One of the greatest scenes ever filmed: Charles Laughton as Claudius from the incomplete and never released Alexander Korda film, I Claudius. Introduced by Robert Graves and Dirk Bogarde.
Charles Laughton - though he loved any chance to go OTT - was easily one of the best actors ever to grace the screen. In this performance he is mesmerising. Every note, every nuance, is perfectly placed. You can see how he sympathises with Caligula's assassins, but can't let the crime pass. You can see how he has been despised for his physical weaknesses, but has his mental faculties and integrity to rely on. It's an absolute masterclass for any aspiring screen actor. If only this film had gone to full production, what a classic we would have had.
Without question. His persona on screen is magnificent. His other films like “Captain Kidd” and “ The old dark house” clearly show the cinematic genius of Charles Laughton”. You can’t help but admire how he comes to command every role he plays. The man was a natural on camera. One of the best actors in all of Hollywood in my opinion. Every role he played he gave a stand out performance. Very classy actor !!!
@@jamiemezs9891 these come from a time when classic cinema was it it’s finest ! Today, films are heavily reliant on CGI and are produced using actors who don’t know how to act. That’s when I look back at the old classic films where acting was everything. That’s what made the film great and Charles Laughton was one of the best in the arts. The man had character and he brought that to life on the big screen.
Without a doubt Charles Laughton was one of the greatest actors of his generation.Another acting gem was his performance as Quasimodo in the 1939 film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".The fact that he wasn't even nominated for Best Actor for that year by Academy voters was a travesty of justice on their part.Laughton was on par with Laurence Olivier.
@theuninvited1944GR It was The Year. Lots of brilliant work went without official recognition, e.g., Frank Morgan played five different roles in The Wizard of Oz, but wasn't nominated. Besides, Laughton gave nomination-worthy performances every year during the 1930s. He was The Man of the Thirties.
Absolutely hypnotic performance. Charles Loughton shunned the public limelight and got on the with the business of acting Definitely a master of his chosen craft.
Had this movie been completed it would have been one of the top 5 movies ever made. This particular piece of the unfinished article is possibly the most compelling mesmerising example of acting ever, you cant take your eyes off it and carefully listen to every word spoke and nuance used. The facial features match the speech perfectly and at the end you want it to go on and on. It is as near to perfect as an Actor can get, an once in a career delivery.
This is the first time I have seen this version. Having only seen the brilliant Derek Jacobi interpretation, I found Laughton's version equally valid and understated, holding one's attention throughout. Laughton was superb in (almost) everything he did and is sadly underrated.
@@harri2626 It's their loss. He might come back and be recognised. This happened to Bach, Purcell, Monteverdi too. They disappeared, some for hundreds of years, but came back in all their glory.
Dirk Bogarde is right. This is one of the most impressive speeches I've ever heard on the screen. You can tell Laughton struggled with this role. That's what makes the performance so unforgettable.
The version put out in the 1970s by the BBC (Actually "I Claudius" and " Claudius the God") starring Derek Jacobi was excellent and still worth watching. The books by Robert Graves also.
I have read in a couple of places that Laughton was having trouble finding his characterisation of Claudius, and that he resorted to using the recording of Edward VIII's abdication speech to find his voice. When Laughton starts to speak at 1.42, it could almost be "At long last I am able to say a few words of my own" the likeness is amazing! That said, it is a totally gripping scene, brilliantly performed by a man who was periodically acquainted with genius
Thanks so much for this post. It's the first time I've seen any of this film. Charles Laughton is riveting and expresses a wide range of emotions with assurance and greaat skill. I agree with Dirk Bogart's assessment. Laughton's performance here is in the firmament of cinematic history.
Charles was such a perfectionist that consequently his search for the character of Claudius rendered many problems for the production and I believe it was postponed on several occassions. To most observers his performance is a joy to watch but unfortunately the delays took their toll.
Echoing comments below, Laughton was a brilliant stage and screen actor. Other greats, “Witness for the Prosecution” “Mutiny on the Bounty” but too many to list. Great range. He could play anyone. Hunchback was a masterpiece due to Laughton.
Always loved Charles Laughtons acting,Hunchback of Notre Dame,Les Miserables and Salome when he played King Herod lusting after his stepdaughter Salome played by Rita Hayworth 👍👍👍👍👍
Years ago I saw this on PBS. I think it was around the same time Derek Jacobi played Claudius in the mini series on PBS. I wanted to play Livia, about my favorite villain ever.
Mr. Laughton, by all accounts, seems to have been self-effacing and humble in the assumption of his own talent. Why or how this came to be, we don't know for sure because he certainly had no obvious reason to think so. He always excellent in whatever role he played and he played them as if he were the character himself. Actors like this only come along once in a lifetime as is apparent by today's schlock that's ground out and shoved in front of people to accept.
Geniuses are very often very self-critical. They know how much better they could be. It's the mediocre who are self-satisfied. Laughton is a great actor, whereas so many, of the most popular, are movie stars. Big difference.
Good grief, what we have lost as a culture. Damn all those who took part in its assassination. May they never Rest In Peace but be condemned, for all eternity, to witness over and over again all the consequences of their treachery and their perfidy.
I love ❤ an actor who becomes the character they are portraying. 🎉You just see the the character! You can always believe in the character and forget the actor. That is the best way to make a performance. ❤🎉
The complete documentary from which this was taken is available as a special feature on the DVD of the classic 1970's miniseries starring Sir Derek Jacobi.
Laughton was never knighted because he was always an outsider when it came to the theatrical establishment. His whole life long he despised hierarchies of any kind. Also Laugton became a naturalised American in thè 1930's. Simon Callow's biography of the actor is a very good read.
@@gaycausesoneisparentalnegl309 "Gay mostly"? Oh, you mean dead. All Hollywood greats are christened as homosexual, once they die. I just received my copy of a brilliant work of fiction in the mail: Hollywood Babylon.
My but Charles Laughton was an amazing actor. It's very hard to believe that he wanted out of this movie. Surely after this scene went down he must have known this would be the role of his life, even more so than that of Captain Bligh. I just don't believe he wanted out. It would have been nice to hear his version of the story.
@@rogerpropes7129 Both actors played the character to the hilt as scripted. Hopkins' Bligh is the more complex because that's the way the character was written in that script. For an even less sympathetic Bligh, see Trevor Howard (also in top form) in heavily fictionalized 1962 version.
If you want more Charles Laughton, watch the movie, Night of the Hunter. Laughton didn’t star in the movie. He directed it. And it is one of the best movies I ever watched. The movie was panned at the time and later became a classic.
@willardsteele4857 Yes, it's a masterpiece, and should have been up for several Oscars. But the critics crucified it, the public shunned it, and the response broke his heart, such that he never directed again.
Me too. They had the older sister on for too long in the film. I could hardly wait for them to go back to Laughton. He acts circles around all the others.
@@sandramorey2529I'm not sure that we are positive whether he was gay I believe that's open for debate if anybody wants to bother with such foolishness
It was far less usual back then to knight actors, or indeed anyone else in the category of what we would now call "celebrities". A good many people whom you would now regard as almost automatic choices for a knighthood were made to wait years before they got the honour, which sometimes came only months or even weeks before they died - think P G Wodehouse or Alfred Hitchcock, to name but two.
though the first time I've seen this, it's already familiar and I realize that so many later performances by other actors of vulnerable combative leaders are really impressions of Laughton. further, it has unmistakeable echos of trump campaigning.
Imagine Claudius addressing our corrupted government officials! In the classic BBC series ... Claudius was devoted most to three principles ... Family, Rome and Truth! Bravo Charles Laughton!
Truth? Claudius didn't have the truth he worship other gods, gods that were not even gods _god's invented by man's imagination. for there is only one God and creator of all things and creator of man. And if it's true what they say about Claudius then he died speaking to a false god that he invented in his own mind. 🌿 if you want to know truth then look at what Pontius Pilate asked, he asked, "what is truth?" and who was he asking this question to? he was asking "The Truth" Him very self_ Christ Jesus. But the Lord kept silent when Pontius Pilate asked this because Christ had a work to complete. 🕇🌿
When will we miss a time when actors were dedicated to their craft instead of chosen by race, identity and politics instead of talent? Today to play Claudius you wouldn't have to look for an actor who actually has one leg shorter than another.
How much of this film survives in archive? With modern AI technology, it is not inconceivable that a miniature film might be reconstructed from the fragments!
Lol. Skip. Merle Oberon was in a car accident. Korda and Laughton were constantly fighting over Laughton's "ideas." It was a troubled production that the studio got tired of carrying. As for the "greatest never made"? That's moronic. I think you mean "finished." And the greatest never finished means hardly anything.
Yet despite his amazing talent, adulation, worlwide success, beautiful ladies, he was tormented by self hatred. Felt he was so ugly. As I recall suicide.
I believe that the greatest film never made was not the I Claudius movie or the drama, but instead it was the true and pure and undefiled story of Christ Jesus the Messiah_ many films have been made of Christ but all has been tampered with _ adding more than the truth just for sensationalism sake and for what people want to see, and what tickles their fancy therefore deleting most of the truth of the Gospel of Christ. "The Gospel of Christ" which is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe cannot really be redone in drama without being sacrilegious and speculative for the most part _ notwithstanding, it seems that with stories like "I Claudius" and other emperors they were almost precise, but with the gospel of Christ, No, not even with the story of The Ten Commandments and Moses, ¿Why? because most people do not want the truth it's Human Nature. For if they did want the truth then Man would be free indeed, because as Jesus said, "The truth will set you free" and He also said "I am the Way the Truth and the Life"_ but still even with the story of 'I Claudius' or Cleopatra' who really has 100% proof everything that we have seen and heard of these secular people who existed is true? thousands of years have passed! The only reason that we know that the Gospel of Christ is true is because we have the Word of God, and being that it is the Word of God_ "God is not a man that He should lie." God wrote the Ten Commandments with His📃 finger therefore instead of reading books of stories of people that existed or watching movies of the same I would much rather be there in person, and this is very possible with the Word of God _the Holy Bible, because the Word of God is a living Book, and not only is it a living book_ it is a spiritual book, and can only be understood by Supernatural Aid, and that Supernatural Aid is God the Holy Spirit Himself. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must Worship Him in spirit and in truth_ this is what pleases God most - For men and women and children to worship Him in spirit and in truth. And since the Word of God is a Fountain of Living Water then let us drink of this fountain, and never thirst again, and since Jesùs Christ is the bread of life, let us eat of Him_ and never hunger again. 🌿 besides all of these people that existed - I'm not saying they did not exist - but I do know that soon enough we will meet every one of them when we all gather together at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Now that is something worth knowing about__ it's not only worth known about, but matchless is His worth for at His birth the earth was blessed.🕊🌿❣ it has been said _ " the words of the wise are like goads, their Collective sayings like firmly embedded nails_ given by one Shepherd. Be warned, my son of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the whole matter_ Fear God and keep His Commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. for God will bring every deed into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or evil."📖🕯
@@loge10 how does Christ support everyone that watches this clip? Bear in mind Christ Jesus is the Son of God and Son of Man - God incarnate, Immanuel - God With us.
Charles Laughton was a ham his Henry viii is totally laughable Jamaica inn also absurd His only films worth watching are Witness for the prosecution and Hobsons choice The rest of his acting career was pur ham 🐖🐽
@elizabethcsicsery-ronay1633 larger than life What does that actually mean if anything Elucidate He was a total ham and a sham He was an iron hoof Elsa Lanchester was just a ruse If you look at all the films on the subject of Henry viii The actors are all superb in the part Keith Michele being the best Charles Ham Laughton🫅
@elizabethcsicsery-ronay1633 And what the hell do you know about me I dont like it Charlie was a ham end of story Charming yes good man yes Actot pure Ham i can smell cooking pig 🐖
