Your favorite character actors

[JackFavell]

Hey, Bronxie!

The little man is probably Charles Halton, who also played the principal introducing Cary Grant to the high school class in The B and the B, as well as the detective who Frank Morgan hires to spy on his wife in The Shop Around the Corner. He was in everything, playing various pickle faced, pinched up old men. I have a great fondness for him, and always smile when he shows up, no matter how mean or parsimonious he is.


Porter Hall is amazing! He's way up on my favorites list at the beginning of this thread. As Red says, he's the Medford Oregon man, and brings just the right qualities to the role. It's a great role actually, since he has to be at once a threat and kind of oblivious at the same time, and he gets to change it up quite a bit in the part.

[RedRiver]

It really is a fascinating small part. I remember him better for this than anything else. Of course, that could be because I've seen the movie 601 times!

[JackFavell]

Ha! I remember him being rather menacing at certain points, but it may just be how I felt watching him, not his actual performance...it's the way it's directed. We actually want them to pull off the whole thing with no witnesses, but there he is, watching over them and they're not sure what he has seen and you kind of grow to hate him. He seems benign at other points...it's just all given that questioning noirish spin, as they begin to doubt and worry.

[JackFavell]

David, Florence Bates is in my top five favorite character actresses. She's absolutely wonderful, I mean really superb in every movie she was ever in. It's incredible to me that she could play the smart cookie in Saratoga Trunk - Ingrid Bergman's Molly Brown-type confidante, and also play the truly awful and stupid Mrs. Van Hopper in Rebecca. She does them equally well. Thanks for mentioning Moon and Sixpence, she's got that one really choice scene. It's a movie that gets better every time I watch it.

[Vienna]

I remember Florence Bates in I REMEMBER MAMA as the famous writer who loves cooking. Irene Dunne gives her an old family recipe and in return she agrees to read one of Barbara Bel Geddes's stories.

[JackFavell]

That's right! I forgot about her in that one, it's a movie just filled with wonderful secondary performances. My favorite is Oscar Homolka, but there's also Ellen Corby, Hope Landin, and Edith Evanson as the aunts, Barbara O'Neill as Uncle Chris' lady love, Edgar Bergen as Mr. Thorkelson, Rudy Vallee as the doctor, and the marvelous Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Mr. Hyde, the tenant who gives them knowledge rather than rent money. I only just realized by reading the cast list that Philip Dorn played Papa - I literally never quite realized it was him, because he's so gentle and sweet here!

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Florence Bates is divine....
Have loved her in everything since she jammed her cigarette into the cold cream!!! What a wonderful b-i-t-c-h - and I say that as a compliment!!!

Larry

[RedRiver]

(I REMEMBER MAMA) it's a movie just filled with wonderful secondary performances

As presented by the versatile Mr. George Stevens!

[JackFavell]

Larry - that moment just shows what a lazy, spoiled woman she is. Every time I see Florence Bates in anything, my estimation of her rises even more. She's so good, she even gets the last moment in Gaslight, if I recall correctly.

Red - I am sometimes not so crazy about George Stevens, but that movie is just about perfect.

[Bronxgirl48]

Thanks, Mike, and Jackie for putting a name -- Charles Halton -- to that sourpuss face. I didn't remember he's also in B & B and SHOP. I wonder if Porter was given the key to the city of Medford, Oregon, since his character was so proud to be from there. Probably not, though, since he did mention about seeing an "osteopath", lol.

So many great character actors in I REMEMBER MAMA, but my favorite, and the standout for me, has to be Oscar as Uncle Chris, who I think just nails that role. As soon as I see him enter a scene and start bellowing, I want to run and find anywhere to hide, just like Nels, Christine, and Katrin. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for bland but reassuring Philip Dorn, which started with UNDERGROUND (this one also introduced me to Mona Maris) and reached its apogee with MAMA.

[JackFavell]

Bronxie, you and I are on the same wavelength with Oscar H. I absolutely adore him, think he's the best thing in the movie. Because he starts out so scary, he moves me much more later on in the film.

I had only seen Philip Dorn as Nazis, so for some reason, I never realized Papa was the same actor. I just recently saw him in the icky Blonde Fever, where he wasn't much better. He's gorgeous, though.

[Vienna]

Philip Dorn had a role in Random Harvest too, as Ronald Colman's doctor.

[JackFavell]

I realize now that he didn't play too many Nazis, but he always seems to play someone with a bad vibe to him.

[MissGoddess]

Bronxie, you and I are on the same wavelength with Oscar H. I absolutely adore him, think he's the best thing in the movie. Because he starts out so scary, he moves me much more later on in the film.

I had only seen Philip Dorn as Nazis, so for some reason, I never realized Papa was the same actor. I just recently saw him in the icky Blonde Fever, where he wasn't much better. He's gorgeous, though.

I just saw a very late appearance by Oscar in an episode of 'Kojak'. Hairy Oscar and bald Telly, quite a pair!