witch Of The West (Margaret Hamilton) in The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
6. Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan) in My Darling Clementine (1946)
7. Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) in Kiss Of Death (1947)
8. Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) in Strangers On A Train (1951)
9. Rosann D'arcy (Shelley Winters) in A Patch Of Blue (1965)
10. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) in Night Of The Hunter (1955)

Great list that is so solid all I can do is add one:

Martin Rome (Richard Conte), in Cry of the City (1948).

[txfilmfan]

As a child, Cruella de Vil affected me more than the other animated or fantasy villains. I suppose it's because One Hundred and One Dalmatians is set in more contemporary times and has more of a realistic setting (no magic, witches, fairies, princes, princesses, etc). It was reinforced by the hateful next-door neighbor kid who liked to torture puppies and kittens. How evil is someone who would do that?

[Cinemaspeak59]

Christabel Caine Carey (Joan Fontaine) in Born to Be Bad (1950)

[Feinberg]

Of the supporting variety ...

Francis Costello (Jack Nicholson), The Departed (2005)
Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth) Rob Roy (1995)
Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) Miller's Crossing (1990)
Frank (Henry Fonda) Once Upon a Time In the West (1968)
Colonel Sato (Sessue Hayakawa), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Kaspar Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Inspector Emil Javert (Charles Laughton) Les Miserables (1935)
'the Monster' (? - Boris Karloff) Frankenstein (1931)
Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Lady Kaede (Mieko Harada) Ran (1985)

[Swithin]

An addition to my list:

Count Saknassemm (Thayer David) in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

[Fedya]

Jacki Weaver's character in Animal Kingdom is another great villainess.

Eve Harrington and Addison De Witt give you two in the same movie.

[Allhallowsday]

They are often the most compelling characters in film. They can be cunning, scary, psychotic or just downright despicable.

I made a list of the ones I think are the greatest. What are yours? I made a top ten but you can list as many as you want.

1. Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) in Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)
2. Harry Roat Jr. (Alan Arkin) in Wait Until Dark (1967)
3. Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
4. Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) in Sleeping Beauty (1959)
5. Wicked Witch Of The West (Margaret Hamilton) in The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
6. Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan) in My Darling Clementine (1946)
7. Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) in Kiss Of Death (1947)
8. Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) in Strangers On A Train (1951)
9. Rosann D'arcy (Shelley Winters) in A Patch Of Blue (1965)
10. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) in Night Of The Hunter (1955)

That's an excellent list. Since you include a wretched mother, I might have put Mrs. Windle Vale there instead of Rosann D'arcy but that's only 'cause I've looked at NOW VOYAGER so many times!

[Allhallowsday]

...As is your 5 Wicked Witch Of The West (Margaret Hamilton)
The amazing thing about this portrayal (which I didn't realize until an adult) was that there was no standard for how a witch looked or behaved - Margaret Hamilton & Jack Dawn essentially created our idea of witches forever...

Uuuhmm... have you seen HAXAN (1922)?

[Masha]

Alan Rickman as: Snape in: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and as: Hans Gruber in: Die Hard (1988)

Nurse Ratched in: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Dr. Hannibal Lecter in: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

HAL 9000 in: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Keyser Söze in: The Usual Suspects (1995)

Norman Bates in: Psycho (1960)

Mrs. Danvers in: Rebecca (1940)

[Detective Jim McLeod]

I made a list of the ones I think are the greatest. What are yours?

1. Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) in Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)
8. Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) in Strangers On A Train (1951)
10. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) in Night Of The Hunter (1955)

7. Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) in Kiss Of Death (1947)

Those are the few that immediately come to mind for me too (I haven't seen some of those movie roles you listed)
Mitch in CAPE FEAR would be a good one for the list, but he trumps himself in Night Of The Hunter.

The first 3 above are slow burners, a quiet menacing type of villain. Questioning what to believe is a part of the terror. Whereas Richard Widmark is a more maniacal villain & delights in his own wickedness as an achievement.

As is your 5 Wicked Witch Of The West (Margaret Hamilton)
The amazing thing about this portrayal (which I didn't realize until an adult) was that there was no standard for how a witch looked or behaved - Margaret Hamilton & Jack Dawn essentially created our idea of witches forever.

Good topic!

Thanks Miss Tiki.

Mitchum was in the running for Cape Fear for me as well. Even those he played totally evil characters only twice, it seems like these are the ones most remember him for.

Many of my choices are by actors not really known for villainous roles.

Joseph Cotten was mostly the intellectual, heroic types in other films,
Alan Arkin best remembered for comedy roles.
Robert Walker for boy next door types.

[Feinberg]

Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) Goldfinger (1964)
Oddjob (Harold Sakata) Goldfinger (1964)

Red Grant (Robert Shaw) From Russia With Love (1963)
Colonel Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenye) From Russia With Love (1963)

and then there is

Mrs. Iselin/Mrs. Shaw (Angela Lansbury), The Manchurian Candidate (1964)