NED BEATTY

        He took a big risk and it paid off. He was asked to play Bobby,  the victim of a horrible sexual attack, and he played it for all it was worth. It was worth a career of working constantly and appearing in many movies and tv shows. Ned Beatty died at 83 with more projects still in the can. He said he didn’t mind not being a leading man, didn’t want to. He preferred playing many different characters, not being put in a box. His filmography certainly bears this out. 

Deliverance (1972) provided his big break. A quartet of urban friends decide to canoe down a remote river in northern Georgia before a dam spoils it. Ronny Cox, Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds portray the other three friends. The film is taken from a story by James Dickey, who also plays a sheriff. Two of the friends get separated and are set upon by rednecks, who rape Bobby and tie up his companion. They are rescued by a bow and arrow shot and proceed down the river. Drew (Cox) dies in rapids they encounter. The other three close ranks and vow secrecy. The local sheriff doesn’t believe their made-up story of what happened but can’t prove otherwise. 

In Robert Altman’s magnum opus Nashville (1975) Beatty is Delbert Reese, a good old boy with a failing marriage and a  wandering eye. He is the lawyer for country star Haven Hamlin (Henry Gibson) and the local campaign chairman for presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker. This film was nominated for four Oscars, but won only for Best Song (I’m Easy, sung by Keith Carradine). The sprawling movie contains 24 major characters, at least an hour of music and numerous plot lines. It runs 2 hours and 41 minutes, but it is worth the time spent viewing it!

Network (1976) was nominated for 10 Oscars and won four ( Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay). Ned Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but lost to Jason Robards for All The President’s Men. Peter Finch plays Howard Beale, a lunatic news anchor who goes off the deep end and gets a ratings spke (remember “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore”?). Beatty is Arthur Jensen, a smarmy corporate CEO who buys out Beale’s network and pushes it to banality. This film is a cautionary tale that foretold the future of TV. 

Superman (1978) is the film that started all the super hero flicks. Ned Beatty is quite good as Otis, bumbling sidekick of super villain Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman). Beatty has the same part in Superman II (1980). Both films are good of their kind.

Ned Beatty plays an undercover FBI agent in Silver Streak (1976), as Rudy’s father in Rudy (1993), and as Sheriff Lester Boyle in Cookie’s Fortune (1999). He can also be seen to advantage in Wise Blood (1979) and The Big Easy (1986). 

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults.

                                                           CHARLES GRODIN

He was good enough to get leading man roles, but he rarely did. He was unremarkable looking and he had a convincing deadpan delivery of his lines that landed him lots of work. Charles Grodin was a staple character actor, mostly in the 70's and 80's. 

I think his best role was as Jonathan (The Duke) Mardukas in Midnight Run (1988). The Duke stole money from the mob and is on every criminal’s hit list. Meanwhile, bounty hunter and ex-cop Jack Walsh (Robert DeNiro) is hired to bring The Duke back to Los Angeles. The Duke fakes a panic attack on a plane and the duo is required to travel by train. Lots of funny stuff occurs and the FBI gets involved. Walsh and Mardukas get nearer and nearer to becoming friends and there’s a surprise ending.

In Rosemary’s Baby (1968) Grodin plays Dr. Hill, the only good person in the whole movie outside of Rosemary herself. Dr. Hill is Rosemary’s personal physician and tries to help her as her mysterious pregnancy moves along. Grodin’s plain looks and demeanor play nicely against the other characters. Are the other residents of their apartment house members of a Satanic cult? Did they have something to do with the pregnancy and the resulting baby? Well, most of the world knows the answers already, but it’s still scary as hell. 

Grodin is the main character in a really good heist movie: 11 Harrowhouse (1974). Grodin plays Howard Chesser, a small-time diamond merchant in England. He is unexpectably given the chance to cut a large diamond owned by wealthy Clyde Massey (Trevor Howard). When the diamond is stolen, Chesser has to organize a complicated heist of raw diamonds to pay Massey back. His idea seems nuts but it might work.

The plot of Heaven Can Wait has been used many times using lots of titles. The 1978 version features a rookie guardian angel making the mistake of sending an NFL quarterback to heaven before his time. He has to be given another chance so another body has to be found for him. Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty) is offered the recently deceased body of millionaire Leo Farnsworth, who has just been killed by his cheating wife (Dyan Cannon) and her sleazy boyfriend (Charles Grodin). Everyone is totally confused by the new Leo, whose body is now occupied by Joe Pendleton. After that it gets complicated. 

Charles Grodin may also be seen to good effect in The Lonely Guy (1984), Dave (1983) and The Woman In Red (1984). The only thing these films have in common is the presence of Mr. Grodin. All of them are pretty good.

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.