Thomson is a full of himself windbag. I much prefer Leslie Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies, last published in 2006. The British film critic and encyclopaedist died of esophageal cancer in January 1989 at 59, but this and his Filmgoer's Companion continued to be updated by others after his death. It was last published in 2006. You can still find near-mint copies of both on Amazon at very reasonable prices.dws1982 wrote:As I tend to do when someone dies, I picked up my copy of David Thomson's The New Biographical Dictionary of Film to see what Thomson had to say. With Thomson you never know who he'll randomly love or hate. For Landau, he said this:"Unlikable" is one of the last adjectives I would apply to Landau, but nothing is surprising from Thomson. Although I did laugh out loud when Thomson was doing one of those lists of Landau's 80's films, mentioned Tucker, ended the paragraph, and picked back up with "Paragraph break to mark a film you've heard of."His Lugosi was, beyond dispute, a daunting recreation thrust into the midst of an eccentric movie. It was, as such, rather more assertion than acting. But Landau's Bela did have the side advantage of making one forget the sheer unlikability of Mr. Landau.
This is what Halliwell, who died before seeing him in Crimes and Misdemeanors and Ed Wood, had to say about Landau before listing his credits of which only Tucker: The Man and His Dream was highlighted before the release of the latter two:
"Gaunt American actor in sinister roles. Born in New York City, he began as a newspaper cartoonist before studying at the Actors Studio. Married actress Barbara Bain." Not much, but succinctly accurate as of Halliwell's passing. He might have had more to say had he lived to see him play Lugosi.