Best Supporting Actor 1943: Claude Rains in Casablanca

Claude Rains received his second nomination for portraying Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca.

Claude Rains plays Captain Renault who is the head of the police in Casablanca. He is player of any side that gets him something being a self confessed corrupt official. Captain Renault is a very flashy role with all his scheming as well as his retorts and Rains decides to take this potential to its limit. This is the flashier performance by Rains that I have seen there is not a single scene where he does not appear to be trying to steal that scene no matter what. Rains throughout his performance is always trying to push himself and be the center of attention even when a scene has little to do with him.

Rains has basically no shame in his entire performance nor fear with his choices in this performance he always goes right out and says yes this is flashy role and that is exactly how I am going to play it. Rains does by stating each of his lines with a swift gusto, as well as when every moving on screen there is always something extra to what he does. Each of his reactions and just the way he walks has a certain extra actory quality to it only to really be flashier in the role and get even more attention.

Rains certainly through his flashiness make Captain Renault an enjoyable character to watch. He never quite makes Renault a villain rather always keeping him as a man gets only what he happens to want. Rains really shows a joy in Renault as he tries to get money and women from his position of power. Rains shows that nothing really gets Renault down to much even when he fails, which works well because it shows it as just mostly a game to Renault, a game he has lots of fun with.

Rains certainly has an enjoyable presence in the film, but what keeps me from entirely loving this performance is actually just how self aware Rains is in his entire performance. I never got the feeling that there was not a whole lot of acting going on behind Renault becuase of Rains' method of portraying him throughout the film. Do not get me wrong this is an enjoyable performance, but I personally would have liked it more if Rains whole flashy portrayal was just slightly less obvious and self aware than it is. I am not saying Renault should not be flashy it is the role, but an actor can bring that sort of performance without doing quite so clearly as Rains does here.

Posted in: 1943 Best Supporting Actor, Claude Rains