#deathtrap 1978

[adaptations-polls]

Which version of this do you prefer?

[lesbiancolumbo]

did someone say…… deathtrap 1978 written by ira levin

[mindctrlaltdel]

Random Reviews: The Boys from Brazil

Watched this on my dad’s recommendation because he forgot and thought this was MARATHON MAN. It’s okay though because THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL has a stacked A-list cast really sinking their teeth into one of the ultimate B-movie premises. With so many heavy hitters - past their prime - diving head first into action sequences, this movie does for aging Nazi Hunters what STAR TREK V did for Shatner and company.

It’s nice to see classy, illustrious stars given active parts to play, rather than the usual supervisory cameo roles. Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier have a lot to do. Plus, Jerry Goldsmith’s ominous waltzes put some pep into this movie’s step, covering for director Franklin J. Shaffner while he figures out what he wants this movie to be. Shaffner - by the way - is no stiff in his own right. This is the guy who directed PATTON and the original PLANET OF THE APES, after all. Oh, and young Steve Gutenberg shows up!

The plot is intriguing - and that makes sense, since it comes from the writer of ROSEMARY’S BABY, STEPFORD WIVES, and DEATHTRAP - but the overall production often makes this movie feel like something later parodied by TOP SECRET!

THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL is totally ludicrous in the best way... until it’s totally ludicrous in the worst. But hey, there’s always a time and a place for ludicrous movies. And that time and place is Brazil, 1978.

***

[seat-safety-switch]

Truth be told, I was surprised they let me out of that box. They must have needed the shipping container I was living in for something else. It’s a good thing they did, too: three months at sea without access to a shower definitely made me stink, especially considering I forgot to pack anything in the trunk of my Volare except for (not enough) Cool Ranch Doritos.

The dockworkers were confused, and started shouting at each other in that confusion. I worked quickly to squirt enough fresh gas down the carb’s throat so that I could start the car before their bosses showed up. It worked, and I was soon ripping a 1978 Volare through the port of Kobe. Forklifts and angry stevedores became a blur as the car’s slant-six breathed its first sea-level air, angrily sputtering each time the decrepit automatic hunted for a new cog.

After I made good my escape from the logistics personnel, I decided I would look for a job. I drove for a couple more hours, confusing innocent motorists as my wheezing brown deathtrap would lumber menacingly in their rear view mirror before taking a dog’s age to pass them, and soon I had arrived. My shark of an attorney, Max, had a cousin who was an immigration attorney here in Japan. He’d be able to pull some levers and get me an interview with the crookedest goon the local government could put in an office, and after the customary introductory gift by me of a backseat full of POR15 (a rare commodity in this nation) he did.

“How do you write your last name?” the functionary asked in the slowest, most childish Japanese he could muster.

I had studied for this test, and had a pretty good answer. “Do you know the sound of a Cervo stretching its rods as it approaches redline on an off-camber downhill sweeper?”

“Your accent is weird as shit. Forgive me, where did you learn to speak Japanese?”

That one was easy. I was raised by a 1978 Mazda service-and-repair training video that had been nineteenth-generation copied to VHS. From there, I had learned all the essential curse words that a real technician would use here. I tried to explain this to the bureaucrat, but he smiled as soon as he heard the M-word.

He leaned back in his chair and tented his fingers in the unmistakeable pattern of a Reuleaux triangle. Man, did my shark of a lawyer, Matsushida, ever know how to pick ‘em.

[mogwai-movie-house]

The Best Whodunits of All Time

1. And Then There Were None (1945) ★★★★★★★★★★ 2. Chinatown (1974) ★★★★★★★★★★ 3. L.A. Confidential (1997) ★★★★★★★★★★ 4. The Maltese Falcon (1941) ★★★★★★★★★★ 5. Get Carter (1971) ★★★★★★★★★★ 6. Psycho (1960) ★★★★★★★★★½ 7. The Cat and the Canary (1939) ★★★★★★★★★★ 8. The Name of the Rose (1986) ★★★★★★★★★½ 9. The Big Sleep (1946) ★★★★★★★★★½ 10. The Usual Suspects (1995) ★★★★★★★★★✰ 11. The Long Good Friday (1980) ★★★★★★★★★✰ 12. Angel Heart (1987) ★★★★★★★★★✰ 13. The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941) ★★★★★★★★★✰ 14. To Catch a Thief (1955) ★★★★★★★★★✰ 15. Gone Girl (2014) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 16. Sleuth (1972) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 17. The Spanish Prisoner (1997) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 18. Green for Danger (1946) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 19. Murder She Said (1961) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 20. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 21. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 22. Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 23. The Thin Man (1934) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 24. Primal Fear (1996) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 25. Murder by Death (1976) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 26. Brick (2005) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 27. Dial M for Murder (1954) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 28. Blow Out (1981) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 29. Laura (1944) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 30. Gosford Park (2001) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ 31. Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ 32. Fermat's Room (2007) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ 33. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ 34. Deathtrap (1982) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ 35. Psycho II (1983) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ 36. The Long Goodbye (1973) ★★★★★★½✰✰✰ 37. Farewell, My Lovely (1975) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ 38. Death on the Nile (1978) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰

[leonardcohenofficial]

Out of intense curiosity, what are your favorite old movies with intentional or unintentional homoerotic subtext??

for the sake of this reclist not being fifteen pages long this is not all encompassing/i am not going to include every old movie that has gay subtext/text but these are some of my faves pre-1985 (picked as an arbitrary cutoff for “old”):

wings (william a. wellman, 1927)

mädchen in uniform (leontine sagan, 1931)

design for living (ernst lubitsch, 1933)

queen christina (rouben mamoulian, 1933)

the maltese falcon (john huston, 1941)

anchors aweigh (george sidney, 1945)

red river (howard hawks, 1948)

rope (alfred hitchcock, 1948)

strangers on a train (alfred hitchcock, 1951)

calamity jane (david butler, 1953)

johnny guitar (nicholas ray, 1954)

rebel without a cause (nicholas ray, 1955)

trapeze (carol reed, 1956)

edge of the city (martin ritt, 1957)

sweet smell of success (alexander mackendrick, 1957)

cat on a hot tin roof (richard brooks, 1958)

the defiant ones (stanley kramer, 1958)

some like it hot (billy wilder, 1959)

suddenly last summer (joseph l. mankiewicz, 1959)

the children’s hour (william wyler, 1961)

the singer not the song (roy ward baker, 1961)

victim (basil dearden, 1961)

lawrence of arabia (david lean, 1962)

the tale of zatoichi (kenji misumi, 1962)

the servant (joseph losey, 1963)

hamlet at elsinore (philip saville, 1964)

modesty blaise (joseph losey, 1966)

luv (clive donner, 1967)

the killing of sister george (robert aldrich, 1968)

the odd couple (gene saks, 1968)

butch cassidy and the sundance kid (george roy hill, 1969)

midnight cowboy (john schlesinger, 1969)

funeral parade of roses (toshio matsumoto, 1969)

the boys in the band (william friedkin, 1970)

husbands (john cassavetes, 1970)

cabaret (bob fosse, 1972)

female trouble (john waters, 1974)

mikey and nicky (elaine may, 1976)

la cage aux folles (édouard molinaro, 1978)

a question of love (jerry thorpe, 1978)

the tempest (derek jarman, 1979)

polyester (john waters, 1981)

deathtrap (sidney lumet, 1982)

making love (arthur hiller, 1982)

silkwood (mike nichols, 1983)

yentl (barbra streisand, 1983)

desert hearts (donna deitch, 1985)

the color purple (steven spielberg, 1985)

my beautiful laundrette (stephen frears, 1985)

obviously this is not a complete list/there is no “perfect representation” here/i didn’t include any documentaries/i recommend looking up content warnings but this is a place to start!!

[tinyreviews]

What stood out to me was Michael Caine’s over the top acting when his character is angry. For an old movie, this is holds up pretty good. This would have been a strong story if any of the characters had been tweaked so the audience roots for them.

Deathtrap is a 1982 American black comedy mystery film based on the 1978 play of the same name by Ira Levin. It was directed by Sidney Lumet from a screenplay by Levin and Jay Presson Allen, and stars Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon and Christopher Reeve.

[elcinelateleymickyandonie]

MICHAEL CAINE.

Filmography

• 1956 Sailor Beware

• 1956 A Hill in Korea

• 1957 The Steel Bayonet

• 1958 A Woman of Mystery

• 1958 La llave

• 1960 The Bulldog Breed

• 1962 Solo for Sparrow

• 1965 The Ipcress File

• 1966 The Wrong Box

• 1967 Hurry Sundown

• 1969 Play Dirty

• 1971 Kidnapped

• 1972 Zee and Co.

• 1975 The Wilby Conspiracy

• 1975 The man who would be king

• 1976 The Eagle Has Landed.

• 1978 Silver Bears

• 1981 Victory

• 1982 Deathtrap

• 1984 Blame It on Rio

• 1985 The Holcroft Covenant

• 1986 Hannah y sus hermanas

• 1986 The Whistle Blower

• 1987 Surrender

• 1988 Without a Clue

• 1988 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

• 1995 Bullet to Beijing

• 1998 Curtain Call

• 2000 Get Carter

• 2003 Quicksand

• 2003 Secondhand Lions

• 2005 Bewitched

• 2006 The Prestige

• 2008 The Dark Knight

• 2013 Now You See Me

• 2016 Now You See Me 2

• 2017 Dunkirk.

• 2018 Dear Dictator

• 2020 Come Away

Créditos tomados de Wikipedia:

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Caine

[chigley60s]

DEATHTRAP (1982)  --  American black comedy mystery film based on the 1978 play of the same name by Ira Levin and starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine.

Playwright Sidney Bruhl has suffered a series of Broadway flops and is in desperate need of a hit to restore his waning reputation. He thinks fortune has favoured him with the answer to his creative block when a play he deems close to perfect lands on his proverbial lap. The play has been written by one of his students, Clifford Anderson, who has submitted the work to the famed author for his critical appraisal. Bruhl rates the play so highly that he’s determined to pass it off as his own. All he needs to do is dispose of the real author. On hearing his madcap idea, his wife initially dismisses it as a silly jest but soon realises that he is deadly serious. But all is not as it seems.....

[bajolapluma]

Hoy en efemérides literarias del día 12 de noviembre, recordamos a Ira Levin, 14 años desde su muerte. Fue novelista, dramaturgo y compositor estadounidense, sus obras más destacadas incluyen las novelas A Kiss Before Dying (1953), Rosemary's Baby (1967), The Stepford Wives (1972) y The Boys from Brazil (1976), así como la obra de teatro Deathtrap (1978). Muchas de sus novelas y obras de teatro se han adaptado a películas de éxito. #libro #recomendaciones #libroinstagram #bookstagram #libros📚 #librosymaslibros #amoloslibros #leer #amoleer #pontealeer #lector #lectores #esdelectores #lectora #lectoras #esdelector #unlectorentiende #unlectorentendera #amantedeloslibros #amantesdeloslibros #bajolapluma #efemerides #efemeridesliterarias #iralevin #luctuoso https://www.instagram.com/p/CWM81qzrlbZ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[dr-archeville]

This Weekend (Friday July 26th - Sunday July 28th) at the Carolina Theatre of Durham, it’s the 2nd Retro MysteryRealm Film Series!

Movies to be shown include:

Stuart Rosenberg’s The Amityville Horror (1979) [40th Anniversary!]

Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974) [45th Anniversary!]

Kenneth Branagh’s Dead Again (1991)

Sydney Lumet’s Deathtrap (1982)

Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973)

Irvin Kershner’s Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

George Cukor’s Gaslight (1944) [75th Anniversary!]

Robert Benton’s The Late Show (1977)

Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944) [75th Anniversary!]

Sydney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express (1974) [45th Anniversary!]

Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Robert Siodmak’s The Spiral Staircase (1946; 4K Digital Restoration)

Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief (1955; 4K Digital Restoration)

Lee H. Katzin’s What Ever Happened To Aunt Alice? (1969) [50th Anniversary!]

Tickets for the MysteryRealm Film Series are $9.50.

Carolina Theatre of Durham 309 W. Morgan St., Durham, NC http://www.carolinatheatre.org/

[slimkhezri]

📺🎞 #LateNightCinema #Classic Watching “Deathtrap”, a 1982 American black comedy mystery film based on the 1978 play of the same name by Ira Levin. The film is directed by Sidney Lumet from a screenplay by Levin and Jay Presson Allen, and stars Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon and Christopher Reeve. Critics gave the film mostly favorable reviews, while noting its plot similarities to Caine's 1972 film Sleuth. Critic Roger Ebert gave it three stars, calling it "a comic study of ancient and honorable human defects, including greed, envy, lust, pride, avarice, sloth, and falsehood." Plot: When once-successful playwright Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine) sees his latest Broadway effort bomb on its opening night, he tumbles into despair -- until he receives a package from his former student Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve). Inside is an unproduced script that's better than anything Sidney has written in years. At the urging of his wife, Myra (Dyan Cannon), Sidney undertakes a plan to lure Clifford to his country home, murder him and then announce the script as his own work. #film #movie #comedy #michaelcaine #christopherreeve #sidneylumet #deathtrap #iralevin https://www.instagram.com/p/CL8z-OLnnQS/?igshid=jp2ip5bs2dy8

[wuayuthothio]

Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, equestrian and activist. . He achieved international stardom for his his motion picture portrayal of the classic DC comic book superhero Superman, beginning with Superman (1978), for which he won a BAFTA Award. . Reeve appeared in other critically acclaimed films such as...with Michael Caine in Deathtrap (1982), with Vanessa Redgrave in The Bostonians (1984), co-starring with Morgan Freeman in Street Smart (1987) and alongside Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in The Remains of the Day (1993). . And he received SAG and Golden Globe nominations for his performance in the TV remake of Rear Window (1998). . In 1995, Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition. He was confined to a wheelchair and required a portable ventilator for the rest of his life. . He founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation (with wife Dana Morosini) and lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries. . On October 10, 2004, Christopher Reeve died, aged 52.

[beachnet]

what’s like your favorite car <-doesn’t know shit ab cars so idk what to ask but i wanna know

i have a group cuz i cant pick an ult fave💔but

1978 mazda rx3

1975 ford bronco

1975 stingray corvette

1991 mazda miata

And if i were to pick a modern car i like would be a mini cooper even tho theyre deathtraps lol

[captainlesmiserables]

Obra leída “Deathtrap”

La obra se llama Deathtrap, fue escrita por Ira Levi, fue publicada en N.Y en 1978. La primer presentación fue el 26 de febrero de 1978 en The Music Box Theater en Nueva York.

La obra trata de un escritor de teatro famoso quien hace historias de Thriller y asesinatos, cuando uno de sus estudiantes le manda su primer obra él comienza quejándose y diciendo a su esposa como la obra es perfecta y está celoso. Entonces él hace el plan de asesinar al escritor joven, su esposa lo convence de darle una oportunidad para que trabajen juntos. El escritor, de nombre Sidney, entonces decide invitarlo a su casa, el nuevo autor acepta y después de hablar se rehusa a trabajar con Sidney, a lo cual este se molesta y  utilizando tanto lo que sabe de asesinatos como unas esposas de Harry Houdini logra matar a Clifford (el escritor nuevo)

Lo que creo que quiso decir el texto es que los escritores de esa época estaban apresurados a escribir contenido a un punto de desesperación y también siento que es una crítica a cómo la sociedad ha romanizado la idea del asesinato al punto que se considera la primera opción para resolver un problema. 

Cuando establecen la oficina de Sidney, puedes sentir el olor a puro y cenizas de la chimenea así como el sonido del hielo golpeando un vaso de vidrio con licor. Creo que es el hecho de que a Sidney se caracteriza como un escritor viejo y al estilo 20’s. En general la obra no me hace sentir mucho, es la descripción de escenas que me hace imaginar debido a que la manera en la que se caracterizan los personajes da una atmósfera de película.

Me gusto la obra, porque al final Clifford sabe que lo van a asesinar, e inclusive se burla de eso con Sidney quien sin más pasa a asesinarlo.

[aion-rsa]

Lex Luthor: The Actors Who Have Played the Greatest Criminal Mind of Our Time

https://ift.tt/2HDq6Gu

Jon Cryer is the new Lex Luthor, but he sure isn't the first. Let's have a look at the other men who have played the role.

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The Lists

Books

Mike Cecchini

Superman

Mar 17, 2019

Lex Luthor

supergirl

DC Entertainment

Supergirl Season 4

Gene Hackman

Jesse Eisenberg

Superboy

Lex Luthor! The greatest criminal mind of our time! Superman's biggest and most enduring pain-in-the-ass! Mr. Luthor has a screen history almost as storied as that of his caped nemesis, and he's about to be reborn once more on Supergirl, played by Jon Cryer.

Jon Cryer has just been revealed in all his glory as the next bald scientist on the block, but he's certainly not the first. We look back at some of the notable actors who have played Luthor on the big and small screen. While this list isn't comprehensive (we offer our apologies to Super Friends voice actor Stanley Jones, and a number of talented actors who have given voice to Luthor in a number of DC Universe animated movies, for example), these are the guys who made the most impact portraying Superman's greatest foe.

So, fasten your wigs, it's off to the lab!

Lyle Talbot

Atom Man vs. Superman (1950)

Atom Man vs. Superman was released right on the cusp of the golden age of sci-fi b-movies, and Lyle Talbot's Lex Luthor was a mad scientist at a time when that really meant something. How many other actors can say that they played Commissioner Gordon AND Lex Luthor? None, that's how many.

read more - Lex Luthor: Jerk of All Trades

Not only was Lyle Talbot the first actor to play Lex Luthor (arguably the first live-action interpretation of any legitimate "supervillain" this side of Flash Gordon's Ming the Merciless), he was also the first to sit behind Jim Gordon's desk (in 1949's Batman and Robin serial). Talbot gleefully wears the rubber bald cap for his time as Luthor, and sports a bizarre, Easter Island like headpiece for his part as the Atom Man.

It's tough being the first, but the veteran character actor is as accurate a representation of the post-WWII Lex Luthor as you can hope for. 

Gene Hackman

Superman: The Movie (1978), Superman II (1981), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)

Despite being easily the most well known actor to ever play Lex Luthor, Gene Hackman's performance has always been a little divisive. While there's no questioning Hackman's acting chops, some have cited the series' questionable decision to make Luthor and his associates less menacing than they might have been. Hackman's refusal to go bald for the role (except for a handful of scenes) necessitated this version of Lex Luthor to sport a variety of elaborate hairpieces, several of which were used to great comedic effect by his co-star, Ned Beatty. Nevertheless, Mr. Hackman brought an arrogant charm that worked perfectly against Christopher Reeve's perfectly earnest, no-nonsense Superman.

read more: Ranking the Superman Movies

Hackman's Luthor, while clearly well-versed in science (we see more of this in the otherwise unfortunate Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, where he creates Nuclear Man out of some stray Superman genetic material), is more concerned with lining his own pockets with beachfront property (via a real estate scheme that would wipe out the existing West Coast of the United States in Superman: The Movie, and his desire to co-opt Australia for his services in Superman II) than eliminating Superman or advancing the cause of mad science.

Scott James Wells

Superboy (1988)

In 1986, DC Comics reinvented Lex Luthor. No longer was he a mad scientist intent on destroying Superman at ever opportunity in between stints in maximum security prisons. Lex became a billionaire and a well-respected man, who hid his evil deeds behind charitable works and an army of lawyers. Scott Wells was the first actor to take on the role in live-action (Michael Bell beat him to the airwaves by a few weeks as the voice of an animated Luthor cut from this mold in the criminally underrated Ruby-Spears Superman cartoon that ran from 1988-1989) in the first season of the syndicated Superboy TV series.

read more - Men of Steel: 11 Actors Who Have Played Superman on Screen

Wells' Luthor, who took on a young Superman during their years in college, was an obnoxious frat boy, involved in everything from petty campus crime to fixing basketball games to black market dealings. Unfortunately, this Lex often came off more like a heavy in a Revenge of the Nerds sequel than a foe really worthy of the Boy of Steel. After the first season, both John Haymes Newton (who played Superboy) and Wells were replaced.

Which brings us to...

Sherman Howard

The Adventures of Superboy (1989-1992)

Sherman Howard (Bub the zombie from George Romero's Day of the Dead) gave comic book fans a more familiar Lex Luthor. Gone was the big man on campus, replaced by a mad scientist with nothing to lose. Early in his tenure, Howard occasionally overplayed the part, taking Lex into realms of psychotic glee usually best reserved for the Joker, but in the post-Nicholson/Keaton Batman world, who could really blame him?

read more: Does Superman Have a Future in the DCEU?

By the third and fourth seasons, Howard had grown into the role nicely, and the show (which shifted its tone dramatically) became a remarkably accurate live-action interpretation of the Superman mythos. Combining the "classic" Luthor sensibilities of mad science and deathtraps with the "Gene Hackman" Luthor's taste in bumbling assistants, Howard delivered one of the most faithful representations of the character we've ever seen. (image courtesy of SuperboyTheater.Net)

John Shea

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997)

Often overlooked, John Shea is a truly formidable Lex Luthor. Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman premiered at the height of Luthor's "well-respected businessman" phase. John Shea, particularly in the show's first season, played Luthor as an impossibly charming, witty, debonair man, who was not only a rival with Superman for the best interests of Metropolis, but also a legitimate competitor for Clark Kent in the affections of Lois Lane.

read more: Complete Schedule of Upcoming DCEU Superhero Movies

It's almost impossible to dislike Shea's portrayal of Luthor, full of icy cool humor and always with a glass of cognac, a cigar, or a beautiful woman at his side. This is Lex Luthor as Bond villain: charming, urbane, and as deadly as a cobra.

Clancy Brown

Superman: The Animated Series (1996-2000), Justice League Unlimited (2000-2006)

There have been plenty of other actors to give voice to Lex Luthor in animation (most recently Rainn Wilson in the excellent Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen animated movies), but none have put in the hours that Clancy Brown has. Featuring in nearly every episode of Superman: The Animated Series, and as a recurring baddie on Justice League Unlimited, this Lex Luthor is of the "billionaire industrialist" variety, but has plenty of hands-on scientific knowledge at his disposal. By the end of Justice League Unlimited, Luthor certainly puts that scientific knowledge to bad use, and this character had none of the aversions to getting his hands dirty sometimes displayed by other "corporate" versions of Luthor.

read more: The Three Times Lex Luthor Became President

Mr. Brown was smooth, menacing perfection in the role, and the show's design (Luthor is at least as tall and broad as Superman) offered just the right of physical intimidation to mesh with Clancy's voice.

Michael Rosenbaum

Smallville (2001-2011)

The small screen's most famous Luthor, Michael Rosenbaum perfected the art of the slow heel-turn for TV supervillains. While you may have liked John Shea's Lex Luthor in spite of his clearly devious nature, Rosenbaum's Luthor actually made you question whether you ever really wanted to see him go down the dark path that we all knew was inevitable.

read more - Flyby: The JJ Abrams Superman Movie You Never Saw

In many ways, Smallville was as much a show about Lex Luthor as it was about Superman. Often the most interesting character on the show, and free of the doe-eyed romantic tension and existential wonderings that plagued Clark Kent, Smallville's Lex was self-assured enough to want to forge a destiny apart from that of his notorious father (Lionel Luthor, played to perfection by John Glover), and was often fiercely loyal to his best friend, Clark Kent.

Nevertheless, by the time the show started giving viewers glimpses of Lex's villainous future, Rosenbaum rose to the occasion admirably.

Kevin Spacey

Superman Returns (2006)

In many ways, Superman Returns is a continuation of the previous big screen Superman franchise. There are familiar story and design elements, the return of John Williams' soaring Superman theme tune, and a Lex Luthor who is obsessed with real estate profit potential, hairpieces, and inept assistants.

While not as shy about going bald as Hackman's character, and perhaps a little more involved in the scientific end of things, the Lex Luthor of Superman Returns also has more of a dark side. Just witness his savage beating of a Kryptonite-shivved Man of Steel, and you'll see echoes of a man who has been hardened by years of prison. While this is destined to remain Spacey's sole outing as Superman's greatest foe, it's a memorable performance.

read more: What Went Wrong With Superman Returns?

Jesse Eisenberg

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017)

Jesse Eisenberg's casting as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was divisive from the start, even before everyone realized what a divisive movie Batman v Superman itself would turn out to be. But despite a script that often gave him some bizarre dialogue to chew on, Eisenberg brought a manic, boy genius quality to the role that definitely fit within the larger tapestry of the character's history. Given what a malevolent force Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (who Eisenberg had portrayed in The Social Network) has turned out to be, this was a brilliant bit of casting.

Eisenberg returned, looking and acting very much like a more traditional version of Lex Luthor in the post-credits scene of the Justice League movie, offering a tantalizing glimpse of what Lex might look like as he tries to assemble a Secret Society of Super-Villains to counter the League. Will we ever see Eisenberg as Luthor again? Given the ongoing state of flux that the DCEU is in, that's unclear, but he may deserve another shot at the role.

Jon Cryer

Supergirl (2019)

The Supergirl TV series has been flirting with the Luthor family almost since day one, notably by bringing in Lex's sister Lena Luthor as a series regular as a friend to Kara Danvers and sometimes-ally of Supergirl herself, and having Luthor technology (such as the powersuits) turn up from time to time to bedevil the heroes. Jon Cryer is the first actor to portray Lex Luthor in the Arrowverse, but he has a history of his own with the Luthor family, having portrayed Lex's idiot nephew Lenny Luthor in the dreadful Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Something tells us there won't be any Lenny in Cryer's Lex... 

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