I love to draw Larry making faces.
He reminds me of Fred Astaire. I was watching “Flying Down to Rio,” and it struck me that he’s got the closest thing to a real, live, cartoon face possible.
Wednesday, Larry fields questions, suggests a trip, and cleans some pots ‘n pans. It’s kind of silly.
Larry is killing me. I would probably have a similar reaction if I were dealing with that kind of sub petulance.
…Ah the long gone Fargo days.
I would have given the “Best Cartoon Face” award to Dick Van Dyke myself, but maybe I was too focused on Mr. Astaire’s fancy feet to fully appreciate his maleable mug.
Dick Van Dyke did better mugging, to be sure (and a worse Cockney accent), but Fred Astaire just looked like a cartoon. Watch him just sitting around talking in anything from the 30’s.
By the way, Flying Down to Rio is Pre-Code, so it has women in costumes that’d be far too racy for even me to ever show.
You are preaching to the choir here, Charlie. So many early actors came from Vaudeville with a camped-up, hammed-up, larger-than-life stage presence that deeply influenced films of the time (Stand-up comics going into films is the closest thing we have now). Gestures were broader, body language was louder, and even facial expressions were delivered as if it was a dimly lit room of 200 watching and not a camera a few feet away. Great stuff.
That said, if Jessica Rabbit showed up on the set of Mad Men instead of Christina Hendricks, the only people who would notice are cartoonists and animators who might compain about her shading or light sources being off! 🙂
I would like to nominate Jim Carrey for “Best Claymation Face.”
Those two men aren’t familiar with subtlety, are they?
Wait… are they men? I can’t tell.