Which Film Has the Most Hams?

[Blumf]

We all love em, but only in small doses. So which films (go on, let's include TV shows too) makes the mistake of loading up on ham actors?
More generally, who are the ham actors, and how, exactly, do you define them?

For an opening shot, I'll suggest Con Air, with yer Cage and yer Malkovich chewing at the airframe (maybe add in Colm Meaney), but I expect debate here.

[Brundle-Fly]

All fine silver screen actors of yore (particularly Rhubarb) but they're playing to the gallery like nobody's business in
The Comedy Of Terrors (1963) The performances in this you could glaze*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd_qsd_uc18







*Line courtesy of Bob Monkhouse

[greenman]

The obvious one I spose is with Blessed in Flash Gordon, you could I spose argue that Max Von Sydow actually plays Ming fairly straight most of the time(which I think its key to the film working) but elsewhere its wall to wall ham with Blessed, Topol, Dalton, Mariangela Melato, etc.

[Nobody Soup]

Lawless will not win the award for most hams but it was pretty damn fucking hammy for what was supposed to be a relatively serious drama. tom hardy was anti-ham I guess, but gary oldman, noah taylor and guy pearce fucking lathered it on.

[Ignatius_S]

Apologies for being a little pedantic, I think a term like 'over the top performance' would be better – by its definition, ham acting is over the top acting because the performer has no or very little skill. But anyway...

One film that I'm very partial to is The Comedy of Terrors – one of Peter Lorre's last film roles, where he plays the assistant to Vincent Price's undertaker, who attempts to drum up trade by murder. A great cast (Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Joyce Jameson also take principal parts) all of who chew the scenery but that's one reason why it works so well – yet, at the same time, I feel they add wonderful subtle little elevates the performance.

If you haven't seen Todd Slaughter then I urge you to do so and think many would say he was a patron saint of ham actors. A speciality was playing the villain in Victorian-style melodramas like Sweeny Todd and found him hilarious. However, when I saw him in one or two other types of more reserved roles, realised that he was pretty damn fine actor and appreciated that his style of screen villainy gave an documented insight about what popular theatre could be like in the Nineteenth Century.

Kind of tied to the above, I often enjoy when ham acting is being affectionately portrayed. For example, in WC Fields' The Old-Fashioned Way – there he plays an actor-manager and although what we see of the performance is crude and rather creaky, it's a populist smash-hit with the audience.

[Delete Delete Delete]

The Winne is Babe.

[studpuppet]

Sleuth only has two hams in it, but considering that's 100% of the cast I'd say that's pretty hammy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBRMaieaLdU

Also, Murder By Death is a comedy but it's also full of top stars hamming it up, not least Alec Guinness at the end.

[Ignatius_S]

All fine silver screen actors of yore (particularly Rhubarb) but they're playing to the gallery like nobody's business in
The Comedy Of Terrors (1963) The performances in this you could glaze...

Although all were somewhat experienced in playing roles over the top – one of my favourite Price roles is in the Mitchum/Russell  film, His Kind of Woman, playing a jaded matinee idol, thrilled at the chance to risk his life for real.

Slight tangent, Lorre was a noted scene stealer on the German stage. In one German play that Lorre was in, he came on was meant to say something like 'Baron Cardwell is here to see you' (I can't quite recall but that might have been the extent of his role in the play). Instead, he changed his lines and started smoking a cigarette – asking things like 'You know Baron Cardwell, don't you?'... 'you've known him for years?' with the poor other actor trying to improvise. Finally, Lorre slowly extinguished his cigarette, shrugged his shoulders and then said 'Well, he's here to see you now' – the audience loved it and warmly applauded Lorre.

[Blumf]

Sleuth only has two hams in it, but considering that's 100% of the cast I'd say that's pretty hammy...

You mean 66%

Spoiler alert

Sssssssssh!

[close]

[Blumf]

Apologies for being a little pedantic, I think a term like 'over the top performance' would be better – by its definition, ham acting is over the top acting because the performer has no or very little skill. But anyway...

Well this is part of what I'm wondering, because a lot of the canonical hams (Lorre, Blessed) are good actors who just love hamming it up. Should they be included on the ham list or not is a question that I'm hoping the thread touches on.

On the other hand, surely it's rare for true hams (Shatner, Wiseau(?)) to get as far as the movies, so we'd hardly ever see them, let alone several in the same picture.

[Absorb the anus burn]

What A Carve Up.

Sid James and Kenneth Connor come across as fairly un-ham like next to:

Dennis Price
Donald Pleasence
Michael Gough
Esme Cannon
Michael Gwynn
Timothy Bateson

Who collectively provide so much ham that David Cameron would face-fuck them in the blink of an eye.

[Brundle-Fly]

I'll tell you who loves to ham it up to the point you wonder if he sometimes wanders onto the wrong film lot.



ALL I EVUR 'EAR ABAHT, IS THE FARKIN' KRAYS!!! KRAYS....KRAZE.... KERAZE!!!!!!

[Phil_A]

Lawless will not win the award for most hams but it was pretty damn fucking hammy for what was supposed to be a relatively serious drama. tom hardy was anti-ham I guess, but gary oldman, noah taylor and guy pearce fucking lathered it on.

Oldman is particularly prone to hamming, not least in Francis Ford Coppolla's Bram Stoker's Dracula, which in general is just wall-to-wall hammery. It's one of those films I loved as a teenager but watching as an adult all I can see is how grotesquely overplayed every single character is. Hopkins, Ryder, Grant, Waits, hams every one of them. It's quite astonishing that Keanu Reeves attempting to portray a Victorian Englishman is not even the most absurd thing in it.

"Blahddy wolves chasing me through some BLOO INFEERNO!"

[thraxx]

Police Academy 5 - Assignment Miami Beach:  Old Bill everywhere.

[Dropshadow]

"Bram Stoker's Dracula", the 1992 one with Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins. A real barrel of laughs - those two ham it up something rotten. Yes, there's only two of them, but they out-ham any other film that features tons of hams. Whenever I watch the bit where Dracula (Oldman) says "Velcome to my home.  Enter freely of your own vill and leave some of the happiness you breeng" I nearly shite myself. The "Leesten to them, the cheeldrren of the night.  Vhat sweet music they maike" isn't half bad either.

[biggytitbo]

Murder by Death too. My favourite cast of any film -

Peter Falk
David Niven
Alec Guiness
Peter Sellers
Maggie Smith
Truman Capote
Elsa Lancaster
Eileen Brennan

All hamming the fuck up like there's no tomorrow.

[Mr Banlon]

The Italian Job(The proper one)
Caine
Noel Coward
Raf Vallone
Benny Hill
The bloke that played Von Smallhausen in Allo Allo (Doing a hysterical babidiboopi Italian)
All hamming it up to the max

[Noodle Lizard]

Run For Your Wife

[Noodle Lizard]

"Blahddy wolves chasing me through some BLOO INFEERNO!"

"I know hwheeere the BARSTARD sleeps!  I brought him there ... to CARFAX ABBEHHH"

Sir Anthony arguably the biggest ham in that one though.

[greenman]

Quite a bit of Jon Carpenters work, Escape from New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, In The Mouth of Madness, etc.

[Steven]

"I know hwheeere the BARSTARD sleeps!  I brought him there ... to CARFAX ABBEHHH"

Oh God, he stinks up the entire film, and they could have easily made the character American, such bollocks.

Let's just savour that role though.. "I'll attend to the cunt.."

"I have seen MENNY strange things ALRRREDDYYY, BLOODY WOOLVES CHASING ME THROUGH SOME BLUE INFERNO!"

Going a bit Terence and Phillips for fucksakes.

[newbridge]

A truly legendary ham-fest:



"Who? WHO? What are you, a FUCKing OWL?"

(FaceOff also a candidate)

[greenman]

Remember that distant time where people though Pacino was the one who was losing it becoming a caricature of himself?

[SavageHedgehog]

[Dr Funke]

A truly legendary ham-fest:

"Who? WHO? What are you, a FUCKing OWL?"

(FaceOff also a candidate)

My favourite bit from Heat...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvTpEoi0tzE

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Total Recall

As you'd expect from Verhoeven, larger than life.

Entire passages of dialogue are comprised of hard-boiled one liners, the actors have all been ordered to turn it up to 11 and nothing is deemed too louche or outrageous.

Thoroughly entertaining though, cinema at its least giving-a-fuck.

[Saucer51]

We all love em, but only in small doses. So which films (go on, let's include TV shows too) makes the mistake of loading up on ham actors?
More generally, who are the ham actors, and how, exactly, do you define them?

For an opening shot, I'll suggest Con Air, with yer Cage and yer Malkovich chewing at the airframe (maybe add in Colm Meaney), but I expect debate here.

Interestingly, Con Air has one of the most contrived and cringeworthy scenes in a movie. When Cusack and Cage pause, exchange glances and wordlessly kick start their commandeered bikes to chase the runaway plane. As you do.

[Saucer51]

The obvious one I spose is with Blessed in Flash Gordon, you could I spose argue that Max Von Sydow actually plays Ming fairly straight most of the time(which I think its key to the film working) but elsewhere its wall to wall ham with Blessed, Topol, Dalton, Mariangela Melato, etc.

Although I loved Topol and Fiddler on the Roof, this

[Kelvin]

My favourite bit from Heat...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvTpEoi0tzE

I hate that bit. I hate that it looks like he goes to say "big", but then changes to "great" and they still used that take.

How can anyone watch that and not want to pull their own eyes out?

[Key]

He also accidentally looks right down the lens for a split second at the very end .
worlds greatest actor there, Al Pacino.