ecl@ahuta.UUCP (ecl) (01/02/85)
The Fantasy Films of William Sylvester
A retrospective by Mark R. Leeper
In my review of 2010 I mentioned my regrets that the film cast Roy
Scheider in the role that William Sylvester created in the first film. I
was sorry to read in one of the reader responses that Sylvester had died a
few years ago. However, in THE ODYSSEY FILE by Clarke and Hyams, I read
that Sylvester gave Hyams a call, probably just in case Hyams wanted
Sylvester to come out of retirement for the film. I am rather pleased to
hear that Sylvester is still with us. It's not that he is anything like a
superstar--few fans of fantastic film even recognize his name. Most
published sources on actors don't even list his name. There are very
incomplete listings for him in Halliwell's FILMGOER'S COMPANION (SEVENTH
EDITION) and in THE NEW YORK TIMES DIRECTORY OF THE FILM, and nobody else
seems to know he exists. Still, this mild-mannered actor, likable in the
same way that Henry Fonda was, starred in a surprising number of unusual
fantasy films in the Fifties and Sixties.
Sylvester is an American who has done almost all of his acting in
British films. I think that the British film industry philosophy in this
period was that if a film starred an American actor, it would have better
potential for an American boxoffice. You see a number of British films that
starred actors like Forrest Tucker, Dean Jagger, and Brian Donlevy for that
reason. I think the idea may have back-fired, because I don't think most
people realized that Sylvester was an American. (The same seems to be true
of Mel Gibson.) Let me list the Sylvester films I remember.
THE UNHOLY FOUR/A STRANGER CAME HOME (1953): This was not really a
fantasy film per se, but an interesting mystery directed by Terence Fisher
for a then-young Hammer Films. Fisher and Hammer would later that decade
team up to make a number of very successful gothic horror thrillers, many of
which starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. THE UNHOLY FOUR concerned
an amnesiac, thought dead for years, returning to find out which of his
partners tried to murder him. This isn't Sylvester's best film but it's
worth seeing.
GORGO (1959): After GODZILLA did very well for the Japanese, the
British King Brothers decided to see if a decent dinosaur-in-a-modern-city
film using man-in-dinosaur-suit effects would do the same for them. The
only English-language director who had done dinosaur-in-city films since the
silent LOST WORLD was Eugene Lourie (BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS, GIANT
BEHEMOTH). He was hired for GORGO. The film starred Sylvester and Bill
Travers (of BORN FREE) as the two partners who capture a dinosaur and bring
it to London. As close as this sub-genre comes to having an intelligent
entry, this is it. And the fun of the film is undeniable. Nice musical
score by unknown Angelo Lavagnino, too.
DEVIL DOLL (1963): Since the anthology film DEAD OF NIGHT did an
effective story about the strange relationship between a ventriloquist and
his dummy, this sort of story has almost become a sub-genre of its own.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS did at least one story on the theme; THE TWILIGHT
ZONE did at least two. The most recent film was MAGIC with Anthony Hopkins.
Usually the relationship turns out to be just psychosis on the part of the
ventriloquist, then the film leaves us unsure that that is all it is. A
rare exception that handles the theme in an unusual way is DEVIL DOLL.
William Sylvester plays a reporter investigating the hate-filled
relationship between The Great Vorelli (a hypnotist/ventriloquist) and his
dummy, Hugo. It seems that Hugo not only talks by himself, he also walks by
himself and occasionally tries to kill Vorelli. Bryant Halliday is creepy
as Vorelli, but the sight of little Hugo uneasily lumbering around on his
own, knife in hand, is a real chiller.
DEVILS OF DARKNESS (1965): This is a rarely seen--but as I remember
rather decent--little horror film. It is about an American (Sylvester of
course) on vacation in Brittany who runs afoul of a devil cult headed by a
resurrected vampire. It has been a while since I saw it, but I remember I
liked it.
BEAST OF MOROCCO/HAND OF NIGHT (1966): Perhaps Sylvester's career was
slumping a little when he agreed to star in a second film about vampire
cults. This was, believe it or not, a British-Moroccan co-production.
Where DEVILS OF DARKNESS was simple and crisp, this film is moody and
dream-like. An American archaeologist in Morocco falls in love with a woman
who turns out to be part of a cult of vampires.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968): Heywood Floyd is, of course, Sylvester's
best-known part. Ironically, it is also his most stilted and unemotional
role. Under the direction of a master like Stanley Kubrick, his usual
affable, friendly manner is gone and he seems at best a cold fish who at
times verges on being catatonic. Unfortunately, this is the role he will
probably be remembered for.
I have no information on what Sylvester did the next eight years.
Apparently at some point he returned to the U.S. In 1976 he did a short
stint as a regular on a TV series called GEMINI MAN. The plot concerned a
secret agent with the power to turn invisible. Sylvester played a Leonard
Driscoll, the head of INTERSECT, a government think-tank who employed the
title character. The series also did a now-you-see-it now-you-don't act and
was off the air five weeks after it started. FILMGOER'S COMPANION also
claims he appeared in the 1978 HEAVEN CAN WAIT, but I don't remember seeing
him (I think I would have) and his presence there has not been confirmed by
any other source.
So this all adds up to William Sylvester being a moderately good actor
who appeared in an above-average set of fantasy films. And once again I say
I am sorry he was not cast in the role of Heywood Floyd in 2010.
(Evelyn C. Leeper for)
Mark R. Leeper
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