In an interview (shown as an extra on the Night and the City DVD) Jules Dassin ruminated on what Widmark could have done, what he could have been capable of, given his range. Dassin was convinced he would have suited Shakespeare and wished Widmark had played Hamlet. Which leads us into a whole other area of 'what ifs'. So, what if you got hold of a Tardis and managed to get Widmark lined up for a run of Shakespeare. What would he do?
Hamlet is one of my favourite plays, but somehow I can't see RW as the Dane - it certainly would have stretched his range though. Hamlet is too indecisive, and bear in mind he's supposed to be very young. He's also quite powerless, and far too moody. Actually the more I think about it, the more I can see Widmark muttering to himself in corners, succumbing to the madness that could be real or could not .... and Hamlet is by definition pretty much film noir ... yes we'll have a Hamlet, thank you.
However what I had in mind were more powerful, military figures, the kind Widmark played often though in more modern guise. But crop his hair shorter and throw a toga on him, and those cheekbones give an instant patrician air - perfect for Julius Caesar. Or get RW in his younger days and do a run of history, with Widmark as the wild young Prince Hal in Henry IV part 1, the prince who cuts his old friend Falstaff off without a glance in part 2 and then the hero of the wars in France, Henry V, plastered in mud, walling up the breaches with the English dead and wittering on about St Crispin's Day. (I'm from an ex-shoemaking town and St Crispin is the patron saint of shoemakers. Bet they didn't mention that in A-level Eng. Lit. Don't say this blog isn't useful for something.)
Widmark was good at doomed, tragic figures. I wonder how he might have done as Richard II? Would the Midwestern accent be too offputting for the Scottish play, with Widmark meeting his fate at the end of Macduff's sword? - with Poitier for Macduff? Actually if we've got Sidney Poitier, we could do Othello and Widmark back to playing baddies as Iago. Or get Widmark as a much older man, with long grey hair and a tattered cloak - a perfect King Lear shouting at the storm...
But top of my list would be Widmark in his late thirties as Richard III, the ultimate bad guy (according to Shakespeare at least) but also a brave soldier and a doomed king. You can just see him, staring down Buckingham with eyes like ice and voice to match, unmoving and unblinking as he orders the deaths of the little Princes in the tower:
"Shall I be plain?
I wish the bastards dead ..."
Chilling. He wouldn't even have to laugh.
Hamlet is one of my favourite plays, but somehow I can't see RW as the Dane - it certainly would have stretched his range though. Hamlet is too indecisive, and bear in mind he's supposed to be very young. He's also quite powerless, and far too moody. Actually the more I think about it, the more I can see Widmark muttering to himself in corners, succumbing to the madness that could be real or could not .... and Hamlet is by definition pretty much film noir ... yes we'll have a Hamlet, thank you.
However what I had in mind were more powerful, military figures, the kind Widmark played often though in more modern guise. But crop his hair shorter and throw a toga on him, and those cheekbones give an instant patrician air - perfect for Julius Caesar. Or get RW in his younger days and do a run of history, with Widmark as the wild young Prince Hal in Henry IV part 1, the prince who cuts his old friend Falstaff off without a glance in part 2 and then the hero of the wars in France, Henry V, plastered in mud, walling up the breaches with the English dead and wittering on about St Crispin's Day. (I'm from an ex-shoemaking town and St Crispin is the patron saint of shoemakers. Bet they didn't mention that in A-level Eng. Lit. Don't say this blog isn't useful for something.)
Widmark was good at doomed, tragic figures. I wonder how he might have done as Richard II? Would the Midwestern accent be too offputting for the Scottish play, with Widmark meeting his fate at the end of Macduff's sword? - with Poitier for Macduff? Actually if we've got Sidney Poitier, we could do Othello and Widmark back to playing baddies as Iago. Or get Widmark as a much older man, with long grey hair and a tattered cloak - a perfect King Lear shouting at the storm...
But top of my list would be Widmark in his late thirties as Richard III, the ultimate bad guy (according to Shakespeare at least) but also a brave soldier and a doomed king. You can just see him, staring down Buckingham with eyes like ice and voice to match, unmoving and unblinking as he orders the deaths of the little Princes in the tower:
"Shall I be plain?
I wish the bastards dead ..."
Chilling. He wouldn't even have to laugh.
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