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Richard Burton or Victor Mature - whose performance holds up better?

posted 18 years ago by DarthBill
18 replies | jump to latest

In the long one, all these many decades later, whose performance do you feel holds up better to the test of time - Richard Burton (who got the Oscar) or Victor Mature?

[–] aidosh94 15 years ago

Victor Mature, by far. Burton's performance was wooden for most of the time and over the top in some scenes. Mature didn't have much to work with, but he delivered each line perfectly and each scene was acted beautifully. He should've gotten the nomination instead.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU STARVE FIRST?!" - Humphrey Bogart, 'Dead End' (1937)

[–] cwente2 15 years ago

I thought both performances worked. But, I agree, I think Mature's has held up better. Critics at the time, I suspect, "assumed" Mature's performance would be the mediocre one, while the "new kid" from the British theatre's performance would blow the matinee idol away. Not so. Gotta be open-minded to be really fair, don't we?

[–] omari322 14 years ago

I'm going with the under-rated Victor Mature mainly based on the scene in the rain after the Crucifixtion (sp) when he lets Burton know he will serve no man again and the great sin Rome has committed by executing Jesus. The emotion he had in his voice would have made one think he was there at the cross when Jesus died. Good stuff.

'Cause I'm Black you think I did it?