Pleasance-Ville

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I finished Roman Polanski's 1966 film Cul-de-sac last evening, and I liked the flick very much. Very dark, and very funny. I wrote up a little love letter to its lady-star Françoise Dorléac (seen above) over at The Film Experience today, so check that out.

One note that I don't go into over there that the boyfriend brought up last night - the male lead in the film is played by Donald Pleasance, and it got us thinking - by the time Halloween comes out 12 years after this flick, Pleasance is the Big Get, casting-wise, for John Carpenter. He's the Very Serious Actor That Brings Prestige. And we realized, while we'd always accepted that as true before, we never really thought through what he'd done to get that reputation by 1978. I scanned thyrough his IMDb page and I don't really see any of the markers, besides working with Polanski, that would have given him the Serious Thespian Airs - he played Blofield in a James Bond movie (You Only Live Twice) and I'd forgotten about his role in THX 1138. Mostly... he'd just been around forever, working steadily in film since the 1950s. Was it a case of simple longevity giving the presence of respectability? At least within the context of a bunch of film-student-types making a slasher pic with no budget? Or is there something I'm missing? I don't mean this as any sort of insult to the man, bless his Sam Loomis inhabiting soul. Just curious, now that the question has made itself known to me.
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