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November 1993

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Subject:
From:
"Brian Thornburg, ITL/TVPL" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 19 Nov 1993 12:07:11 -0600
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Here's a few from a colleague, Tony DiSanto, a theatre buff:
 
Well, there's the obvious ones:  you know, "Frankenstein," "Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde."  You could add "Flatliners" and "Jurassic Park" to the list, if
you're of a mind to.  You might not have thought of several Disney films:
in "Pinocchio" you have the kindly old toymaker Gepetto, who could be seen
to represent the Scientist as Child; in "Snow White," you have the Queen
(who is actually an Alchemist, but after all it's a Fairy Tale, and this IS
Disney); "The Little Mermaid" gives us another Alchemist in the form of
Ursula the Sea-Witch; and in "Beauty and the Beast" Belle's father Maurice
is a classic example of the bumbling inventor (European Folk and Fairy
Tales are full of this stuff).  Kubrick introduced some interesting
variations on the theme in "Dr. Strangelove" (the title character, the
Scientist as Fool), "2001: a Space Odyssey" (Dr. Floyd, as well as Bowman
and Poole on board the Discovery) and in "A Clockwork Orange."  Norman
Bates in "Psycho" could be seen as a modernist variation of the classic Mad
Scientist (don't forget his "hobby").  Joseph Mankiewicz's film of
Tennessee Williams' "Suddenly Last Summer" features two interesting
scientists, Dr. Cucrovicz (the lobotomist) and Dr. Hockstader.  Frank
Capra's "Arsenic and Old Lace" is full of witty variations on the theme:
the Brewster Sisters, Jonathan Brewster, and of course Dr. Einstein (Peter
Lorre at his best).  Professor Van Helsing and Dr. Seward (in all the
various versions of "Dracula") are probably too obvious to mention, but
there you are.  Another obvious one is "The Wizard of Oz."  David Lynch's
"The Elephant Man" features Anthony Hopkins in a shining example of the
Scientist as Hero, while Karel Reisz's "The French Lieutenant's Woman"
presents Jeremy Irons in another interesting variation on that theme (both
are figures in the Frankenstein/Jekyll mode).  Tim Burton's "Edward
Scissorhands" has Vincent Price as a rather childlike Scientist.
 
 
HTH
 
 
              .__   Brian Thornburg              [log in to unmask]
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