Lady Mary Van Tassel (Sleepy Hollow)
Sold her soul to the devil for revenge. She had different brilliantly evil ways to compromise every person around.
Matthew Harrison Brady (Inherit the Wind)
This doppleganger for William Jennings Bryan may not have been a murderer, but it's only by accident of place and time, for he represents the face of pure demagoguery. He says stupid crap that he knows better than to bump the boobs into line, with no regard for truth or consequences. Like a good demagogue, you can see him talking himself into half-believing his own crap.
Baby Jane Hudson (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?)
Killing her sister's pet bird, then putting it on plate to serve for lunch - wow!
Norma Desmond (Sunset Boulevard)
Her real crime was not so much against the murdered screenwriter as against the butler/ex-husband whom she has heedlessly kept around in such wicked torment for so many years.
Franz Becker (M)
Oh, he can't help it. He's got a compulsion that MAKES him a monster, something inside that he can't control. Shut up.
Doyle Hargraves (Sling Blade)
Mundane everyday evil incarnate, Doyle couldn't really help it. See, he had a bad childhood, or something. Therefore, he couldn't really help smacking the woman and child around a little, and being abusive to anyone stupid enough to associate with him. This is just the kind of pussy-man behavior that makes me nuts. Boo hoo ya frigging baby.
Judd Frye (Oklahoma!)
Steiger's performance in the smokehouse during "Poor Judd Is Dead" must rate as one of the top displays of self-pity ever. Pure class resentment permeated every fiber of his being, and motivated every hateful display- which is to say almost his every action or word in the entire movie.
Article comments
1 - Frank Giovinazzi
And let me add Jack Palance, who played the all-black clad baddie, Jack Wilson in Shane.
2 - CleoJones
I'll add "Mister" from The Color Purple and "Wild Bill" from The Green Mile.
3 - Hybrid
Rufus T. Firefly a villan? Where's Johnny Udo when you need him.
4 - Shaine
What about Annie Wilkes from Misery? She deserves a rank for the sledgehammer-foot thing!
5 - Dr Dreadful
You put in Baby Jane Hudson and Norma Desmond but leave out the worst of the film noir bad girls, Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity? C'm on, Barger, just because you wrote this five years ago is no reason to let you off the hook...
6 - Al Barger
Dreadful- You may have me there. I've only watched Double Indemnity in chunks. I think I've seen the whole thing in pieces, but never properly watched and considered it. I need to.
Looking back to Cleo's note from 03, if I were going to add a villain from The Green Mile, it might be Percy over Wild Bill.
Then there's the villain Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth and Imaginationland. Less seemingly evil on the face than Marcellus Wallace, say, but in fact far more ultimately destructive.