Chuck Low

In GoodFellas (1990), Chuck Low’s Morris Kessler keeps at it. The wig-shop owner’s persistence could be exhausting company, but Low makes it funny without making the man seem invented for a joke. We laughed at his doggedness because we recognised the difficulty of dealing with someone who will not leave a matter alone. Martin Scorsese’s attention to the gangsters’ daily routines gives such a character somewhere to belong. It is the performance we would send people to first, in a film we recommend with few reservations.

Low began with a bit part in Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1982), then appeared in Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Robert De Niro was the recurring colleague, and supporting parts remained the rule. Don Cabeza, the slave-trader opposing the Jesuit missions in Roland Joffé’s The Mission (1986), was one of his larger roles. After GoodFellas, there was also a guest appearance as Shlomo Teittleman in the first series of The Sopranos (1999).

We are less persuaded by The Mission, where Robert Bolt’s script leaves the people underdeveloped. Don Cabeza has a clear function as an opponent of the missions, but the writing gives us little reason to look beyond it. That is a restriction on what we can judge in Low’s performance. Ennio Morricone’s score supplies tenderness that the dialogue often lacks, while Jim Clark’s editing makes the later action difficult to follow. The music helps hold us, but the actors could have used more attention.

Scorsese gets more from Low by allowing an ordinary, troublesome man to remain ordinary and troublesome. Morris fits the film’s interest in how these men spend their days, and Low’s lived-in presence helps make their company familiar, which makes the violence more unpleasant. The performance earns its place in the ensemble by giving us someone we might find funny for a few minutes and tiring for rather longer. Start with GoodFellas, and pay attention to the man with the wig shop.