Stealing the Show

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Grand theft drama. Essay. 900 words, 5-minute read.

Donald Pleasance as Oracle, the whisky-fueled clairvoyant, Hallelujah Trail, 1965, imdb.com

Stealing the Show

By Ray Tabler.

Making movies is a risky business. Or so I’m reliably informed. Beyond the well-known financial and critical perils involved lurks the danger that your audience will ignore what the director is attempting to communicate, and latch onto something entirely else. Fight Club, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Starship Troopers all suffered this fate. Leading actors too are subject to being more or less ignored in their own vehicles. That happens when one, or more, secondary characters steal the show.

The Hallelujah Trail, 1965, is a comedic western, centering around imminent shortage of alcoholic beverages in wild-west Denver. The crusty denizens of Denver face a long, cold winter bereft of whisky. A frightening prospect indeed! Relief is on the way, in the form of a wagon train-load of adult beverages winding its way across the prairie. However, various interested parties have hatched plots to divert the precious cargo, for various purposes. Drama, and comedy ensue.

Hallelujah Trail is absolutely dripping with 1960s movie stars. Burt Lancaster is a US Cavalry officer, tasked with safeguarding the shipment. Brian Keith plays the owner of the cartage company, whose fortune is tied up in delivering the goods. Lee Remick is the leader of a fervent group of temperance ladies, determined to stop the demon rum from reaching Denver, preferably destroying the shipment in the process. Martin Landau (yes, Martin Landau) plays a Native-American chief, leading his tribe to steal the whisky. There are a lot of moving parts in this story.

And still, 50 years on, the character which stands tallest in my memory is Donald Pleasance as Oracle. Among the alcohol-starved miners in Denver is a man who sees the future after a few shots of whisky, Oracle. In one scene the gathered miners sacrifice the last bottle of booze in town for the greater good. Oracle downs a few and stands, seized with a glorious vision. “I see it now!” Oracle becomes a Mogen David Muad’Dib, leading the entirety of the mining community east from Denver to meet and safeguard the coveted cargo of whisky back into town.

I won’t spoil the climax and ending. It’s a chaotic, jaw-dropping spectacle, with all factions colliding in hilarity. And Hallelujah Trail should stand as a cautionary tale to casting directors world worldwide. Careful who you hire for minor roles. They might end up being too good.

And then there’s Alan Rickman. Sources report that Alan Rickman wasn’t happy with playing the Sherriff of Nottingham, in 1991’s Robinhood: Prince of Thieves. A serious actor, Rickman decided to just get through it and get paid. Apparently, his nothing-to-lose attitude translated into the psychotic, scenery-chewing, performance which towered over the better-known actors involved (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, etc…).

Everybody else in the movie was playing it straight. Rickman leaned in and embraced the crazy. Of course, Alan Rickman has a long show-stealing rap sheet. He did the same thing in the first Diehard movie, and Galaxy Quest. A repeat offender.

Alan Rickman as the Sherriff of Nottingham, having a mother-son talk, Robinhood: Prince of Thieves, 1991, imdb.com

In Cold Light of Day, 2012, Sigourney Weaver has her hands full as a corrupt CIA official. Not only does she have to deal with the home office starting to suspect her, but there’s the Mossad, and the bad guys she’s selling secrets to. Now there’s this ignorant amateur, Henry Cavil, who just won’t hold still so she can shoot him. Like she betrayed and murdered his dad, Bruce Willis. It’s been a long, tedious week of tracking a certain very valuable briefcase, eliminating witnesses, and delivering negative feedback to her incompetent henchmen. Finally, Sigourney has had enough, and takes matters into her own hands, terrorizing pedestrians and other drivers in a tense gun fight/car chase through the streets of Barcelona. She’s just trying to take care of business, and steal the show.

Sigourney Weaver has had enough. Cold Light of Day, 2012, imdb.com

Show stealing is a tradition in Hollywood.

Jeff Goldblum is easily the most memorable character in Jurassic Park, 1993.

Bill Murray personifies the screwball comedy Caddyshack, 1980. He reportedly adlibbed lines and gags of eccentric groundskeeper Carl Spackler, the so well the director greatly expanded the role.

David Hasselhof dominates the last part of Sponge Bob Square Pants, The Movie, 2004.

Lake Placid, 1999, would be just another horror movie without Betty White and her giant, pet gators.

Kenneth Mars and Dick Shawn dual for audience attention with unhinged performances in The Producers, 1967, easily outshining even Zero Mostel and a young Gene Wilder.

Kenneth Mars and Dick Shawn, hamming it up in The Producers, 1967.

From the moment haunted Captain Quint, Robert Shaw, drags his fingernails across a black board to when he [spoiler alter] disappears down the shark’s gullet, it’s tough to remember he’s not the main character of Jaws, 1975.

Patrick Warburton as Kronk, the villain Yzma’s muscle bound but multifaceted henchman, in Emperor’s New Groove, 2000, has all the best lines.

The antics of the 4, free-lance commando squad, Penguins in Madagascar, 2005, are frankly more riveting than the main plot.

Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is the real reason people keep watching all of the Thor movies.

Some of these characters are villains, which have always had an outsized draw on audience attention. But many are just sidekicks or even bit players. They’re only intended to advance the plot, but have been written and portrayed too well for their own good. Writers and directors beware. Fascinating minor characters always lurk out there, with larceny in their hearts.

END.

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