Day: July 26, 2022

Although he played everything from the loftiest kings to humble Bob Cratchit, he is best remembered by the general public as one of the great screen villains. Great Shakespeareans, trained in gravitas and oration, often make great villains. John Colicos and David Warner were two of the most memorable examples. If your mind can form a picture of Warner, he is probably torturing streetwalkers, or innocent Jews, or innocent peasants, or innocent starship captains in your imagination. And he’s probably delivering some arrogant speech while doing it. He has been Ra’s al Ghul, the Nazi Heydrich, Gul Madred, Pomponius Falco, Jack the Ripper, and other despicable characters in history or fiction.

But as usual, I can’t let the 60s go, so I have a different take.

As a fan of obscure and offbeat movies, I remember him fondly as Morgan, the eccentric artist aggrieved by the loss of his ex-wife, and unstable enough to try any outlandish thing to get her back, or at least that’s how he imagines it. (Some of the action in Morgan! takes place in his imagination. I think.) That premise created an excellent backdrop for both comedy and pathos. This film, although largely forgotten, was a cult favorite in its day and earned Warner his only BAFTA nomination.