The Better the Villain, the Better the Movie

They can inflict harm with a bullet, a dagger or a single word. They’re the movie characters we love to hate—the villains that make for unforgettable motion pictures. In this course, we examine a rogues’ gallery of some of Hollywood’s most despicable roles and discuss what our fascination with them says about us and the times in which they were made. Rebecca (1940), Alfred Hitchcock’s only film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, introduces us to the malevolent housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, played by Judith Anderson in a legendary performance. In Sweet Smell of Success (1957), we see Burt Lancaster in an unforgettable role as a loathsome gossip columnist who will stop at nothing in a vendetta. In The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Angela Lansbury plays a mother who uses her own son as a pawn in her ruthless quest for power. In Body Heat (1981), Kathleen Turner is the irresistible femme fatale in a steamy film noir in which seduction leads to murder. And The Usual Suspects (1995), an Oscar-winning screenplay and an Oscar-winning performance, introduces us to a villain so evil, he may even be Satan himself. Overall, our discussion includes an exploration into how the screenwriter, director and actor can turn even the evilest individuals into believable human beings. Maybe the most appealing aspect of these movie villains is that they get their comeuppance so much more often than the villains do in real life.