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Live Poll: Most Important Unseen Dead Character in a Film
Which dead character do you consider the most important?
Rules:
1) Dead throughout the whole film
2) Doesn't appear alive except on photographs
3) Voice-over aren't allowed
4) Phantoms and corpses aren't allowed (unless the corpse isn't recognizable.)
List: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls507665198/
Live Poll: https://www.imdb.com/poll/2X9XbCJAT3M/
Suggestions needed (cause my memory is faulty). Avoid detective story and whodunit, please.
keyword_expert
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3 years ago
Suggestions:
1. The Princess Bride (1987)
Character: Domingo Montoya
Quote: Inigo Montoya: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
2. Promising Young Woman (2020)
Character: Nina
Quote:
Cassandra: Nina was extraordinary. So smart. Weirdly smart. She was so completely herself. Even when she was four years old. She was fully formed from day one. Same face, same walk. And funny. Like a grownup is funny, kind of shrewd. I was just in awe of her. I couldn't believe she wanted to be my friend. She didn't give a fuck what anyone thought apart from me, because she was just... Nina. And then she wasn't. Suddenly she was something else. She was yours. It wasn't her name she heard when she was walking around. It was yours. Your name all around her. All over her, all the the time. And it just... squeezed her out. So when I heard your name again, your *filthy* fucking name, I wondered, when was the last time anyone had said hers? Or thought it even, apart from me? And it made me so sad because, Al...
[holds up a scalpel]
Cassandra: YOU should be the one with her name all over you.
3. The Karate Kid Part II (1986)
Character: Mr. LaRusso
(The same character would also fit for the original The Karate Kid (1984) but the more poignant quote is from Part II.)
Quote: Daniel: You know... When MY father died, I spent a lot of time thinking I hadn't been such a great son. It seemed to me like I could have listened a little more, spent a little more time with him together... I felt so guilty, you know, like he did everything for me and I didn't do anything for him. Then one day I realized... that I did the greatest thing I ever did for him before he died: I was there with him... and I held his hand... and said goodbye.
__
Honorable Mention: if you would change the rules to allow corpses, then I would recommend including Alex from The Big Chill (1983). There is a very brief glimpse of Alex's corpse at his funeral (played by Kevin Costner), and scenes with Alex were filmed but were cut from the movie, as discussed here.
(edited)
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keyword_expert
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3 years ago
I thought of another one:
Gifted (2017)
Character: Diane
Quote:
Frank Adler: Diane instructed me very clearly... that I was only to publish it postmortem.
Evelyn: She died six years ago.
Frank Adler: It wasn't her death she was talking about.
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dan_dassow
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3 years ago
@cinephile,
For your consideration:
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
Harry
The trouble with Harry is that he is dead and, while no one really minds, everyone feels responsible. After Harry's body is found in the woods, several locals must determine not only how and why he was killed but what to do with the body.
Rear Window (1954)
Lars Thorwald's wife
Professional photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbors. He begins to suspect that a man across the courtyard may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his high society fashion-consultant girlfriend Lisa Fremont and his visiting nurse Stella to investigate. —Col Needham <col@imdb.com>
Rope (1948)
David Kentley
Brandon and Philip are two young men who share a New York City apartment. They consider themselves intellectually superior to their friend David Kentley, and as a consequence, decide to murder him. Together they strangle David with a rope and placing the body in an old chest, they proceed to hold a small party. The guests include David's father, his fiancée Janet, and their old schoolteacher Rupert, from whom they mistakenly took their ideas. As Brandon becomes increasingly more daring, Rupert begins to suspect. —Col Needham <col@imdb.com>
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mariojacobs
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3 years ago
I am not sure, perhaps
- the woman in the painting, Carlota Valdez, Vertigo.
- the Wicked Witch of the East was smashed to death by Dorothy's house, Glinda gives Dorothy her ruby slippers and all the mess begins... Wizard of Oz
- the dead body of a missing boy, Stand By Me
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dan_dassow
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3 years ago
@cinephile,
For your consideration:
Arsenic and Old Lace (1943)
The lonely old bachelors that the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha, poison with a glass of elderberry wine spiked with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch of cyanide"
A writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation when he decides to get married. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
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dan_dassow
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3 years ago
I know this is a stretch, but I've wondered whether Godot does not show up because he is dead.
Waiting for Godot (II) (2021)
An adaptation from the famous play written by Samuel Beckett. The story of Estragon and Vladimir, two clownish tramps who wait for a man named Godot, who probably knows all the answers to their question and to lead on a righteous way. But while doesn't show up, they encounter an arrogant master and his slave.
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keyword_expert
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3 years ago
On your list, for Karate Kid II, "Larusso" should be written like "LaRusso." And maybe put "Daniel's father" in parentheses so it's clear who is being referenced, like this:
Mr. LaRusso (Daniel's father)
Also, for Arsenic and Old Lace, it should be "The bodies in the window seat and cellar" (see my other comment about that body).
(edited)
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Peter_pbn
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3 years ago
Remember the discussion link when you think this is ready.
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Pencho15
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3 years ago
He is death most of the film, but David Kentley does appear in Rope: La soga (1948) (imdb.com)
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Pencho15
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3 years ago
FYC:
Hell or High Water (2016) - The Howard mother. Her death of the mother, which is never seen, makes the brothers start to rob banks as they try to pay her debts to avoid losing her ranch.
Paper Moon (1973) - Addie Loggins mother. I have not seen the film, but from the plot it appears she is never shown and her death is what joins Ryan and Tatum O'Neil for the rest of the film.
Gaslight (1944) - Alice Alquist. Murdered at her home and causing a trauma in her niece, who will grow up to be played by Ingrid Bergman. This trauma and a mystery surrounding the death drives most of the plot.
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Pencho15
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3 years ago
Live Poll: https://www.imdb.com/poll/2X9XbCJAT3M/
Congratulations Cinephile.
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keyword_expert
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3 years ago
I probably should have said something earlier, but one thing that's unclear to me about this poll is that it doesn't define what is meant by "important."
Is the poll asking which dead character is most important in terms of influencing or overshadowing the plot of that specific film (or series of films)?
Or is the poll asking which character is the most important in cinematic history, for example by inspiring similar plots in other films?
I personally took the poll to most likely be asking the former question. But I wonder if some people are answering the latter question.
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Pencho15
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3 years ago
I just saw a Hitchcok film today. The Trouble With Harry. It would have been a great choice as all the movie revolves around a dead man which we mostly can't see. But there is a shot of his face at the start.
However, watching the film I remembered Waking Ned Devine I am not 100% sure, but I think he's never shown on screen, and all the movie is about him, he is an old man who wins the lottery, and dies, and all his neighbours in a small English town try to cover his death to collect the award for themselves.
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