The Silver Screen Oasis

Another mention today in the Information Please thread on the TCM boards has led me to yet another unheard of Claude Rains film -the low budget STRANGE HOLIDAY. It has been posted in parts on Youtube:

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I have not watched this yet, so can't say how bad or strange it is!

I dunno, they look pretty benevolent here:



But if they get their hooks in you, “DECEPTION” “ALL ABOUT EVE” “LOVE FROM A STRANGER” I’d say you wouldn’t...stand...a...chance.

HA! You know, I never would have put them together in my own head, but what a nasty, snooty, evil triumvirate they make! God help the good guy if they ever were in the same movie together. The closest is Robin Hood, which is so good because of all the gradations of bad in it. Somebody ought to write a little fan fiction with these guys.

Maybe a sort of Ocean's Eleven for bad guys.

JackFavell wrote:HA! You know, I never would have put them together in my own head, but what a nasty, snooty, evil triumvirate they make! God help the good guy if they ever were in the same movie together. The closest is Robin Hood, which is so good because of all the gradations of bad in it. Somebody ought to write a little fan fiction with these guys.

Maybe a sort of Ocean's Eleven for bad guys.

Moira's got something very close to what you're asking for on her blog, JF -- a gallery of villains all rolled together in a tribute to Henry Daniell. It's here: http://moirasthread.blogspot.com.es/200 ... niell.html
Rathbone and Saunders are in it, although I think Rains was passed over.

Rains is great as a baddie -- but then again he's great in just about everything, isn't he? He can be so benevolent, as in Now Voyager, which makes him all the more menacing in a role like "Grandee" in The Unsuspected. He plays Satan in Angel on My Shoulder, but he does it with such charm and wit, it's pretty disarming.

I was glad you picked him in one of my favorite roles of his, that of Holenius in Deception. He totally owns that film, even though it's ostensibly a Bette Davis vehicle. I've got a store-bought copy of it that has a very good commentary track. Apparently (I learned), the stage play was a "two-hander," with roles written just for Christine and Karel. The part of Holenius had to be written for the film. According to the film historian, Rains contributed quite a lot to the writing of his lines.

Oh my gosh! Thank you intothenitrate. Though it's a bit disconcerting that Moira read my mind long before I even thought of a fictionalized gathering of evil players, I am so happy you sent me to her site! I was just toodling around there yesterday, but didn't see the Daniell post, or I would have been on it pronto. What a great tribute to Daniell who is most definitely one of my favorite actors, not just one of my favorite baddies.

Back to Rains... Deception is great, you never quite know who is the worse person for Bette to be hanging out with, Rains or Henreid.

All three are so highly neurotic. For me, the film is much more of a "stitch" than an amped-up drama. It's so funny that these three principals appeared together in Now Voyager, a film about affiliation, tolerance, honesty, and emotional well-being. Deception has them all at the complete opposite pole of existence.

Henry Daniell makes me smile just thinking of him.

That is a riot, it's like the anti-Now, Voyager!