Conrad Veidt as the model for Joker

[BB-Gun]

Sometimes the obvious is staring me in the face for years before I notice. ]

Bob Kane said he modeled the Joker after Conrad Veidt who starred in "The Man Who Laughs".

I always admired the picture but didn't realize he played the Gestapo Major Strasser in Casablanca which is a movie I have seen a hundred times.

Who knew? Everybody but me I guess.

Thanks Conrad for giving us two of my favorite villians.

As classic film fans know, he also starred in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".

[tabcom]

TMC ran alot of Conrad Veidt films this past week -- I hope you caught them.

[adamstrange]

He was also the scary Vizier Jaffar in the Alexander Korda's The Thief of Baghdad.

[telerites]

Bela Lugosi was a great Dracula but Veidt would have been interesting to see. Carl Laemmle wanted him but Veidt turned it down.

 

By the way, since I mentioned Dracula, for Universal Monsters fans (like me), I highly recommend this book. There is some Veidt information in it.

 

 

[BB-Gun]

Bela Lugosi was a great Dracula but Veidt would have been interesting to see. Carl Laemmle wanted him but Veidt turned it down.

 

By the way, since I mentioned Dracula, for Universal Monsters fans (like me), I highly recommend this book. There is some Veidt information in it.

 

 

Bela was almost comical as Dracula. Conrad would have been more evil and scary.

 

I should give credit to The Movie Channel for pointing out Conrad's contributions in their recent movie festival.

[telerites]

Bela Lugosi was a great Dracula but Veidt would have been interesting to see. Carl Laemmle wanted him but Veidt turned it down.

 

By the way, since I mentioned Dracula, for Universal Monsters fans (like me), I highly recommend this book. There is some Veidt information in it.

 

 

Bela was almost comical as Dracula. Conrad would have been more evil and scary.

 

I should give credit to The Movie Channel for pointing out Conrad's contributions in their recent movie festival.

 

The Mexican version of Dracula was superior in layout and film making although the actor that portrayed Dracula wasn't effective. I liked Bela's charisma in the role and his accent fit well into the mystique. His best acting may have been as Ygor.

 

[Larryw7]

My favorite Bela performance's are in The Black Cat(1934) and Son of Frankenstein. He always tried to give the audience their money's worth, even when he was stuck in B and C pictures at Monogram in the forties.

[telerites]

Did you ever watch him as Chandu the Magician in the serials?

[Larryw7]

I could never get thru the Chandu serials. I have the DVD of the feature film Chandu the Magician with Bela as the villain Roxor. That's a pretty cool movie, with neat art direction.

[telerites]

I agree. They were miserably slow in pace.

[BB-Gun]

I think I saw the Christopher Lee version of Dracula before I saw any others. He played a villian in many movies and quite a variety. Peter Cushing played a good guy in one of those movies instead of the man with the foul stench.

[Jayman]

My favorite Bela performance's are in The Black Cat(1934) and Son of Frankenstein. He always tried to give the audience their money's worth, even when he was stuck in B and C pictures at Monogram in the forties.

 

Ahh...The Black Cat one of my favorites. Lugosi as Dr. Vitus Werdegast and Karloff as Hjalmar Poelzig. Just the names alone are spectacular!

 

Another fav is The Raven (1935). "Yess...I love to torture, Judge Thatcher!" Great stuff!

[rodan57]

Bela Lugosi was a great Dracula but Veidt would have been interesting to see. Carl Laemmle wanted him but Veidt turned it down.

 

By the way, since I mentioned Dracula, for Universal Monsters fans (like me), I highly recommend this book. There is some Veidt information in it.

 

 

Bela was almost comical as Dracula. Conrad would have been more evil and scary.

 

I should give credit to The Movie Channel for pointing out Conrad's contributions in their recent movie festival.

 

The transfer from stage to film acting must have been difficult for Lugosi. Certainly in Dracula he did not understand how the close-up magnified the facial emotions that he had honed to be able to communicate to the farthest seat from the stage.

[Larryw7]

I agree. They were miserably slow in pace.

 

I may give them another shot. It's one of the only Bela performances I haven't seen in its entirety. I'm a big fan of other serials like Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher, but Chandu is definitely not action packed like those are.

 

[Larryw7]

My favorite Bela performance's are in The Black Cat(1934) and Son of Frankenstein. He always tried to give the audience their money's worth, even when he was stuck in B and C pictures at Monogram in the forties.

 

Ahh...The Black Cat one of my favorites. Lugosi as Dr. Vitus Werdegast and Karloff as Hjalmar Poelzig. Just the names alone are spectacular!

 

Another fav is The Raven (1935). "Yess...I love to torture, Judge Thatcher!" Great stuff!

 

Yeah, The Raven is up there too. Also The Invisible Ray. Lugosi is great as Karloff's sidekick.

[Jayman]

My favorite Bela performance's are in The Black Cat(1934) and Son of Frankenstein. He always tried to give the audience their money's worth, even when he was stuck in B and C pictures at Monogram in the forties.

 

Ahh...The Black Cat one of my favorites. Lugosi as Dr. Vitus Werdegast and Karloff as Hjalmar Poelzig. Just the names alone are spectacular!

 

Another fav is The Raven (1935). "Yess...I love to torture, Judge Thatcher!" Great stuff!

 

Yeah, The Raven is up there too. Also The Invisible Ray. Lugosi is great as Karloff's sidekick.

 

What was great about having them both together is that it seemed that Lugosi was always competeing with Karloff for the better performance. I think he could not forgive being passed up for the Frankenstein role.

[Larryw7]

My favorite Bela performance's are in The Black Cat(1934) and Son of Frankenstein. He always tried to give the audience their money's worth, even when he was stuck in B and C pictures at Monogram in the forties.

 

Ahh...The Black Cat one of my favorites. Lugosi as Dr. Vitus Werdegast and Karloff as Hjalmar Poelzig. Just the names alone are spectacular!

 

Another fav is The Raven (1935). "Yess...I love to torture, Judge Thatcher!" Great stuff!

 

Yeah, The Raven is up there too. Also The Invisible Ray. Lugosi is great as Karloff's sidekick.

 

What was great about having them both together is that it seemed that Lugosi was always competeing with Karloff for the better performance. I think he could not forgive being passed up for the Frankenstein role.

 

I think you're correct. Also, after a certain point, Karloff wouldn't give his all to a performance if he felt the film was beneath his talents. But Lugosi would do his best to entertain his audience whether he was making Ninotchka at MGM with Ernest Lubitsch and Garbo, or Bride of the Monster with Ed Wood. He always tried his best to give a good performance.

[Flex Mentallo]

I think I saw the Christopher Lee version of Dracula before I saw any others. He played a villian in many movies and quite a variety. Peter Cushing played a good guy in one of those movies instead of the man with the foul stench.

 

Cushing tended to play Van Helsing to Lee's Dracula in the Hammer horror movies. I think there may have been one occasion where Cushing played the vampire, cant remember the movie...

[Flex Mentallo]

Sometimes the obvious is staring me in the face for years before I notice. ]

Bob Kane said he modeled the Joker after Conrad Veidt who starred in "The Man Who Laughs".

I always admired the picture but didn't realize he played the Gestapo Major Strasser in Casablanca which is a movie I have seen a hundred times.

Who knew? Everybody but me I guess.

Thanks Conrad for giving us two of my favorite villians.

As classic film fans know, he also starred in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".

 

Veidt was by all accounts an exceptional actor with considerable magnetism. It was Hollywood that made him into a rather hammy villain. A glimpse of the real Veidt can be seen in Powell and Pressberger's The Spy in Black from 1939, where he co-starred with Valerie Hobson. Their interaction is terrific.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031968/

 

He would have been a Dracula for the ages, possessed of an effortless nobility - and indeed bore more than a passing resemblance to the historical Vlad Tepes.

[Larryw7]

Sometimes the obvious is staring me in the face for years before I notice. ]

Bob Kane said he modeled the Joker after Conrad Veidt who starred in "The Man Who Laughs".

I always admired the picture but didn't realize he played the Gestapo Major Strasser in Casablanca which is a movie I have seen a hundred times.

Who knew? Everybody but me I guess.

Thanks Conrad for giving us two of my favorite villians.

As classic film fans know, he also starred in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".

 

Veidt was by all accounts an exceptional actor with considerable magnetism. It was Hollywood that made him into a rather hammy villain. A glimpse of the real Veidt can be seen in Powell and Pressberger's The Spy in Black from 1939, where he co-starred with Valerie Hobson. Their interaction is terrific.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031968/

 

He would have been a Dracula for the ages, possessed of an effortless nobility - and indeed bore more than a passing resemblance to the historical Vlad Tepes.

 

I'm kind of glad things turned out the way they did, and Lugosi got the role. I'm sure Veidt would have been excellent; he was a superior actor to Lugosi most of the time. But Lugosi is one of the great Hollywood personalities, like Monroe and James Dean, and without his star turn in Dracula, I don't know if we would have ever been given the chance to appreciate him.