Top 10 Times Classic Hollywood Villains Got What They Deserved
#10: Hjalmar Poelzig
“The Black Cat” (1934) This 1934 Universal horror classic ran into so much trouble with the censors that it’s a wonder it ever got seen. Scenes like the one featuring Boris Karloff’s occultist architect, Hjalmar Poelzig, walking past his murdered wives’ preserved bodies in display cases were somehow allowed to stay in the movie. Without them, we might not understand just how much he deserves his comeuppance. And boy, does he get one. Poelzig has betrayed a fellow soldier, played by Bela Lugosi, and stolen, married, and murdered both his old friend’s wife and his daughter. For his crimes, Lugosi’s character actually skins Poelzig alive at the movie’s climax. Though it’s all suggested and done in stylish silhouette, it’s still one of classic movies’ most brutal scenes.
#9: The Queen
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“Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) Having disguised herself as an old, warty woman, the evil queen, who is also both a witch and Snow White’s stepmother, poisons Disney’s first princess with a deadly apple. The dwarfs pursue her through the woods and to a cliff, where she falls. For good measure, a stray boulder rolls down and crushes her. Seeing that she’s spent the entire movie trying to kill her daughter because she’s pretty, it’s probably fitting that not only is she killed herself, but she also dies looking like an old hag. Knowing her, the latter point would probably bother her more.
#8: Tom Powers
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“The Public Enemy” (1931) It’s safe to say that most gangster movies owe a debt to this William A. Wellman classic. While entertaining audiences with all sorts of immoral and illicit behavior, it also stresses the dangers and inevitable consequences of such a life. “The Public Enemy” refers to Tom Powers, an Irish-American who rises through the ranks to become a top bootlegger in Chicago. After numerous crimes, betrayals, and violent acts, Powers is shot by enemies and delivered to his own loving mother’s doorstep, apparently recovered from his wounds. That is, until it’s revealed his corpse has been propped against the door, and he falls to the floor dead. It’s a finger-wagging but haunting reminder to Depression Era audiences that crime may bring fortune, but it doesn’t pay.
#7: Lina Lamont
“Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) With her grating voice and gracelessness, Lina Lamont is the kind of villain you love to hate. She seems to delight in being a petulant child, screeching and stamping her feet. The silent movie star is, unfortunately, better in pantomime. The advent of sound films jeopardizes her career, and the studio employs Debbie Reynolds’ character, Kathy Selden, to dub her. When the characters she’s terrorized throughout the movie reveal the ruse in front of a live audience, her humiliation is pretty well earned. Needless to say, her career as a “shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament” is kaput. We may hate Lina Lamont, but actress Jean Hagen gave us one of the great villains of classic film.
#6: Senator & Mrs. Iselin
“The Manchurian Candidate” (1962) This paranoid Red Scare thriller finds a power hungry senator’s wife, played by Angela Lansbury, maneuvering to have her husband’s rival assassinated. The assassin turns out to be her son, a prisoner of war brainwashed by the enemy. This cat and mouse game is thrilling and deeply disturbing. Lansbury’s character is probably the most villainous one she’s ever played. What she’s willing to sacrifice for political clout makes her karmic payback so satisfying. In the film’s climax, her son breaks from his brainwashing, and instead of completing the job and sniping the intended target, trains his gun on his corrupt mother and her husband.
#5: The Wicked Witch of the West
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“The Wizard of Oz” (1939) Children all over the world never knew hatred until they saw the Wicked Witch of the West. The woman did nothing but terrorize a nice little girl in gingham print and her dog over a pair of shoes. Sure, they did kill her sister, but that was an accident. And for such a sweet little girl, Dorothy Gale really has killed more people than the average person. Granted, they were all accidents. At least, that’s what she told the judge. Still, a bucket of water to the face was never more deserved. Who knew this one would prove deadly? You’d think if you were that allergic to water, you wouldn’t keep random buckets of it around your castle.
#4: Captain Quinlan
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“Touch of Evil” (1958) Director Orson Welles also plays the villain in his masterful film noir about corruption, murder, and bigotry on the U.S.-Mexico border. Hank Quinlan is a boozy and brutish police captain with a profound hatred for Mexican people. Fighting accusations of misconduct, he is finally brought to justice in a stakeout. In the climactic scene, Quinlan and his once good friend and colleague on the police force shoot each other down. Quinlan dies clumsily, and with his entire storied career in disgrace. It’s a harsh, painful, and pitiful end for a man who truly earned it.
#3: Veda Pierce
“Mildred Pierce” (1945) Throughout this 1945 classic, Mildred Pierce takes any job she can to provide for her spoiled and pretentious daughter, Veda. But this doesn’t endear her to her daughter. If anything, it makes Veda resent her even more. The audience has had more than enough by the time Veda manipulates her mother into taking the fall for a murder she committed. After two entertaining but frustrating hours of watching Mildred sacrifice her own happiness for a daughter who doesn’t deserve it, we finally get a break. Veda is found out and dragged away by cops to live a less than luxurious life in a prison cell.
#2: Phyllis Dietrichson
“Double Indemnity” (1944) Barbara Stanwyck’s deceptive blonde became the very image of the film noir femme fatale. Seductive, smoldering, and deadly, Phyllis Dietrichson is never on the up and up. She manipulates men into doing her bidding like she’s winding up mechanical soldiers. When her deceit catches up to her in her lover’s arms, it’s hard to tell if even her last words are believable. It’s the only time in the movie you can see any trace of sincerity in her eyes, but it’s too late. Walter Neff, the gullible insurance agent she got to kill her husband, doesn’t care. She’s just shot him, and despite saying she loves him, tshe’d undoubtedly have tried again, if Neff hadn’t shot her. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
Dr. Pretorius, “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935)
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Rhoda Penmark, “The Bad Seed” (1956)
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Auric Goldfinger, “Goldfinger” (1964)
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Bob Ewell, “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962)
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Count Dracula, “Dracula” (1931)
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#1: Gregory Anton
“Gaslight” (1944) The villain from the story that gave us the term “gaslighting,” Anton is a thief, conman, and murderer attempting to manipulate his wife into insanity. His aim is to take control of her estate and recover some priceless jewels. Once discovered, his wife, Paula, gives him a taste of his own medicine. Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar for her role, and this scene is a big reason why. Anton, tied to a chair, becomes her prey as she taunts him with a knife. Is she insane, or is he? It is sweet, sweet retribution for the cruelty he’s visited on her throughout the movie.
