The Hall of Hams # 8: Christopher Plummer

The Hall of Hams is my series on some of my favorite actors who have brought the art of melodramatic acting into the modern era.

Today is the birthday of Christopher Plummer (b. 1929). As part of our Bob Clark phase a few months ago, the Countess and I watched the excellent Sherlock Holmes film Murder by Decree (1979), in which Plummer as Holmes (and James Mason as Watson) solve the Jack the Ripper case (it’s what Holmes fanatics call “non-canonical”.) I highly recommend this stylish movie. The interplay between Holmes and Watson is especially good — they seem sort of like an old gay couple. And the suspense is terrific (with lots of Clark’s characteristic first-person camera perspectives) . Bob Clark was really an under-rated director. Here’s the trailer:

To find out more about show biz past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold. 

And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc