Svend said:
If you liked Joe Pesci's maniacal Tommy in "Goodfellas", check out the crazy Richard Widmark in 1947's film noir classic "Kiss Of Death", when he pushes the old woman in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs.
ah now we're getting into the fun stuff. Kiss of Death will be released on DVD in October.
Another classic bad guy performance was tyrone power (his one bad guy role) in "nightmare alley" -- which has just been released after years and years of being tied up in legalities. He's great -- not maniacal -- just quietly manipulately evil.
He was never allowed to play a bad guy again -- kind of like andy griffith who had shot "andy of mayberry" at the same time he made "face in the crowd". After mayberry hit, griffith played very few bad guys but when he did he had a great 'aw shucks, i'm jess gonna fuck you with a little" quality that made him pretty scarey.