All screen villains are perverse or flamboyant in one way or another, but it’s fairly rare to run into one with with a truly twisted or offbeat attitude. In an off-handed, no-big-deal, between-the-lines sort of way, I mean. Muddy-souled, less-than-admirable fellows who are both neurotic and a bit moronic. Not “comedic” figures, but dour, compromised souls whose bizarre manner, obsessions and quirks makes them a bit laughable or at least amusing to some extent.
For whatever reason screenwriters, directors and producers don’t seem to like this kind of ne’er-do-well. They seem to prefer hardcore fiends or clumsy criminals in comedies, guys who are so clumsy and unsure of themselves that you can’t regard them as dangerous or threatening. And nothing much in-between.
“Stacy the hitman“, portrayed by Nicky Katt in Steven Soderbergh‘s The Limey, is one such figure. He’s fairly sullen and hostile and always ready to clip someone if the money is right, but there’s something about his smart-ass manner that suggests a less-than-fully-malicious fellow. Something vaguely nihilistic. A guy who doesn’t seem to care all that much about anything.
Peter Ustinov‘s “Lentulus Batiatus“, the gladiator-school owner in Stanley Kubrick‘s Spartacus, is too dry and witty to fit the profile of a proper villain. He is, after all, someone who buys and sells human beings and sends a certain percentage of them to their deaths — obviously an ugly way to make a living. It’s just that Ustinov can’t help being self-effacing and philosophical, and therefore charming.
My favorite in-between villain is Richard Masur‘s Danskin, a grubby, bearded criminal in Karl Reisz’s Who’ll Stop The Rain (’78). A malcontent with an angry streak, Danskin has a contentious relationship with Ray Sharkey’s even more hapless “Smitty”. They both work for Anthony Zerbe‘s Antheil, a crooked narcotics detective who’s looking to abscond with two kilograms of heroin thhat’s been smuggled into the U.S. by Michael Moriarty‘s “John Converse”.
Danskin and Smitty are bottom-of-the-barrel types — foul, compulsive, insensitive — but they occasionally get into back-and-forth bickerings that are fairly hilarious.