That steals the scene (“dominates a performance through charisma, humour, or powerful acting”).
The Pied Piper (20th Century-Fox) pipes sumptuous Monty ("The Beard") Woolley out of his wheel chair for the first time since he began playing The Man Who Came to Dinner (TIME, Jan. 26) three years ago. The change is good for him. The belligerent old nanny goat turns into a very human portrait of a crotchety, kindly Englishman caught in France by the Nazi invasion. But kindliness does not prevent elegant Actor Woolley from walking off with the picture against the trying competition of six scene-stealing children.1942 August 10, “Cinema: New Picture [film review of The Pied Piper]”, in Time, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2013:
They are also very sympathetic, especially Caesar's orangutan advisor, Maurice (Karin Konoval), who takes a shine to a human moppet (Amiah Miller) he finds hiding in the back of a shack, and the poignant Bad Ape (a scene-stealing Steve Zahn), a mangy chimp who was beaten so often in his zoo-animal days that he came to believe what his handlers were shouting was supposed to be his name.2017 July 7, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “The Ambitious War For The Planet Of The Apes Ends Up Surrendering to Formula”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 27 Nov 2017:
Speaking of scene stealing (which is, as you probably know, the art of appropriating to yourself by reason of superior acting ability the "points" which were intended for another), the present undefeated champion is that splendid, four-square actor Lewis Stone.1932, Pictorial Review, volume 33, number 8, New York, N.Y.: The Pictorial Review Company, →OCLC, page 26: