Hmmmmmmmmm
always wondered why he was considered such a great actor......for me, he was a huge ham........ALWAYs overacting, chewing the scenery, to use the old expression...anyway, what do y'all think?
He did have a tendency to overdo things, true. But he could also be very subtle, and very restrained. In "Back From Eternity", (1956), he was almost invisible for much of the movie, but when his character's cue came, he immediately outshone all the other characters. He was the focus of that film. In "Oklahoma" he had to play a very bad bad guy, while joining in singing the show songs as well. He was the most memorable one in that film.
He always played very self-controlled characters, his anger held in only by the strongest willpower, but when he opened his mouth and let loose, he was intimidating in the extreme. Takes a good actor to pull that off convincingly.