This Oscar-Nominated Role Features Noir Genre's Most Frightening Villain

The Big Picture

• Richard Widmark's debut as Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death is a terrifying and unforgettable performance in film noir history.
• The sadistic acts of violence by Tommy Udo set him apart as one of the most chilling villains in the genre.
• Widmark's Udo, compared to other noir villains, stands out for his cold-bloodedness and barbarity.

The entire canon of American film noir history is littered with iconic imagery of the meanest, scariest, and most horrifying villains the mind can conjure up. Jimmy Cagney's lopsided hat and rye smile in The Public Enemy, Robert Mitchum's tattooed knuckles in The Night of the Hunter, the white-brimmed hat and dress of Jane Greer in Out of the Past, and John Huston's suspenders in Chinatown are some of the most instantly recognizable visages of cinematic villainry and would strike terror into the hearts of any viewer. But there is one Oscar-nominated film noir performance that chills the bones possibly more than any other: Richard Widmark's turn as the terrifying Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death from 1947. Widmark's place in the hall of infamy is as well deserved as any, and it is a shame his performance isn't talked about as frequently as the others aforementioned or other famous villains in cinematic history, like Heath Ledger's Joker or Jack Nicholson's turn in The Shining.

Amazingly, Widmark's appearance in Henry Hathaway's stylized crime film was his film debut, continuing a tradition of actors delivering iconic villain roles in astounding acting debuts. Hathaway's film tells the story of Nick Bianco, played by Victor Mature, whose arrest for a jewellery heist lands him in prison. He initially refuses to give up his accomplices, but then changes his mind once he learns of his wife's death, having not heard from her for three months. From there, Nick finds himself in all sorts of trouble, mostly with Widmark's devilish Tommy Udo. Widmark's character is by no means the film's main character, but there is no doubt that he steals the limelight with every scene in which he features. As far as terrifying cinematic debuts go, this performance is right up there with the best of them.

Kiss of Death (1947)

Nick Bianco, a hardened criminal, is captured during a failed robbery and faces a long prison sentence. Choosing silence over betrayal, Nick's world is shattered when he discovers his wife has taken her own life, leaving their daughters in an orphanage. Desperate to regain his freedom and care for his children, Nick agrees to testify against his criminal associates. His cooperation sets off a series of violent retributions, particularly from the sadistic mobster Tommy Udo.

What Makes 'Kiss of Death' So Terrifying?

The film, aside from Widmark's Oscar-nominated performance, is terrifying in and of itself. The situation in which Nick finds himself, arrested on Christmas Eve, his wife committing suicide, and his daughters being sent away to an orphanage, is a Kafkaesque nightmare. The constant anguish on his own face is frightening to any viewer watching from the comfort of their own home. He gets to visit his children in the orphanage and the hauntingly out-of-tune piano playing Beethoven's "Für Elise" only further spooks the audience, taking its cue from the horror film genre with its astonishing soundtrack and reworking of classical music. As soon as he accepts his parole bargain and testifies against Tommy Udo, as hopeful as he may initially seem, the writing is on the wall for Nick already.

And that is when Widmark reappears, with his Cheshire Cat-like grin, his wide-brimmed hat and his gaunt, empty eyes. Once he takes his hat off, the furrowed eyebrows and Gordon Gecko-like hair only further enhance how frightening he is to viewers. Everything about Tommy Udo makes your skin crawl. His screen time may be short, but his performance is so frightening, so beguiling, and so chilling that he is the most memorable aspect of this film by some distance. Nick's cooperation with law enforcement throws Tommy in jail and gives him a court date, where Nick testifies against him on the assumption that he will be found guilty. However, Tommy's case is strangely dropped, and so he becomes hell-bent on taking revenge on Nick for proverbially throwing him under the bus once he is released.

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The most horrifying scene of the film, included in the final cut for seemingly no greater reason than to reveal to the audience just how sadistic Tommy is, is when he shows up to the apartment of Mrs. Rizzo, the wheelchair-using mother of one of Nick's accomplices. After inquiring about "that squealing son of yours", he proceeds to bind her to her chair and push her down the stairs, staring wildly and laughing maniacally as he does so. Such a reckless act of violence is bound to shock any viewer and leave them asking themselves just what kind of man stands before them on the big screen. It doesn't make Kiss of Death one of the most disturbing films of all time by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a horrific act of violence that stands out among noir films for its sheer brutality. When compared to other well-known noir villains, Widmark's character displays a cold-bloodedness and barbarity that rarely appears in films made under the guidelines of the Hays Code. This allows Tommy Udo to stand tall as one of the most frightening and vicious villains ever put on film in the noir genre.

How Does Tommy Udo Compare to Other Notable Noir Villains?

Tommy Udo stands out in Kiss of Death, but how does he compare to some of the other most notorious villains in the history of the noir genre? Well, the four other renowned villains mentioned above in this article are good points of comparison. Jimmy Cagney's Tom Powers in The Public Enemy is a raw and visceral portrayal of a ruthless gangster and is truly one of his best performances. His acts of cold-blooded violence and moral ambiguity make him a constant threat throughout the film. The character's brutal rise in the criminal underworld gives him a threatening and formidable aura that still shocks audiences. Similarly to Widmark, Cagney's performance features a scene of violence against an innocent woman. Though smushing a grapefruit into someone's face isn't nearly as frightening or horrifying as pushing a woman in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs, they are both dehumanizing and humiliating actions, demonstrating a ruthless similarity between both characters. However, the frenzied way in which he reacts to his sadistic acts of violence allows Widmark's Tommy Udo to take the bacon here.

On the other hand, Jane Greer's Kathie Moffat from Out of the Past, a stand-out in noir films for how it subverts traditional genre tropes, is the archetypal femme fatale, manipulating men through her cunning and her looks. Her deceptive nature and ability to play both victim and villain make her unpredictably dangerous and give her that moral ambiguity that is a hallmark of all successful noir villains. She frightens the viewers by shape-shifting between vulnerability and ruthless manipulation in a most captivating way. Moffat is very different to Udo because she represents a more insidious threat, whereas he displays an overt violence that her character lacks. She has an impact upon the protagonist of Out of the Past, Jeff Bailey, in a more complex and indirect manner than Udo does Nick Bianco, dragging her protagonist into a web of deceit and betrayal that leads to his own downfall. Though she is the archetypal manipulative villain, Tommy Udo frightens more with his grin, his gaze, and his gait. The speed at which he goes from threatening to laughing and back to threatening is frightening itself and puts him near the top of the noir villains list.

But is Tommy Udo at the top? That spot is normally reserved for Robert Mitchum's turn as Reverend Harry Powell in Charles Laughton's mesmeric The Night of the Hunter', a game-changer in the genre that influenced how noir films, and cinema as a whole, were to be made afterward. Rev. Powell is a false preacher who uses his charm and religious facade to manipulate and deceive vulnerable women and children. He is methodical, ruthless, and calm in his pursuit of the children and the cash that are central to the film's plot. The range that Tommy Udo exhibits is seen in Rev. Powell as well, who switches seamlessly between a charming preacher and a cold-blooded murderer with ease. Mitchum is exceptional and is one of the reasons the film has found such an afterlife in the last few years. His character and Widmark's character are alarmingly close in how broadly they act out their violence. Their ranges and the moral and criminal depths to which they are willing to travel shock viewers still to this day. Udo's playfulness, seen most often in the moments before his acts of violence, is just like the righteousness that Powell displays before his most heinous and insidious acts. Traces of these villains can be seen throughout cinematic history, showing the power of the characters and their performances.

Richard Widmark Made His Mark on the Noir Genre With Limited Screen Time

So, Richard Widmark's performance as Tommy Udo will go down as one of the greatest film debuts and one of the greatest and most frightening villains in film noir history. The manner in which he terrorizes the protagonist, keeping him up at night and having him look over his shoulder, is bound to shock any viewer still. He interlaces his ability to "joke around" with Nick Bianco with his moral depravity in throwing women in wheelchairs down flights of stairs to their death. His multi-faceted performance has such a profound impact upon the audience, even if his screen-time is relatively limited. Some of the greatest villains in cinema history have been the protagonists of their stories but Tommy Udo isn't, nor does he need to be. He does enough with the time he has to scare the living daylights out of the viewers. To designate him definitively as the greatest and most frightening villain of the genre would be an act of gross subjectivity, but there's a lot to be said for it all the same. Much like he does the protagonist, Tommy Udo will keep viewers up at night, scared by doors closing or cars passing by their window.

Kiss of Death is available to stream for free on Plex TV in the U.S.

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