Every so often an actor pops up while I’m watching something and I think, “Wait a minute, have we ever featured them on Frock Flicks?” and then I discover to my horror that NO WE HAVE NOT AND THIS AGGRESSION WILL NOT STAND, MAN.
That said, once I got to looking at Ian Holm’s IMDB page, I realized I was going to have to break this post into two parts because he was in SO MUCH HISTORICAL STUFF. So, brace yourself, we are going in to the first 20 years of Ian Holm’s career today, and then next week, I will follow up with everything from 1980-onwards.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1959)
The Cherry Orchard (1962)
The Wars of the Roses (1965-1966)
The Bofors Gun (1968)
Mystery and Imagination: Frankenstein (1968)
The Fixer (1968)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968)
Oh! What a Lovely War! (1969)
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)
Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
Young Winston (1972)
Napoleon and Love (1974)
Private Affairs: Mr. Garrick and Mrs. Woffington (1975)
Robin and Marian (1976)
Shout at the Devil (1976)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1977)
Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
March or Die (1977)
Holocaust (1978)
The Lost Boys (1978)
Les Miserables (1978)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
That’s all for this installment! Check back in next week when we follow up with Part Two of Ian Holm’s historical film repertoire!
That green body paint reminds me of Star Trek. :)
Good heavens! That was him as King John? I had no idea.
The magnificent Sir Ian! You could almost do a MCM just on the number of times he played Napoleon Bonaparte :)
I remain deeply disappointed he never played Hercule Poirot as more than a hallucination in a film about Dame Agatha Christie!
The really interesting thing about Sir Ian’s performance in that Frankenstein adaptation was that he played both Victor Frankenstein and the Daemon – an unusual double.
In all honesty this is an approach I would love to see taken more often, since Victor’s horrified reaction to The Creature’s ‘wrongness’ becomes downright fascinating if we assume that the latter was meant to look strikingly like his creator.
Ian Holm is simply wonderful in anything. I recommend “The Lost Boys” by the way- the story was poorly and inaccurately told in “Finding Neverland” but the series was written by Andrew Birkin, who became the authority on Barrie and actually spoke to and became friendly to the last of the boys adopted by Barrie.
And “Jesus of Nazareth” is a marvelous series. It has great costumes as well – not surprisingly as Zeffirelli directed! I watch it every few years at Easter – it hasn’t dated at all (unlike most religious films)
The Midsummer Night’s Dream was a film made for cinema release, which is how I saw it yay these many years ago, though it looks as if it went straight to TV in the US.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063297/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_19_dr
It is crammed with very famous actors, many of whom later became knights or Dames. Judi Dench in very little more than green body paint was Titania, for instance, with Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren as the young female lovers.
The green body paint for Puck, Titania and Oberon was not the only bizarre costume choice – Helena and Hermia were in mini-skirts. It was filmed at Compton Verney, not far from me, but the colouring is very hit-and-miss. It’s a nearly full text, and quite fun if you don’t mind weird colour tones, and enjoyable spot-the-actor stuff. Not sure it counts as a Frock Flick really, but, hey, it’s Ian Holm, and that is never a bad thing.
Seeing the range of characters he embodied, no wonder he was also the perfect Bilbo Baggins!
He was also a perfect Frodo in the BBC radio adaptation :)
Isn’t it great to watch a fine performer age from hot young thing to distinguished old thing? Although I think “Lord of the Ring” should be included; it’s definitely a period film, although what period I’m not prepared to say, being too lazy to slog through one of the fan sites (or the books, for that matter).