Anjelica Huston was born to be in films in some way — her father is director and actor John Huston and her grandfather is actor Walter Huston, both of whom won Academy Awards for their work. She made an early film debut but then mostly worked as a model in the 1970s until focusing on acting in the 1980s. Since then, Huston has played parts small and large, and in frock flicks, her most memorable are serious, sometimes imperious women who try to get their way … maybe not always successfully but with force and style. I hope Anjelica Huston takes on more historical costume movie and TV work!
Claudia in A Walk with Love and Death (1969)
Court Lady in Hamlet (1969)
Woman of Dark Visage in Swashbuckler (1976)
Madge in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
Mental Patient in Frances (1982)
Geraldine in “An Affair to Forget,” Laverne & Shirley (1982)
Miss Paris in “The Fashion Show,” Laverne & Shirley (1983)
Miss Emily Grierson in A Rose for Emily (1983)
Primrose in “The Nightingale,” Faerie Tale Theatre (1983) & Marguerite in “Beauty and the Beast,” Faerie Tale Theatre (1984)
Gretta in The Dead (1987)
Mrs. Rattery in A Handful of Dust (1988)
Persis Bosworth-Tennyson in Mr. North (1988)
Clara Allen in Lonesome Dove (1989)
Tamara in Enemies, A Love Story (1989)
Calamity Jane in Buffalo Girls (1995)
Rodmilla in Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)
Fanny Assingham in The Golden Bowl (2000)
Vivianne in The Mists of Avalon (2001)
Carrie Chapman Catt in Iron Jawed Angels (2004)
Lottie Osgood in These Foolish Things (2006)
Madame Louise in Seraphim Falls (2006)
Widow Horcada in Waiting for Anya (2020)
What’s your favorite of Anjelica Huston’s frock flick roles?
Mrs. Rattery. Have to say, the only other one I probably saw her in was The Golden Bowl, and that was a long time and only once, so I don’t remember.
The Golden Bowl is truly gorgeous & so very depressing!
The 6-part adaptation shown on PBS’ Masterpiece Theater in the 80’s. was much better, I’m sure without ever having seen the movie!
The Dead – such a beautiful film based on a James Joyce story. The costumes seem very authentic to 1905 Dublin.
The Dead is prob. my fave! Ever After is a close second.
Huston developed into a wonderful, wide-ranging actress; I think “The Dead” might be her finest costume-flick performance. Nevertheless, her defense of Polanski and other rapists–which seemed partially based on the fact that they hadn’t been inappropriate with her–has kept me away from her later movies. https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/anjelica-huston-defends-roman-polanski-jeffrey-tambor-woody-allen-1202130109/
Ever After, easily. This version I’ve seen of Cinderella has the best and most thorough explanation for the stepmother’s hatred toward her stepdaughter. The love Danielle and her father have is something Rodmilla never had; seeing him in his dying moments turn away from Rodmilla to tell his daughter he loves her cements a deep resentment and regret. She struggles to offer that love to her own daughters and cannot fathom offering love toward whom she believes is the cause of her unhappiness.
Additionally, it’s filled with fabulous costumes and a ton of great one-liners (“I shall go down in history as the man who opened a door!”). I remember seeing the Branagh Cinderella at the drive in (pretty, but forgetful), and my husband and I spent most of the time quoting Ever After all through it.
The Grifters was an important role for her as well as Cynthia Keener in the tv show Medium. Don’t forget Eileen Rand in Smash and her appearance in Transparent. Add Buffalo ’66 and Choke. Przzi’s Honor her Academy Award winning performance should be noted. The WItches and both Addams Family movies made a lot of money and she is known for those performances also.
But we’re only looking at historical costume roles here! https://frockflicks.com/what-is-historical-costume-movie-tv-show/
Well, you should be happy: they just released the trailer of a new series based on an Agatha Christie novel set in the 30s where she plays a dowager :)
A Walk with Love and Death (1969) is a very good film, and if I’m not very much mistaken, one of the only films to cover the fascinating event the Jacquerie (1358). The book is just as good. Are the costumes authentic to the mid-14th century? Not at all if memory serves, but then again what movies ever get that right?
I think the photo from “Hamlet” might be Judy Parfitt. Your WCW for Parfitt showed her as Queen Gertrude.
My fave period role is “The Dead”.
But I lover her in “Prizzi’s Honor” and “The Grifters”