He Rocked THE RED SHOES

I am hardcore fan of performances given by Anton Walbrook. It is my strong opinion that he should have been a Best Actor Oscar nominee for his fabulous performance as the dashing, obsessed, driven Boris Lermontov, the renowned head of the ballet company in THE RED SHOES (1948). Lermontov is an effortlessly debonair man who can be both wise and ignorant, warm and monstrous. He is, as one character calls him, an "attractive brute." 

His all-consuming, relentless  passion for his art and the career of one superb ballerina will lead to a major, severe crack in the ice of his glacial elegance that will cause his breakdown at the final curtain. Walbrook inhabits the character totally, the smallest gestures of his physical carriage -- such as the raise of an eyebrow, the motion of a finger, his fixed stares, his posture which leads one to think he once was a fine ballet dancer himself -- are all brilliant.

This isn't the only Anton Walbrook performance I love. The Austrian actor is quite classy and charismatic in the 1933 German film, VICTOR AND VICTORIA. He originated the role that would be played by James Garner in the hit 1982 remake, VICTOR/VICTORIA, starring Julie Andrews. He's got a sophisticated menace about him in the 1940 British film, GASLIGHT. Charles Boyer would take on that role in the 1944 Hollywood remake opposite Ingrid Bergman. 49TH PARALLEL is a 1941 British wartime film that Walbrook steals from co-star Laurence Olivier. He's remarkable and one of the hearts of the wonderful 1943 British film, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP. He's deliciously jaunty in the 1955 British comedy, OH...ROSALINDA!

Did you see the classic 1944 murder mystery, LAURA, directed by Otto Preminger? What a movie. So much posh Manhattan decadence in that classic starring Gene Tierney and Clifton Webb.

 That film, in 1968, was adapted for a television production that aired as an ABC TV special.

In 1962, LAURA was adapted for West German television. Who took on Clifton Webb's role as Waldo Lydecker? Anton Walbrook!

When I discovered that a video of the 1962 foreign production is on YouTube, I had to see it whether it's all in German without subtitles or not. I just had to see Anton Walbrook.

If you share that same passion, click on the link below:

https://youtu.be/LXySR37r3QU.

Love me some Anton Walbrook.