Herbert Lom's precise speech made criminals convincing and policemen funny when they lost control. We like him best when he keeps the performance contained, though the later Dreyfus films made too much of his exasperation.
Fi1m perspective
Herbert Lom looks at the person speaking as though their explanation will need to be unusually good. His cool manner and precise enunciation make authority credible before the script has established whether he deserves it. British thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s repeatedly cast him as foreign criminals and sinister outsiders. Jules Dassin's Night and the City (1950), with Lom as the gangster Kristo, is one useful starting point. But treating him simply as a dependable heavy misses how readily that assurance could become funny.
In The Ladykillers (1955), his Louis gives Alexander Mackendrick's comedy a credible criminal presence alongside Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. We laughed, then felt uneasy about laughing, because Mackendrick keeps the threat to Katie Johnson's stubborn landlady close. Lom's coolness is useful here: menace need not be announced afresh whenever he appears. Guinness sometimes pushes too hard, but Lom's precise delivery gives the criminal business a seriousness the surrounding absurdity needs. He helps the ensemble without making the comedy depend on another conspicuously comic performance.
A Shot in the Dark (1964) made that authority the thing to be tormented. As Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, Lom responds to Clouseau with the twitching distress of a senior officer losing control of himself. Blake Edwards found a comic use for the assurance that had made Lom such a reliable heavy, with Sellers supplying the provocation. The change is persuasive because we can still recognise the man who expects to be obeyed. The later Dreyfus appearances become more exaggerated as the scripts weaken, and there is only so much pleasure in waiting for the next spasm.
The Dead Zone (1983) is a reason to look beyond that familiar routine. As Dr. Sam Weizak, the sympathetic doctor to Christopher Walken's psychic, Lom makes room for concern in a manner often used to suggest danger. David Cronenberg's restrained handling of the supernatural gives that quieter performance somewhere to belong, even when the storytelling becomes disjointed. We value the film for the sadness Walken brings to its dangers, and Lom's doctor fits a drama in which the people matter as much as the premise. Start with The Ladykillers, then try The Dead Zone before reaching for another of the later Dreyfus comedies.
Biography
Herbert Lom was a Czech-born British actor. Born in Prague in 1917, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1939 and appeared in films and on stage for more than 60 years.
He is known for roles including Louis in The Ladykillers (1955), Ben Yussuf in El Cid (1961), Tigranes Levantus in Spartacus (1960), and Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in several Pink Panther films from A Shot in the Dark (1964) onwards. He played Dr. Sam Weizak in The Dead Zone (1983).
Lom also originated the role of the King of Siam in the West End production of The King and I and starred in the 1960s television series The Human Jungle.
