There Are No Small Parts: 100 Outstanding Film Performances with Screen Time of 10 Minutes or Less

by John DiLeo

Overview

Most books about screen acting, including one of the author’s (100 GREAT FILM PERFORMANCES YOU SHOULD REMEMBER BUT PROBABLY DON’T), concentrate on major stars and major roles. THERE ARE NO SMALL PARTS focuses on the wonders achieved by performers in brief roles, sometimes mere cameos. To watch an actor’s complete delineation of a character in a few minutes is to marvel at his/her talent, concentration, and invention. Each of the 100 performances spotlighted in the book aims to evoke not just each actor’s individual impact but how he/she’s imaginative gifts invigorated (and sometimes even stole) their films. From 1935 to 2019, the text surveys great artists who mastered playing for the camera, seizing moviegoers’ attentions and deserving places of honor for their contributions

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781943876907
Publisher:	Glitterati, Inc.
Publication date:	02/22/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	664,201
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

John DiLeo’s first book was And You Thought You Knew Classic Movies (St. Martin’s, 1999, revised in 2013), hailed by Pauline Kael as “the smartest movie quiz book I’ve ever seen.” His second book was 100 Great Film Performances You Should Remember—But Probably Don’t (Limelight Editions, 2002), which Adolph Green called “a valuable and touching work.” TCM host Robert 'sborne said, in the Hollywood Reporter, that the book “delightfully throws the spotlight on some remarkable film work,” and the Washington Post’s reaction was, “Not only is this helpful criticism, but 100 Great Film Performances can serve as balm for anyone who has ever been disgruntled by the Academy’s choices on 'scar night.” Turner Classic Movies devoted a night of prime-time programming to films featured in John’s third book, Screen Savers: 40 Remarkable Movies Awaiting Rediscovery (Hansen Publishing Group, 2007). His fourth film book, Tennessee Williams and Company: His Essential Screen Actors (Hansen Publishing Group, 2010), led to his presentations and panels at the Tennessee Williams festivals in Provincetown and New Orleans. Show Business called his fifth film book, Screen Savers II: My Grab Bag of Classic Movies (Hansen Publishing Group, 2012), “a must for movie buffs,” and book number six, Ten Movies at a Time: A 350-Film Journey Through Hollywood and America 1930-1970 (Hansen, 2017), was hailed by Newsday as “a nostalgic trip well worth taking.” John has been a contributing book reviewer for the Washington Post’s Book World and frequently hosts classic-film series, appears on radio programs, lectures on cruise ships, conducts film-history seminars, and has been an annual participant in the Black Bear Film Festival (Milford, PA) where he interviewed Farley Granger (2005), Arlene Dahl (2006), Marge Champion (2010), Keir Dullea (2013), Jane Powell (2015), Rex Reed (2016), Tab Hunter (2017), Jane Alexander (2018), and Lorna Luft (2018) on the festival’s stage. Born in 1961 in Brooklyn, John was raised on Long Island and graduated from Ithaca College in 1982 with a B.F.A. His website is johndileo.com. Find him on Twitter (@JOHNDiLEO) and Instagram (john.dileo.12).           

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Elsa Lanchester 11

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) John Wray 14

My Man Godfrey (1936) Jean Dixon 17

Dead End (1937) Claire Trevor 20

The Women (1939) Marjorie Main 23

Gone with the Wind (1939) Ona Munson 26

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) John Qualen 29

Rebecca (1940) Florence Bates 32

My Favorite Wife (1940) Granville Bates 35

Blossoms in the Dust (1941) Marsha Hunt 38

In This Our Life (1942) Hattie McDaniel 42

Mis. Miniver (1942) Helmut Dantine 45

Now, Voyager (1942) Mary Wickes 48

The Hard Way (1943) Gladys George 51

Lassie Come Home (1943) Dame May Whitty 53

Laura (1944) Judith Anderson 57

The Suspect (1945) Henry Daniell 60

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Roman Bohnen 63

Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) Lena Horne 66

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) H. B. Warner 69

Great Expectations (1947) Jean Simmons 72

Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Thelma Ritter 75

Lured (1947) Boris Karloff 78

Body and Soul (1947) Canada Lee 81

The Bishops Wife (1947) Gladys Cooper 84

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) Emory Parnell 87

The Great Sinner (1949) Frank Morgan 90

Come to the Stable (1949) Thomas Gomez 93

Pinky (1949) Evelyn Varden 96

Adam's Rib (1949) Jean Hagen 99

On the Town (1949) Alice Pearce 102

Stage Fright (1950) Kay Walsh 105

Black Hand (1950) Frank Puglia 108

Mystery Street (1950) Jan Sterling 111

All About Eve (1950) Marilyn Monroe 114

Strangers on a Train (1951) Marion Lorne 117

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) John Dierkes 120

Decision Before Dawn (1951) O. E. Hasse 123

The African Queen (1951) Robert Morley 126

Singin' in the Ram (1952) Cyd Charisse 129

With a Song in My Heart (1952) Robert Wagner 132

Sabrina (1954) Marcel Hillaire 135

The Big Knife (1955) Ilka Chase 138

The Swan (1956) Agnes Moorehead 141

The Killing (1956) James Edwards 144

The Bachelor Party (1957) Carolyn Jones 147

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Barbara Nichols 151

Witness for the Prosecution (1957) Una O'Connor 153

Touch of Evil (1958) Marlene Dietrich 156

Bell, Book and Candle (1958) Hermione Gingold 159

The Apartment (1960) Hope Holiday 162

A Raisin in the Sun (1961) Louis Gossett 164

Fanny (1961) Victor Francen 168

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) Buddy Ebsen 171

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Robert Duvall 174

Tom Jones (1963) Joan Greenwood 177

Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) Mary Astor 180

The Wrong Box (1966) Peter Sellers 183

In the Heat of the Night (1967) Larry Gates 186

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Gene Wilder 189

The Producers (1968) Dick Shawn 192

The Last Picture Show (1971) Eileen Brennan 195

The Godfather (1972) John Marley 198

Blume in Love (1973) Shelley Winters 201

Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973) Sylvia Sidney 204

Harry and Tonto (1974) Geraldine Fitzgerald 207

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) Jodie Foster 210

Young Frankenstein (1974) Gene Hackman 213

Farewell, My Lovely (1975) Sylvia Miles 216

All the President's Men (1976) Jane Alexander 219

Network (1976) Beatrice Straight 222

Julia (1977) Maximilian Schell 225

Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) Beverly D'Angelo 228

Pennies from Heaven (1981) Christopher Walken 231

My Favorite Year (1982) Laurie Kazan 234

Tootsie (1982) Sydney Pollack 237

The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984) Geraldine Page 240

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) Dianne Wiest 243

Moonstruck (1987) John Mahoney 246

Running on Empty (1988) Steven Hill 249

Postcards from the Edge (1990) Annette Bening 252

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) Alec Baldwin 255

Chaplin (1992) Geraldine Chaplin 258

Sleepless in Seattle (1993) Rita Wilson 261

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) James Whitmore 264

Shakespeare in Love (1998) Judi Dench 267

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Philip Seymour Hoffman 270

Cold Mountain (2003) Natalie Portman 273

Brokeback Mountain (2005) Linda Cardellini 276

American Gangster (2007) Ruby Dee 279

Swing Vote (2008) Mare Winningham 282

Julie & Julia (2009) Jane Lynch 285

The King's Speech (2010) Michael Gambon 288

The Descendants (2011) Robert Forster 291

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Matthew McConaughey 294

Get on Up (2034) Viola Davis 297

Wild (2014) Laura Dern 300

Spotlight (2015) Neal Huff 303

Can You Ever forgive Me? (2018) Jane Curtin 306

Once upon a Time … in Hollywood (2019) Al Pacino 309

Actors Index 313

Acknowledgments 319

Editorial Reviews

Tennessee Williams and Company: His Essential Screen Actors “It’s a movie maven’s dream…intelligent, exhaustive…if you want the dish on a Williams movie, it’s all here.

Andrew Holleran

Screen Savers II: My Grab Bag of Classic Movies “A must for movie buffs of both classic and obscure movies…all told in Mr. DiLeo’s witty, clever and perceptive prose.

John Rowell

Screen Savers: 40 Remarkable Movies Awaiting Rediscovery “Intriguing…really interesting details…a very entertaining book.

Turner Classic Movies - Robert 'sborne

And You Thought You Knew Classic Movies! “It’s like a Christmas stocking full of surprises. This is the smartest movie quiz book I’ve ever seen.

Pauline Kael

John DiLeo takes us on a captivating waltz through movie history by focusing on actors in brief roles who made a big impact. Many of the 100 movies are well known classics, others obscure, but DiLeo makes you want to see them all and revisit the under-ten-minute performances he writes about so compellingly. I am delighted to be included for my 8 minutes on screen as the bookkeeper in All the Presidents Men, and confess to having never been so thoroughly dissected in a part.

Jane Alexander

Ten Movies at a Time: A 350-Film Journey Through Hollywood and America 1930-1970 “…that rare work that I did not want to put down or, more to the point, that I kept picking up and re-reading…you will be entertained, intrigued, challenged.

James Grissom

100 Great Film Performances You Should Remember But Probably Don’t “John’s keen observations allow us to share the creativity of these artists at their peak, as well as give us a little taste of their feelings of fulfillment in their great performances, individually and collectively. A valuable and touching work.

Adolph Green