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| Napier: "Where's The Growler?!" |
Farewell to Charles Napier - a tremendous character actor who embodied the best and the worst of power & authority. He died at age 75 on Wednesday in Bakersfield, CA.
Napier and his leering, maniacally toothful smile captivated audiences in
Super Vixens, Blues Brothers, Rambo, Silence of the Lambs, and a host of other films over his long career.
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| Russ Meyer's - A Life Well-Lived |
My first-ever theater experience of a
Russ Meyer film (
Campus Cinemas III, Hadley, MA) was
Super Vixens, and it's still my favorite of all his masterpieces. Charles Napier,
as homicidal cop Harry Sledge, is the dastardly accelerant that propels the film, bedeviling Clint Ramsey hither and yon. As Ramsey, Charley Pitts charges from one pair of breasts to another (six abreast -that's twelve breasts all told; fourteen if you count Angel and SuperAngel separately), one step ahead of Sledge, like the Road Runner leading Wile E. Coyote a merry chase.
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| Napier, Eubanks - Mountaintop Tableaux |
You'll think twice, "
Hoss!" after seeing how Sledge brutalizes Angel (Shari Eubanks) - beating and stabbing her before electrocuting her - how? - by dropping a plugged-in radio into her bathtub. In 1975, the whole thing was one of the most gory, protracted killing scenes that had been played out on screen.
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| Charles "Super Vixen" Napier |
Of course in Meyer's world, Shari comes back to life as SuperAngel and runs around the desert in high heels and a crazily-short waitress uniform, the whole thing ultimately leading to a mountain-top square-off punctuated by a long, raucous series of harsh and non-sensical threats and taunts bellowed across the echoing valley by Sledge, like "
She'll squeeeeeeeze ya like a lemon!" and "
Why buy a cow, when y'can git free milk?!" SuperAngel ultimately has her revenge in, let's say, the film's explosive climax.
In 1994, I was fortunate to have an introduction to Charles by RM himself when Napier was in Vegas to promote the video release of "
Raw Justice" (re-titled for video as "
Good Cop, BackCop") in which Charles had played Mayor Stiles, whose daughter's death is to be avenged. When I met Napier, I persuaded him to re-deliver the 'free milk' line - and he roared when I told him of the movie's indelible power and imagery 'persisting for me from boyhood to adulthood
Undiminished, and Unrefined' - he recognized the reference and hooted "Thank you, Mr. Portnoy!"
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| Super Vixens (1975) - Harry Sledge . . . about to Explode |
Russ chided Napier over having given him his first feature break, as a crooked sheriff in
Cherry, Harry and Raquel (1970) before casting him for
Super Vixens in the defining role of Harry Sledge. When Chuck rebutted that he'd appeared in two earlier films (a dog Western and an obscure Swedish vehicle) and
cameo'd on Star Trek before their meet-up, Meyer rejected those as 'nonsense,' and corrected himself: "
Not your first break, but your only important break."
Our star said that he mostly "played (him)self, or some version of (him)self." But Charles Napier had a serious talent that went beyond central-casting villainy, and was especially admirable playing Judge Garnett in the beautiful film, "
Philadelphia." An Army man before heading to Hollywood, Napier had the features, the intensity, and the talent to capture authority in its best and worst forms.
Charles Napier, b. April 12, 1936 - d. October 5, 2011
God rest his merry soul!
2 comments:
I digged this old post out.
Happy birthday Charles,
where ever you may be know,
have great fun.
We miss you.
A beautiful tribute to one of the finest actors ever,
thanks for it Tom. :)
For me Charles WAS the best.
I' d first seen him december 1979,
when " Oregon Trail " started here in germany.
I was a boy, age 13, looking out for a new hero.
I never, my whole life, forgot that scene on the bridge, ending up, Luther taking a bath. :) :) :)
Then few moments later, Evan arrives at Luther' s home,
Luther takes him to the grave of that Colonel, pointing on it
" There he is. " , and with NO expression on his face, but you could hear the smile in his voice
" Enjoy your talk. " :) :) :)
That did it to me and Luther became my hero.
Unfortunatly " Oregon Trail " was repeated only once
and than disappeared from the sreen and never came back. :(
Luther always stayed in my heart
and I often wondered, if I ever will see him again.
Few weeks ago, I discovered
" Oregon Trail " on DVD with 6 new episodes, they hadn' t aired here in germany.
For the first time, I could listen to Charles own beautiful voice,
really what a great beautiful warm voice.
In germany the shows are doubt with german speakers and I must say,
now that I knew Charles own voice, the german voice quite don' t fit anymore. :)
Through my whole life, I saw Charles in a lot of his films and series
and it was always great fun watching him.
Supervixens is still great in mind too.
My uncle liked to watch those kind of films and don' t mind,
that I watch with him, I was about 17.
Someday he got Supervixens from the video- shop and I read,
that Charles was in it, wow.
I must say, I was mighty impressed by him,
cause I never seen him THAT bad and brutal before.
Today, one of my favorit.
No one has such a great scowling stare like Charles had. :)
I deeply miss him
and I' m glad, he left us such a lot great work of his. :)
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