Kenneth
Sunday 19th April 2009 5:38am
5,447 posts
I find myself in a real quandary trying to write something praiseworthy about Peter Cook's acting in Supergirl. Judging by his performance, it seems he did not care; it's as if he was just playing the part of a warlock as a dull stereotypical Englishman (named Nigel, to boot) for dumb American audiences. Peter O'Toole (now there's a double phallacy) also appears rather ashamed to be in the same film. Best to drag out Harry Thompson's biography of Peter Cook at this point:
In 1984 came what was perhaps the nadir of Peter's cinema career: an appearance as Nigel the Warlock in Supergirl, a failed female version of Superman. His contribution took four months to film at Pinewood, was extremely well-paid, and was so atrocious that the details are best omitted. In a career littered with 'lots of trash', as Peter put it, Supergirl was the only film he was prepared to concede that he sincerely regretted doing. 'It was awful,' he concluded.
Nevertheless, Supergirl was quite watchable, despite Supergirl's skirt constantly defying gravity by refusing to fly upward. Peter Cook's character in some respects looks and sounds a bit like Alan Rickman's Snape in the Harry Potter films, which in my opinion are just as poor as Supergirl.
I thought Peter Cook was wasted (meaning his comic acting talent was not put to good use, not that he was munted) in Without A Clue, but his performance in Supergirl makes his brief appearance in Without A Clue look worthy of an Oscar.
