I always thought that was one of the movie's greatest touches...the crotchety
old killer. They should have done another movie "Bo-the early years".
Also incredible, George Kennedy's "Willard", who gets so seriously upset
and offended every time Peck tries to either defend himself or survive.("You
owe me pain, Stillwell...")
Sensational thriller...one of my all time favorites...and I can't wait
for the DVD.
SPOILERS for "Mirage"
George Kennedy's Willard is a pretty scary guy. Kennedy played him with roughly the same continually enraged menace he'd employed in the thriller "Charade" as the hook-handed villain Herman Scobie(written by Peter Stone, who also wrote "Mirage," and also co-starring Walter Matthau) in 1963.
But Herman Scobie was kind of funny, and had to behave himself around his fellow thugs and theives. Willard is like an unchecked psychotic force.
When Peck beats Willard unconscious about mid-film, we're in rather continual terror about that moment when Willard will catch back up to Peck. For good reason.
En route:
1. Willard and fellow henchman Jack Weston trap Peck between them and Willard says: "Why don't we tell (our boss) that he ran and we had to kill him?" And you know Willard means it. When Peck grabs Weston and says "I'll kill him," Willard says "I'll save you the trouble"...and kills WESTON. (I figure Willard's boss gave Willard clearance to kill Weston if Weston blew yet another attempt to capture Peck.)
2. Kevin McCarthy as a "Bubie-baby" executive on the villain's team, is almost hit by Willard's bullet aimed at Peck. Willard runs by McCarthy, and we get the following exchange:
McCarthy: You almost hit ME.
Willard(on the run): So?
3. Kevin McCarthy's acting is again quite good when Peck comes strolling right into the villain's lair. McCarthy looks almost poignant in his terror for Peck.
McCarthy: Why'd you come HERE?
Peck: I had nowhere else to go.
McCarhty: It was very foolish.
Suddenly, Willard appears from the balcony, and offers the finish line:
Willard: ...and then some.
And McCarthy keeps grabbing sympathetically at Peck's sleeve as if to wordlessly emote, "Oh, you poor man. You're about to get beaten to a pulp.:
Willard takes off his glasses and offers indeed the famous line:
"Mr. Stilwell, I owe you some pain."
Which is delivered with a surprising brutality for 1965.
Its a good thing George Kennedy eventually won an Oscar for "Cool Hand Luke" and played a nice guy in "Airport." He was way too scary as Willard.
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And "Bo" was darn scary, too. You just had to figure in his younger years, he was the meanest and most murderous thug around. As he says, that's how he got to grow so old. Probably killed all the competition...
I've read somewhere (imdb?) that the guy that played "Bo" (House Jameson) was a theatrical agent by vocation. & He had another brief but memorable role as a neighborhood nudist in the Burt Lancaster-led "The Swimmer."
51depasser