Maggie Smith’s 20 best films ranked!
September 7, 2019Ahead of Smiths withering return in the Downton Abbey movie, we rate her greatest big screen performances so far, from spinsterish aunt to voracious seducer, Harry Potters teacher to Muriel Sparks haughtiest heroine
20. Sister Act (1992)
Maggie Smith plays the authoritarian Mother Superior in this nuntastic box-office smash with a hint of Some Like It Hot, featuring Whoopi Goldberg as the lounge singer forced to go into a witness protection and join a convent after witnessing a mob slaying. There is some poignancy and dramatic edge to Smiths disapproving mien.
19. The Last September (1999)
Before Downton and Gosford Park, there was this country house role for Maggie Smith, with John Banvilles adaptation of Elizabeth Bowens novel set in 1920s Ireland as the Anglo-Irish ascendancy becomes the descendancy. With subtle melancholy and restraint, Smith plays Lady Naylor, presiding over an estate in County Cork that feels increasingly embattled as Ireland prepares to break free of the British.
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