best film: The Leopard and The Sweet Smell of Success are one-two in both of the big categories. I ended up, untentionally splitting them. Lancaster is very close to equal in both, but Mackendrick’s wonderfully atmospheric New York City potboiler (and Tony Curtis performance) can’t trump Visctoni’s pictorial brilliance and achievement of mise-en-scene. Those are Lancaster’s top two films but 1900 is underrated by critics—that would come in third.
best performance: The Sweet Smell of Success. Lancaster’s J.J. Hunsecker is one of Hollywood’s great characters in the 50’s. Tony Curtis’ immoral rogue is our worldview here and narrative vehicle but it’s Lancaster that eats the screen every time he’s on it as the autocratic bully. Lancaster is fanatical and intellectual—an overbearing figure. He’s a tour-de-force.
stylistic innovations/traits: Lancaster had a whopping 26 archiveable films over his 44 year career. He was no Ward Bond (supporting character in everything- 35 archiveable films). He’s lead in at least 20 of these films. Lancaster’s first film, his very first film, is The Killers– a magnificent noir in which Lancaster steals the show. His last archiveable film (and overall film)- is Field of Dreams where Lancaster chews the scenes he’s in up, and spits them out—I love him in it. He was a dominant Hollywood actor for 20 years (1946-1966) and also was adventurous enough to lend himself to foreign auteurs (Visconti, Bertolucci, Malle). If he had done one or the other (Hollywood or foreign auteurs) he would’ve ended up on this list—but he did both so he managed to crack the top 25.
directors worked with: Aldrich (3), Frankenheimer (3) Visconti (2), , and then once with Bertolucci, Malle, and Altman
Top 10 Performances:
- The Sweet Smell of Success
- The Leopard
- Brute Force
- From Here to Eternity
- Elmer Gantry
- 1900
- The Killers
- Atlantic City
- The Train
- The Birdman of Alcatraz
Archiveable films
| 1946- The Killers |
| 1947- Brute Force |
| 1947- I Walk Alone |
| 1948- Sorry, Wrong Number |
| 1953- From Here to Eternity |
| 1954- Vera Cruz |
| 1955- The Rose Tattoo |
| 1957- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral |
| 1957- The Sweet Smell of Success |
| 1958- Run Silent, Run Deep |
| 1958- Separate Tables |
| 1960- Elmer Gantry |
| 1961- Judgement at Nuremberg |
| 1962- The Birdman of Alcatraz |
| 1963- The Leopard |
| 1964- Seven Days in May |
| 1964- The Train |
| 1966- The Professionals |
| 1972- Ulzana’s Raid |
| 1974- Conversation Piece |
| 1976- 1900 |
| 1976- Buffalo Bill and the Indians |
| 1977- Twilight’s Last Gleaming |
| 1980- Atlantic City |
| 1983- Local Hero |
| 1989- Field of Dreams |
@Zane- good catch, thank you- wrongly had Seven Days in May attributed to Preminger instead of Frankenheimer here- fixed
Even though Lancaster is a scene stealer, I strongly believe Tony Curtis gives a slightly better performance. Do you agree?
@M*A*S*H- Hmm- I think they’re on the same plane.
@Drake- Acting-wise, complexity of the character-wise they’re equals. But it’s Curtis’ movie. Lancaster has about 29 minutes of screen time to Curtis’ 65. (The reason is my verdict for Sunset Blvd. )
@MASH- that’s why they’re ultimately equals- if it were Lancaster’s movie and the minutes were flipped I do not think the accomplishment would be on the same level. He’s that dynamic. Foster and Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs might be a good comparison
@Drake- the silences of the lambs is spot on, I’d also add McCabe & mrs. Miller (Julie Christie dominating with a lesser screentime) but the difference in complexity of Hopkins’ and Foster’s characters is much more wider as compared to Lancaster’s and Curtis’ characters.
Foster plays a plain detective to Hopkins’ psychopath whereas if Lancaster is dynamic then Curtis is constantly transforming and explores every possible facet of his character. Constantly scheming and mischievous.
@Drake@M*A*S*H – just watched a few days ago so I thought I’d weigh in here, I would say they are equals but if forced to pick I’d give the ever so slightly edge to Lancaster as I think he just dominates every scene he is in although I think the film’s best scenes are the one’s that feature both of them; they play so well off each other.
While I don’t think Sheen’s performance is as strong as Tony Curtis, I think there is a similar dynamic going on in Wall Street (1987) where Sheen’s Bud Fox clearly wants to be Gordon Gecko. Sheen is the narrative vehicle and gives a fairly strong performance but is obviously dominated by Michael Douglas. However, while Bud Fox has Gordon Gecko playing the devil on one shoulder he has an angel in the other played by real life father Martin Sheen. Tony Curtis character has no angel
@James Trapp- Excellent comparison here- good work.
Is The Swimmer in his top 10 performances? He is superb in it.
@RujK- might be right on the fringe of that top 10 now. Caught The Swimmer in 2019 for the first time- so it’ll be added to the page when the page updates.