Jack Palance

I think Jack Palance was just so adept at registering evil.

Not only in this film, but also in SUDDEN FEAR, THE BIG KNIFE (okay, so he's not so much evil there as he is just heavily unlikable) and I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES.

My Uncle also saw Palance in a production of The Tempest with Roddy MacDowell years ago, in which he played Caliban (another heavy baddie), and he told me he left the theater VERY impressed. Oh to have been a fly on the wall during THAT production. I suspect Palance acted the hell out of the part.

He and Lee Van Cleef should have shot it out.

Prove it.

"I'm saying that Stonewall Jackson was trash himself. Him and Lee and all them Rebs. You too."

Don't forget the Playhouse 90 television production of Requiem for a Heavyweight! As a sympathetic but shamefully exploited, punchy and washed-up boxer. Terrific performance, even thought he's no villain in this but, in fact, a very likeable guy.


Okay folks, show's over, nothing to see here!

As one of his first Westerns, Palance had a lot of trouble mounting and dismounting his horse, according to IMDb.

Supposedly, film of his dismounting was run reversed to accomplish the mount we see.

Something about that sick, sadistic smile. Gave me the creeps just watching it on TV. Palance didn't have many scenes or lines in this film, but the scenes he did have, he OWNED them all!!

I loved that trivia bit about how he couldn't mount a horse during production of Shane. They only got one shot of him getting on the horse correctly and they had to reverse it, which is AMAZING. Jack eventually learned how to mount horse, as well as do one-arm-pushups!!


Interesting. You're afraid of insects and women. Ladybugs must render you catatonic.

Agree he was great. Nicely underplayed. I like when he slowly moved the coffee pot. (And that it was coffee -- not the cliche'd whiskey)

Terrific minimalist performance. Few lines. Physical presence. The slow deliberate dismount and yes the director reverse works so well in establishing his menace. The eyes up water drinking exchange between him and Shane. Notice how he is the only character in the movie not wearing loose baggy clothing. Long, lean tight fit. Notice the way he diabolically puts on that tight black glove. And of course his first scene when enters Grafton's and the dog slinks away. Clink, clink. Evil.