WARNING! SPOILERS DOWN BELOW!
The nastiest performance that I can think of off the top of my head is Warren Beatty's as Berry-Berry in "All Fall Down". The guy goes around hustling middle-aged women, spends their cash on booze and hussies, and beats them up if they talk back. Beatty potrays him with a devil-may-care attitude and an almost constant smirk of self-satisfaction which makes him very darn nasty in my book. Towards the end Berry-Berry even drives Eva Marie Saint's character to suicie because, get this, he was appaled and disgusted that she was a virgin at her age and that he was her first.
Going back to Robert Mitchum, he was pretty nasty in "Secret Ceremony", a relatively obscure Josph Losey thriller starring Elizabeth Taylor as an aging hooker. Mitch's character is an alcoholic who is frisky for his young stepdaughter played by Mia Farrow. What makes one scene particularly nasty is how he insists to her on calling him "dad" while fondling her. Mitchum could express lechery and perversion better than any actor I can think of. He could do it masterfully just with a look or a note in his voice. As mentioned earlier, "Cape Fear" is an good example, but Mitch gets quite histrionic in some scenes, whereas in "Secret Ceremony" his performance is more restrained and less histrionic which makes it nastier in my book.
But going back to the original topic, I was surprised at how underwhelming I found Vincent Price's portrayal of the doctor in "Shock" to be. He shows his vast potential for hammy acting that Roger Corman and other schlock directors would eventually tap in his first scene, but goes for a straight performance the rest of the way and does so quite dully. The crucial scene in which the doctor is struggling eith his conscience aa he is being flooded with flashback narration was a major opportunity for some expressive facial acting, but Vincent's grimace remains statuesque throughout. This surprised me bacause the look of anguish on his face was the most terrifying thing for me in "The Last Man on Earth", a horror movie. But that is nearly 20 years and a lot of expressive wrinkles on his face later. So, what I meant to say with that gratuitous tirade is that I think Vincent Price isn't nearly as nasty in "Shock" as one would expect.
Now that I've typed all that out, I see that the last post on this topic is well over two years old and feel kind of silly for writing so much on a dead message board.
I'm here, Mr. Man, I cannot tell no lie and I'll be right here till the day I die
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