No self-respecting criminal mastermind or evil genius ought to be without a trusty henchman, whether it be for merely cackling sycophantically, a la Renfield in Dracula, or for taking care of the strong-arm stuff, like Darth Vader in Star Wars {Sorry, fans, but in the original he took his orders from Peter Cushing, and the sequels are just toy commercials},
So who are your favourite henchmen? My vote goes to Colonel Sebastian Moran, aide de camp of the late Professor Moriarty: soldier, big game hunter, author, card sharp, paid assassin, sharp-shooter, and according to Sherlock Holmes, “the second-most dangerous man in London”. It was all Flashmans fault, of course, but thats another story.
Oddjob, the Korean with a razor-edged bowler hat from Goldfinger.
Also, Raven from Snow Crash. Dreams of nuking America, this 7-foot radioactive Aleut drug lord harpooner computer hacker gives the good guys way more trouble than the real bad guy.
Ah, Bond villain henchmen - like Bond villains themselves, not what they were: whatever happened to the physical abnormalities and the curious names - Teehee, Nicknack, May Day? Oddjob definitely tops the list, although I`m not sure that being built like a cement mixer qualifies as a physical abnormality, but I always liked Rosa Klebb {a henchwoman, I suppose}, if only for the nifty shoes.
Bela Lugosi playing Igor in Son of Frankenstein. The Botched hanging mark on his neck creeped me out as a kid.
BTW that was the First time there was an IGOR in Frankenstein before him there was Fritz
Bob. The Joker’s henchman in the first Batman movie. Same actor played the henchman Toad for the bad guy in the short lived tv show Best of the West in the early 80’s.
Coulda sworn it was Toad…hang on, now that I know his real name…Yep, IMDB calls him Frog, too. Now how would I get that name mixed up?
(BTW, Why, did you get your name from a line in the original series of Howard the Duck? I was rereading my HTDs and stumbled across that line and immediately thought of the SDMB.)
I’m sorry, I know that there’s a perfectly respectable comic out there with this character, but I will forever remember Lucas’ movie whenever I hear that name.
Nope, it wasn’t Howard. It’s from an old Marx Brothers gag in the movie Coconuts.
Wilmer, Caspar Gutmann’s hired gun in The Maltese Falcon.
“Keep riding me and they’re going to be picking lead out of your liver.”
I also suspect that there was a little something more between the Fat Man and Wilmer, but could never figure it out for sure. Gutmann did sell him down the river, letting him take the fall for the death of Floyd Thursby and Captain Jacoby, but, well, as Gutmann said, “I love him like a son, but, well, you can always have another son. There’s only one Maltese Falcon.”
The Weasels from Who Framed Roger Rabbit get my vote. Or Starscream, he’s so treacherous, and even being dead won’t stop him from popping in from time to time.
Peter Lorre, who was also in The Maltese Falcon, BTW.
I was also a big fan of Charlie Chan movies when I was a little Bumba, and always liked the ‘Number One Son’ character. I just looked up on the IMDB and find that he was played by Keye Luke when Warner Oland was Charlie Chan.
It’s very clear that there is something between Gutman and Wilmer (and probably even Joel Cairo). Spade refers to Wilmer as “your gunsel,” and Gutman doesn’t protest. At the time the book and film were made, “gunsel” meant a young homosexual.
I always liked Dwight Frye (Karl/Fritz of the James Whale Frankenstein films). First of all, he had a line worthy of Mel Brooks:
Dr. F: “There’s something wrong with this brain!”
Karl: “It was a very fresh one.”
Second, he got to die twice.
