Movie Character Update XI
Dr. Caligari, from “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1919): Dr. Caligari was a possibly legendary hypnotist of the eighteenth century whose identity has been assumed by modern psychiatrists whose work with madness has brought them close to the brink (or possibly, as they themselves claim, to true sanity).
It is understood that the original Caligari was a traveling performer in the provinces of pre-unification Italy, who brought with him a tall "Somnambulist" named Cesare who would enter a trance and predict the future. Evidently deaths in connection with these predictions led to the burning of Caligari as a witch.
In interwar Germany the director of a Sanitarium who was familiar with the Caligari story imitated his act, making use of the chaos of the early Weimar Republic to cover his use of his Cesare to commit murders, and occasionally bringing those who got too close to the truth to his asylum as patients, where psycho-active drugs disconnected them from reality and made their stories appear mad to all who heard them.
Later in the twentieth century a female psychiatrist took the Caligari moniker while performing experiments on patients with "diseased libidos." Her actual name is unknown, but she appears to have also been dedicated to the use of hypnosis and drugs to dominate the wills of her subjects, and bring them to a new consciousness of reality.
Detective Barlan, from “The Amazing Transplant” (1971): Detective Barlan was a good cop; slow, steady, methodical, dedicated, but not very imaginative. He received several commendations for his work on the NYPD, but was far too non-political in his approach ever to be considered for promotion beyond detective.
The most interesting moment in Barlan's career came when his nephew, Arthur Barlan, came under suspicion for the murder of his girlfriend. Detective Barlan somehow convinced his superior, against all rules of ethics and protocol, to put him in charge of the case for 24 hours. To Barlan's credit, however, he did not attempt to cover up for his nephew or divert blame to another suspect. Instead, in his conscientious, "just the facts, ma'am" way, he went about uncovering a life of psychosis, fear of inadequacy, and misogyny, which culminated in several rapes and one murder. Arthur Barlan was located and succesfully brought in by his uncle, who stood by him in his trial, attempting to corroborate his claim of temporary insanity due to the effects of a highly unethical surgical operation.
Dr. Meissen, from “The Black Castle” (1954): Dr. Maximilian Meissen was educated in Heidelberg and spent some time as an intern in Vienna. When he received a lucrative offer to take up a position as the court physician for Count von Bruno, he felt that his career was assured. Little did he realize that the Count was more interested in him because of a paper on rare African poisons than because of his healing abilities. Dr. Meissen did his best to both please his patron and retain his honor, but ultimately found it necessary to become involved in court intrigues against the former in defense of the latter. Sadly, this led to his own death at the hands of his master, but he was to be avenged soon after.
Prof. George Gammell Angell, from “The Call of Cthulhu” (2005): George Gammell Angell was a Porfessor Emeritus of Semitic Languages at Brown University when he undertook what may have been his strangest line of research. Having heard vague rumors from a colleague and a police source about the activities of a worldwide cult to a bizarre god from another star, his interest was again sparked when he encountered a young artist, Henry Wilcox, who claimed to have seen an image of the deity and heard its name - "Cthulhu" - in a disturbing dream the same night as an earthquake rocked New England.
This being, which apparently resembled a vast anthropoid with claws, dragon wings, and the head of a cuttlefish, had been the object of worship of an odd Esquimaux devil-cult, hated by all the surrounding tribes, and investigated by one Professor William Channing Webb of Princeton. It had also been the object of an investigation by an Inspector Legrasse of New Orleans, in connection with the blasphemous doings of a voodoo cult in the bayou. Angell learned of both at a meeting of the American Archaeological Society in 1908, at which Legrasse and Webb were both present.
After meeting Wilcox, Angell began documenting the boy's dreams, and also employed a clipping service to document strange events that took place during the period associated with his most vivid dreams. From March 1 to April 2, 1925, he gathered evidence that something unearthly was in telepathic contact with the artist, and also that its vibrations were felt worldwide, causing suicides, visions, prophecies, and bizarre outbursts among artistic and sensitive people. At the end of this period, Wilcox's dreams ended abruptly, and for Professor Angell the trail here ran out.
His life was to end tragically, however, and some have whispered that it was in punishment for seeking too much knowledge of things best not known. His obituary states that "he fell on a narrow hill street leading up from an ancient waterfront swarming with foreign mongrels, after a careless push from a negro sailor." The sailor in question has never been identified, nor was there any effort made to ascertain if the push could have been deliberate. Angell was a very old man, and his death by accident came as no surprise to the coroner. But others have wondered.
One who wondered was Angell's grand-nephew. He conducted further researches, which involved travel around nearly the entire globe, and is supposed to have discovered things which drove him from sanity...
It is understood that the original Caligari was a traveling performer in the provinces of pre-unification Italy, who brought with him a tall "Somnambulist" named Cesare who would enter a trance and predict the future. Evidently deaths in connection with these predictions led to the burning of Caligari as a witch.
In interwar Germany the director of a Sanitarium who was familiar with the Caligari story imitated his act, making use of the chaos of the early Weimar Republic to cover his use of his Cesare to commit murders, and occasionally bringing those who got too close to the truth to his asylum as patients, where psycho-active drugs disconnected them from reality and made their stories appear mad to all who heard them.
Later in the twentieth century a female psychiatrist took the Caligari moniker while performing experiments on patients with "diseased libidos." Her actual name is unknown, but she appears to have also been dedicated to the use of hypnosis and drugs to dominate the wills of her subjects, and bring them to a new consciousness of reality.
Detective Barlan, from “The Amazing Transplant” (1971): Detective Barlan was a good cop; slow, steady, methodical, dedicated, but not very imaginative. He received several commendations for his work on the NYPD, but was far too non-political in his approach ever to be considered for promotion beyond detective.
The most interesting moment in Barlan's career came when his nephew, Arthur Barlan, came under suspicion for the murder of his girlfriend. Detective Barlan somehow convinced his superior, against all rules of ethics and protocol, to put him in charge of the case for 24 hours. To Barlan's credit, however, he did not attempt to cover up for his nephew or divert blame to another suspect. Instead, in his conscientious, "just the facts, ma'am" way, he went about uncovering a life of psychosis, fear of inadequacy, and misogyny, which culminated in several rapes and one murder. Arthur Barlan was located and succesfully brought in by his uncle, who stood by him in his trial, attempting to corroborate his claim of temporary insanity due to the effects of a highly unethical surgical operation.
Dr. Meissen, from “The Black Castle” (1954): Dr. Maximilian Meissen was educated in Heidelberg and spent some time as an intern in Vienna. When he received a lucrative offer to take up a position as the court physician for Count von Bruno, he felt that his career was assured. Little did he realize that the Count was more interested in him because of a paper on rare African poisons than because of his healing abilities. Dr. Meissen did his best to both please his patron and retain his honor, but ultimately found it necessary to become involved in court intrigues against the former in defense of the latter. Sadly, this led to his own death at the hands of his master, but he was to be avenged soon after.
Prof. George Gammell Angell, from “The Call of Cthulhu” (2005): George Gammell Angell was a Porfessor Emeritus of Semitic Languages at Brown University when he undertook what may have been his strangest line of research. Having heard vague rumors from a colleague and a police source about the activities of a worldwide cult to a bizarre god from another star, his interest was again sparked when he encountered a young artist, Henry Wilcox, who claimed to have seen an image of the deity and heard its name - "Cthulhu" - in a disturbing dream the same night as an earthquake rocked New England.
This being, which apparently resembled a vast anthropoid with claws, dragon wings, and the head of a cuttlefish, had been the object of worship of an odd Esquimaux devil-cult, hated by all the surrounding tribes, and investigated by one Professor William Channing Webb of Princeton. It had also been the object of an investigation by an Inspector Legrasse of New Orleans, in connection with the blasphemous doings of a voodoo cult in the bayou. Angell learned of both at a meeting of the American Archaeological Society in 1908, at which Legrasse and Webb were both present.
After meeting Wilcox, Angell began documenting the boy's dreams, and also employed a clipping service to document strange events that took place during the period associated with his most vivid dreams. From March 1 to April 2, 1925, he gathered evidence that something unearthly was in telepathic contact with the artist, and also that its vibrations were felt worldwide, causing suicides, visions, prophecies, and bizarre outbursts among artistic and sensitive people. At the end of this period, Wilcox's dreams ended abruptly, and for Professor Angell the trail here ran out.
His life was to end tragically, however, and some have whispered that it was in punishment for seeking too much knowledge of things best not known. His obituary states that "he fell on a narrow hill street leading up from an ancient waterfront swarming with foreign mongrels, after a careless push from a negro sailor." The sailor in question has never been identified, nor was there any effort made to ascertain if the push could have been deliberate. Angell was a very old man, and his death by accident came as no surprise to the coroner. But others have wondered.
One who wondered was Angell's grand-nephew. He conducted further researches, which involved travel around nearly the entire globe, and is supposed to have discovered things which drove him from sanity...