A Malden farewell
-
- July
- 2
Couldn’t help but be saddened by the passing of Karl Malden, along with all the recent celebrity losses. My sisters and I would always watch “The Streets of San Francisco,” in part because they were in love with Michael Douglas. Malden, however, was terrific there as in everything.
I’m glad some bloggers have mentioned his demonic sheriff in the underrated western “One-Eyed Jacks,” as his best performance, though. There he once again played against Brando (in his only directorial effort.) Malden excelled at decent guys like Mitch in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Father Barry in “On the Waterfront.” But it was that very decency, that very Mitchness that made him so chillingly terrifying as the outlaw-turned-smiling-sheriff who betrays and brutalizes Brando, his former partner in crime, in “Jacks.” And you’ve got to think that Gene Hackman’s sheriff in “Unforgiven” owes something to Malden’s work.
Anyway, rest in peace.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 3:31 pm by Georgette Gouveia.
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