Liking an actor, but not liking his movies

[betweensunandmoon]

I like Timothy Dalton. I have not yet seen him in anything I really enjoyed. I know everyone raves about The Lion in Winter, but I thought it was too slow-paced and the ending was anticlimactic. The Living Daylights was slightly better, but I regard the James Bond movies as tolerable at best and painful ordeals at worst. You already know my opinion on The Rocketeer.

The rest of his filmography does not look particularly promising. Alas.

Comments

Excuse me - saw this on Latest Things

[nodrog]

T Dalton's big problem was always Playing Other Actor's Roles.  Rhett Butler, James Bond - even, as you say, Errol Flynn.  It's hard to be taken seriously when you're always pinch-hitting.  This may be why he played 'Prince Barin' in Flash Gordon way too seriously - it was at least an original role and he was determined to make it count…

[igenlode]

My main association of him was with the James Bond films, where he was *so much better* than whoever it was that was doing the role previously... I liked him in "Flash Gordon", too.

(Apparently he was in Mae West's "Sextette", but I don't remember him in that!)

Prince Rupert (alongside Alec Guinness as Charles I) sounds like an interesting role, but I haven't seen the film: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065593/

Apart from that -- basically, I loved him as James Bond, and that was enough to leave a lasting favourable impression of charisma, brains and good bone structure ;-)

[betweensunandmoon]

He's my favorite James Bond so far—he brought an intensity and humanity to the role that neither Connery nor Moore did, and I actually bought the connection between him and the Bond girl for once.

Prince Rupert (alongside Alec Guinness as Charles I) sounds like an interesting role, but I haven't seen the film: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065593/

I thought that one sounded appealing, too. I do love a good historical drama.

[igenlode]

A lot of people don't like Roger Moore's James Bond (I wasn't fond of his Saint either; now I'd have loved to see Dalton handle the role of Simon Templar, come to think of it...), but I'm glad I'm not the only one to be less than taken by Sean Connery's version!

The casting for "Cromwell" is stellar and my reference books review it highly; I gather it is somewhat biased in favour of Cromwell (as ever, reflecting the politics of the date of production, plus a desire for revisionism) so I doubt Rupert as the rival cavalry general and the anti-Cromwell par excellence comes out of it all that favourably ;-)

[betweensunandmoon]

I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade long before seeing any of the Bond films, so I guess I never quite got used to thinking of Sean Connery as James Bond. :P

Obviously a lot of people are fond of Connery's Bond because he was the first one in the role, but I found him more businesslike than charming—not a bad thing if you're supposed to be a secret agent, but not a good thing if you're supposed to be a womanizer. The way 007 was allowed to treat women back then might have had something to do with it, though.

[igenlode]

'Businesslike' is the polite way of putting it -- I thought he came across as an unsympathetic thug :-p

But I haven't seen a Connery Bond movie in a *long* time...

[betweensunandmoon]

now I'd have loved to see Dalton handle the role of Simon Templar, come to think of it...

I've just started reading the Saint novels, and thanks to this comment, I'm unable to picture Simon as looking like anyone else. :D

That aside, I think you're right—Dalton would have made a splendid Saint.

[igenlode]

Have you seen the George Sanders films?
Sanders doesn't really look anything like my concept of Simon Templar (much too physically square and powerful; his heavyweight bruiser physique always seemed at odds with his aura of palpable intelligence), but he's a great enough actor to nail the *personality*.

Dalton is much more my image of what Templar looks like, and based on his Bond and 'Errol Flynn' I think he could do the personality as well.