#Claude Rains

[crisisofinfinitemultiverses]

Universal Monsters by Alex Ross

Dracula (Bela Lugosi, 1931) Frankenstein (Boris Karloff, 1931) The Mummy (Boris Karloff, 1932) The Invisible Man (Claude Rains, 1933) Bride of Frankenstein (Elsa Lanchester, 1935) The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr, 1941) Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

[hotvintagepoll]

Claude Rains (The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Invisible Man, Mr. Skeffington, Now Voyager)—Is Claude maybe a bit too classy to be considered scrungly? Maybe, but I don't care! He's Claude Rains and he deserves to win at something. :) While he could be very smooth and suave (and sometimes deliciously evil), every once in a while, he could be pretty adorable, too! And the movie Now Voyager gave him the line: "roasting weenies??" And there are so many moments in Phantom of the Opera or Mr. Skeffington where I just want to give him a hug!

Sid James (Hell Drivers, Carry On Camping, Carry On Doctor, Three Hats for Lisa, Bless This House)—Sid James has the kind of scrungly face that looks like a guy has spent his youth boxing but now breeds canaries. Yes, he became legendary as the kind of bloke who is always happy to eye up the ladies and pull a fast one on the system, but he could also do terrifying gangster and comforting dad who might grumble a bit but will always be there for his family.

This is round 1 of the contest. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. If you're confused on what a scrungle is, or any of the rules of the contest, click here.

[additional submitted propaganda + scrungly videos under the cut]

Claude Rains:

Blooper from the Prince and the Pauper

every time i see claude rains he's in a different wig and doing a different thing to fuck me up

Sid James:

[weirdlookindog]

The Invisible Man (1933)

[fanofspooky]

Horror movies of the 1930s

[snowluthor]

Now, Voyager (1942) dir. Irving Rapper

[kingoftheclaudes]

The King of the Claudes Kick-off!

Hello everyone! We're so excited to begin our tournament which will start at 7 PM EST. Again, we're planning on scheduling one poll a day, each one lasting one week and having five polls a week. You can submit propaganda via our ask box or by tagging us to reblog it @kingoftheclaudes. Match-ups can be found via our pinned post and that will update with each new poll. Thank you all so much for sending in propaganda so far and we hope everyone has fun!

And, on a related note...

Happy Birthday Claude Rains!

[luneemeritus]

[citizenscreen]

Claude Rains was born on November 10, 1889 #botd ❤️

[old-hollywood-smash-or-pass]

Requested by anonymous

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[goryhorroor]

more legendary faces of horror

[weirdlookindog]

Claude Rains and Gloria Stuart in The Invisible Man (1933)

[brokehorrorfan]

NECA has launched pre-orders for the Invisible Man ultimate Kemp House action figure. Priced at $36.99, it's due out in January.

The 7" scale toy has 28 points of articulation. Five heads, seven hands, two shirt colors, bandage wrappings, book stack, and fire tong are included. It’s packaged in a window box with opening flap.

[vintagetvstars]

Claude Rains Vs. William Hopper

Propaganda

Claude Rains - (Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Wagon Train, Rawhide) - "The reason I got into Old Hollywood and started studying theatre and film! He's such a little cutie as well as a smoking hot, velvet voiced morsel of evil - he's that good and can play both so easily!..." text propaganda continued below the cut.

William Hopper - (Perry Mason) - "Why do I love him? The list abounds..." text propaganda continued below the cut.

Master Poll List | How to submit propaganda | What is vintage? (FAQ)

Additional propaganda below the cut

Claude Rains:

While he might be more famous for his movie roles(like Casablanca, The Invisible Man, Lawrence of Arabia, Now, Voyager, and Mr. Skeffington to name a few!), he was also a television star in his own right! He had lots of guest spots on various shows but in the tv-realm, he's probably the most well known for his work for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and was a frequent collaborator with Hitch himself, having the spotlight for five episodes! My favorite tv performance of his was playing Father Amion in the episode "The Horseplayer", where he plays the kindest priest who gets taken for a ride and it's so heartbreaking to see him in tears where he confesses that it's his fault the church's funds were used for less than better means (but it all works out in the end!). It's such an honest performance and it's a refreshing change from all his evil villians (but we love them anyway!) he'd done in the past. Another favorite performance of mine is his performance as Leonard Eldridge in the episode "The Door Without a Key", a seemingly amnesiac old man who makes a bond with a lost boy in a police station. They're adorable together and I found myself tearing up a little when they both confess how lonely they are in the world.

William Hopper -

William Hopper was a tall guy (6'3"!) but such a gentle sweetheart. He was in acting for the majority of his life (barring serving as a frogman in WWII and working as a car salesman post-war for a few years), but he really stepped into his own with his role as Private Detective Paul Drake in the Perry Mason TV Series from 1957-1966. William Hopper actually didn't really love the Hollywood scene, mostly because he grew up with it since he was a child. His mother was Hedda Hopper and she really wanted him to be an actor and became quite overbearing about it, but he was more of an introverted soul. He first started out in films in his early 20s, but William Hopper always felt like people were giving him jobs because of his mother's influence with her gossip column. HOWEVER, after the war and after William Hopper sold cars for a few years, he came back to acting but he said he was only going to come back if 1) he did it his way/gave himself to it and 2) his mother stayed out of his career so he could make it on his own. Those two things happened, and William Hopper made his own way.

His big major starring role in a television series was, without a doubt, Perry Mason. He was Private Detective Paul Drake. To take on that role, William Hopper personally went out and made friends with Private Detectives to try to bring their experiences to his role. William Hopper also was credited by Alan Alda for showing the acting world how to shine as an actor without demanding the spotlight all the time. Alda said: “William Hopper’s ability to be present in a scene without demanding the spotlight is an art form in itself. He showed us that one can shine without the blinding glare.” Which, I think, really was a big testament to William Hopper playing a private detective--- he was always commanding the series and making the moves and observations that led to finding the guilty person in a criminal case, but he was always doing so in a way that was true to the work of a private detective: hiding and working in plain sight.

Other fun facts about William Hopper that make him so lovable: he LOVED the beach and loved fishing and swimming. When he wasn't filming for Perry Mason (they would film 6 days a week for 1 episode during filming), William Hopper would go to the beach. According to an interview, William Hopper's personal wardrobe was mostly casual clothes: swim trunks, sandals, and sweatshirts. He took all his formal wear to the Perry Mason set and just kept it there to wear when he played Paul Drake. He said if he ever had to go to a formal occasion, he would just go drive to the Perry Mason set and pick out one of his outfits. But the formal wear he had was bold! He wore houndstooth jackets, various checked patterns, and herringbone. If he wasn't at the beach, he loved to go to baseball games. In school, he played sports: swimming, baseball, boxing, and basketball.

he's the guy on the far left - I know his face is hard to see here but I'm going for the Hot Vintage Man bare shoulders vibe:

I spoke before about how William Hopper made a lasting impact as an actor portraying Paul Drake and shining without demanding the spotlight, but he also made a lasting contribution to Paul Drake's character. Paul Drake was a character based on Erle Stanley Gardner's books, which were published between 1933-1973. When William Hopper got the role as Paul Drake in the Perry Mason TV show from 1957-1966, Gardner was still writing the books. When asked about playing Paul Drake, William Hopper said: "If they thought they were getting Paul Drake, they were mistaken. Because what they got was me, nobody else. I play him my way. Now I'm amused to read Gardner's new books. Paul Drake comes out like me."

He made such a lasting impression on Paul’s character on TV that even the author of the books started writing Paul like William Hopper's interpretation!

There's also an anecdote from the wardrobe supervisor on the set of Perry Mason who said William Hopper was a very kind man, a good guy, and a good actor. William Hopper's cast mate, Raymond Burr, once said that "William Hopper was even more precise, more good looking, more fun" in real life than what we, the viewers, got to see him on screen.

To add some more to Raymond Burr's point that William Hopper was "fun", he liked to play practical jokes with his castmates on Perry Mason. In an interview, William Hopper said "You might say there's never a serious moment except on camera." He and all his castmates on the set loved to play jokes with each other to make each other laugh. So he was just a fun guy to be around, apparently!

Also, in the final season of Perry Mason, William Hopper cut a tendon on his foot while filming and he wound up in a cast. They had to rewrite the final episodes so that William Hopper didn't have to do a lot of running around like he usually does. Well, in all those final episodes, you wouldn't even tell that William Hopper was in a cast and having to move around in crutches. And I realize that yeah, they rewrote the scripts to help, but William Hopper doesn't waiver once and doesn't let on about his injury. Plus, according to an interview, the cast attached a little horn to William Hopper's crutches and William Hopper would honk the horn when he was coming to let his cast mates know he was there. Which I just kind of think is sweet.

idk I feel like his hands are pretty beautiful here:

Also, I talked before about William Hopper struggling a bit in finding his own way in acting. It wasn't really until he got into TV shows and with Perry Mason that he felt like he found his place and enjoying acting. Before, William talked about being nervous in front of the camera, but it was working on a LIVE TV show with Claire Trevor when he said, "I was so scared I canceled. I swore I'd never act again as long as I lived. Then I thought, what the heck, they can't shoot me, and walked on the set. Something happened then. It was as if someone had surgically removed the nerves."

And when he talks about his role as Paul Drake, he said, "I'm very fond of him, and as long as Perry Mason is around on television defending various and sundry clients, Paul and I will be very happy to be around helping him."

So he really came into his own as Paul Drake, which I really love about William Hopper. To know he found his way and made something he felt proud of.

Also in terms of William Hopper being physically attractive, I mean, he was so incredible. He once said he was just a guy with premature grey hair and a non throbbing actor, but I personally think he's a heart throb. He had the most loveable smile, broad shoulders, a deep, sultry voice, amazing chest hair (lol), and like.. really absurdly beautiful hands?!? He was also really tall and strong but also by every account he was really gentle and sweet. Larger than life. Sometimes in the Perry Mason shows, William Hopper would swim and he has an incredible swim scene that rivals Mr. Darcy. He's in swim trunks and wins a swim race and comes dripping out of the pool to make anyone swoon. I just love him!

[kingoftheclaudes]

Welcome to the King of the Claudes Tournament!

A silly little place with polls about our favorite silly little actor, Claude Rains!

Prior to the creation of this blog, we were shocked (shocked!) to find that across the Tumblrverse, time and time again, Claude Rains would be beaten by fearsome opponents in the race for the crown of various hottest/scrungliest/what-have-you titles. So, we've decided to take matters into our own hands to give some well-deserved love to this beloved character actor through various polls!

The King of the Claudes Tournament has begun! Polls will be posted once daily at 7PM EST!

Redemption Polls will begin next week on December 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th at 7PM EST. These will last one day only with no propaganda, so may the worthiest Claude be redeemed!

We'll also be opening up submissions for additional propaganda from now until Round Two begins on December 30th! Send them in HERE!

We're going to be matching up all (and we mean all!) the roles Claude has played over his decades of acting to decide which one of them will be The King of Claudes! All characters(we're talking the famed Captain Louis Renault, the mad scientist Jack Griffin, as well as other lesser-known portrayals like the kindly Mr. Jordan and the cankerous Professor Benson) will be submitted by default and it's up to the voters to send in their favorite propaganda(pictures, GIFs, stories, video clips)!

Our list of active polls can be found HERE or through our #round one tag!

As of this time, we're only going to be looking at Mr. Rains' film career, so no TV, stage, or radio portrayals will be in the running this time around. This goes for propaganda, too, so please don't send in entire radio broadcasts as propaganda(we know they're great, you don't have to tell us!).

FAQs

Who's Claude Rains? Great question! William Claude Rains was a British screen/stage/radio actor who was primarily known for his character acting and there was never a role he couldn't seem to play (When asked about his versatility as an actor, he replied that he "can play the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker"). He was a frequent collaborator with stars such as Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, and Cary Grant, among others and worked with directors such as Michael Curtiz and Alfred Hitchcock. He was nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and won a Tony Award for his role in Darkness at Noon. Oftentimes, people know him as "that guy" when talking about his roles in iconic films (such as Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Invisible Man, and Lawrence of Arabia). He also served in WW1 (even fighting alongside individuals such as Basil Rathbone and Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and called himself a "gentleman farmer", often returning back home to tend to his farm in between shooting for films. Also, if you search up the term character actor, you see a lovely still of him in Sons of Liberty!

Why is this blog a thing? Because it has been a deeply saddening affair to watch Claude Rains get stricken down during various polls (and we mean every. single. one. [although, we had a grand Round One victory over on @vintagetvstars!]) and we feel he deserves to win something! Also, this blog hopes to bring more recognition to his great work! We'd also like to thank @hotvintagepoll for directly inspiring us to create this blog and if you haven't already, please go check them out!

Who should I vote for? We are judging the portrayal of the character here, not the characters themselves. Claude played a lot of baddies (some worse than others) but we are not judging how good or bad a character is morally, only on the portrayal. Who will be the winner? That's up to you! Which of these Claudes deserves to be crowned the King of them all? What makes them the King in your eyes?

How can I submit propaganda? Before the tournament starts, we will be accepting propaganda through a Google Form and we will be accepting written and visual propaganda(pictures, GIFs, and video clips) to go along with each character. We're also only looking for propaganda from the particular film a character is in, but we're open to headshots/professional stills from the time it was filmed! Please only submit propaganda for one character at a time and don't hesitate to send in multiple submissions! We'd like for each character to have propaganda, so go nuts in your submissions! Tell us why you think your Claude should be crowned King of the Claudes! Again, we are not looking for character submissions, only propaganda for that character! Don't fret, every Claude from a film will be submitted! Here is a list of all the possible characters to send propaganda in for!

Additional Propaganda? We encourage additional propaganda through our ask system or by tagging us @kingoftheclaudes. As previously stated, we will only be accepting/boosting propaganda from Mr. Rains' film career, so no GIFs from his various Alfred Hitchcock Presents or radio snippets from his various Lux Radio Theatre broadcasts. We also tag each film and each Claude in an effort to make things easier when searching through the taglist.

These polls are mean to be short 'n sweet (much like Mr. Rains!) and not meant to be taken seriously! We just want to have a good time enjoying the many works of Claude Rains and all views expressed in propaganda and tags are not our own!

The tournament is scheduled to kick off on Sunday, November 10th (coincidentally[or perhaps, not] Claude Rains' birthday!) and will compile of 28 matchups of 56 characters (since the character of Adam Lemp appears in three movies [Four Daughters, Four Wives, and Four Mothers], we are combining all his appearances into one and, contrary to Wikipedia's listing, Mr. Rains did not provide the voice of Jacob Marley in Scrooge. We are also opting to omit the character of Clarkis from Build Thy House, since there is limited knowledge on the film available, as well as omitting the character of The Mayor from The Pied Piper of Hamelin, since despite it later being released in theatres, it debuted as a TV special). We're tentatively planning on scheduling 5 polls a week to make this tournament last longer and each poll will run for one week!

What happens after the polls end and the crown is handed off? We may be open to doing a series of mini-polls, such as 'Best Father', 'Best Villain', 'The Battle for Science', 'King of TV Land' and 'Historical King of the Claudes' among some others. If you have some more ideas, let us know!

My question isn't answered! Feel free to send in an ask but always check the FAQ before, since your question may have already been answered!

We hope you enjoy our fun little polls and wish all the Claudes the best of luck!

(sneaky @tournament-announcer tag and a bonus Claude as a thanks for reading this far! :))

[luneemeritus]