Today, rather than a specific monster or a specific film/book/series, I have chosen to highlight a man who has played some of my favourite monsters. I do hope you enjoy my post.
Monster Mondays posts may be fiction, film reviews, book reviews or me waxing lyrical about a particular monster. Monsters can be paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy or even simply human. So basically, anything monster goes. I also invite anyone who would like to, to join in with their own post. (See end for details).
Tim Curry, The Master of Monsters
Mr Tim Curry is one of my favourite actors and it is so, so sad he had been so unwell. He has the most amazing voice, he can be play anything from a horrible, oily little man to sex on legs and he does monsters so very, very well. I have chosen a few of my favourite below.
Dr. Frank-N-Furter - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Frank is a monster simply because he thinks of no one but himself. Of course it's very easy to overlook his faults given that he's sassy, charismatic and his voice alone can cause orgasms :)
Darkness - Legend
Another sexy one here - Darkness from Legend. This was probably one of the first big films I saw Tim Curry in and he is simply stunning as the Lord of Darkness. In Legend a young girl, Lili (Mia Sara) uses her innocence to approach a unicorn, one of the guardians of light and in doing so allows it to be killed by Darkness' minions. He then captures her and the last unicorn, wanting the girl as his wife and her to kill the unicorn and banish light from the world forever. (Meanwhile, Tom Cruise runs around as Jack, trying to fix everything, because he was the one who showed Lili the unicorns in the first place).
This is a story of a girl losing her innocence and becoming a woman and Tim Curry plays the lord of Darkness as a sympathetic beast, but with a heart of blackness on the inside. He is sexy and imposing and simply magnificent.
Pennywise - IT
Okay, here's one for every one who hates clowns :). Stephen King's IT is a dark, dark story and I love the mini-series adaptation from 1990. Pennywise is the manifestation of the darkness that lives in Derry and appears to kill children every few years.
To begin with Pennywise looks like a harmless clown, and then he does things like in the picture above and grows a maw of dagger like teeth. What's amazing about Tim Curry's portrayal is that he can stand then in a full clown's outfit, with the funny hair, the nose, the pompoms and even a balloon, and still ooze menace. If I hadn't already have been right off clowns I definitely would have been after watching this.
Hexxus - Fern Gully
I may have mentioned Tim Curry's voice a couple of times before, and in the role of Hexxus it really comes into play since Fern Gully is an animated film. For those who have not heard of it, Fern Gully 1990s attempt to mix fantasy with saving the planet and among others includes the voice of Robin Williams as well. Hexxus is the bad guy - trapped in a tree many years ago by the other magical inhabitants of the rain-forest he is freed when loggers come to Fern Gully.
Tim Curry's rich, amazing voice brings Hexxus to life in all his polluted glory. We also get to hear Tim singing and he is brilliant. It's ages since I have watched Fern Gully and just thinking about that rich, melodic voice makes me want to go and do so right now.
Farley Claymore - The Shadow
Finally I present to you a very human monster: Farley Claymore from The Shadow. The Shadow (Alec Baldwin) is a sort of superhero with mental powers in New York in the 30s who saves people from the Mob as penance for his past misdeeds by channelling his inner darkness. In the film he is confronted by Shiwan Khan, last descendent of Genghis Khan who is blackmailing New York using an atom bomb.
Farley Claymore is one of the men who came up with the device and he is an odious little man who joins Khan of his own free will rather than having to be mind-whammied like everyone else. He is all that is wrong with humankind and covets everything that isn't his. He joins Khan for money and power and is willing the screw over the rest of New York to get it.
The scene where Farley and The Shadow finally come face to face properly, towards the end of the film, is sheer genius. Tim Curry's acting ability just shines through.
Are you a Tim Curry fan? Which is your favourite role of his?
Monster Mondays #10 Links
If you would like to join in, please feel free to make your Monster Monday post and add it to the list.
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Since I did clowns today, I'm going to go with IT as my fav Tim Curry role, he is just so menacing. I was really scared when I first saw the mini series! :)
ReplyDeleteScary, scary clown! I kinda wish they never showed us the real creature in IT because Pennywise is so awesomely nasty.
DeleteWe were reading the Book at the time (1,135 pages) ....
ReplyDeleteWe were looking over older posts and saw your comment about Tim Curry's great performance in this film....
He was a great "character actor"... even if the part was small ... he still gave a great performance....
He is wonderful, his stroke was such a shame. Glad to see he received a lifetime achievement award from the Actors Fund last month.
Deletethat we did not know dear Lady Tasha.... He deserved it....
DeleteHe did indeed :)
DeleteI have enjoyed anything I've seen Tim Curry in. He is a great actor. I didn't know he did a voice in Fern Gully though. How cool.
ReplyDeleteHe's the kind of actor that turns up in everything :)
DeleteSo today we visited a building and when I saw its name, I was going, 'nooo I know Fort Worth Tx can be a little different, hmmm what other city has a cattle drive through the streets downtown after all but....'
ReplyDelete*grins* Different person but still: http://texaslawyer.typepad.com/texas_lawyer_blog/2009/05/tarrant-county-justice-center-named-after-tim-curry.html
LOL - tries to imagine Tim Curry's characters as justice officials - I think Frank would look very fetching in a judge's gown ;)
DeleteAll of these were amazing, but somehow I didn't know he did IT. That makes SO much more sense now! YIKES! And Hexxus.... so awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteHe can exude so much menace just in his voice :D - and then he can play clueless Russian doctors in The Hunt for Red October as if he is the most innocent person on the planet :)
DeleteI love Tim Curry! My favorite role of his is probably as Darkness. That movie totally blew my mind when I saw it as a kid (I still love it to this day). Though, Dr. Frank-N-Furter is a close second.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen/read IT. But I can imagine how Curry would rock that role.
I don't think i've ever seen him in anything that disappointed. He's always so good.
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