Frank Booth
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Frank Booth is a fictional character in David Lynch's 1986 film, Blue Velvet, portrayed by Dennis Hopper. He is widely considered to be one of the most memorable, frightening and downright evil movie villains in cinematic history. He ranked #36 on AFI's list of the top 50 film villains of all time.
[edit] In the film
A sadistic sociopath with a taste for torture and rape, Booth is the central figure in Lumberton, North Carolina's (fictional) underworld of drugs and prostitution. He partakes of both enthusiastically; his drug of choice, amyl nitrite, fuels his frequent bursts of sexual violence.
His empire's most prized asset is Dorothy Vallens, a beautiful torch singer who brings huge crowds into his nightclub, and whom he takes complete control over when he murders her husband and kidnaps her son. He extorts sadomasochistic sexual favors from her by threatening to kill the child if she doesn't give in. He insidiously makes her his slave, to the point that, after pretending to enjoy his abuse for so long, she begins to derive a genuine, masochistic pleasure from it. Booth is so confident that she will never leave him that he even cuts off her husband's ear to make her believe he is still alive, simply to torment her.
His criminal empire is threatened by college student Jeffrey Beaumont, who found the missing ear and, in the course of investigating the mystery, becomes involved with Vallens. At first, Booth writes Beaumont off as a mere nuisance, but he and his cronies rough him him up just to send a message.
When Beaumont refuses to back down, Booth beats Vallens nearly to death, strips her naked, and throws her out of a moving car in front of Beaumont's house. Beaumont tells his girlfriend's father, the local police detective, what has been going on, and he sets out with the police to capture Booth and rescue Vallens' son. Booth finally meets his end when Beaumont, in hot pursuit, shoots him to death.
[edit] As a cultural figure
Booth ranks #36 on AFI's list of the top 50 film villains of all time. Hopper's manic, profane performance revived his career, and has become one of his signature roles. In particular, a scene in which he brutalizes Vallens while huffing amyl nitrite and screaming "Don't you fucking look at me!" and "Mommy, mommy, baby wants to fuck!" has become iconic. Out of all of Booth's dialogue in the film, he says the word "fuck" in almost every sentence, often multiple times; Save for the character of Suave Ben, Booth is the only character in the film to say the word.
[edit] Trivia
Dennis Hopper was the first choice of writer-director David Lynch for the role of Frank. After reading the script, Hopper's first remark was "I have to play Frank Booth. I am Frank Booth!".
