Cesar Romero's Joker

[Timothy]

Split from: The+Portrayal+of+Joker

batmangelus said:

Well I saw some clips of Cesar Romero as Joker on a certain illustrious site where one can find such clips...

Anyways, I can definitely see where some of the BOF posters are coming from. I could recall a lot of Romero in Nicholson's last scene as Joker when he's dancing around and constantly cackling. Romero does that pretty much throughout his own performance on the sixties show.

But I think to say that Nicholson's entire performance is a rehash of Romero's is unfair. Nicholson's quieter and more frightening scenes are when he isn't cackling or wildly moving around. For example, his conversation with Grissom and revealing himself as Joker (Romero would've cackled during it- "A woman! You must be insane! Hee ha ha ha ha"- as opposed to Nicholson's mere chuckling that makes the scene work). You don't even hear him cackle outside of City Hall, which he could've done easily. Hell, all his scenes with Vicki are done in a much subtler and quieter way than anything I can see Romero doing (with the possible exception of "OOOH! I'M MELTING!").

I believe that the late Cesar Romero did one fantastic job at playing the Joker in the campy television series "Batman", but hey... Enough of my views! (I'll get to those later! ;D ) What did you think about his version of the Joker?

[arkhaminmate]

Cesar's Joker (however campy it may have been) was true to the way the character was portrayed in comics of the time. Sure compared to the legendary Hammil Romero is the Lyle Talbot of the Batman films. Lyle Talbot was the first person to portray Lex Luthor on screen & Romero was the first person to portray The Joker, in a way they both reflected the times & the way that comics where viewed. Sure we can beat on Romero for being a horrible actor who failed to capture the Joker, but we really should see him as the first one who got it. & the prototype for all the ones to follow.

[Timothy]

arkhaminmate said:

Cesar's Joker (however campy it may have been) was true to the way the character was portrayed in comics of the time. Sure compared to the legendary Hammil Romero is the Lyle Talbot of the Batman films. Lyle Talbot was the first person to portray Lex Luthor on screen & Romero was the first person to portray The Joker, in a way they both reflected the times & the way that comics where viewed. Sure we can beat on Romero for being a horrible actor who failed to capture the Joker, but we really should see him as the first one who got it. & the prototype for all the ones to follow.

^ Horrible, in terms of the modern take on the Joker, which is actually one of the Batman mythos' strongest attributes; the ability to change with the public's viewpoint. I mean, Batman, Joker and Co., have been in continuous syndication since 1939... With every year that passes, it gets closer to 100 years of Batman. The fact that Romero's Joker works well with the fun (albeit, campy) style of the late 1940's through late 1960's Joker comics works side-by-side with the Nicholson Joker of the 1980's and the Hamil Joker of the early 1940's (art deco period Batman) and 1990's.

[arkhaminmate]

^ kinda what I was thinking but I couldn't figure out how to express it.

[Timothy]

arkhaminmate said:

^ kinda what I was thinking but I couldn't figure out how to express it.

^ No worries! It just popped into my head

So, do you have a favorite trait of Romero's from the show? I loved his wild gestures and mannerisms which, IMO, captured the Joker from the 1940's comics

[arkhaminmate]

It's definately his mannerisms & overall feel. As much as I love the modern age Joker's style & feel I still find Cesar really entertaining. He reminds me alot of Dick Sprang's Joker from the 40's & 50's (except that Cesar's green wig always appeared yellow)

[Timothy]

arkhaminmate said:

It's definately his mannerisms & overall feel. As much as I love the modern age Joker's style & feel I still find Cesar really entertaining. He reminds me alot of Dick Sprang's Joker from the 40's & 50's (except that Cesar's green wig always appeared yellow)

^ LOL Yeah! That [Dick Sprang] was the name that I was trying to think of!

Yeah, the wig was originally green (you'll see this in the earliest episodes), but the dye ran out and it turned yellow over time

[arkhaminmate]

Something else of note is that he refused to shave the mustache that "gave him his career". They had to cover it really heavily in grease paint, to almost no effect.

[Timothy]

arkhaminmate said:

Something else of note is that he refused to shave the mustache that "gave him his career". They had to cover it really heavily in grease paint, to almost no effect.

^ LMAO Yeah, I remember that from the A&E Biography that they did of him a few years ago (I taped it, BTW! ;D ) The reason that he did so was because of his career as a suave Latin man on film, and the mustache was part of his image... Kinda like with me! ;D

[Jack Napier]

Good stuff, guys. I agree with arkhaminmate- Romero embodies the Joker at the time period quite well (although ironically I find Nicholson physically closer to the way Joker was drawn at the time than Romero).

Something interesting is that the age gap between Adam West and Cesar Romero (roughly 21 years) was actually greater than that of Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson (roughly 14 years)! Some say that Nicholson was too old in his early fifties, but Romero was playing Joker into his early sixties! And both worked splendidly (which makes it interesting now that we have a Joker that is under 30 and younger than the actual Batman actor).

I was aware of the trouble with the hair, but I was wonderiing if they ever explained why his suit was pinkish in its shade of purple. Perhaps it had to do with clothing dyes.