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Cast Against Type: Heroes as Villains

Cast Against Type: Heroes as Villains

12 Episodes

When actors otherwise known for their wholesome, likable, and appealing images play against type as villains, the results can be riveting—subverting narrative expectations, challenging audience identification, and revealing novel dimensions of a performer we thought we knew. Whether it’s Andy Griffith as a television star turned monstrous, power-hungry demagogue (A FACE IN THE CROWD); Marilyn Monroe as a dangerously psychotic babysitter (DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK); or even ultimate good guy Henry Fonda as a sociopathic, child-murdering gunslinger (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST), there’s an undeniable, almost transgressive thrill in seeing some of our most beloved actors embrace their dark sides.

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Cast Against Type: Heroes as Villains

12 Episodes

  • Cast Against Type Teaser
    01:04
    Cast Against Type Teaser
    Episode 1

    Cast Against Type Teaser

    Episode 1

  • Don’t Bother to Knock
    1:16:14
    Don’t Bother to Knock
    Episode 2

    Don’t Bother to Knock

    Episode 2

    Directed by Roy Ward Baker • 1952 • United States
    Starring Richard Widmark, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Bancroft

    Marilyn Monroe reveals the anxious undercurrents roiling beneath her bombshell image in this edgy psychological thriller, one of her most intense and effective dramatic showcases. When airli...

  • The Boston Strangler
    1:56:17
    The Boston Strangler
    Episode 3

    The Boston Strangler

    Episode 3

    Directed by Richard Fleischer • 1968 • United States
    Starring Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy

    Tony Curtis shed his pretty-boy image with his startling turn in this provocative true-crime procedural based on the shocking serial murders that rocked Boston in the early 1960s. Donning heavy...

  • A Face In the Crowd
    2:06:08
    A Face In the Crowd
    Episode 4

    A Face In the Crowd

    Episode 4

    Directed by Elia Kazan • 1957 • United States
    Starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau

    A FACE IN THE CROWD chronicles the rise and fall of Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes (Andy Griffith), a boisterous entertainer discovered in an Arkansas drunk tank by Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), a loc...

  • Once Upon a Time in the West
    2:45:52
    Once Upon a Time in the West
    Episode 5

    Once Upon a Time in the West

    Episode 5

    Directed by Sergio Leone • 1968 • Italy, United States
    Starring Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale

    Sergio Leone breathed new life into the western with this masterful epic, which stands as one of the genre’s most timeless artistic achievements. Henry Fonda, cast against his good-guy...

  • The Killers
    1:34:54
    The Killers
    Episode 6

    The Killers

    Episode 6

    Directed by Don Siegel • 1964 • United States
    Starring Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Angie Dickinson

    Ernest Hemingway’s gripping short story “The Killers” has fascinated readers and filmmakers for generations. In 1964, Don Siegel—initially slated to direct the 1946 version—took it on, creating th...

  • Red River
    2:07:13
    Red River
    Episode 7

    Red River

    Episode 7

    Directed by Howard Hawks • 1948 • United States
    Starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan

    No matter what genre he worked in, Howard Hawks played by his own rules, and never was this more evident than in his first western, the rowdy and whip-smart RED RIVER. In it, John Wayne found on...

  • The Boys from Brazil
    2:05:08
    The Boys from Brazil
    Episode 8

    The Boys from Brazil

    Episode 8

    Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner • 1978 • United Kingdom, United States
    Starring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason

    History has shown how one man with a dream can turn the world into a nightmare—can history repeat itself? Elderly Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) has made a...

  • Angel Face
    1:31:32
    Angel Face
    Episode 9

    Angel Face

    Episode 9

    Directed by Otto Preminger • 1953 • United States
    Starring Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman

    Closing out the landmark cycle of noirs he began with LAURA, Otto Preminger directs this tale of a passion gone haywire. Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) is a regular guy with a steady girl and a d...

  • Night Must Fall
    1:56:24
    Night Must Fall
    Episode 10

    Night Must Fall

    Episode 10

    Directed by Richard Thorpe • 1937 • United States
    Starring Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Dame May Whitty

    The original screen version of playwright Emelyn Williams’s oft-adapted stage mystery gave Robert Montgomery—tired of his casting as rich playboys in light comedies—a chance to prove h...

  • In Name Only
    1:34:34
    In Name Only
    Episode 11

    In Name Only

    Episode 11

    Directed by John Cromwell • 1939 • United States
    Starring Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Kay Francis

    Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, and Kay Francis form a memorable love triangle in this emotion-laden romantic melodrama. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Alec Walker (Grant) finds a shot at true happines...

  • The Velvet Touch
    1:36:50
    The Velvet Touch
    Episode 12

    The Velvet Touch

    Episode 12

    Directed by Jack Gage • 1948 • United States
    Starring Rosalind Russell, Leon Ames, Leo Genn

    How far will an actress go for a good part? Rosalind Russell delivers a tour-de-force performance in this sumptuously mounted, noir-tinged psychological mystery as Valerie Stanton, a Broadway star weary o...

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