Here’s a fun fact: Thanks to his lineage, writer/director/actor Christopher Guest has an inherited royal title — the 5th Baron Haden-Guest — and for three years was an active member of the British House of Lords. In his spare time, however, Baron Haden-Guest makes delightfully silly movies that make audiences around the globe very happy.
Guest largely worked as an actor in the 1970s, with stage and TV appearances mixed with occasional side gigs with the satirists The National Lampoon. His breakthrough role came in 1984 as lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel in Rob Reiner‘s classic comedy “This Is Spinal Tap,” whose improvisational style proved to be an enormous influence when Guest began directing films five years later. That technique came to full fruition in his second directorial effort, 1996’s “Waiting For Guffman,” where he gathered together a group of great comic actors (including such stalwarts as Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard and Michael McKean) who formed a loose repertory company that blossomed over the course of Guest’s films. The formula was the same in each — take an unusual setting (a dog show or a small-town pageant, for example), block out a loose story and order of scenes, and let his actors improvise their dialogue.
The resulting four films — “Guffman,” “Best in Show” (2000), “A Mighty Wind” (2003) and “For Your Consideration” (2006) — proved to be utterly unconventional and, at times, absolutely brilliant, and will likely live on in film comedy history for decades to come. So let’s raise a glass to the Baron Haden-Guest (and his Oscar-nominated wife Jamie Lee Curtis) and honor him by ranking his 10 best films (acting and/or directing) from worst to best.
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10. ALMOST HEROES (1998)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Christopher Guest.
Writers: Tom Nutter, Tom Wolfe, Boyd Hale.
Starring Chris Farley, Matthew Perry, Eugene Levy, Kevin Dunn, Bokeem Woodbine.
One of the few misfires in Guest’s filmography, his third directorial effort had a premise — two mismatched explorers (Chris Farley, Matthew Perry) race against the legendary Lewis & Clark to be the first expedition to cross the U.S. — that sounds more like an SNL skit than it does a feature film. “Almost Heroes” is the only film that Guest no hand in writing, and the absence of his sharp satiric voice is noticeable. As a director-for-hire, Guest does what he can to make the jokes land, but even with such comic pros as Farley, Eugene Levy and Kevin Dunn on board, little in the film works. It’s as if Guest was hired to lend come comical caché to a project that didn’t deserve it.
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9. MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS (2005)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Stephen Frears.
Writer: Martin Sherman.
Starring Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Will Young, Christopher Guest, Kelly Reilly, Toby Jones.
Guest was able to draw upon his royal lineage in one of his most delightful roles as Lord Cromer in the Stephen Frears musical “Mrs. Henderson Presents.” Cromer is a friend to Mrs. Laura Henderson (Judi Dench), the owner of a local vaudeville house who plans to add female nudity (a la the Moulin Rouge in Paris) to her revue. As Lord Chamberlain, Cromer is expected to be the upholder of civic morality, and another actor might have played him as a routine stuffed shirt. But Guest adds a little twinkle in his eye as if to say that he actually likes what she is doing. It’s a small touch that Guest includes, but for his character, it makes all the difference.
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8. THE BIG PICTURE (1989)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Director: Christopher Guest.
Writers: Christopher Guest, Michael Varhol, Michael McKean.
Starring Kevin Bacon, Emily Longstreth, J.T. Walsh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael McKean.
To paraphrase the old adage “Write what you know,” for his first feature directing gig, Guest has chosen to draw from his own experience in his story of Nick (Kevin Bacon), a young man who, as a result of winning a student film contest, is given the opportunity to direct his first studio feature film. Ready to “go Hollywood,” Nick tosses his old friends aside in favor of a fast new crowd and an A-list lifestyle that soon proves to Nick that Hollywood success is not all it’s cracked up to be. Guest displays a surprisingly assured visual style for a first-timer, and his work with Bacon displays a solid understanding about bringing out the best from his actors.
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7. THE LONG RIDERS (1980)
Image Credit: Courtesy of United Artists Director: Walter Hill.
Writers: Bill Bryden, Steven Phillip Smith, Stacy Keach, James Keach.
Starring the brothers Carradine (David, Keith, Robert); Keach (Stacy, James); Quaid (Dennis, Randy); and Guest (Christopher, Nicholas).
There’s something about brothers that you just can’t fake. Whether it’s a knowing nod or a manner of speaking, you can always tell when two men have grown up together. So while the casting of four groups of real-life brothers as the leads of Walter Hill’s epic Western might seem a mere gimmick, there’s something genuine about seeing the brothers Carradine, Keach, Quaid and Guest build that fraternal feeling into their characters. For the Guests, the film offered not only a welcome chance for Christopher and Nicholas to act together, but it gave them an opportunity to do some fun character work in their roles as the weaselly Ford brothers.
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6. THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987)
Image Credit: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Director: Rob Reiner.
Writer: William Goldman.
Starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant.
Guest took a rare bad guy turn in the beloved Rob Reiner fable as Count Tyrone Rugen, the notorious “six-fingered man” who years before murdered the father of Spanish fencing master Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), who has sworn to track him down and exact revenge. Guest wisely plays Rugen absolutely straight with not a single wink to the audience, and Guest’s condescending sneer toward the kingdom’s lowly peasants (and to Montoya in particular) only makes the viewer’s thirst for his blood even greater. Guest is clearly having a ball with the role and gets to show off his impressive fencing skills as well.
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5. FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (2006)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Independent Pictures Director: Christopher Guest.
Writers: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy.
Starring Catherine O’Hara, Ed Begley Jr., Harry Shearer, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Jennifer Coolidge, Christopher Guest.
Hollywood’s obsession with honoring itself gets the Guest treatment in this 2006 comedy in which the stars of a low-budget indie movie, “Home for Purim,” hear a rumor they may be under consideration for an Oscar nomination and set out to do anything they can to get the Academy’s attention. In a meta stroke, Guest has cast himself in the film as Jay Berman, the director of “Home for Purim,” whose artsy-fartsy camera angles and overall incompetence offer a sly bit of self-parody. By contrast, Guest’s direction of “For Your Consideration” is anything but pretentious, capturing the world of independent filmmaking with a loving scalpel.
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4. A MIGHTY WIND (2003)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Director: Christopher Guest.
Writers: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy.
Starring Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Jane Lynch, Jennifer Coolidge.
Folk music serves as the backdrop for Guest’s fifth film as director, set at a reunion concert honoring a legendary folk music producer. Invited to perform are three of his most famous (now long-forgotten acts): The Folksmen trio (who get along fine); The Main Street Singers (who do not) and the duo Mitch & Mickey who were once a romantic couple but are now a walking psychodrama. Guest (who has a supporting role as a clean-cut member of The Folksmen) brings his usual hand-held documentary style to the comedy and adds a skilled presentation of the musical numbers.
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3. THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Rob Reiner.
Writers: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner.
Starring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, Bruno Kirby.
Guest took on his most iconic role in Rob Reiner’s 1984 comedy where he embodied the great Nigel Tufnel, lead guitarist of the immortal (and fictional) heavy metal band Spinal Tap, famed for being one of England’s “loudest bands.” In the mockumentary, the delightfully dim Nigel shares with us his love for Gumby, chewing gum and his beloved amplifer, which he proudly points out goes “up to eleven,” as opposed to the standard ten, because “It’s one louder.” Along with his “Spinal Tap” co-stars, Guest also composed the music for the film’s soundtrack.
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2. BEST IN SHOW (2000)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Christopher Guest.
Writers: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy.
Starring Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Christopher Guest. Patrick Cranshaw.
Guest set his sights on the world of competitive dog shows in his most critically-acclaimed comedy that brought Jennifer Coolidge and Jane Lynch into his repertory company. Here, Guest took on a supporting role as Harlan Pepper, an aspiring ventriloquist who has come to the Mayflower Dog Show is one of many quirky competitors who bring out the knives when it comes down to whose dog will win the title “Best of Show.” For his work on “Best in Show,” Guest received his first Best Director nomination from the Independent Spirit Awards.
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1. WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Christopher Guest.
Writers: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy.
Starring Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Lewis Arquette, Bob Balaban.
Guest established his own genre with in this 1996 mockumentary set in a small-town community theater. Eccentric director Corky St. Blair (Guest) has been tapped to create a musical extravaganza in celebration of the 150th anniversary of their town of Blaine, Missouri. Corky, who has no end of fabulous ideas for the pageant, has an ace up his sleeve — he’s used his distant off-Broadway connections to invite producer Mort Guffman to see the show and take it to Broadway. Despite the character’s delusions of grandeur, Guest never condescends to Corky, always placing the character’s sweet soul front and center.
