Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very minor).

[Good Will Riker]

It's kind of prophetic in 2008 that back in August of 1942 when the character of Two-Face was introduced in Detective Comics #66 that the doctor who was either Harvey Dent's psychiatrist/or the surgeon who could have repaired Two-Face's facial deformity is named "Dr. Ekhart."

link -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Twoface-tec66.jpg

 

[JacksonArcher]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

Wow. That's pretty cool. Just imagine, all the months of speculation of who would play Harvey Dent, and it was in the comics all along!

 

[Christopher]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

It's kind of prophetic that back in August of 1942 (Detective Comics #66) that the doctor who was either Harvey Dent's psychiatrist/or the surgeon who could have repaired Two-Face's facial deformity is named "Dr. Ekhart."

I just read that issue in a TPB collection from the library, and I own an earlier collection that also contains it. Dr. Ekhart was a "European specialist," the only plastic surgeon skilled enough to repair the facial scarring that Harvey "Kent" (as he was originally known) had sustained. Unfortunately, Dr. Ekhart had gone to visit his brother in Germany some time back, and was apparently Jewish or gay or something, since he'd been arrested by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp. So basically Hitler was indirectly responsible for Harvey's turn to madness and crime.

When Two-Face returned a year later in Detective #80, it turned out that Ekhart had escaped from the concentration camp and was able to repair Harvey's face, so he gave up his life of crime and was reunited with his fiancee Gilda. After a false alarm in a 1952 story (in which the apparent Two-Face was an impostor), Harvey was scarred again in an explosion while attempting to stop a robbery (what are the odds?), and returned to his criminal ways. Except his career was cut short soon thereafter by Dr. Wertham and the Comics Code, with his grisly and un-kid-friendly visage being banned from the comics and not appearing again until Denny O'Neil brought him back in 1971. (Which is why Two-Face never appeared in the Adam West series. Which is a shame, since his obsession with duality would've been a perfect gimmick for that show.)

 

[The Old Mixer]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

Dr. Ekhart had gone to visit his brother in Germany some time back, and was apparently Jewish or gay or something, since he'd been arrested by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp.

Or maybe he was a gay, Jewish gypsy from Poland!

So basically Hitler was indirectly responsible for Harvey's turn to madness and crime.

More defamation of Hitler in fiction. His estate should sue or something.

[Kidding, people, KIDDING!]

Harvey was scarred again in an explosion while attempting to stop a robbery (what are the odds?)

In real life? About the same as winning the lottery and being struck by lightning on the same day. In comics? Inevitable.

Except his career was cut short soon thereafter by Dr. Wertham and the Comics Code, with his grisly and un-kid-friendly visage being banned from the comics and not appearing again until Denny O'Neil brought him back in 1971. (Which is why Two-Face never appeared in the Adam West series. Which is a shame, since his obsession with duality would've been a perfect gimmick for that show.)

The gimmick would have worked, but the face would have been just as problematic on the lighthearted, kid-friendly show.

 

[nx1701g]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

That is interesting. I wonder if that was where they got the idea for Lieutenant Eckhardt in the 1989 film (the Joker plastic surgery was pretty much a reproduction of it).

 

[Christopher]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

Except his career was cut short soon thereafter by Dr. Wertham and the Comics Code, with his grisly and un-kid-friendly visage being banned from the comics and not appearing again until Denny O'Neil brought him back in 1971. (Which is why Two-Face never appeared in the Adam West series. Which is a shame, since his obsession with duality would've been a perfect gimmick for that show.)

The gimmick would have worked, but the face would have been just as problematic on the lighthearted, kid-friendly show.

It also would've been problematic due to the expense of the prosthetic makeup. However, it would've been easy enough to go the Phantom of the Opera route and just have a mask hiding half the actor's face. Ooh, in fact, I just had the idea that he could've worn a variety of different half-masks in different scenes, each depicting half of a different kind of face or mask style. That approach would've fit the visual flamboyance of the show nicely.

Ooh, heck, I'm almost tempted to write a mock script of such a 2-part episode in the style of the show. But that would be a lot of work and I have real writing projects I should be doing instead.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

^I had also considered a POTO approach, but then I thought, even that would have scared me when I was 5. Maybe if the mask or masks were made to look non-threatening....

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

Except his career was cut short soon thereafter by Dr. Wertham and the Comics Code, with his grisly and un-kid-friendly visage being banned from the comics and not appearing again until Denny O'Neil brought him back in 1971. (Which is why Two-Face never appeared in the Adam West series. Which is a shame, since his obsession with duality would've been a perfect gimmick for that show.)

The gimmick would have worked, but the face would have been just as problematic on the lighthearted, kid-friendly show.

It also would've been problematic due to the expense of the prosthetic makeup. However, it would've been easy enough to go the Phantom of the Opera route and just have a mask hiding half the actor's face. Ooh, in fact, I just had the idea that he could've worn a variety of different half-masks in different scenes, each depicting half of a different kind of face or mask style. That approach would've fit the visual flamboyance of the show nicely.

Ooh, heck, I'm almost tempted to write a mock script of such a 2-part episode in the style of the show. But that would be a lot of work and I have real writing projects I should be doing instead.

Please, please! Only it has to have Yvonne Craig in some kind of bondage situation.

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

It's kind of prophetic that back in August of 1942 (Detective Comics #66) that the doctor who was either Harvey Dent's psychiatrist/or the surgeon who could have repaired Two-Face's facial deformity is named "Dr. Ekhart."

I just read that issue in a TPB collection from the library, and I own an earlier collection that also contains it. Dr. Ekhart was a "European specialist," the only plastic surgeon skilled enough to repair the facial scarring that Harvey "Kent" (as he was originally known) had sustained. Unfortunately, Dr. Ekhart had gone to visit his brother in Germany some time back, and was apparently Jewish or gay or something, since he'd been arrested by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp. So basically Hitler was indirectly responsible for Harvey's turn to madness and crime.

When Two-Face returned a year later in Detective #80, it turned out that Ekhart had escaped from the concentration camp and was able to repair Harvey's face, so he gave up his life of crime and was reunited with his fiancee Gilda. After a false alarm in a 1952 story (in which the apparent Two-Face was an impostor), Harvey was scarred again in an explosion while attempting to stop a robbery (what are the odds?), and returned to his criminal ways. Except his career was cut short soon thereafter by Dr. Wertham and the Comics Code, with his grisly and un-kid-friendly visage being banned from the comics and not appearing again until Denny O'Neil brought him back in 1971. (Which is why Two-Face never appeared in the Adam West series. Which is a shame, since his obsession with duality would've been a perfect gimmick for that show.)

We did see Harvey Kent again, he became an earth-1 character who never returned to a life of crime.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

Ooh, heck, I'm almost tempted to write a mock script of such a 2-part episode in the style of the show. But that would be a lot of work and I have real writing projects I should be doing instead.

Please, please! Only it has to have Yvonne Craig in some kind of bondage situation.

With Julie Newmar...

 

[Christopher]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

^I had also considered a POTO approach, but then I thought, even that would have scared me when I was 5. Maybe if the mask or masks were made to look non-threatening....

I'm thinking along the lines of Halloween masks cut in half. More garish than grotesque. There could've even been a scene where he confronted Batman while wearing half a Batman Halloween mask (complete with plastic lower face, of course).

 

[Good Will Riker]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

^I had also considered a POTO approach, but then I thought, even that would have scared me when I was 5. Maybe if the mask or masks were made to look non-threatening....

I'm thinking along the lines of Halloween masks cut in half. More garish than grotesque. There could've even been a scene where he confronted Batman while wearing half a Batman Halloween mask (complete with plastic lower face, of course).

Here is the actor who I have in mind for that particular role -

 

[Christopher]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

^^Well, we're talking about a hypothetical episode of the 1966 Adam West Batman series, and that guy wouldn't have been around back then, except maybe as a toddler. (Not sure if that's Eckhart or somebody else. That's definitely not how Two-Face looked in the film.) Presumably it would've been someone who was a prominent celebrity or character actor in the late '60s. I thought of Lon Chaney, Jr., but that would be rather a departure from the idea of Two-Face being formerly quite handsome. Maybe Rock Hudson?

 

[Good Will Riker]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

Maybe Rock Hudson?

I personally believe that Jeffrey Hunter could have nailed the part due to his seaing-inner intensity slowly burning to get out.

Plus, his piercing blue eyes that reveal a window to a human soul that seemed bright yet regretful at the same time.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

Maybe Rock Hudson?

I personally believe that Jeffrey Hunter could have nailed the part due to his seaing-inner intensity slowly burning to get out.

Plus, his piercing blue eyes that reveal a window to a human soul that seemed bright yet regretful at the same time.

Umm, again, we're talking about the 1960s sitcom version of Batman. They wouldn't have gone for searing inner intensity. They would've gone for the kind of Two-Face we saw in Batman Forever -- a big-name celebrity hamming it up to high heaven, and a character defined by the gimmick of his obsession with the number two rather than any kind of inner turmoil or angst.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

That is interesting. I wonder if that was where they got the idea for Lieutenant Eckhardt in the 1989 film (the Joker plastic surgery was pretty much a reproduction of it).

I'm surprised there isn't some fan edit bit online with Jack Nicholson shooting Aaron Eckhart. "Hey, Eckhart! Think about the future!"

 

[Professor Zoom]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

Maybe Rock Hudson?

I personally believe that Jeffrey Hunter could have nailed the part due to his seaing-inner intensity slowly burning to get out.

Plus, his piercing blue eyes that reveal a window to a human soul that seemed bright yet regretful at the same time.

Umm, again, we're talking about the 1960s sitcom version of Batman. They wouldn't have gone for searing inner intensity. They would've gone for the kind of Two-Face we saw in Batman Forever -- a big-name celebrity hamming it up to high heaven, and a character defined by the gimmick of his obsession with the number two rather than any kind of inner turmoil or angst.

Harvey Korman? I don't know why I'm thinking of him...but...

Was he popular by then? I don't remember. (Well, it's not really remembering as I wasn't alive, but knowing...and that's half the battle...)

 

[Christopher]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

^^Or maybe Lyle Waggoner, Korman's Carol Burnett co-star. He was considered quite the handsome leading-man type, and he was actually the runner-up to Adam West for the role of Batman. A fitting choice for Harvey Dent -- although of course villains in the Batman sitcom almost never had their backstories or real names used. There was no Oswald Cobblepot or Selina Kyle or Edward Nygma, just Penguin, Catwoman, and Riddler. A rare exception was Mad Hatter, who was identified onscreen as Jervis Tetch. And a few of the made-up villains had civilian identities established, including Victor Buono's King Tut, who was a mild-mannered professor most of the time. (Heck, they never even established Commissioner Gordon's first name or Alfred's last name.)

Korman's acting career began in 1960, and The Carol Burnett Show began in 1967, a year after Batman. So he would've been well-known for that and as the voice of the Great Gazoo in The Flintstones. And perhaps also for his appearance in the film Lord Love a Duck (starring Roddy MacDowall, who menaced Adam West's Batman as the Bookworm and much later menaced Kevin Conroy's Batman as the voice of the Mad Hatter). However, availability would've been an issue, for him and for Waggoner.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

LYLE WAGGONER...that would have been a great choice. He's great too...loved him on the Carol Burnett show.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Re: Interesting information about Two-Face's origin (this is very mino

Eckhart did make a reappearance in Miller's craptaculor All-Star Batman and Robin...