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* On the other hand, Creator/ElishaCookJr. made Peter Lorre look lucky. At least Lorre survived most of the above examples (and in ''Film/ArsenicAndOldLace'', he even pulled off a KarmaHoudini). The same can't be said for poor Elisha in ''Phantom Lady'', ''Film/TheBigSleep'', ''BornToKill'' (where, shortly before his character's death, he tries to menace a little old lady, only to have the little old lady kick his ass!), or ''Film/TheKilling''. In ''Film/{{Shane}}'', [[InvertedTrope he's practically a good guy version of this trope.]] But the best example of how much worse off Cook is compared to Lorre is in ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}'', where they're both [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain ISVs]]. Sam Spade disarms and humiliates Cook's Wilmer far more often than he does Lorre's Joel Cairo, despite the fact that Wilmer's a multiple murderer and Cairo isn't. And at the end, their mutual boss ([[HoYay and possibly more]]) Casper Guttman sells out Wilmer to the authorities while happily walking off arm in arm with Cairo (although they all end up in jail). Joel Cairo may be more pathetic than you, but Wilmer is even more pathetic than Cairo.
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* On the other hand, Creator/ElishaCookJr. made Peter Lorre look lucky. At least Lorre survived most of the above examples (and in ''Film/ArsenicAndOldLace'', he even pulled off a KarmaHoudini). The same can't be said for poor Elisha in ''Phantom Lady'', ''Film/TheBigSleep'', ''BornToKill'' ''Film/BornToKill'' (where, shortly before his character's death, he tries to menace a little old lady, only to have the little old lady kick his ass!), or ''Film/TheKilling''. In ''Film/{{Shane}}'', [[InvertedTrope he's practically a good guy version of this trope.]] But the best example of how much worse off Cook is compared to Lorre is in ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}'', where they're both [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain ISVs]]. Sam Spade disarms and humiliates Cook's Wilmer far more often than he does Lorre's Joel Cairo, despite the fact that Wilmer's a multiple murderer and Cairo isn't. And at the end, their mutual boss ([[HoYay and possibly more]]) Casper Guttman sells out Wilmer to the authorities while happily walking off arm in arm with Cairo (although they all end up in jail). Joel Cairo may be more pathetic than you, but Wilmer is even more pathetic than Cairo.
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* [=RoboGadget=], the evil android duplicate of the protagonist of the film version of ''Film/InspectorGadget''. He actually makes the iconic IdiotHero look competent when they confront each other.
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* [=RoboGadget=], the evil android duplicate of the protagonist of the film version of ''Film/InspectorGadget''.''Film/InspectorGadget1999''. He actually makes the iconic IdiotHero look competent when they confront each other.
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dewicking Knife Nut per TRS
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** And Luigi and Pavi aren't much better, given that Luigi, despite his claims that only he's got brains enough, comes across as a simple minded KnifeNut and Pavi spends most of his time staring at his own face in the mirror he forever carries with him. That being said, Luigi is quite effective in the "stabbing people for no good reason" compartment, which makes him the least harmless of the Largo siblings.
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** And Luigi and Pavi aren't much better, given that Luigi, despite his claims that only he's got brains enough, comes across as a simple minded KnifeNut PsychoKnifeNut and Pavi spends most of his time staring at his own face in the mirror he forever carries with him. That being said, Luigi is quite effective in the "stabbing people for no good reason" compartment, which makes him the least harmless of the Largo siblings.
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* Jerry Londegaard in ''Film/{{Fargo}}''. You're inclined to distrust him because he's a greedy, petty salesman who ran a criminal get-rich-quick scheme that ruins several lives, [[spoiler:including his wife, who ends up murdered]], but at the same time, he's also played as [[StupidEvil really bumbling and inept]], with much of the bigger problems being caused by [[DidntThinkThisThrough the short-sidedness of his plan]] and tendency to make panic when things go wrong, [[DisasterDominoes ironically making things even worse]]. He effectively is still the "bad guy" of the story, but [[ButtMonkey the degree to which things spiral terribly out of control for him]] make him weirdly sympathetic.
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* Jerry Londegaard in ''Film/{{Fargo}}''. You're inclined to distrust him because he's a greedy, petty salesman who ran a criminal get-rich-quick scheme that ruins several lives, [[spoiler:including his wife, who ends up murdered]], but at the same time, he's also played as [[StupidEvil really bumbling and inept]], with much of the bigger problems being caused by [[DidntThinkThisThrough the short-sidedness of his plan]] and tendency to make panic when things go wrong, [[DisasterDominoes ironically making things even worse]]. He effectively is still the "bad guy" of the story, but [[ButtMonkey the degree to which things spiral terribly out of control for him]] make him weirdly sympathetic.
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* Jerry Londegaard in ''Film/{{Fargo}}''. You can't help but feel something for him when you understand his situation, [[spoiler:although, considering ended up getting his wife murdered, he's not entirely sympathetic.]]
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* Jerry Londegaard in ''Film/{{Fargo}}''. You can't help but feel something for You're inclined to distrust him when you understand his situation, [[spoiler:although, considering ended up getting his wife murdered, because he's not entirely a greedy, petty salesman who ran a criminal get-rich-quick scheme that ruins several lives, [[spoiler:including his wife, who ends up murdered]], but at the same time, he's also played as [[StupidEvil really bumbling and inept]], with much of the bigger problems being caused by [[DidntThinkThisThrough the short-sidedness of his plan]] and tendency to make panic when things go wrong, [[DisasterDominoes ironically making things even worse]]. He effectively is still the "bad guy" of the story, but [[ButtMonkey the degree to which things spiral terribly out of control for him]] make him weirdly sympathetic.]]
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Splitting the Film subpage.
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* Prince Edward in ''Film/{{Braveheart}}''. He tries so hard to meet his father Longshanks' expectations, but he never does.
* The Newspaper Boy in ''Film/BetterOffDead''.
* Jerry Londegaard in ''Film/{{Fargo}}''. You can't help but feel something for him when you understand his situation, [[spoiler:although, considering ended up getting his wife murdered, he's not entirely sympathetic.]]
* [=RoboGadget=], the evil android duplicate of the protagonist of the film version of ''Film/InspectorGadget''. He actually makes the iconic IdiotHero look competent when they confront each other.
* Justin Hammer from ''Film/IronMan2'', though more "ineffectual" (and [[LaughablyEvil humorous]]) than "sympathetic". More to the point he pretends to be an EvilCounterpart of Tony Stark, but is actually a pompous clown whose products are of very poor quality, whose attempts to intimidate the actual villain of the movie would work better on a five-year old, and whose henchmen are incompetent rentacops who carry mace and tasers.
* Creator/VincentPrice as Shelby Carpenter in ''Film/{{Laura}}.'' This is how his ''own girlfriend'' sums him up:
-->"He's no good, but he's what I want. I'm not a nice person, Laura, and neither is he. He knows I know he's just what he is. He also knows that I don't care. We belong together because we're both weak and can't seem to help it. That's why I know he's capable of murder.[[note]]Keep in mind that she says he's ''capable'' of murder. [[spoiler:He doesn't actually do it.]][[/note]] He's like me."
* Nux from ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad''. He [[DeathSeeker wants to die and ascend to Valhalla]] thanks to the brainwashing of Immortan Joe, but Nux just fails at it so miserably that he enters a VillainousBSOD. [[spoiler:He finally makes a HeelFaceTurn, and [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] as a result.]]
* Creator/PeterLorre -- as he was frequently typecast the "Sad Monster" after ''Film/{{M}}'' -- got to play quite a few of these in his career. ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'', ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}'', ''Film/ArsenicAndOldLace'', and in pretty much all of his later career, particularly in his team-ups with Vincent Price.
* On the other hand, Creator/ElishaCookJr. made Peter Lorre look lucky. At least Lorre survived most of the above examples (and in ''Film/ArsenicAndOldLace'', he even pulled off a KarmaHoudini). The same can't be said for poor Elisha in ''Phantom Lady'', ''Film/TheBigSleep'', ''BornToKill'' (where, shortly before his character's death, he tries to menace a little old lady, only to have the little old lady kick his ass!), or ''Film/TheKilling''. In ''Film/{{Shane}}'', [[InvertedTrope he's practically a good guy version of this trope.]] But the best example of how much worse off Cook is compared to Lorre is in ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}'', where they're both [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain ISVs]]. Sam Spade disarms and humiliates Cook's Wilmer far more often than he does Lorre's Joel Cairo, despite the fact that Wilmer's a multiple murderer and Cairo isn't. And at the end, their mutual boss ([[HoYay and possibly more]]) Casper Guttman sells out Wilmer to the authorities while happily walking off arm in arm with Cairo (although they all end up in jail). Joel Cairo may be more pathetic than you, but Wilmer is even more pathetic than Cairo.
** In ''Film/IWakeUpScreaming'', where he's both the murderer and a pathetic weakling, he just goes to jail.
** One critic said of Cook that 'his very appearance seems like an invitation to destroy him'.
** Things have turned around for him by the time he plays the mobster Icepick in ''{{Series/Magnum PI}}'' who inverts it.
* The artist collective [[spoiler:(barring Bill)]] that is behind the titular ''Film/MurderParty'', which constituted of taking hapless Chris hostage all the while planning his death, somehow manage to fail at being a threat to him and were more succesful at being a threat to their own well-being, as they actually seriously hurt themselves, in a few cases, while ''he just sits there gagged up and helpless for most of the film.''
* ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' movies:
** Inspector Clouseau, inverted this, as he originally was intended as an incompetent version of InspectorJavert in the original ''Film/ThePinkPanther1963'', but he managed to be so much more sympathetic than protagonist Charles "The Phantom" Lytton that he was retooled into the protagonist of the film's sequels who was still a moron but with lady luck on his side.
** In the following film, ''Film/AShotInTheDark'', Clouseau transmitted the ineffectual condition to his boss, Chief Inspector Dreyfus (soon to become the ''former'' Chief Inspector Dreyfus). Dreyfus is actually a good detective who, it's implied, would never have gone AxCrazy [[NiceJobBreakingItHero if it hadn't been for Clouseau.]] After his FaceHeelTurn, poor Dreyfus has to look on helplessly as Clouseau survives all of Dreyfus' numerous murder attempts solely due to [[TheFool the dumbest of dumb luck.]]
** And THEN, in ''Film/SonOfThePinkPanther'', ''Dreyfus'' gets a reboot into sympathetic, if not protagonist, at least TheWoobie status, as his complete descent into AxeCrazy has apparently been {{retcon}}ned out of existence and him back INTO existence. He even gets the girl [[spoiler: with the down side of now being the stepfather to his late nemesis Clouseau's long-lost son.]] Still the ButtMonkey, if not the ISV.
* ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'' has Amber Sweet. She's just as nasty as her brothers, but she's usually too high on zydrate to be effectual.
** And Luigi and Pavi aren't much better, given that Luigi, despite his claims that only he's got brains enough, comes across as a simple minded KnifeNut and Pavi spends most of his time staring at his own face in the mirror he forever carries with him. That being said, Luigi is quite effective in the "stabbing people for no good reason" compartment, which makes him the least harmless of the Largo siblings.
* Sol and Vince, the loser duo of pawnshop crooks who try their hand at the big(ger) leagues, in ''Film/{{Snatch}}''. [[TheChewToy It does not go well for them]].
* Gargamel, mostly, comes off as this in ''Film/TheSmurfs''. Until he gets his hands on Smurf Essence, that is.
* Muerte ("name for death!") in ''Film/UndercoverBlues''. Muerte's reputation on the streets is hinted at as being formidable, but his utterly humiliating defeat at the hands of Jeff Blue quickly turned him into one of these. Every lost tooth just makes him that much more lovable.
* ''Film/TheEliteSquad'': Fábio Barbosa is a DirtyCop yet unlike other antagonists in the series who are violent and realistic depictions of Brazilian drug lords and corrupt policemen, he comes across as a pathetic, spineless ButtMonkey who gets beaten and berated in the first movie, and in the second one, he is bossed around by his [[DragonInChief own subordinate]] [[BigBad Major Rocha]]. With that said [[spoiler:Fábio is the one to actually kill Rocha himself rather than the protagonists and its implied he becomes a NotSoHarmlessVillain in the epilogue]].
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* The Newspaper Boy in ''Film/BetterOffDead''.
* Jerry Londegaard in ''Film/{{Fargo}}''. You can't help but feel something for him when you understand his situation, [[spoiler:although, considering ended up getting his wife murdered, he's not entirely sympathetic.]]
* [=RoboGadget=], the evil android duplicate of the protagonist of the film version of ''Film/InspectorGadget''. He actually makes the iconic IdiotHero look competent when they confront each other.
* Justin Hammer from ''Film/IronMan2'', though more "ineffectual" (and [[LaughablyEvil humorous]]) than "sympathetic". More to the point he pretends to be an EvilCounterpart of Tony Stark, but is actually a pompous clown whose products are of very poor quality, whose attempts to intimidate the actual villain of the movie would work better on a five-year old, and whose henchmen are incompetent rentacops who carry mace and tasers.
* Creator/VincentPrice as Shelby Carpenter in ''Film/{{Laura}}.'' This is how his ''own girlfriend'' sums him up:
-->"He's no good, but he's what I want. I'm not a nice person, Laura, and neither is he. He knows I know he's just what he is. He also knows that I don't care. We belong together because we're both weak and can't seem to help it. That's why I know he's capable of murder.[[note]]Keep in mind that she says he's ''capable'' of murder. [[spoiler:He doesn't actually do it.]][[/note]] He's like me."
* Nux from ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad''. He [[DeathSeeker wants to die and ascend to Valhalla]] thanks to the brainwashing of Immortan Joe, but Nux just fails at it so miserably that he enters a VillainousBSOD. [[spoiler:He finally makes a HeelFaceTurn, and [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] as a result.]]
* Creator/PeterLorre -- as he was frequently typecast the "Sad Monster" after ''Film/{{M}}'' -- got to play quite a few of these in his career. ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'', ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}'', ''Film/ArsenicAndOldLace'', and in pretty much all of his later career, particularly in his team-ups with Vincent Price.
* On the other hand, Creator/ElishaCookJr. made Peter Lorre look lucky. At least Lorre survived most of the above examples (and in ''Film/ArsenicAndOldLace'', he even pulled off a KarmaHoudini). The same can't be said for poor Elisha in ''Phantom Lady'', ''Film/TheBigSleep'', ''BornToKill'' (where, shortly before his character's death, he tries to menace a little old lady, only to have the little old lady kick his ass!), or ''Film/TheKilling''. In ''Film/{{Shane}}'', [[InvertedTrope he's practically a good guy version of this trope.]] But the best example of how much worse off Cook is compared to Lorre is in ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}'', where they're both [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain ISVs]]. Sam Spade disarms and humiliates Cook's Wilmer far more often than he does Lorre's Joel Cairo, despite the fact that Wilmer's a multiple murderer and Cairo isn't. And at the end, their mutual boss ([[HoYay and possibly more]]) Casper Guttman sells out Wilmer to the authorities while happily walking off arm in arm with Cairo (although they all end up in jail). Joel Cairo may be more pathetic than you, but Wilmer is even more pathetic than Cairo.
** In ''Film/IWakeUpScreaming'', where he's both the murderer and a pathetic weakling, he just goes to jail.
** One critic said of Cook that 'his very appearance seems like an invitation to destroy him'.
** Things have turned around for him by the time he plays the mobster Icepick in ''{{Series/Magnum PI}}'' who inverts it.
* The artist collective [[spoiler:(barring Bill)]] that is behind the titular ''Film/MurderParty'', which constituted of taking hapless Chris hostage all the while planning his death, somehow manage to fail at being a threat to him and were more succesful at being a threat to their own well-being, as they actually seriously hurt themselves, in a few cases, while ''he just sits there gagged up and helpless for most of the film.''
* ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' movies:
** Inspector Clouseau, inverted this, as he originally was intended as an incompetent version of InspectorJavert in the original ''Film/ThePinkPanther1963'', but he managed to be so much more sympathetic than protagonist Charles "The Phantom" Lytton that he was retooled into the protagonist of the film's sequels who was still a moron but with lady luck on his side.
** In the following film, ''Film/AShotInTheDark'', Clouseau transmitted the ineffectual condition to his boss, Chief Inspector Dreyfus (soon to become the ''former'' Chief Inspector Dreyfus). Dreyfus is actually a good detective who, it's implied, would never have gone AxCrazy [[NiceJobBreakingItHero if it hadn't been for Clouseau.]] After his FaceHeelTurn, poor Dreyfus has to look on helplessly as Clouseau survives all of Dreyfus' numerous murder attempts solely due to [[TheFool the dumbest of dumb luck.]]
** And THEN, in ''Film/SonOfThePinkPanther'', ''Dreyfus'' gets a reboot into sympathetic, if not protagonist, at least TheWoobie status, as his complete descent into AxeCrazy has apparently been {{retcon}}ned out of existence and him back INTO existence. He even gets the girl [[spoiler: with the down side of now being the stepfather to his late nemesis Clouseau's long-lost son.]] Still the ButtMonkey, if not the ISV.
* ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'' has Amber Sweet. She's just as nasty as her brothers, but she's usually too high on zydrate to be effectual.
** And Luigi and Pavi aren't much better, given that Luigi, despite his claims that only he's got brains enough, comes across as a simple minded KnifeNut and Pavi spends most of his time staring at his own face in the mirror he forever carries with him. That being said, Luigi is quite effective in the "stabbing people for no good reason" compartment, which makes him the least harmless of the Largo siblings.
* Sol and Vince, the loser duo of pawnshop crooks who try their hand at the big(ger) leagues, in ''Film/{{Snatch}}''. [[TheChewToy It does not go well for them]].
* Gargamel, mostly, comes off as this in ''Film/TheSmurfs''. Until he gets his hands on Smurf Essence, that is.
* Muerte ("name for death!") in ''Film/UndercoverBlues''. Muerte's reputation on the streets is hinted at as being formidable, but his utterly humiliating defeat at the hands of Jeff Blue quickly turned him into one of these. Every lost tooth just makes him that much more lovable.
* ''Film/TheEliteSquad'': Fábio Barbosa is a DirtyCop yet unlike other antagonists in the series who are violent and realistic depictions of Brazilian drug lords and corrupt policemen, he comes across as a pathetic, spineless ButtMonkey who gets beaten and berated in the first movie, and in the second one, he is bossed around by his [[DragonInChief own subordinate]] [[BigBad Major Rocha]]. With that said [[spoiler:Fábio is the one to actually kill Rocha himself rather than the protagonists and its implied he becomes a NotSoHarmlessVillain in the epilogue]].
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