Underrated: Rock Hudson in Seconds (1966)

by Tony Dayoub

I admit it's something of a misnomer to call Rock Hudson's performance in Seconds underrated. For years, Hudson has been praised for his turn in the John Frankenheimer thriller and deservedly so. But ask even the most avid film buff if they've seen the movie and you usually get something along the lines of, "I keep meaning to, but I just haven't gotten to it yet." Well, that should change after today with the Criterion Collection's new Blu-ray release.

Underrated: James Caan in Thief (1981)

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Underrated: Constance Towers

by Tony Dayoub

A stunning blond prostitute is engaged in a fight with her procurer, what we'd call a pimp nowadays. She slaps him about with her handbag, as he, half-drunk, staggers backwards with each blow to his face. The scene unfolds in a series of alternating point-of-view shots, the camera (and by extension, the viewer) by turns leering at the scumbag and knocked around by the hooker's purse. Then, something shocking occurs. In all the commotion, this woman flips her wig... literally. Her hair falls to the ground leaving a bald snarling Fury in the woman's place, any measure of civility that may have existed quickly vanishing from her as she finally brings the pimp down to the floor. Straddling him, she takes money owed to her—and no more—from the groaning worm. She stands, looks straight into the camera as she dons her wig again, and straightens it forcefully as the film's title card flashes onscreen: The Naked Kiss (1964).

Underrated: John Hawkes in Winter's Bone

by Tony Dayoub

Embodying the danger, mistrust, sadness, hopelessness, provincial territoriality, and concern with kin found amongst all of the criminal colluders in Debra Granik's bleak Winter's Bone is Teardrop, the bitter crank dealer played by John Hawkes. That Hawkes steals every scene he is in despite playing every one of them opposite young Jennifer Lawrence (who has been rightly getting all of the notices a budding star-in the-making gets) is not necessarily such a big surprise. Hawkes has been a working character actor for just over twenty years now. It is how little mention is made of his work here which prompts me to address it.

ROCFF - Underrated: Talia Shire in The Godfather (1972)

by Tony Dayoub



In a movie with a powerhouse ensemble cast like Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, it is easy to overlook some of the supporting performances. The film has been covered extensively here, as well as in other publications. My own initial take on it focused on its two stars, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, and their father-son dynamic. But Talia Shire's underrated performance as the youngest Corleone Constanza, or Connie, is a ferocious performance that instantly grounds the movie in the cultural realities of the Italian family.