Malcolm McDowell = Fantastic Films

Today, June 13th, is the birthday of actor Malcolm McDowell.  I've been a huge fan of his for years.  I first saw him in Time After Time, a film which wonderfully mixed sci-fi, humor and adventure.  McDowell played science fiction novelist H. G. Wells, whose time machine was stolen by Jack the Ripper (David Warner) in an attempt to avoid the authorities by escaping to the future.  Jack finds himself in an environment he happily calls home, while Wells in depressed by humanity's lack of progress.  Even a trip to McDonald's failed to lift the time traveller's spirits!

Malcolm McDowell also happens to star in my favorite film, O Lucky Man! which combines dark satire and whimsy in a plot about a coffee bean salesman inspired by McDowell's own youthful experience.  Alan Price, of Animals fame, provides a fantastically memorable soundtrack.  The film was directed by Lindsay Anderson.  Anderson was the director who brought McDowell to fame with the starring role of Michael Travis in the film if.....  McDowell returned to play the character twice more for Anderson in O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.

The role which probably casts the greatest shadow across McDowell's career is that of Alex in A Clockwork Orange.  His appearence of a single false black eye lash and bowler hat accenting his tight white garb is iconic in the annals of cinema.  Director Stanley Kubrick's film offered abundant violence and nudity, but allowed Alex's unsavory actions an amount of appeal thanks to stylized scenes and McDowell's charisma.  It's shocked audiences and critics upon its release and still manages to do so.

Diverse is the best descripion applied to McDowell's work of the past 35 years.  He's portrayed villains with copious zeal in sci-fi pics like Star Trek Generations and Tank Girl.  He's been the lead in historic films with a tendacy toward drama like the World War I story of pilots - Aces High, as well as romps like director Richard Lester's Royal Flash.  Cat People presented McDowell as an odd indivdiual, desperate and cursed by a bizarre pedigree in an erotic reworking of the classic B&W horror film.  Along with other established actors like Peter O'Toole and Helen Mirren, he took a chance to appear in the sexually graphic Caligula.  Whether in the past or future, as hero or villain, McDowell is always fascinating to watch.

Most recently McDowell has starred on the TNT series Franklin and Bash as the eccentric head of the law firm which employs the title characters.

I've been fortunate to see Malcolm McDowell in person at several conventions.   His Q&A's concerning his career are always entertaining.