Deep diving into Chris's filmography

Somewhere in Time is a personal favourite of mine! It doesn't exactly paint Chris' character in a good light and it's a really sad film, but I highly recommend it anyways.

Oh, and he doesn't *appear physically* in the film, but Up is my all-time favorite animated movie. Also, I'm also not sure if it's just me overthinking, but within the first 10 (or five? I'll have to rewatch) minutes of the film, they attempted to copy the floppy captain hair (ahhhhh)!

Thinking about those last golden years of Chris's life when his acting became magical, and was recognised as such, imagine that he had the

experience and acting skills at age 30 which he had at 90: how differently do you think he would have portrayed Georg von Trapp?

Dragnet. It is a very silly movie but he is deliciously evil.
Really, you can't go wrong with any. Even in the most terrible movie, he turns in a brilliant performance.

I was thinking that he might have added more facial expressions and hand gestures, because as he got older he seemed to feel that 'less is more' in the sense that he would use fewer body movements but give more insights into his thinking through subtle means.

I suppose I am thinking of another troubled soul he played in the form of John Paul Getty, who despite being wealthy beyond dreams was miserly and had (arguably)lost compassion - described as being 'rotten inside'. CP's portrayal of him and his mind was brilliant in terms of his varied countenance and gestures, but still not entirely losing our interest and even sympathy for him.

He might have tried more of this method playing Georg...except we have discussed before how 'still' he is in the film, contrasting with the flamboyant Maria, so maybe there wasn't much room for change there! Also, I suppose as Georg is a younger man, one would expect him to be more physical (compared to JPG as an old man), so playing him too still wouldn't have worked.

But I think we would have seen more of those quirky expressions that we know and love - the impish smiles (yes that one),the "You're funny but very, very expensive" to Max, the wink, the crossed fingers by the car in front of Zeller, all those and more, as well as a few tortured looks to give us more of an insight into his troubled mind.

Yes, you're right: I read in one of Augiesannie's postings of an appraisal of CP's performance of Georg, that he conveyed his autocratic and aristocratic attitudes exceptionally well, but also with charm (and how many people can do that?! - it helps to be devastatingly handsome, but that isn't the whole story...)

When I read the names of others who are considered for the part, I can’t even picture it

this reminds me that I recently screenshot the memo CP wrote summarizing his recommended changes. It's great stuff, I've got to share it here!

this is a good list. Seems like we'd want to add Beginners and The Insider to older Chris? how about it missisa?

augiesannie, any chance we could get a look at this please, pretty please?!

I will say, given that it is the holiday season, if you’re looking for something a little different, The Silent Partner is a really interesting CP role. It’s usually on TCM at some point in the month of December.

Well well get ready to see a spooky Plummer. There is nothing left of Von Trapp in his eyes. He's a sticky, vengeful bandit, sometimes pathetic but always wicked, blinded by greed, resentful and disturbing... 🙈 what a performance!

That's a very good question. I'd have said that it was quite balanced (or maybe 40% for the bad guy, 60% for the hero) but now that I'm taking a quick look at his filmography I think he played the good guy more often.

In fact, I believe most of his villainous roles were kind of mediocre (not his performance but the role) except a few great ones:

Silent Partner
All the Money in the world
Herod Antipas in Jesus of Nazareth
The Scarlet and the Black
Dial M for Murder
And I have no proof but no doubt either: his Iago from Othello 😍 (on stage)

Oh dear, I always get over enthusiastic when talking about Chris...

It is amazing how different his appearance is for different roles.