Dennis O'Keefe: Unlikely Catnip?

[moira finnie]

What am I missing when it comes to affable Dennis O'Keefe? Aside from a few brain cells, fried away in this heat wave we are experiencing, I just don't seem to be able to get interested in actor Dennis O'Keefe in anything. Okay, I'll admit that Dennis O'Keefe certainly appeared in a slew of arresting films: The Leopard Man, T-Men, Raw Deal, and The Company She Keeps, but really...c'mon, would women from the quasi-exotic Margo to a strait-laced Lizabeth Scott (you probably thought I was going to say something else) really fall all over themselves to get this guy's attention?

Heaven knows he was a survivor in the show biz jungle, from his first uncredited bit in an Amos and Andy movie, Check and Double Check (1930) to his last movie, Deadline for Murder (1964), O'Keefe did everything in show biz, but I can't say that he inspires even a moment's fleeting thought of romance, much less interest or a sense of danger. Nice guy, yes, sort of, and a serviceable talent, but never really someone it would occur to me to cast in anything. If I were a casting director back in the day, I'd probably hold out for a guy who was equally bland, but more likable: William Lundigan, who could easily have played O'Keefe's brother.

Just a thought. Hope you'll tell me what I might want to look for in his performances that I've missed up until now. Are there other film noir men who strike you as unlikely?

[JackFavell]

To me, he's bland in a creepy way - with the face of a ventriloquist's dummy and the body of a marionette. Eww.

Sorry!

[moira finnie]

To me, he's bland in a creepy way - with the face of a ventriloquist's dummy and the body of a marionette. Eww.

Sorry!

My! Your choice description of "a ventriloquist's dummy and the body of a marionette" seems so appropriate, you made me choke on my iced tea, JF. Now that you've reminded me of this, I guess that, based on the hallowed "big head theory" Mr. O'Keefe could have been the biggest star in Hollywood. Thanks for making me feel less odd in my reaction (or non-reaction) to Dennis.

[JackFavell]

Ha! I think I've read about the big head theory before, and I've seen Harrison Ford in person, so I know it's true..... he definitely fits this description. He looks like a bobble head in real life.

[knitwit45]

Hey, take a look at the Cary Grant photo Mongo just put up on the Candids thread...now there's a BIG head!

[CineMaven]

Cary Grant can lay his big head on my shoulder all he wants.

* * * * * *

"To me, he's bland in a creepy way - with the face of a ventriloquist's dummy and the body of a marionette. Eww.
Sorry!" - Jack Favell

<< ( SPIT TAKE!!! ) >> ...And true. That blondish wavy hair. ACK!

[JackFavell]

Poor Dennis...

[moira finnie]

As I originally mentioned I find O'Keefe an affable presence and an okay actor, though not a really good one. I just can't help wondering why he was cast so often--he fit the budget, he was under contract to production companies, he was reliable? What the heck do you think it was?

[JackFavell]

According to wiki ( and we know how accurate they are), it was Clark Gable who recommended him for his first role... his parents were vaudevillians, and he also wrote a bit. Perhaps he was an affable fellow, one who got along well with others, and who had diverse enough talents to find a niche in any genre?

[Dewey1960]

Hi Moira and Wendy -
If I might, I'd like to jump in here with a word or two in defense of Dennis O'Keefe. It seems that all too often actors are judged by their physical appearance or status as members of the Hollywood elite. What is sometimes lost in the mix is that some actors, usually those trapped within the seemingly limited constraints of B genre pictures, have the willingness to sacrifice the importance of their performance in favor of an artistic commitment to the ultimate impact of the finished film. Given that O'Keefe worked with at least two supremely brilliant directors (Jacques Tourneur and Anthony Mann) it should serve as a testament to his ability to not get in the way of the chosen visual intentions of the filmmakers. What we tend to remember most about films like THE LEOPARD MAN and RAW DEAL, for example, is the overwhelming visual sweep of these films, not whether or not the star carried his or her relative weight. This, I believe was O'Keefe's greatest strength as an actor: a generous, unpretentious performer willing to take a backseat to the aesthetic whims of his director.

Take another look at the two afore-mentioned films. For THE LEOPARD MAN, O'Keefe is called upon to register a certain amount of inner torment surrounding his self-serving behavior as an overly aggressive publicity agent, behavior that has indirectly resulted in a string of horrifyingly tragic deaths. His glibness slowly gives way to calculated action, which allows for just enough personal redemption to make the performance convincing. In RAW DEAL, he effortlessly persuades us that the injustices heaped upon him by his underworld associates have unleashed the appropriate amount of brutal vengeance he displays without once appearing to be gratuitous or melodramatic. A complicated juggling act, to be sure, and one that might not have been as ably served by a more “attractive” or popular movie star.

O'Keefe was one of those malleable actors who blended in with the surroundings of the films he acted in: selfless, invisible, subservient.
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[moira finnie]

Good points, Elliot and thanks for adding your insights here. I am sure that you understand that I am not entirely serious in my question about Dennis O'Keefe, though maybe you're right. Being aware of the malleable O'Keefe's work with good directors, I have wondered why he didn't impress me more as someone whose characters ought to be more memorable, but perhaps he was just meant to be an archetype, not a flesh and blood person in a story. I think that my original comments seemed to infer that I was criticizing Dennis O'Keefe's solely on his looks, but that is not what I intended and I apologize if that is how it read--though he did have a big head, like most movie stars. I find him nice looking but hollow as an actor and unconvincing in those roles that require him to convey tension, though I agree, he is pretty good as a kind of show biz hustler in The Leopard Man, though I don't think he expresses convincing remorse over subsequent events.

All my ramblings about O'Keefe occurred to me just after seeing Dennis in both The Company She Keeps and Raw Deal in one weekend. Believe me, after seeing him as an object of desire for Lizabeth Scott, Jane Greer, Marsha Hunt and Claire Trevor, I was really scratching my head wondering what I was missing. Was he funny? Gallant? Gentle? Kind to animals? I dunno, 'cause all I know is that he was peeved most of the time in these movies. In real life, I am sure that Mr. O'Keefe was nice to animals (except leopards), good to his mother, and helped place baby birds back in their nests when they fell, but I just can't see why he had such a long career--except through persistence, physical presence and that malleability--a quality that is often necessary for success in any field. Thanks again for your thought-provoking comments.

[mongoII]

A movie I enjoyed with Dennis O'Keefe (among others) was "Woman on the Run" with Ann Sheridan.