# The Creation of Iconic Images for the Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [April 5, 2021, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443 "2021-04-05T12:52:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/1 "2021-04-05T12:52:49Z")
It sometimes happens that an image representing a character or idea is used in a movie that was not inherent in the original idea or source material, but which gets picked up by practically everyone because it has become a useful “shorthand” for that idea. The classic one is the **Frankenstein Monster**. as described by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, he’s big, with parchment-white skin and black lips, shaggy black hair, and is incredibly ugly. People depicting him onstage sorta tried to follow that, but sometimes he actually looked kinda good. It wasn’t until the 1931 Universal film that they came up with an image of the monster so different and unique that it has been widely copied and has become emblematic of the creature – the flat-topped head with bolts in the neck and a few scars on the head to show his origin in being pieced together from other bodies. At first color depictions of him showed him with flesh-colored skin (although Karloff was reportedly made up with bluish makeup, which photographed as unnaturally pale in black and white), but soon that changed to his being colored green, the better to emphasize his inhuman nature.\* Nowadays, the sight of a green head with a flat top and neck bolts inevitably screams “Frankenstein” Another is representing the cyberworld and, especially, Virtual Reality with columns of vertical characters in glowing green on a black background. The green characters are an almost inevitable consequence of the green phosphor screens in almost universal use in CRTs. You can see the motif of green-on-black in the VR movie _Tron_, for instance. But the vertical lines of incomprehensible characters (many inspired by Japanese characters) was a creation of the Wachowskis for **The Matrix** , and it’s been very heavily copied ever since (of course, they used it in the _Matrix_ sequels and spinoffs, which helped cement the image). But it’s shown up in the posters and sometimes the actual films for many other VR films and books ( **The 13th Floor** ) Arguably another example is the Tuxedo, high-necked cape, and slicked-back hair of the vampire. Although Dracula was, indeed, depicted once in the book as wearing a cape (along with the suggestion of similarity to a bat), this wasn’t his normal appearance there. The film **Nosferatu** (1922) very significantly does not resemble this image at all. The 1927 vampire film **London After Midnight** has Lon Chaney sr. as a vampire who wears a tall beaver hat, has a set of teeth all sharpened to points, and has weird round eyes. It was the play _Dracula_ written by Hamilton Deane (1924 in England, but not hitting London until 1927, and New York after that, in a rewrite by John Balderston) that gave us the slicked hair, evening dress Dracula. As David Skal remarks, the play made the story into a drawing-room drama, which meant that Dracula had to be turned into someone you’d invite into that drawing room. The high-necked cape was made necessary by the requirements of stage magic that let Dracula transform onstage into a bat. But they kept it in the Universal movies and the Columbia imitations so long that it became iconic itself. In none of these cases were the images a necessary or obvious part of the original. They were created as part of the motion picture (or stage) adaptation and either by intent or continual use became the standard and shorthand to imply a particular creation. Any others? \*There have been various suggestions and speculations about who was responsible for that flat top on his head, all of them lacking corroboration. The most convincing is a series of sketches done by Universal artists suggesting ideas for the creature, one of which – obvious inspired by the connection to robots – shows a metallic head with a flat top and the iconic neck bolts. It’s reproduced in David J. Skal’s book _The Monster Show_. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/2 "2021-04-05T13:05:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > But the vertical lines of incomprehensible characters (many inspired by Japanese characters) was a creation of the Wachowskis for **The Matrix** , They’re not incomprehensible-- I look at them and see “blonde, brunette, redhead…” Sherlock Holme’s deerstalker cap and inverness cape is iconic shorthand for Holmes or for ‘genius detective’ in general. The cap and cape were never mentioned in the book but were the work of a later illustrator: > **[The Deerstalker: Where Sherlock Holmes’ Popular Image Came From](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-deerstalker-where-sherlock-holmes-popular-image-came-from-7325976/)** > > The literary detective's hunting cap and cape came not so much from the books' author as from their illustrators ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/3 "2021-04-05T13:16:04Z")
I may be wrong here, but I think that the classic Robin Hood hat - green, pointy in the front, round in the back - comes from 19th Century woodcuts and stage plays, and not from any of the original folk tales. After all, one would expect someone called “Robin Hood” to wear a hood, rather than a hat. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/4 "2021-04-05T13:22:49Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Sherlock Holme’s deerstalker cap and inverness cape is iconic shorthand for Holmes or for ‘genius detective’ in general. The cap and cape were never mentioned in the book but were the work of a later illustrator: Good point. Sidney Paget’s illustrations were a big part of the original publications. He didn’t invariably depict Holmes clad that way – that was for jaunts in the countryside – but it became indissolubly associated with him. The calabash pipe was said to be the introduction of William Gillette, who wrote and starred in the drama _Sherlock Holmes_ based on several of Doyle’s stories. He is supposed to have claimed that it was the only pipe he tried that didn’t hide his face when he was playing The Great Detective onstage. I love the way that Jeremy Brett carefully avoided deerstalker, Inverness, and Calabash in most of his depictions of Holmes in the TV series, up until the last episode of the first series. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/5 "2021-04-05T13:23:57Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I may be wrong here, but I think that the classic Robin Hood hat - green, pointy in the front, round in the back - comes from 19th Century woodcuts and stage plays, and not from any of the original folk tales. After all, one would expect someone called “Robin Hood” to wear a hood, rather than a hat. I like it – it seems plausible. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/6 "2021-04-05T13:36:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The calabash pipe was said to be the introduction of William Gillette, who wrote and starred in the drama _Sherlock Holmes_ based on several of Doyle’s stories. Oh yeah, forgot about the pipe. Basil Rathbone clearly had a lot to do with cementing the image of cap, cape and pipe in the popular imagination: [http://www.basilrathbone.net/gallery/sherlockholmes/index.htm](http://www.basilrathbone.net/gallery/sherlockholmes/index.htm) (P.S.: gotta love that circa 1994 website) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/7 "2021-04-05T14:47:26Z")
What about mummies that walk slowly with their arms poked straight out (but are somehow dangerous anyway)? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/8 "2021-04-05T14:49:36Z")
Were there killer mummy stories before them? I mean, mummies that physically killed people, not just gave them a vague curse. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/9 "2021-04-05T14:56:35Z")
There were a lot of revived mummy stories in the 19th century, including one by Edgar Allen Poe. Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 story _Lot 249_ features a revived mummy that attacks people, although I don’t think it kills anyone [Lot No. 249 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lot_No._249#:~:text=249%22%20is%20a%20Gothic%20horror,in%20Harper's%20Magazine%20in%201892.&text=Though%20reanimated%20mummies%20had%20previously,to%20portray%20one%20as%20dangerous). I think the adaptation in the movie **Tales from the Darkside** does have the mummy kill, though. But it’s been a while since I saw it ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/10 "2021-04-05T14:58:13Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Nowadays, the sight of a green head with a flat top and neck bolts inevitably screams “Frankenstein” The monster shambled with his arms out was because he was supposed to be blind: > **[Frankenstein: The Monster's Iconic Walk Is Due To A Decades-Old Continuity Error](https://screenrant.com/frankenstein-monster-walk-classic-movie-error/)** > > One of the Frankenstein monster's most famous traits is due to a studio mishap. I don’t know about mummies or zombies. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/11 "2021-04-05T15:17:23Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > The monster shambled with his arms out was because he was supposed to be blind: Yep. As a huge fan of the Universal movies from an early, warped age, I was familiar with this one. In his defense, though, in later incarnations 9especially Glenn Strange’s) the monster, when first awakened, is said to be in a weakened state until, darn it, though interferin’ scientists zap him up to superhuman strength again. So in the meantime the weak and (one supposes) weak-visioned monster is sort of feeling his way along. But it didn’t help that pictures of the Monster and the Aurora model of him generally depicted him in the arms-out pose. > **[Vintage Halloween Model Frankenstein 1961 Aurora Frankenstein Plastic Model -...](https://www.etsy.com/listing/823813637/vintage-halloween-model-frankenstein?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_a-art_and_collectibles-collectibles-figurines&utm_custom1=_k_EAIaIQobChMIxIXi67Ln7wIV-QiICR3X9g9WEAQYBCABEgIgDfD_BwE_k_&utm_content=go_1844702580_68645564574_346428874775_aud-966866686534:pla-352498615822_c__823813637_359835079&utm_custom2=1844702580&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxIXi67Ln7wIV-QiICR3X9g9WEAQYBCABEgIgDfD_BwE)** > > Vintage Aurora plastic model of Frankenstein. The 1961 model is well done. The model is 9 3/4 tall, 7 3/4 across and 3 wide. The painting is well done. [https://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Aurora-Re-issue-Model-Lights/dp/B001IS650M/ref=asc\_df\_B001IS650M/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475795164185&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17724683870751331381&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001911&hvtargid=pla-1186904631011&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Aurora-Re-issue-Model-Lights/dp/B001IS650M/ref=asc_df_B001IS650M/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475795164185&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17724683870751331381&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001911&hvtargid=pla-1186904631011&psc=1) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/m82ZoJaqb5o/maxresdefault.jpg "Frankenstein Aurora Monster Model Build") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m82ZoJaqb5o) On the third hand, the Monster with his arms out is in the classic “I’m gonna get you!” pose, so it’s not all that surprising that it was used a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/12 "2021-04-05T15:21:59Z")
How about Baby Yoda? He wasn’t part of the Star Wars universe until the Mandalorian came out and is now pretty iconic, at least as a internet meme. [![](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/02/20/PBRE/d97e7239-329e-4101-8eba-626dcba2e877-DSC_6039_20200220104145258_20200220113516.JPG?width=660&height=440&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp) ](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/02/20/PBRE/d97e7239-329e-4101-8eba-626dcba2e877-DSC_6039_20200220104145258_20200220113516.JPG?width=660&height=440&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/13 "2021-04-05T15:23:16Z")
Pretty much every pirate portrayed in the last 70 years is aping Robert Newton’s portrayal of Long John Silver in 1950. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/14 "2021-04-05T15:25:01Z")
How about the Romero zombie? Before ‘Night of the Living Dead’ a zombie was a body brought back to life through Voodoo to be a slave to the person who reanimated it, usually in Hiati or a similar Caribbean location. Romero completely ‘rebranded’ zombies into dead people who are reanimated by various means and become senseless flesh-eating ghouls that are more or less incapable of speech or complex thought, can be slow or fast but are relentless, can only be killed by a shot to the head, and can turn others into zombies by biting (or sometimes scratching) their victims. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/15 "2021-04-05T15:28:08Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Pretty much every pirate portrayed in the last 70 years is aping Robert Newton’s portrayal of Long John Silver in 1950. - That’s not 'aarrrrrd to believe. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/16 "2021-04-05T15:29:54Z")
TV Tropes has examples from the stage (some of which found their way into movies) under the heading [Original Cast Precedent](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OriginalCastPrecedent). ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/17 "2021-04-05T15:30:25Z")
Thanks for putting “rebranded” in quotes since it was apparently not Romero’s intention. It was fans and other film makers that lumped the living dead together with zombies. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/18 "2021-04-05T15:33:24Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Thanks for putting “rebranded” in quotes since it was apparently not Romero’s intention. Yeah, it may not have been his intention, and I don’t know if the word ‘zombie’ was ever even used in the movie NOTLD, but zombies would never be the same again in the popular imagination after that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/19 "2021-04-05T15:42:55Z")
OH WOW! Thanks for the awesome memories! When I was a kid, my older cousin had the entire Aurora Universal Monster series. All painted in fine detail. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443/20 "2021-04-05T15:49:12Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > When I was a kid, my older cousin had the entire Aurora Universal Monster series. All painted in fine detail. Me too! This was my gateway drug to spooky modeling when I was 8 years old. I graduated to the Aurora Monster series after that: [![](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/8f/b6/0e/8fb60e87a30e0e741e4b29d356bc9565--model-kits-comic-books.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/8f/b6/0e/8fb60e87a30e0e741e4b29d356bc9565--model-kits-comic-books.jpg) At one point I estimate that 100% of my allowance money went to plastic Aurora monster models, glue and Testors brand paint. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-creation-of-iconic-images-for-the-movies/939443.md?page=2)