Now, for me it is all about Fright Night (Tim Holland, 1985). Here he plays Peter Vincent, a horror actor on the downward side of his career. His character is a bit of a nod to Peter Cushing, in the flavour of his roles, and his name is a nod again to Cushing, as well as Vincent Price, whose career had gone a similar way.
The aforementioned Lord Love a Duck (George Axelrod, 1966) is a dark, fun film. It takes a bit of a stab at the teenage movies of the day, with McDowall's 'Mollymauk' as a manipulator who sets out to destroy people's lives. He is not so much evil as he is, say, obliviously sociopathic. It is very interesting, and shows up on the old movies channels once in a while (AMC or TCM, I forget which one. I even found a Facebook Fan Page for the film.
So, be on the lookout for McDowall's films. He has a great screen pressence, and ranks up there with Peter Lorre on the recognition scale, IMHO. No matter what your tastes are, he's probably been in something you'll like.
5 comments:
Love Roddy. 'Lord Love a Duck' is one of my all time favorite films.
I do enjoy seeing him in films, as well. He is in 73's The Legend of Hell House, a quirky film.
And he is also in one of my guilty pleasures - Overboard with Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell. Love that film, and he classes the place up in the few scenes he has.
I'm going to go look for him in Overboard....
@Dr. MvM - I watched Duck once by accident. It has a very Addams Family vibe, with out all the Goth feel. :-)
@Wings - I have not seen Hell House. I'll have to check it out.
@ABAO - I only seem to remember Goldie Hawn's butt from that, other than that it was pretty funny. I completely forgot that McDowall was in it.
He was briliantly cast in 'Fright Night' and didn't he get nominated for some award. That movie was the culmination of every crappy movie and bad character he ever played but he always gave us his all. One of the geek favs.
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