Burt Lancaster brought an acrobat’s grace to tough men and could let vulnerability show through a forceful voice. We like him most when he allows that strength to look fallible; Local Hero is a particularly warm way in.
Fi1m perspective
In Local Hero (1983), Burt Lancaster seems entirely at ease with Felix Happer’s silliness. The eccentric oil executive gives an actor with that voice and that physical assurance plenty of opportunity to overwhelm a gentle comedy. Lancaster does not insist on being the whole entertainment. We laughed because he seems so comfortable with Happer’s foolishness, without asking us to admire his willingness to play it. Bill Forsyth gets something rewarding from him here: a forceful actor who need not have every scene arranged around him.
The early roles often put his physical strength first. His circus background helps explain the grace of his movement, though The Killers (1946), his film debut, already established a tough man who could seem vulnerable. The Crimson Pirate (1952) belongs to the athletic leading-man phase that could also limit him. The smile, carrying voice and clipped delivery were distinctive tools, but the delivery could become too theatrical.
From the late 1950s, the parts became more complicated. The ruthless J.J. Hunsecker of Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and the charismatic con-man evangelist of Elmer Gantry (1960) gave his assertiveness less reassuring uses. Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963) cast him as Prince Fabrizio Corbera of Salina, part of a career that came to include international productions. These parts asked for more than athletic confidence, and they are worth remembering whenever the broad smile threatens to become our whole picture of him.
Forsyth gives him colleagues worth listening to in Local Hero. Peter Riegert plays Mac MacIntyre steadily enough to let the eccentrics around him get on with it, while Denis Lawson gives Gordon Urquhart a useful briskness. Lancaster fits into this company because he seems happy to be one source of the humour, not the only one. Our reservation is with the film’s fondness for eccentricity, which sometimes softens the questions raised by its coastal property deal. Start here if the grander Lancaster has kept you at a distance; Happer is good company.
Biography
Burt Lancaster (born Burton Stephen Lancaster) was an American actor. He was born on 2 November 1913 in New York City and died on 20 October 1994 in Century City, California.
Lancaster began his film career in the mid-1940s with The Killers (1946). He appeared in From Here to Eternity (1953), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), The Leopard (1963), 1900 (1976) and Local Hero (1983) as Felix Happer. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Elmer Gantry (1960) and received further nominations for From Here to Eternity and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). He also won BAFTA Awards for Birdman of Alcatraz and Atlantic City (1980).
With Harold Hecht and James Hill he formed the production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, which produced films including Marty (1955) and Sweet Smell of Success. Lancaster directed The Kentuckian (1955) and The Midnight Man (1974).
