Best Business Scroundel
Best Business Scroundel
Either in an individual film or in a multitude of roles. Berton Churchill was a " bad banker " in John Ford's " Stagecoach ", while Edward Arnold in a great number of films was wicked as a big business tycoon, his best in Capra's " Meet John Doe ".
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pktrekgirl
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Re: Best Business Scroundel
Edward Arnold plays a really sleazy character in Come and Get It.ken123 wrote:Either in an individual film or in a multitude of roles. Berton Churchill was a " bad banker " in John Ford's " Stagecoach ", while Edward Arnold in a great number of films was wicked as a big business tycoon, his best in Capra's " Meet John Doe ".
Sleazy in business...and even more-so personally.
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moira finnie
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Charles Laughton's captain of industry overseeing a publishing empire in The Big Clock (1948) always struck me as delightfully nefarious.
Kirk Douglas as the Selznick-like producer who manipulates his associates like puppets on a string in The Bad and The Beautiful (1952) is a fave of mine--and just think--at the time, Kirk could've easily played either the bad or the beautiful with ease, (and I think he'd have been the first to tell you so).
Spencer Tracy's striver in the Preston Sturges' The Power and the Glory (1933) was the embodiment of the ancient question: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Edward G. Robinson in All My Sons (1948) and House of Strangers (1949) showed the disastrous effect of sharp business practices on family life and, of course, the body politic.
Okay, how about naming some well-meaning, big-hearted business types?
Walter Huston in American Madness (1932) and Dodsworth (1936) comes immediately to mind. Any other biz types of either kind, anybody?
Kirk Douglas as the Selznick-like producer who manipulates his associates like puppets on a string in The Bad and The Beautiful (1952) is a fave of mine--and just think--at the time, Kirk could've easily played either the bad or the beautiful with ease, (and I think he'd have been the first to tell you so).
Spencer Tracy's striver in the Preston Sturges' The Power and the Glory (1933) was the embodiment of the ancient question: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Edward G. Robinson in All My Sons (1948) and House of Strangers (1949) showed the disastrous effect of sharp business practices on family life and, of course, the body politic.
Okay, how about naming some well-meaning, big-hearted business types?
Walter Huston in American Madness (1932) and Dodsworth (1936) comes immediately to mind. Any other biz types of either kind, anybody?
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Lzcutter
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JJ Hunsecker in the Sweet Smell of Success.
Unless I misunderstood the question and we are talking about steely business men who reveal themselves to have a heart of gold.
Unless I misunderstood the question and we are talking about steely business men who reveal themselves to have a heart of gold.
Lynn in Lake Balboa
"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."
"For me, John Wayne has only become more impressive over time." Marty Scorsese
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"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."
"For me, John Wayne has only become more impressive over time." Marty Scorsese
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MissGoddess
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A couple of Fred's:
Fred Clark was good at playing really stuffy, self-righteous men of business, as in AUNTIE MAME.
Frederic March in Executive Suite, The Best Years of Our Lives and The Grey Flannel Suit showed the many conflicted sides of "how to succeed" in business.
And I wish more people could see Ten North Frederick and Gary Cooper's poignant portrayal of a "great success" who pays the ultimate price for putting getting ahead before his family, and even his own deepest values.
In From the Terrace, based on another John O'Hara work, Paul Newman reexamines the costs of success in business in light of what it does to his marriage---despite witnessing the terrible toll the same attitude took on his parents' relationship (movingly played by Leon Ames and Myrna Loy).
Fred Clark was good at playing really stuffy, self-righteous men of business, as in AUNTIE MAME.
Frederic March in Executive Suite, The Best Years of Our Lives and The Grey Flannel Suit showed the many conflicted sides of "how to succeed" in business.
And I wish more people could see Ten North Frederick and Gary Cooper's poignant portrayal of a "great success" who pays the ultimate price for putting getting ahead before his family, and even his own deepest values.
In From the Terrace, based on another John O'Hara work, Paul Newman reexamines the costs of success in business in light of what it does to his marriage---despite witnessing the terrible toll the same attitude took on his parents' relationship (movingly played by Leon Ames and Myrna Loy).
Re: Best Business Scroundel
Dug up another interesting thread! Fredric March was mentioned. He is good in this situation. Largely because he's good in any scenario. The man could play a turnip and make it convincing. Fred MacMurray's Mr. Sheldrake is despicable on a personal level, more than business. Any way you look at it, he's slime, played superbly by an underrated actor.
Early in this thread's history, it was suggested that Edward Arnold was the ultimate heartless, powerful, step on everybody in my way business man. That he was! He's the best of a shining cast in MEET JOHN DOE. He fulfills the same function in "Mr. Smith," puts a lighter shade on it in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. This fine performer was dependable in most any assignment, but this gig was his specialty.
Unrelated, I would LOVE to see Arnold's one and only turn as Nero Wolfe!
Early in this thread's history, it was suggested that Edward Arnold was the ultimate heartless, powerful, step on everybody in my way business man. That he was! He's the best of a shining cast in MEET JOHN DOE. He fulfills the same function in "Mr. Smith," puts a lighter shade on it in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. This fine performer was dependable in most any assignment, but this gig was his specialty.
Unrelated, I would LOVE to see Arnold's one and only turn as Nero Wolfe!
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JackFavell
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Re: Best Business Scroundel
Oh, I bet he was GREAT! I'd love to see him play that role too!
George Sanders in Death of a Scoundrel plays a ruthless ex-pat who amasses a fortune by always being in the right place at the right time. He swindles and swaddles rich females like Zsa Zsa Gabor and Coleen Gray, only to find his past catching up with him.
George Sanders in Death of a Scoundrel plays a ruthless ex-pat who amasses a fortune by always being in the right place at the right time. He swindles and swaddles rich females like Zsa Zsa Gabor and Coleen Gray, only to find his past catching up with him.
Re: Best Business Scroundel
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Don Rickles in a completely different role was a real dirt bag in The Rat Race, as was George Peppard in The Carpetbaggers - he didn't care who he threw under the bus. Also, Michael Douglas is a louse in almost everything he does; often he gets his comeuppance, but often he gets away with it, e.g. we forget he was a cheating husband in Fatal Attraction, and Disclosure, and just a slime ball in Wall Street, etc., etc., etc.
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Don Rickles in a completely different role was a real dirt bag in The Rat Race, as was George Peppard in The Carpetbaggers - he didn't care who he threw under the bus. Also, Michael Douglas is a louse in almost everything he does; often he gets his comeuppance, but often he gets away with it, e.g. we forget he was a cheating husband in Fatal Attraction, and Disclosure, and just a slime ball in Wall Street, etc., etc., etc.
Anne
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Re: Best Business Scroundel
George Sanders in Death of a Scoundrel
Another actor who can simply do no wrong. Was he ever less than wonderful?
Another actor who can simply do no wrong. Was he ever less than wonderful?
