Jack Palance's stare and gravelly voice made him a dependable threat, but his dry humour deserves equal attention. We value the economy of his acting, especially when City Slickers puts Billy Crystal's busier delivery beside it.
Fi1m perspective
Put Jack Palance beside Billy Crystal in City Slickers (1991) and Crystal's busy delivery seems busier still. As Curly Washburn, Palance gets laughs with less fuss than anyone else in the cattle-drive comedy. We laughed at how little he needed to do alongside Crystal, whose efforts make Palance's restraint funnier. Director Ron Underwood understands the value of the pairing and lets the contrast do much of the comic work. The joke benefits from having someone in the scene who does not appear to be working towards it.
His film debut, Panic in the Streets (1950), established him as a menacing figure. The early parts in Sudden Fear (1952) and Shane (1953) made particular use of that threat. With the gaunt face, intense stare and gravelly voice, he was well suited to men whom other characters had reason to fear. Casting him repeatedly as the heavy limited the opportunities to see what else he might do.
From the late 1950s he worked extensively in European films, including Contempt (1963), in which he plays Hollywood producer Jeremy Prokosch. Later character parts and comic roles offered other uses for his intimidating manner. There was room for self-parody, though that alone does not explain the pleasure of City Slickers. Palance's restraint gives Crystal something useful to play against, and Underwood has the sense to let their different speeds register.
The reservation is with the writing: City Slickers talks too earnestly about feelings the actors have already made clear. Underwood handles the western adventure with care, and the cast make the men's embarrassment companionable, but the speeches slow the pleasure. Palance's economy makes those explanations especially unnecessary: he has already shown how much an actor can get across without fuss. Start here for his comedy, and allow for a script that occasionally insists on doing the actors' work again.
Biography
Jack Palance (born Volodymyr Palahniuk) was an American actor. He was born on 18 February 1919 in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania, the son of Ukrainian immigrants, and died on 10 November 2006 in Montecito, California.
Palance served in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War and briefly attended Stanford University. He began his career on stage, including a Broadway run in A Streetcar Named Desire, before making his film debut in Panic in the Streets (1950). He was known for playing tough characters and villains, with notable early roles in Sudden Fear (1952) and Shane (1953).
Later credits include Contempt (1963), The Professionals (1966), Young Guns (1988), Batman (1989), Tango & Cash (1989) and City Slickers (1991), in which he played Curly Washburn. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter. Palance also hosted the television series Ripley's Believe It or Not! from 1982 to 1986.
