Grim Scene, Baby, Grim Scene: The Allen Garfield Poll

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Inspired by rewatching The Marcus-Nelson Murders for the first time in almost 50 years, one of my two or three favourite character actors ever. Everything that was great about him (he died in 2020, COVID-related) is on display in Marcus, where he plays a corrupt Brooklyn D.A. out to convict someone he knows full well is innocent. Made a lot of films, though he was inactive from 2002 to 2016--I had to eliminate 18 titles I didn't recognize.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
(1974) The Conversation	2
(1970) Hi, Mom!	1
(1975) Nashville	1
(1982) The State of Things	1
(1986) Desert Bloom	1
(1992) Jack and His Friends	0
(1992) Citizen Cohn	0
(1991) Until the End of the World	0
(1990) Dick Tracy	0
(1987) My Best Friend's Birthday	0
(1987) Beverly Hills Cop II	0
(1978) The Brink's Job	0
(1984) The Cotton Club	0
(1984) Teachers	0
(2002) White Boy	0
(1993) Family Prayers	0
(2001) The Majestic	0
(1999) The Ninth Gate	0
(1998) Get a Job	0
(1997) Obsession	0
(1996) Diabolique	0
(1995) Destiny Turns on the Radio	0
(1995) Wild Side	0
(1995) Stuart Saves His Family	0
(1994) The Patriots	0
(1993) Cyborg 2	0
(1984) Irreconcilable Differences	0
(1983) Get Crazy	0
(1983) The Black Stallion Returns	0
(1973) The Marcus-Nelson Murders	0
(1973) Slither	0
(1972) Get to Know Your Rabbit	0
(1972) The Candidate	0
(1971) The Organization	0
(1971) Bananas	0
(1971) Taking Off	0
(1970) The Owl and the Pussycat	0
(1969) Putney Swope	0
(1973) Deadhead Miles	0
(1974) Busting	0
(1971) Cry Uncle!	0
(1981) Continental Divide	0
(1981) One from the Heart	0
(1980) One Trick Pony	0
(1980) The Stunt Man	0
(1979) Sketches of a Strangler	0
(1976) Mother, Jugs, and Speed	0
(1976) Gable and Lombard	0
(1974) The Front Page	0
(1968) Greetings	0

― clemenza, Saturday, 12 February 2022 22:47 (three years ago)

Alternate thread title: Are You Goin' Nutso on Me, Barbara Jean?

― clemenza, Saturday, 12 February 2022 22:51 (three years ago)

I think I've seen eight of these, most recently The Stunt Man. I think his most amusing role was in Hi Mom, but he was by far the best thing in the Wenders film The State of Things, playing the Coppola stand-in. When I think of him, it's babbling in the back of his mobile home driving round Hollywood.

To make this a fair poll, it was perhaps prudent to leave off the list Orgy Girls '69.

― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 12 February 2022 23:34 (three years ago)

Obviously one of the greatest punning titles ever. (I'll have to see the Wenders film--didn't know about the Coppola connection.)

― clemenza, Sunday, 13 February 2022 00:04 (three years ago)

I mentioned this on FB when he died, but I particularly treasure his performance as Cal van Damp in One-Trick Pony, one of the classic showbiz assholes.

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 13 February 2022 00:31 (three years ago)

Haven't seen it, but sounds like the perfect Garfield role. I can't think of another actor whose every word just oozes scheming and insincerity--he's basically Eddie Haskell for the Nixon era. Like the way he tells some guy in The Conversation, "I say Moscow 'cause you look a little Russian there, sir, with the beard." I guess Bill Murray before Rushmore had his own variation on that.

― clemenza, Sunday, 13 February 2022 03:40 (three years ago)

Was trying to remember what I'd seen him in recently and it was Putney Swope. And The Conversation. And The Organization. Dude sure got around.

― When the Pain That You Feel is the Bite of an Eel, That's a Moray (Old Lunch), Sunday, 13 February 2022 12:21 (three years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Saturday, 19 February 2022 00:01 (three years ago)

So many great films in his cv, but hard to top his character/performance in The Conversation

― Josefa, Saturday, 19 February 2022 00:08 (three years ago)

I have a soft spot for him in Desert Bloom and that movie in general so went with that. Don’t remember him in Mother, Jugs and Speed for some reason.

― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 February 2022 00:36 (three years ago)

May as well toss a coin picking between The Candidate, The Conversation, and Nashville. I'll go with The Conversation, only because it's a much larger role.

― clemenza, Saturday, 19 February 2022 03:14 (three years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Sunday, 20 February 2022 00:01 (three years ago)

Nice turnout.

― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 20 February 2022 00:13 (three years ago)

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