# Were You Burned by Acid or Something? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 1, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588 "2025-08-01T16:09:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/1 "2025-08-01T16:09:51Z")
“Why are you wearing a mask? Were you burned by acid or something?” — Fezzik (Andre the Giant) to the Man in Black; _The Princess Bride_, 1987 When first watching _Princess Bride_ the line seemed like a funny reference to the _Phantom of the Opera_. I recalled acid as being the cause of the Phantom’s disfiguration. Decades later when I googled, it turned out there was no acid attack in the 1909 book, or the 1927 film (Lon Chaney), or the 1987 A. Lloyd Webber musical. Apparently I was remembering the 1943 movie version in which Claude Rains gets a snootful of etching acid. So, was Andre’s question primarily a reference to PotO 1943? Or maybe there’s a rich history of characters being burned by acid? The _Alien_ franchise features acid-burned flesh, but well after _The Princess Bride_. There were [notable serial killers who used sulfuric acid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Haigh), but for disposal rather than attack. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/2 "2025-08-01T16:48:47Z")
Acid attacks have a history. For a while, they were salacious enough to enter the pop culture mindset. > **[Acid attack | History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_attack#History)** > > Acid has been used in metallurgy and for etching since ancient times. The rhetorical and theatrical term "La Vitrioleuse" was coined in France after a "wave of vitriolage" occurred according to the popular press where, in 1879, 16 cases of vitriol attacks were widely reported as crimes of passion perpetrated predominantly by women against other women. Much was made of the idea that women, no matter how few, had employed such violent means to an end. On 17 October 1915, acid was fatally thrown Th... ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/3 "2025-08-01T17:01:14Z")
For an example of vitriol-throwing, see the Sherlock Holmes mystery “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client”, detailing the sinister career of Baron Adelbert Gruner. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/4 "2025-08-01T17:06:42Z")
Thanks for the link. Looks like a growth industry. ”India’s top court ruled that authorities must regulate the sale of acid. The Supreme Court’s ruling on 16 July 2013, came after an incident in which four sisters…” ”In 2002, Bangladesh introduced the death penalty for acid attacks…” The Sherlock Holmes story referenced by @Jackmannii seems like a primary literary example. … and let’s see if we can post the [Acid Thrower c. 1894](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Eug%C3%A8ne_Grasset%5C_-%5C_La_Vitrioleuse.jpg/250px-Eug%C3%A8ne_Grasset%5C_-%5C_La_Vitrioleuse.jpg) (nope, couldn’t swing it) ---
**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:** [August 1, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/5 "2025-08-01T17:39:13Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > When first watching _Princess Bride_ the line seemed like a funny reference to the _Phantom of the Opera_. I recalled acid as being the cause of the Phantom’s disfiguration. Decades later when I googled, it turned out there was no acid attack in the 1909 book, or the 1927 film (Lon Chaney), or the 1987 A. Lloyd Webber musical. Apparently I was remembering the 1943 movie version in which Claude Rains gets a snootful of etching acid. Not just the 1943 version. The 1960 version with Herbert Lom has Erik as a wronged composer/musician who gets burned with acid. And, similarly, in the 1974 rock version, _The Phantom of the Paradise_, the heated composer gets his face caught in a record press and is disfigured. You could also add The Joker from Batman, whose white face was explained in Detective Comics #168 (February 1951) as being due to being dunked in a tank of chemicals (the story was repeated in several subsequent comics, including Alan Moore’s _The Killing Joke_, and in the 1989 Tim Burton movie _Batman_. And there’s Sam Raimi’s 1990 film _Darkman_, where Liam Neeson’s character is disfigured in an explosion. (In fact, the Mad magazine parody of Darkman has the Phantom and Jack Nicholson as The Joker show up and ask Neeson’s character why he’s so upset about being disfigured – it didn’t hurt them.) Of course, the world of _The Princess Bride_ presumably doesn’t have movies or comic books, but, as has been pointed out, acid- (and base-) throwing has a long history, and acid has been used in etching and metallurgy for a very long time. > **[Acid attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_attack)** > > An acid attack, also called acid throwing, vitriol attack, or vitriolage, is a form of violent assault involving the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another "with the intention to disfigure, maim, torture, or kill". Perpetrators of these attacks throw corrosive liquids at their victims, usually at their faces, burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones. Acid attacks can lead to permanent, partia The most com... ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/6 "2025-08-03T13:47:16Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > You could also add The Joker from Batman, whose white face was explained in Detective Comics #168 (February 1951) as being due to being dunked in a tank of chemicals ( In a later ('60s) DC letter column, I got an introduction to biology when someone wrote in to say since there were now descendant generations of the Joker, how could they all look the same, as acquired characteristics can’t be inherited? The editor replied that was true, but the look was so iconic, subsequent generations used surgery and makeup to maintain it. Take that, Frederic Wertham! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2025, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/7 "2025-08-03T14:11:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > You could also add The Joker from Batman, whose white face was explained in Detective Comics #168 (February 1951) as being due to being dunked in a tank of chemicals Also Two-Face, whose first appearance in Detective Comics #66 (under the name “Harvey _ **K** _ent”, which was changed to “Dent” later, apparently to avoid confusion with Clark Kent) has him splashed with acid by crime boss Sal Moroni, disfiguring the left half of his face. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2025, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/8 "2025-08-03T14:48:51Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WdT_mSixVUI/maxresdefault.jpg "Gremlins 2: Acid Do Not Throw in Face (clip)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdT_mSixVUI) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/9 "2025-08-03T15:24:30Z")
I met a chemist who got hot sulphuric acid in the face. Apparently, that shit hurts (and is a real hazard, not some made-up sci-fi thing). Don’t forget your PPE ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/10 "2025-08-03T21:29:51Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > The _Alien_ franchise features acid-burned flesh, but well after _The Princess Bride_. Alien - 1979 Aliens - 1986 The Princess Bride - 1987 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/11 "2025-08-03T21:51:27Z")
Also, the practice of “vitriol-throwing” (literally throwing acid in someone’s face, usually with the intention of ruining their appearance) is the origin of “vitriol” meaning nastiness in general (these days, usually just verbal, not chemical). ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/12 "2025-08-03T22:24:13Z")
There is this movie where Junie Moon is a girl whose face was scarred in a vicious [battery acid attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_throwing "Acid throwing") by her boyfriend Jesse.: > **[Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Me_That_You_Love_Me,_Junie_Moon)** > > Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon is a 1970 American comedy-drama film directed and produced by Otto Preminger. The film is based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Marjorie Kellogg. > Junie Moon is a girl whose face was scarred in a vicious battery acid attack by her boyfriend Jesse. In an institution, she meets Arthur, who lives with epilepsy, and Warren, a gay paraplegic who uses a wheelchair. The trio are disabled but not down, and they decide to live together in an older, rented house... ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/13 "2025-08-03T22:24:47Z")
_Law & Order_ had an episode of Face-Acid. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2025, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/14 "2025-08-04T01:59:35Z")
In movies: _Room 43_ (1958) – The sister of Diana Dors has a horribly scarred face (which is never shown), the result of acid being thrown by pimp Herbert Lom. _Touch of Evil_ (1958) – Acid attack against Charlton Heston is thwarted by some fast reflexes. In comic books, crook Eel O’Brian was doused with a large drum of unidentified chemical liquid, subsequently re-emerging as Plastic Man. In real life, attorney William J. Fallon (“the Great Mouthpiece”): “On a hot August evening in 1926, Fallon entertained a woman and another couple at his Hotel Belleclaire apartment. A former girlfriend burst in and attacked Fallon’s companion with a dog whip. He tried pulling her off. She flung acid into his eyes, which he wiped from his face with a gin-soaked piece of cloth. Miraculously, he was neither blinded nor disfigured.” - [https://erenow.org/biographies/rothstein-the-life-times-and-murder-of-the-criminal-genius/18.php](https://erenow.org/biographies/rothstein-the-life-times-and-murder-of-the-criminal-genius/18.php) ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-burned-by-acid-or-something/1021588/15 "2025-08-05T09:03:56Z")
This was the weapon of choice for Pinkie Brown in the book and film versions of ‘Brighton Rock’. (When Pinkie grew up he moved on to dinosaurs instead.)