The Man Who Laughs, Batman, and Luca Libre
Well the movie has come out and it looks like everybody – even people who didn’t like the film are blown away by the late Heath Ledger’s portal of The Joker.
The grim picture above actually is Conrad Velt in the 1928 gothic horror Melodrama “The Man Who Laughs” which Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson all have cited as the inspiration for the Joker’s look if not his character. In the film Velt plays the son of a nobleman who is cruely disfigured and then sold to Gypshies ( told you it was a melodrama) there a blind girl who falls in love with Velt who feels he can not marry her because of his absurd apperance (melodrama) and in the end the villans are punished – they didn’t kill everybody off like Victor Hugo did in the original novel this was based on. Hollywood has long cheerfully ignored the actual story in a novel – hell To Have and Have Not which introduced us and Humprey Borgart to one Laruen Bacall – has nothing to do with the rather awful novel Hemingway wrote except the names of people and the title of the book.
I digress.
Going to try and get to The Dark Knight this weekend – but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get there – so I’ve picked up a hard cover copy of The Killing Joke by Alan Moore (words) and Brain Bolland (pictures) which is simply the best Joker story ever written – recycling the old 1951 origin of the Joker story into something very dark and gripping (the moment when the joker snaps and becomes well the Joker is an amazing scene).
What with Iron Man, Hellboy II and now Dark Knight this looks to be the best year in comic book films ever. Of course I’m still waiting to see if they dare to do Ant Man
Watched a bit of the Champions League (the Luca Libre film) but wasn’t able to finish simply because it’s even for me too damn much. There are five masked wrestlers facing off against an evil scientist. They had thwarted his plans years ago and now he wants revenge. The first scene is has his henchmen – red suited midgets – attempt to shoot the Blue Demon during a wrestling match – what they use as a gun is a toy that I had as a kid (I think it was a man from uncle toy) – it looked like a radio but opened up into a Tommy gun looking thing – just ludicrous.
Later they try and kill the demon by attaching a bomb to his motorcycle – they ride around in motorcycles in full wrestling costume – it’s a luca libre film you get used to things like this – but as the Blue Demon has an assistant start up the bike while he’s signing autographs – I know he was trying but after the explosion the expression on his face was more like “damn now I have to get a new bike” not horror at the killing of an innocent.
Back at the lab the Scientist says that a new country is ready to give him millions of dollars for his secrets – but first he has to kill Blue Demon and the rest. He berates his henchmen for failing him but one of the points out a) they’re midgets and b) he hired them.
Which is a pretty good rule – if you are seeking to be a world class evil villain – hiring midgets as your henchmen may not be the smartest idea you ever had.
But our evil scientist is not deterred – he subjects several of the midgets to a special treatment designed to make they as strong as ten men (no word on why this couldn’t be done to normal sized people) . They are covered by what looked to be a large flowerpot and then electronic noises abound. Later one of them wrestles their masked wrestler and defeats him.
We cut to the champions – who all have god daughters in the Miss Mexico pageant – the odds of this – unless they come from huge families is not good but again it’s a Luca Libre film. And they accompany these girls – who will be kidnapped – all in suits ties and wrestling masks – it’s one of the weird details I love about these films – weird scenes like that.
Well got to fly more lately.
Peace love Joker
The grim picture above actually is Conrad Velt in the 1928 gothic horror Melodrama “The Man Who Laughs” which Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson all have cited as the inspiration for the Joker’s look if not his character. In the film Velt plays the son of a nobleman who is cruely disfigured and then sold to Gypshies ( told you it was a melodrama) there a blind girl who falls in love with Velt who feels he can not marry her because of his absurd apperance (melodrama) and in the end the villans are punished – they didn’t kill everybody off like Victor Hugo did in the original novel this was based on. Hollywood has long cheerfully ignored the actual story in a novel – hell To Have and Have Not which introduced us and Humprey Borgart to one Laruen Bacall – has nothing to do with the rather awful novel Hemingway wrote except the names of people and the title of the book.
I digress.
Going to try and get to The Dark Knight this weekend – but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get there – so I’ve picked up a hard cover copy of The Killing Joke by Alan Moore (words) and Brain Bolland (pictures) which is simply the best Joker story ever written – recycling the old 1951 origin of the Joker story into something very dark and gripping (the moment when the joker snaps and becomes well the Joker is an amazing scene).
What with Iron Man, Hellboy II and now Dark Knight this looks to be the best year in comic book films ever. Of course I’m still waiting to see if they dare to do Ant Man
Watched a bit of the Champions League (the Luca Libre film) but wasn’t able to finish simply because it’s even for me too damn much. There are five masked wrestlers facing off against an evil scientist. They had thwarted his plans years ago and now he wants revenge. The first scene is has his henchmen – red suited midgets – attempt to shoot the Blue Demon during a wrestling match – what they use as a gun is a toy that I had as a kid (I think it was a man from uncle toy) – it looked like a radio but opened up into a Tommy gun looking thing – just ludicrous.
Later they try and kill the demon by attaching a bomb to his motorcycle – they ride around in motorcycles in full wrestling costume – it’s a luca libre film you get used to things like this – but as the Blue Demon has an assistant start up the bike while he’s signing autographs – I know he was trying but after the explosion the expression on his face was more like “damn now I have to get a new bike” not horror at the killing of an innocent.
Back at the lab the Scientist says that a new country is ready to give him millions of dollars for his secrets – but first he has to kill Blue Demon and the rest. He berates his henchmen for failing him but one of the points out a) they’re midgets and b) he hired them.
Which is a pretty good rule – if you are seeking to be a world class evil villain – hiring midgets as your henchmen may not be the smartest idea you ever had.
But our evil scientist is not deterred – he subjects several of the midgets to a special treatment designed to make they as strong as ten men (no word on why this couldn’t be done to normal sized people) . They are covered by what looked to be a large flowerpot and then electronic noises abound. Later one of them wrestles their masked wrestler and defeats him.
We cut to the champions – who all have god daughters in the Miss Mexico pageant – the odds of this – unless they come from huge families is not good but again it’s a Luca Libre film. And they accompany these girls – who will be kidnapped – all in suits ties and wrestling masks – it’s one of the weird details I love about these films – weird scenes like that.
Well got to fly more lately.
Peace love Joker
posted by Unknown at 12:40 PM
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