sovay | I should wait here for a bit. I rather like this place

Richard Morant has died. I saw him in none of the roles mentioned in this obituary; I knew him as Bunter to Edward Petherbridge's Wimsey. He was younger than I'd thought from the books, but the rapport was there. I never had any difficulty picturing him as a photography geek. He was a year older than my mother and I object to this.

One of the bloggers over at TCM's Movie Morlocks has just thrown her hat into the ring for favorite mad scientist: Robert Cornthwaite's Dr. Arthur Carrington from The Thing from Another World (1951). It's weirdly heartening to see that I'm not the only person who enthuses (I wrote "blithers," but that's unfair to the blogger) about random character actors and their memorable roles, but now I have to wonder who I'd choose. After hours of dealing with fudge, fruitcakes, a plum pudding which has just finished boiling, and the molten orange apricot-glazed sponge cake I turned last night's failed batch of fudge into filling for, I think I am tending toward boring on account of brain-dead—I thought instantly of Ernest Thesiger, Dr. Septimus Pretorius from Bride of Frankenstein (1935). This is probably like being asked for a favorite dessert and saying chocolate. (Which isn't my favorite dessert, actually.) The obvious challenger is C.A. Rotwang, but apparently tonight I feel like waspish corpse-stitching over tragic proto-robotics. The Man in the White Suit (1951) is one of the best pieces of science fiction onscreen in its decade, but I'm not exclusively enamored of Sidney Stratton, I just love watching the chaos he innocently creates. Fujimoto from Ponyo (2008) is more of a magician, magnificent sea-worshipping bundle of nerves though he is. Hans Conried's Dr. Terwilliker is a mad music teacher. Bishop—Lance Henriksen, Aliens (1986)—isn't actually mad.

Und so weiter. I could go on like this for some time. (Craziest mad scientist I've seen onscreen: Dr. Emilio Lizardo, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984). The man is introduced clipping electrodes to his tongue. He normalizes slightly once he starts with his plans for interdimensional invasion. Ladies and gentlemen, John Lithgow.) But at least until I wake up tomorrow and remember which standout of cinematic strangeness I've left off the shortlist, I'm sticking with one of the classics. Who's yours?

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Ernest Thesiger's Pretorius is probably my favorite. Runner-up: Claude Rains as the Invisible Man (I had to look up the scientist's actual name: Dr. Jack Griffin). One of the few guys who could carry a whole movie with just the sound of his voice!

Runner-up: Claude Rains as the Invisible Man (I had to look up the scientist's actual name: Dr. Jack Griffin). One of the few guys who could carry a whole movie with just the sound of his voice!

I still haven't seen him! So to speak.

Oh, you must! The film has a lot in common with Bride of Frankenstein--especially the humor.

What's interesting about movie Griffin, at least (as Steve points out), is that his madness actually followed his science, rather than pre-dating it. Whereas Allan Moore's Hawley Griffin is crazy straight out the box, as far as I can tell, and H.G. Wells's original Griffin is more pissed off than genuinely "mad", most of the time.

What's interesting about movie Griffin, at least (as Steve points out), is that his madness actually followed his science, rather than pre-dating it.

Is he driven mad by some physiological effect of the invisibility, or is it just the sort of thing that gets to a person after a while?

The main component of the drug is explicitly identified as having produced madness in human subjects, which Griffin doesn't know when he starts taking it. "The drugs seemed to light up my brain," he tells his solicitous GF, later on, then goes off on a rant about how the moon and the whole world are frightened of him, frightened to death! So yeah, I think this is a weaselly way to keep movie-Griffin "sympathetic", ie he didn't know any better! Personally, I'm fairly certain this arrogant prick-hood and paranoiac fantasy always nested inside him, but whether it would've flourished without the drug and the invisibility is debatable.

Personally, I'm fairly certain this arrogant prick-hood and paranoiac fantasy always nested inside him, but whether it would've flourished without the drug and the invisibility is debatable.

The metaphor of the latter certainly carries more weight: the selves we reveal when we think we (or in this case, really, literally) can't be seen.

I agree!

You know, another interesting parallel, in context, is that there's this not-exactly-subplot in ReAnimator where you realize Herbert West has been shooting himself up with his own reagent for quite some time, probably so he can stay awake for days and Do Science. It's never explored as fully as I would've liked it to be, though it probably explains how he can escape certain plot twists and survive certain amounts of damage. If I was writing the sequel I always wanted to, it would be called Herbert West: ReAnimated, and would include a sequence in which Handsome Dr Dan tries drying Herbert out after he accidentally overdoses.

Herbert: How dare you! I have work to do!
Dan: Yup, and that work's going to go a lot more easily after you kick.
Herbert: My God, Dan, you're talking like I've been shooting smack.
Dan: No, what you've been doing is taking an experimental drug you make yourself like it's Aspirin. Did you seriously think there weren't going to be any side-effects?
Herbert: (Mutinous) There never were before...
Dan: There were, actually--you just didn't notice them. Because you were high.
Herbert: Someone's going to notice when I don't show up to class.
Dan: At Miskatonic? Please. Not to mention that one of the things you apparently haven't quite twigged to is that no one actually goes to your classes because A) your grading curve is ridiculously difficult and B) you're creepy.

Aaaaand then there's hurt-comfort as Herbert becomes slightly less disconnected from his own body, etc. All that. Followed by him getting killed and resurrecting, and some sort of variant on Cool Air. It's sad to me that both Jeffrey Combs and Bruce Abbott are now too old to do this and have it fit where I'd like it to, in canon chronology. But it'd be fun trying to figure out who you could recast with.

Well, the guy who plays the lead in Dagon (Shadow over Innsmouth only in Spain) looks like he could be Jeff Combs' son.

True, that! I'm pretty sure that's why they cast him.

It's sad to me that both Jeffrey Combs and Bruce Abbott are now too old to do this and have it fit where I'd like it to, in canon chronology. But it'd be fun trying to figure out who you could recast with.

. . . I know you really don't need any other projects on your plate, but you should do some judicious filing on this and write it.

Horatia Wint from "Imaginary Beauties" was my attempt at a version of Herbert, and considering what happens to everybody in that narrative, I sort of have. But yeah, maybe that goes on the burner, after I'm done with the book.;)

Horatia Wint from "Imaginary Beauties" was my attempt at a version of Herbert, and considering what happens to everybody in that narrative, I sort of have.

Ah. I haven't read that one.

I should wait here for a bit. I rather like this place

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