Ten Greatest Film Villains

[Allhallowsday]

.Nurse Ratchett in ONE FLEW OVER the CUCKOOS NEST
.BARBRA STELLE as the Witch in BLACK SUNDAY
.Bette Davis as Baby Jane...WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?

Oo-oo some really good ones!  Here's 10 I was able to think of real fast:

Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
Henry Brandon as Silas Barnaby in MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS (1934)
The shark in JAWS (1975)
Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell in THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955)
Joseph Wiseman as DR. NO (1962)
Spike in GREMLINS (1984)
James Earl Jones, etc., as Darth Vader in STAR WARS, et al (1977)
Gene Tierney in LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945 ~ now that's cold!) 
Bob Gunton as Warden Samuel Norton in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)
Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in DIEHARD (1988)

[StackAttack]

my best movie villains are:
lex luthor (kevin spacey, not gene hackman)
the joker (jack nicholson)
darth maul (ray park)
dracula (christopher lee)
bad ash (bruce campbell)
the predator (kevin peter hall)
leatherface (gunnar hansen)
charles manson (steve railsback)
mister hyde (spencer tracy)
farmer vincent (rory calhoun)

[fortunato]

If you aren't aware that Travis Bickle has psychopathic tendencies, then you are just as guilty as he is of his crimes. Maybe he could be called more of an anti-hero than a villain, but at the end of the film, I still feel a little disturbed that he's out on the streets of New York.

By the way, I absolutely love the film. Just because someone's a main character (and you are meant to sympathize with him or her) doesn't mean that they can't act evilly. Just look at Momento.

[Torgo]

Has anyone mentioned Sir Laurence Olivier in "Marathon Man" yet?

[The Burgomaster]

I still say Bickle is a hero.  Any guy who blows away pimps in an attempt to rescue young girls from prostitution is a hero.

[Allhallowsday]

If you aren't aware that Travis Bickle has psychopathic tendencies, then you are just as guilty as he is of his crimes. Maybe he could be called more of an anti-hero than a villain, but at the end of the film, I still feel a little disturbed that he's out on the streets of New York.

By the way, I absolutely love the film. Just because someone's a main character (and you are meant to sympathize with him or her) doesn't mean that they can't act evilly. Just look at Momento.

Sorry my friend, but if Travis Bickle is psychopathic then he is not guilty of his crimes . . . That being said I think there is definitely an argument to be made that Travis Bickle is a villain . . .
The score of TAXI DRIVER is by Bernard Herrmann and it is just wonderful.  TAXI DRIVER is a sad, scary, remarkable film that people will be looking at for a long time. 

[RCMerchant]

I still say Bickle is a hero.  Any guy who blows away pimps in an attempt to rescue young girls from prostitution is a hero.

Alot of the early punk rockers starting wearing the mowhawk style haircut due to their feelings of isolation ,thus they imated Travis Bickles  unique 'do.

                                   

                                             "pah-chooo...."

                 Personally,I think Travis is kinda cool...'course,I'm kinda warped...

[StackAttack]

thats what i never understood about punks. they always say that theyre different and they try to be apart from society but they all dress the same and imitate things like movies. isnt wanting to be an individual defeated by being the same as the people you associate with?

[EricDaNerd]

Here are mine in no paticular order...

Thunderleg                       -Drunken Master
The Predator                    -Predator 1 and 2
Bill                                    -Kill Bill
Alex DeLarge                    -Clockwork
Hans Gruber                     -Die Hard
Gyaos                               -Gamera flicks
Agent Smith                      -Matrix flicks
Eight Devils of Kimon        -Ninja Scroll
Zombies                            -zombie genre

oh and of course..."Who's the master?..."





"Sho-Nuff!"

[Allhallowsday]

I still say Bickle is a hero.  Any guy who blows away pimps in an attempt to rescue young girls from prostitution is a hero.

Hmmm . . . it should be pointed out that Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) first determined to assassinate the character of Senator Palantine, possibly because of his twisted and frustrated feelings for Betsy (Cybil Shepherd) but was stymied, so plan B was to "rescue" Iris (Jodie Foster).   It seems clear that Travis Bickle was determined to shoot somebody.  Perceived  in the film as a hero by the media and those around him, it seems likely that Scorsese was exposing the thoughtless impulse of murder and the irony and absurdity of the term "hero" so readily used. 

[fortunato]

Allhallowsday gets karma for that lovely post. It negates the one you lost for your Angel Heart comments.

[Allhallowsday]

Allhallowsday gets karma for that lovely post. It negates the one you lost for your Angel Heart comments.

Hey Fortunato, I thank you.   

[BoyScoutKevin]

At least according to the "Time" magazine of May 7, 2007.

Arranged by the year, the film was released.

1945 "Detour" Vera (Ann Savage)

1949 "White Heat" Cody Jarrett (James Cagney)

1962 "Cape Fear" Max Cady (Robert Mitchum)

1962 "The Manchurian Candidate" Mrs. Iselin (Angela Lansbury)

1972 "Aquirre, the Wrath of God" Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski)

1976 "Marathon Man" Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier)

1984 "The Terminator" The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

1993 "Schindler's List" Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes)

1994 "Pulp Fiction" Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames)

2001 "Hannibal" Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins)

Any additions? Deletions? Comments?

I'll hold most of my comments to later on, but I do have two quick comments now. Note that most of these actors and actresses were born somewhere else other than the U.S.  And that most of these villains are fairly well known, except for perhaps the first one.

Many good ones there, people. Here are mine. First, in alphabetical order, a score of greats, who made the greatest (IMHO) villains. Notice that most of them were born somewhere other than the U.S., which goes to my supposition that dem dere foreigners make better villains than we Americans.

Lionel Atwill
Humphrey Bogart
James Cagney
John Carradine
Lon Chaney, jr.
Hans Conreid
Peter Cushing
Henry Daniell
Gert Froebe
Lionel Jeffries
Boris Karloff
Christopher Lee
Peter Lorre
Bela Lugosi
Vincent Price
Basil Rathbone
Edward G. Robinson
George Sanders
Terry-Thomas
George Zucco

And some one-shot villains. Not necessarily these, but the problem I have with the list from "Time" magazine, is that so many are well known. If you take some of the more obscure villains, I think you'll find them as good or as better than the ones on "Time's" list.

1964 "The Gorgon" Carla Hoffman (Barbara Shelley)
She turns men's hearts to stone, and all the rest of them as well.

1964 "Masque of the Red Death" Juliana (Hazel Court)
Any woman that deliberately brands herself has issues.

1966 "The Reptile" Anna Franklyn (Jacqueline Pierce)
She has a wicked love bite.

1968 "Oliver" Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed)

1968 "2001: Space Odyssey" HAL (Douglas Rains)
"I don't think I can do that."

1971 "Countess Dracula" Countess Elisabeth (Ingrid Pitt)

1971 "Macbeth" Lady Macbeth (Francesca Annis
I can see her telling her husband, if you don't kill the old king and make me the new queen, you'll be sleeping on the couch tonight and every night thereafter.

1971 "Straw Dogs" Tom Hedden (Peter Vaughan)

1988 "Lair of the White Worm" Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe)
She has a wicked love bite, too.

And a group I'll count as one.

1972 "Tales from the Crypt" Jeanne Clayton (Joan Collins), Ian Hendry (Carl Maitland), James Elliott (Robin Phillips), Ralph Jason (Richard Greene), and Major William Rogers (Nigel Patrick)

[quabrot]

My favorite villain of all time is General Woundwart of Watership Down.  His translation from book to film wasn't the best, but he was still pretty menacing.

Peter Lorre in M and Mad Love, Bogart in The Desperate Hours, Fu Manchu, and King Ghidorah (I would actually call him most threatening in Mothra 3, no dicredit to his first film...).

I was watching Foxy Brown earlier, and I did quite love Miss Katherine.  Maybe it was just because I liked seeing Pam Grier face off against an equally powerful woman.  Definitely not enough great female villians. 

[RCMerchant]

 Charles Laughton-Dr. Moreu...in ISLAND of LOST SOULS! (1933)!!!
HAN!!-in ENTER the DRAGON!!!!
Some of my favorite B to Z budget villians...
Dr.Eric Vornoff -Lugosi-BRIDE of the MONSTER!!!-"You will be as strong as a hundred men!...Or...like all the others...DEAD!!!"
M.Legendre-Lugosi (again!) in WHITE ZOMBIE!!!
Timothy Carey as the psycho hillbilly/rapist in POOR WHITE TRASH(1957)
Charles Bronson in MACHINE GUN KELLY (1958)
Lawerence Tierney in everything!!!!
Neville Brand in EATEN ALIVE-(1976)
the CRIMSON GHOST!!!!
Did I mention the unknown enities known as the EVIL DEAD!?