Christopher Plummer died just last month at 91. Over seven decades he reached stardom while retaining the versatility of a character actor and the ability of a character actor to vanish into a role. My favorite of his many roles is that of Obersturmbannfurher Herbert Kappler, who served as the head of the SS security service, the SD, in Rome, and was the primary antagonist of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican who rescued Jews and Allied POWs from the clutches of Kappler. Kappler was sentenced after the War to life imprisonment for war crimes and served it in the Gaeta military prison. He was visited frequently by O’ Flaherty, who, in 1959, baptized his old antagonist into the Catholic Church.
The movie, The Scarlet and the Black (1983) may be viewed in full on YouTube here. The scene beginning at 2:09:15 has some profound observations on the Church and History.
His turn as Herod Antipas came in the television miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977). The series is so good that Pope John Paul II made the producer, the late Lew Grade, a papal knight because of it. An odd honor for a Jew but one the Ukranian born Grade cherished, along with his British knighthood and life peerage.
The series lives up to its rep, giving lasting images of the life of Christ and may be watched on Youtube with ads here.
Plummer strikes no new ground in portraying Herod as a weak man, but he also plays him as a man who believes in the Jewish faith and who knows that he is on the path to Hell. His reaction after Salome, at the urging of her mother Herodias, asked for the head of John the Baptist after John accurately called Herodias, who was originally married to Herod Antipas’ brother Herod II, an adulteress for marrying Herod Antipas, a double divorce of Herodias and Herod Antipas needed to accomplish this, is like the moaning of a lost soul in Hell. The miniseries follows John’s passion narrative so there is no appearance before Herod Antipas by Christ, that detail being peculiar to the passion narrative of Luke.
One of my favorite roles by Plummer is his portrail of the George Soros like character in The Man Inside witn stellar performances by Denzel Washington and Clive Owens
You can clearly see the lust that was Herod’s downfall in life. Mr. Plummer very clearly portrayed that part, esp the interaction with Salome. But, as you pointed out, Don, that moan of the lost soul – he tries weakly to get out of his promise but knows he’s trapped.
The actresses did a good job with Salome and Herodías, the scheming and cold-hearted cruelty. I’ve sadly seen it many times in real life but it’s still disconcerting that people can be that calculatingly cruel.
May God have mercy on Mr. Plummer’s soul, and may he Rest In Peace.
Thank you for doing this little series, Don. It’s been very helpful to me this Holy Week, for trying to keep my thoughts fixed on Our Saviour and all He went through for us all.