PERFECT MOVIE: Batman in the 1940s

So once again we travel back to the Golden Age of Cinema. Today we deal with the classics as we delve into the gangster ridden streets of Gotham, this is Batman made in the 1940s!

THE CAST


This is going to be fun, looking through all those Universal Horror Stars.


BATMAN/ BRUCE WAYNE: Let's start with the big one. One of the most iconic characters ever. The man who plays billionaire Bruce Wayne and his night time alias Batman, would have to appear sophisticated with a hint of darkness. I'm going to go with Joseph Cotten whose credits go to The Third Man (1949), Citizen Kane (1941) and my favourite Hitchcock film (and Hitchcock's) Shadow of a Doubt (1943. The man has played the "hero" in a few films, often hardboiled, and a villain in Shadow of a Doubt, and Batman is known as the Dark Knight.

ALFRED PENNYWORTH: We're going to totally screw up time here, (it's alright I've done it before!) because Batman's faithful butler wasn't introduced until after Dick Grayson came onto the scene and then he was a bumbling amateur Detective. However we're going to go with the modern interpretation of Alfred, the father like figure for Bruce growing up. This is because it suits those Film-Noir qualities we want for this film. Batman is forever on the edge of darkness and he needs someone to pull him into the light. Therefore we need the Alfred of today. Now who is going to play someone like that. I'm going to choose Alec Guinness, a man who was probably younger than Alfred is supposed to be, but always had the comedic touch that Alfred possesses. 

JIM GORDON: Jim Gordon is another important character, being the figure that prevents the masked crime fighter from being incarcerated. Jim Gordon is an honest cop and the man who gives Batman his information, for this we are going to cast Edward Van Sloan as Commissioner Gordon, who played Professor Van Helsing in Dracula (1931) and Dr Waldman in Frankenstein the same year. He was often the wise old man.

THE VILLAINS

THE JOKER: The maniacal Clown Prince of Crime was based on German actor Conrad Veidt's role in The Man Who Laughs (1928))(below), so it seems only natural to have him star in this. He would have been near 50, but he was a great actor with a great face. 

CATWOMAN/ SELINA KYLE: The character who every fan wants Batman to be with, but she is just too far into the darkness for him. It is tragic. Every crime film in the 40s had their own Femme Fatale, a character often played by Lana Turner, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Ava Gardner, the list goes on. This was the case of a Dame with a past and a hero without a future. So who should play the infamous Cat burglar... I am going to go with Ava Gardner, who often played the Femme Fatale in films such as The Killers (1946).

                                                 

                                             

TWO-FACE/ HARVEY KENT: Yes you read that right. When first introduced, in Detective Comics #66 (1942), the District Attorney  turned Janus faced Gangster was originally called Harvey Kent. Since it is the 1940s we need to have a gangster villain and who better than Gothams' own tragic hero. I had originally wanted Colin  Clive (Dr. Frankenstein) because he could often play men teetering on the edge of madness. However he passed away in 1937, too early for my film. I am going to cast Burt Lancaster, who made his debut alongside Gardner in The Killers. I think he has the face for Harvey D--Kent and its my feature so I can do what I want!

Also we're going to have Rondo "The Creeper" Hatton as a goon, because you can't have a 1940s crime film without The Creeper.

THE BATMOBILE: The Batmobile is as much a character as any other in the Batman mythos. Although only introduced in the 1943 serial (not the comics) we are going to have our own Batmobile. In the films they are usually based on real cars so this is going to be 

a 1947 Cadillac. Hey we've screwed around with time already, what's one more. They of course have to have the giant Bat-head because that's just awesome.

CREW

DIRECTED BY: The Master of light and dark, director of The Third Man (1949), Carrol Reed. You go watch the film and you want him to make a Batman film. The shadows and silhouettes play perfectly with the story and acting. Plus the sewer scene at the end, tell me you don't want Batman chasing down Harry Lime.

THE SCORE: Yeah, I can't believe I have never mentioned this before, but the score of a film is an important element. Imagine The Lord of the Rings without Howard Shore's triumphant theme, or The Good, The Bad and the Ugly without Ennio Morricone's awesome track. Batman needs a good soundtrack for him to zip-line down to (something I missed in Nolan's films). So, who should I hire to write the theme for my Batman film. Well, it would have to be Frank Skinner (no, not that one) and Hans J. Salter. These two wrote the music for the Universal Horror films, including The Wolf Man (1941), which has a score called Desperation, which sounds so much like the Danny Elfman theme for the Tim Burton Batman films. 

So that's it for this week. Batman in the 1940s, we only wish it were real. Next week we're stepping back or/and forth through time and space with...

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PERFECT MOVIE: THE SHADOW

Alright. I know it has been a few weeks since I last did this, but I have seriously been struggling with the Flash Gordon cast. Basically I am stuck on Flash and Dale. So that will come eventually, I just need more work on it. With that said let's dive into this edition of Perfect Movie starring my favourite Pulp hero, The SHADOW!

THE MORE YOU KNOW!
Originally a narrator for the radio, the character was so popular that he was given his own book The Shadow Magazine in 1931. Soon he gained his own radio show, which was a big deal back then, with Orson Welles providing the voice of the character. These radio shows are fantastic and I listen to them all the time. The Shadows abilities vary due to the media. In the original magazine he was only a masked vigilante, then in the radio series he was an invisible avenger, which he gained travelling east. This is great because he is just a voice that tricks the villains into "Spilling the beans" as they panic under his reputation. 


THE CAST


Let's start with cast this time.


The Shadow/ Lamont Cranston: The Shadow has a distinct face, with the long crooked nose and hypnotic eyes. Plus he needs a great voice, with a sinister laugh and wicked sense of humour. If this were the 80s I would cast Timothy Dalton. However this is not, therefore I choose Hugo Weaving, who we have all seen in The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and The Matrix films (1999- 2003)- huh he sure likes trilogies! However we also saw him in V For Vendetta as the only thing that actually worked in that film. In that he provided a dark sense of humour and he wasn't as monotonous as Elrond or Mr. Smith (which was their character). So there we are Hugo Weaving as The Shadow and his alter-ego "wealthy young man about town" Lamont Cranston.

Margot Lane: Margot Lane was Lamont Cranston's assistant who often helped The Shadow in his investigations. She knew his identity, which is something I always like. She was never a damsel-in-distress, in fact she often saved The Shadow's life. For Margot we need someone who has that classic 1930s/40s vibe. I was going to say Marion Cotillard, but I want to save her for my Batman episode. I think I am going to go for someone younger, just so that it doesn't seem like a middle-age film. Plus I don't want Lamont and Margot to have a relationship, because he always seemed like he was only concentrating of crime fighting. So I am going to choose Carey Mulligan, because she is young, but has that old world feel, plus she's a good actress which helps.

There weren't a lot of reoccurring villains in the radio show (that's what I am familiar with), so I guess it down to the crew.

CREW

What I love about The Shadow is that it was dark, with a lot of plots involving the wrong man in jail. With that we need a director who has experience in the gangster/ street setting, but also with dark and fantastic. With that it seems obvious to choose Matthew Vaughn, who started his career with Layer Cake and more recently X- Men: First Class, then somewhere in the middle with Kick- Ass. He is a very competent director who has dealings with both.

I would want the film to be set in the pulp era, just because that is all the fun, but it probably wouldn't be a successful move. I would expect to see it in the modern setting, but I would like it to have that feel of a gritty 40s set, kind of like the first Burton Batman. 

Wait a minute, with the Nolan Batman films at an end, what's next for the Caped Crusader? Looks like it's my duty to find out! See... the Oli-Signal!!

PERFECT MOVIE: The Lord of the Rings from the 1950s

Hello and welcome to Perfect Movies where I pick a subject for a made up film adaptation and try to deduce the perfect cast and crew. Now you know the rules, let’s start with an adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings from the 1950s, when the book was first published.

DIRECTED BY: The director of this would have to be someone who made films on a BIG scale. I would say Cecil B. DeMille, but I can’t put my desired cast in that much danger. Other examples would be Terrence Fisher, who directed many of the great Hammer Horrors, just for his sense of suspense and fear. Also John Sturges who directed some wonderful epic films in his time such as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but I think this role will have to go to John Ford, whose body of work includes glorious scenery of The Searchers, and seeing the way in which he creates these magnificent epic landscapes, puts him in prime position to direct this adaptation.

PRODUCED BY: This may be an odd category, but the producers are often forgotten about in Hollywood. I think for this film it would have to be two producers famous for fantasy films, George Pal and Charles H. Schneer. 

WRITTEN BY: Hopefully J.R.R. Tolkien would be on board with writing a screenplay of his own book. I don’t really think that he had much experience in playwriting and certainly none in screenplays, so I am going to cheat a little bit and suggest that the author of the screenplay be Nigel Kneale, a writer of the Quatermass serials and the screenplay for First Men in the Moon, therefore Tolkien can work with Kneale on the body of the film saying what can be taken out, the order of events, and Kneale can tighten that. 

SPECIAL EFFECTS BY: Well this is a no-brainer! Ray Harryhausen. Need I say more!

Now for the Cast, let’s go:


First let's start with hobbits (Oh God... must resist Mickey Rooney JOKES...)!

FRODO:Francis Matthews. He usually plays the nice, naive youth in many Hammer films and that's Frodo. Plus Captain Scarlet is playing Frodo!!

 

SAM:Playing the loyal Samwise. Boy this was a hard one. I wanted someone who was pleasant an from Yorkshire. Therefore we are going for Peter Sallis. You all know him as Aardman's "CHEEEESE" loving hero Wallace. Now imagine this face when he in his twenties. He is Sam.

MERRY: For Merry I am going to go ahead with casting Alan Freeman, who I was only introduced due to Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and he played a nice, typical family man, not that is what Merry is, but he seemed like a good choice for the role. 

PIPPIN:I am going to go with Roddy McDowall, who always seemed like a funny, generous guy, rather like Pippin.

GANDALF: Michael Hordern. The man had the perfect voice for Gandalf and played the grey pilgrim in the BBC Audio Drama, which is fantastic, by the way!

ARAGORN: Next time for Strider, The Ranger of the North, King Elessar Telcontar... I am so alone. Anyway, I think the only guy to play the gruff Ranger- Charlton "Stinking Paws" Heston. The only thing is, he can't use a gun, so he probably wouldn't want to do it.

LEGOLAS: Choosing an actor to play Legolas wasn't difficult. I immediately thought of Leonard Nimoy. No questions asked really.

GIMLI: This was harder. Choosing an actor to play the gruff dwarf. Now this is going to sound odd, but I am going to go with George Sanders. He is perhaps best known for the voice of Shere Khan, the Tiger from Disney's Jungle Book (1967). He has a very smooth voice, but I saw him in The Black Swan (1942), where he plays the pirate Captain Leech and I didn't recognise him. He is perfect for Gimli.

BOROMIR: For the tragic Gondor prince, named Boromir, I decide to go for a classic Shakespearean actor, and what better actor to play the power hungry hero than Orson Welles. In his career he played arrogant characters like Citizen Kane and Macbeth. Plus Orson Welles is in my fake film (Giddy Geek Scream!)

BILBO: Patrick Troughton. Maybe this is due to this comic adaptation i used to read, but Troughton just always springs to my head when I read Tolkien. He could just wear his Doctor outfit.

SARUMAN: Vincent Price. Need I say more.The man also has a great voice. Price has made a career of playing villains. Plus he was good friends with Christopher Lee, so that kind of means something.

It's the kind of voice that really crawls under my skin, therefore perfect for the decietful Saruman the White... 

...oh, sorry.

ELROND: Yul Brynner. Despite being one of the coolest guys on the planet, I think Brynner has that cold, emotionless okk just right for Elrond. Another choice would of course be Leonard Nimoy, but I think he would be too young for the role. Plus the baldness would look intersting. It was Brynner’s role as Ramesis in The Ten Commandments that sealed the deal for me.

GOLLUM: Gollum must be played by an actor who os known for his villainous, weedy characters, but since Peter Lorre is already taken, I am going for James Cagney. The image below is from the Lon Chaney biopic, The Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). I never thought it looked right, but for Gollum it looks great!

THEODEN: The determination of James Mason's Captain Nemo in Disney's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, just shows what a great King Theoden he would make. 

EOWYN:This was a tough one, as it is true that most female characters weren't as strong as Eowyn, so this is really going by looks. Therefore I think that Barbara Shelley, a frequent actress in Hammer Films, should play Eowyn. She is a very good actress and can play stern feisty characters, especially when it comes vampires.

GRIMA: Peter Lorre. Who else. Plus he is working with Vincent Price again! He has that slimy voice and acting persona that perfectly suits Saruman's aide.

GALADRIEL: Galadriel is someone who should fair, beautiful, but seem as if they are ancient. Therefore I am giving the role to Katherine Hepburn. A classical actress who has all of those qualities.

DENETHOR:Denethor is a tragic figure, displaying madness at a violent rate. Alastair Sim's turn as Scrooge in... Scrooge (1951), is perfect for the mad king!

FARAMIR:Basil Rathbone, my favourite Sherlock Holmes! Not that it has anything to do with this vote. Rathbone has that suave personality. Faramir has to gain Frodo's trust and vice versa. Plus Rathbone was a trained fencer and appeared in many swashbucklers. 

WHEW! Well that's it for this first edition of Perfect Movie, I hoped you enjoyed it. Don't worry next week we'll deal with something with a smaller cast, but it has to be big, explosive, an epic tale of love, war and heroic deeds... it has to be...

...oh yeeeaahh!!

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