What is the greatest acting performance you have seen in a movie that is pre - 1970’s?

12 Angry Men, all the cast

I recently watched The Apartment, The Odd Couple, and Irma La Douce - pick any of the three of those Jack Lemmon just so good!

Bogart in Casablanca 

Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird) comes to mind.

Orson Welles in *The Third Man*. Since OP mentioned *Double Indemnity*, Edward G Robinson was also good in that movie. Angela Lansbury in the original *The Manchurian Candidate*. Actually pretty much everyone, including Frank Sinatra, was good in that movie.

Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter.

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho.

(Citizen Kane) I love Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane. He plays him so well as both an idealistic young man and an embattled old tycoon.

Eli Wallach as Tuco is **The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly**, 1966, is one of my favorite performances of all time.

Peter Sellers and George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove.

No one mentioning Brando in On the Waterfront or Streetcar is absolutely crazy.

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is a master class from all four actors. It's amazing to me how rewatchable it is despite being to so grim and vicious. I think the last shot really makes the film.

Both Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn were excellent in The African Queen.

Bette Davis in everything, but notably in “All About Eve”

Jackie Coogan in The Kid (1921) Peter Lorre in M (1931) Takashi Shimura in Ikiru (1952)

Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Jimmy Stewart is really good in Mr Smith Goes to Washington

Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb in 12 Angry Men (1957)

Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver

Marlon Branco in “On The Waterfront”. It may be cliche, but it’s just so great.

Jack Lemmon - The Apartment Alain Delon - The Samourai Anna Karina - Pierrot Le Fou

Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce.

Sir Alec Guinness in Bridge Over the River Kwai. I have such empathy for his character throughout. He based some of his acting >!—the staggered walk while being tortured—!< on his own 11-year-old son recovering from polio. His character is an honourable man who ends up doing a dishonourable thing for the right reasons, only to realize how blind he has been and setting it right >!with his last breaths, staggering over to fall dead on the plunger that will set off the explosives attached to the bridge he ordered his captured battalion to build for the Japanese captors that he had convinced himself would be their lasting legacy after the war ended.!< There is something so seductive about the idea of a man making the most out of his circumstances, finding a way to triumph in adversity and build something of worth to be remembered by, all while taking care of his people, and still be wrong, and then realizing he is wrong. What a character arc!

Brando in On the Waterfront.

Charles Laughton in Witness For The Prosecution Brando in On The Waterfront

Bogart in Casablanca was great, but I think him as Queen in The Caine Mutiny was even better, primarily because it was such a difficult role to portray (and like very little had ever done).

Harvey Korman in Blazing Saddles! Never fails to make me smile, so moustache twirlingly stupid, it’s genius.

Jack Lemmon _"The Days of Wine and Roses" & "The Great Race"_ Elizabeth Taylor & Paul Newman _"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"_ Orson Wells _"Citizen Kane"_

Basically everyone in imitation of Life, but specifically Susan Kohner! Her portrayal of someone who hated herself was heartbreaking!

Charles Naughton in Mutiny on The Bounty Broderick Crawford in All the Kings Men Montgomery Clift and Donna Reed in From Here to Eternity 

Susan Hayward in I Want to Live Katherine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter

\- Zero Mostel - The Producers \- Dustin Hoffman - The Graduate \- Paul Newman - Cool Hand Luke (All 1967, great year)

Rex Harrison for sure

Burton as Leamas in _The Spy Who Came in From the Cold_ 

Giulietta Masina in Nights of Cabiria

Bibi Andersson in Persona (1966) Giulietta Masons in Juliet Of The Spirits (1965) is incredible too. 

I really love the performances in the original Manchurian candidate and  the movie limelight with Charlie Chaplin  and parlor , bedroom and bath with buster keaton is also quite good!

Andy Griffith in A Face in the Crowd

Maria Falconetti - The Passion of the Joan of Arc

Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment. A revelation.

Vivien Leigh gives the greatest performance in gww. For men I will nominate Orson Welles in citizen Kane or touch of evil.

Treasure of sierra madre Humphrey bogart And everyone saying otherwise didn’t watch this movie

My first thought was Peter O'Toole in "Lawrence of Arabia" but O'Toole was not. An actor. He was a movie star!

Harold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Different sort of answer, but Ernest Borgnine in "Marty". Such an amazing portrayal of loneliness.

Errol Flynn in Adventures of Robin Hood

Fredrick March as Mr. Hyde in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1931

John Gilbert in Flesh and the Devil

Charles Laughton - Witness for the Prosecution Anthony Perkins - Psycho Peter Lorre - M Bette Davis - What happened to Baby Jane.

Bette Davis, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Vivien Leigh my number one, but I love all comments and want to add Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter

comedies. Audrey Hepburn was funny and adorable in Roman Holiday. 1953 Marilyn Monroe was veryfunny in Some Like It Hot, as well as Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon

Because it's so early and so modern in style, pre-dating any other example I've seen, I'll pick Renee Falconetti in Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (1928). The film is mostly close-ups, and I swear she's inventing method acting for the camera: [https://youtu.be/C4\_KDf4xhU8?si=jVpL0NqVTHwpZPWs](https://youtu.be/C4_KDf4xhU8?si=jVpL0NqVTHwpZPWs)

The Dark Mirror - Olivia de Havilland Lawrence Of Arabia - Peter O'Toole The 39 Steps - Robert Donat

Dr. Strangelove - Peter Sellers

Both leads in "Midnight Cowboy," sneaking into the discussion at 1969

Peter O'Toole - The Lion in Winter. Okay, maybe it's the groundbreaking acting of Brando in his early prime, but O'Toole's performance is I think my favorite screen performance. He's so hilariously cruel, snarky and bombastic. He and Hepburn are incredible together.

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad in the Grapes of Wrath in 1940.

Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker - particularly the long dinner fight scene

Charlie Chaplin is the greatest actor ever captured on film. Pick a movie of his and it is a better performance than any of the others mentioned here.

* Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange * Rod Taylor in The High Commissioner

Ikiru

The Caine Mutany

Stanwyck, hands down

Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver

Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Rod Steiger - The Pawnbroker Spencer Tracy - Virtually Everything He Ever Did