Evocative frightening stills from a TERRIFIC movie. Wrenching. Makes me remember Rod Steiger’s closeup at the end of the film and think I should have written about that for Matt’s Close-up Blog-a-Thon. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll immediately know the closeup I mean. It’s unmistakable. I almost had to look away. His face turned into a Greek mask of tragedy, an oblong “O” mouth, an Edvard Munch scream face … brutal, a relentless shot, but one you feel glad to have seen nonetheless. The pain it brings up in the audience creates an unfurling bridge of connection to Sol Nazerman (Steiger) … we cannot help but identify, even though our every impulse is screaming at us to turn away from such psychic agony. See it, if you haven’t.
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Have you seen “No Way to Treat a Lady”? Rod Steiger as a murderer who uses various disguises – top-o-the-mornin priest, German plumber, swishy wig salesman, etc. It’s a tour de force. Plus there’s a delectable performance by Lee Remick at her most beautiful. A spooky and tacky but good movie, and Mr. Steiger even does a Brando imitation!
No Way to Treat a Lady–an underappreciated gem.
I never saw The Pawnbroker, but the description of his closeup reminds me of a shot I hazily recall from The Illustrated Man, maybe the vignette where he was the astronaut on the planet where it rained incessantly?
Being an old person, I almost remember seeing an interview of Steiger where he said that he chose the silent scream and had to talk the director into it.
Steve – I hadn’t heard that about Steiger and Lumet – neat – I’d love to know how that conversation went down. Lumet is famous for trusting actors, so that’s a cool detail … I know that Steiger said the best work he ever did was in The Pawnbroker.
I’m really late in commenting on this post but there’s an Oscar montage that TCM runs from time to time that has a great story by Steiger. He is shown telling his story, then it shifts to someone else telling their story, then someone else, then back to Steiger and so on so that they all conclude at the same time. Since many are talking about their Oscar wins you assume Steiger is talking about IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.
He starts off with, “And so I got my tux on and we were all ready to go…”
Later he’s at the Oscars. “I had been preparing my speech for weeks. I was nervous and wondering what I was going to do at the podium…” It continues in this vein for a while.
Then Steiger talks about the moment itself. “They started reading off the nominees and I clapped obligingly as you do. I was getting myself ready to stand, walk up to the stage and accept my Oscar.”
And now you finally realize he’s not talking about IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.
“Then they said ‘Lee Marvin, Cat Ballou.’ I was stunned.”
Then he just stares at the interviewer, speechless. I’ve seen his excellent performance in THE PAWNBROKER and wrote about my favorite scene in it a while ago so I can tell you that as much as I love Lee Marvin, I too was stunned.
Jonathan – wow!!! I had read some quote from Steiger where he said, “That is the best work I have ever done. I deserved that Oscar.” Perhaps they gave it to him for Heat of the Night (as wonderful a performance as it was) to make up for it?? I wonder.
Sometimes I think a performance comes along that is so good – so immediately iconic – so deep and raw and powerful – that it makes everybody else’s look shallow and safe. And instead of rewarding that fearlessness, it is “punished”. Nobody likes to be “shown up” at their own game.