MovieChat Forums > The Big Knife (1955) Discussion > Palance Was Fairly Terrible

Palance Was Fairly Terrible

posted 16 years ago by gbennett5
10 replies | jump to latest

I watched this on TCM this evening, having enjoyed it some twenty years
ago. What I couldn't get over was how shallow Palance's performance was.
It was all gestures and hot air...without even a shred of real emotion.
It shocked me how bad he was. In his defense, the rest of the
actors were only fair. Lupino, Winters and even Sloane were only
okay - I've seen much better from all of them. Could it have been the
rushed shooting schedule and lack of time for several takes?

I like Palance as a rule and I know he won an Oscar for "City Slickers",
but here I simply didn't believe he was tormented. At all.

Am I the only one who noticed this???

[–] pghardin 15 years ago

I wonder if William Holden was ever considered for this role. He seemed the tormented type, as we see with Sunset Blvd. I understand he had his own problems with Harry Cohn, so he would seem a natural here.

[–] liscarkat-2 15 years ago

I like Palance, Steiger, and Winters, but their performances in this movie were The Method totally out of control.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] darogr 10 years ago

That's it exactly. "The Method" finally given full reign on the big screen and this was the result. Just horrible.

[–] IEatWords 11 years ago

Holden probably would've been worse with the way the movie was written.

[–] mike-848 11 years ago

I agree but I thought in defense of these talented actors that it may have been the script. It was a stage play by Odet and it seems that's how Aldrich wanted to direct it; like a stage play.

The dialogue was annoying imo and was akin to Tennessee William's writing which I can't stand.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Prismark10 9 years ago

I think Palance rather toned it down here.

Its that man again!!

[–] franzkabuki 9 years ago

He certainly pressed hard for something that didn't really seem to be there; a lot of the florid dialogue was quite unbelievable coming out of that man's mouth. But, of course, the whole thing was a big, bubbly melodrama overwrought to the max (complete with corny, blaring musical cues at key moments that were almost funny) and pretty much all actors had their ridiculous moments. Wendell Corey was probably the most effective of the lot.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] Crystal (534) 5 years ago

The musical cues were awful. LOL