#ac16

MORE favourite dead not-American actors: an Advent Calendar

Day 23: Jeremy Brett

Much like my adoration for Pat Troughton , my love of Jeremy is approx 73% because of one role. That’s ok. This is the joy of things. Especially when those things are telly programmes and there’s a ton of them to enjoy over and over again. As a tiny nipper, my Holmes was Baz, of course, in the always-on-the-telly increasingly anachronistic 30s/40s films, but - luckily for me - teenage me got Jeremy, and wonderful scripts and marvellous design and two great Watsons. 

Set aside the reams and reams of nitpicking and debate that have been written about ACD and Holmes over the decades, (but not the fanfic, never set the fanfic aside) and just marvel in the sheer joy that is Jeremy’s Holmes. There are few more complete inhabitations of a role. Mercurial, cutting, agile, knowingly theatrical, charming; gleaming with intelligence and flashes of humour, and above all a real sense of respect for the source material, and the icon that Holmes is, without ever descending into parody or heavy-handedness. It is a wondrous, life-giving, glee-inducing, comfort blanket of a thing to see, whether for the first or the thirty-first time. 

Of course, there’s all the other roles as well. From his startlingly swoonsome youth (my dad, an avid theatre-goer from the 50s onwards, and not one to comment on the looks of actresses, never mind actors, said that 1950s Jeremy on stage was one of the most beautiful men he had ever seen), through his sterling work - especially in some great 70s telly - in his middle years, he is a delight to watch. And of course - which always helps - a complete darling of a man. 

Favourite Role: obvs Sherlock Holmes, and while I’m a Hardwicke gal, and don’t always rewatch S1 as much, he is perfection from the very start. It’s so hard to pick a favourite ep, but  I have an exceeding fondness for The Abbey Grange (scathing about the North), The Musgrave Ritual (petulant!Holmes and his comfort blanket) and The Master Blackmailer (everyone is fabulous, Holmes vs CAM is amazing).  

MORE favourite dead not-American actors: an Advent Calendar

Day 20: Herbert Lom

There’s a great game you can play when you’re watching Herbert Lom films (or more accurately, films he’s in, as he’s rarely the lead) - What Country Is He From This Time? I’ve yet to come across one where he’s actually Czech (his own nationality) but have tallied up quite a few europeans: Italian (Hell Drivers, The Love Lottery, The Ladykillers), Greek (Night and the City) half Greek/half German (Snowbound), French (Dual Alibi, where he is twin trapeze artists!)...you get the drift. This is both a testament to his adaptability, and a failing on the part of filmmakers to care about casting. Need a dark, vaguely european, possible bad guy? Herbert is your fella.

And he is awesome. He has a real stillness and calm about him - think of it, if you’ve seen him as a villain, or someone against the hero, he’s rarely loud about it. He’s quietly amused; in control but relaxed, not one to get hysterical or lose his head. It’s this that grounds his sympathetic characters too: he’s often to be found playing soothingly understanding doctors or psychiatrists (The Seventh Veil, The Dead Zone, The Human Jungle), which is a nice change from all the hoods and master criminals. He does comedy as well, of course, with understated brio. As I said, he’s rarely the lead; like a lot of my faves he’s small and dark and not typical Star Material, even though he’s an actor of subtlety and intelligence. 

And also, also, he is (especially in his youth) really attractive. There’s always the film that tips you over from liking someone to liking someone, whether it’s the last straw in an accumulation of things, or it’s a corker of a role. I think for me it was the first time watching Night and the City - not only is he far more appealing than the theoretical hero (an excellent but punchable Richard Widmark), he’s really pretty, and although he’s a kind of villain, he’s an appealing one. And oh man, he has a great voice.  

Favourite Role: Amico in The Love Lottery (1954) where he’s the clever, debonair, calm foil to David Niven’s wonderfully comic Famous Film Star. Not so much a bad guy here as an opponent, and a great one. I love this ridiculous little film so much, and it’s my mission to make everyone I know watch it. 

 MORE favourite dead not-American actors: an Advent Calendar cont…

Day 16: Donald Pleasence

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - without great character actors, films and telly shows would be less vibrant, less interesting, less engaging, less entertaining. I’m not going to get into why some actors never get a chance to be leads or I’d be here all day, because some of my faves are the odd ones, the not-traditionally-handsome ones, and that’s because they’re so flipping good. And DP is definitely in that group. And he’s also in the group of actors who get a little pigeonholed, despite being a man of great variety and subtlety. 

And so, while you can always find him in the horror genre, piercing of eye and threatening of tone, you will also find him bringing his understated talent to a wide variety of interesting roles. He is perfect as the mild-mannered, downtrodden man who finally snaps with awful consequences (Dr Crippen); as a genuinely likeable and stoic POW camp inmate (The Great Escape), as the old-school soldier who is the reasonable one in an increasingly insane Nazi world (Night of the Generals) - he imbues his roles with ambiguity and shading, so that often even the villains make sense. 

He’s also, of course, bloody marvellous at wickedness; at intelligent villainy, that veneer of civility that hides a rotten core; at weaselly, snivelling, commonplace vice; at cold, logical, steely menace. He can do pompous officiousness, bluff heartiness, irascible good-naturedness. He’s one of the best, quite frankly, and he is always worth watching. 

Favourite role: Adrian Carsini in the Columbo ep Any Old Port In A Storm (1973) which is one of my fave eps of all time. Peter Falk ups his game, as he always does with the very best co-stars, and DP is remarkable sympathetic despite doing a pretty grim murder. 

MORE favourite dead not-American actors: an Advent Calendar

Day 19: Philip Madoc

I’m not entirely sure when I went from thinking gosh he’s really good in some of my fave Dr Who eps to dear god I must watch ALL THE THINGS, but it happened, and I’m glad. Because while he’s a familiar face (and voice) to many from his villain-of-the-week appearances on many British telly shows, there is a lot more to him than that, and a lot more to appreciate. I mean, he makes a great villain, and he was aware that being dark of eye and low of voice meant he was never going to be the romantic lead, but really, like a lot of my faves, he’s a lead actor who rarely gets to play the hero, because he’s not conventionally whatever-a-hero-needs-to-be. 

His early film roles tend to be as bit part bad guy, often german, (he studied in Vienna, so he was a great go-to german speaker for british films). But it wasn’t all villainy and small parts, especially in his telly work, whether it’s political biopic (The Life and Times of David Lloyd George), edwardian-film-studios comedy/drama (Flickers, which is fab, and has great turns from Bob Hoskins and Frances de la Tour also), crime (the wonderful A Mind To Kill), historical drama (The Last of the Mohicans), or his quiet scene-stealing in some of the best 1970s comedies (Porridge, Dad’s Army). 

The double-edged sword of liking character/not lead actors, is that you end up watching a lot of things for five minutes of your fave. And sometimes those things are terrible, sometimes they’re bonkers, and sometimes they’re far better than you ever thought they would be. This has been the case with a lot of PM’s stuff, but he is always ALWAYS excellent, and makes a tiny perfect study of a character, however fleeting their role. And he’s also a world of joy on the commentaries on the DW eps he’s in, which is also a rare talent. 

Favourite Role: Noel Bain in A Mind To Kill (1994-2002) - I love me some crime telly, and it’s always a joy when a fave gets a lead in a full-on series. The bleakness of 1990s Wales seems tame compared to modern day crime (I’m looking at you, Hinterland), but it’s well-written, acted and cast, and PM is bloody awesome in it. 

MORE favourite dead not-American actors: an Advent Calendar

Day 17: Boris Karloff

I have of late, I know not why, been watching a lot of classic horror films (ok I do know why, horrortober got out of hand, because I rewatched Mark Gatiss’ History of Horror and went a bit mad). I watched a lot of Boris Karloff films because I remembered how much I love him, and in doing so I got to see a whole load of other Karloff, you know, the Karloff who’s not the Creature, or the Mummy, or the looming, lumbering, barely-vocal monster. (Don’t get me wrong, I watched a lot of those too, because why the hell not?)

Actors get typecast, this is a thing we all know, and you can either rail bitterly against it and bemoan the lost opportunities, or accept it, and go with it, and be thankful for the things that come of it (this both as a viewer and of course the actor themselves). Boris did the latter, as we know, with good grace, and so we got some performances that became iconic, and some not-so-iconic performances that are no less wonderful to watch. Because not only does he have that physical presence, and that subtlety and pathos, that he brings to the Frankenstein films, but he also has that beautiful, cultured voice, dark good looks, (when Bela Lugosi calls him ugly in 1935′s The Raven I get very very cross because he’s proper good looking, ffs) and the ability to play comedy and drama equally well. 

He also, like so many of the greats, had the grace to send himself up in later years, without ever being hammy, or losing his seriousness about the actual acting. It’s a sign of a bloody good actor when they treat the job as just a job, no pretence about art, but also as something to be done well, and with respect. I love that. 

Favourite Role: John Gray in The Body Snatcher (1945) because he gets to be wonderfully amoral in the grimy gutters of Regency London, all top hats and fog and cadavers. It’s a great little film, beautifully shot, and you also get Bela for a bit, which is always a good thing. 

MORE favourite dead not-American actors: an Advent Calendar

Day 18: Omar Sharif

Let’s not pretend that Omar never made shit films, (I know, I’ve watched some of them) but hey, do we care? Do we fuck. Just one look at the chocolatey bottomless depths of his shiny eyes, and that’s all I need. He is the king of Acting With Tears In His Eyes and it is a rare and great talent. (He has other acting talents as well of course, but that is a very tricky one to pull off). 

The old timers among you may recall my long and difficult relationship with David Lean and his films, but I have to say, after many years of resistance, it was rewatching Lawrence of Arabia (on the big screen, restored, which helped a LOT) that really made me really fall for Omar. I mean, I’m a sucker for doomed romance, obvs, and for handsome swoonsters, and Unsaid Things, so really it’s not a surprise it’s the thing that broke me.  David Lean famously commented that LOA was basically a rewrite of Brief Encounter, (which also broke me) and I’m not going to argue with the All Powerful Desert Re-arranger. 

There are other films, of course, some of them not made by Lean, (not that he’d acknowledge that), and this is about Omar and his swooniness, so it’s lovely to see him being swoony in a variety of decades and costumes, and sometimes not in anything at all (ask me or @cinemaocd about Ace Up Your Sleeve sometime, but not about Mackenna’s Gold, please). 

Favourite Role: is of course, Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia, because he is noble and handsome and so terribly in love, and it is a wonderful thing to see, although I’d happily just watch the first half and not the second, forever, because I can’t deal with heartbreak all the time.