Films with Wonder Woman Elements and Influences

This is a collage of films with Wonder Woman elements and influences to broaden minds about the character. Wonder Woman was intended to have elements of romance, and Greek mythology based sword and sorcery. Army nurse Diana Prince is like military nurse Janet Davidson in So Proudly We Hail! (1943),

Princess Diana is sort of like runaway Princess Ann Smith rebeling against her sheltered life in Roman Holiday (1953), and like a fish out of water kind of like Madison in Splash (1984), and Wonder Woman is like Alice slaying the Jabberwocky dragon in Alice in Wonderland (2010) with the sword and sorcery magic and monsters element and a woman as the hero. To Wonder Woman our world is a Wonderland from her perspective.

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass had an obvious influence on Wonder Woman's creator William Moulton Marston and early Wonder Woman stories like "Wonder Woman's Adventure in Grow Down Land" from Sensation Comics # 31 (1944) written by William Moulton Marston.

Adam Hughes explained, "To me, Steve Trevor plays an incredibly huge part in the story. He’s essential to the story. Diana is this princess from this foreign country. And Steve Trevor, to me, is the Marlboro Man. He’s this iconic American test pilot. I would watch a whole movie just about their relationship. It’s sort of like ‘Roman Holiday.’ It’s people from two different worlds, who don’t have a lot in common. The romance and the gentle comedy come from the fact that they are two extremely disparate personalities but they get along so amazingly. And they understand each other more than anybody from their own world understands them. I couldn’t tell the story without Steve." http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17853

Joss Whedon said about Wonder Woman, "She's like a fish out of water. It's basically Splash." http://www.monstersandcritics.com/movies/news/article_1255290.php/Whedon_bows_out_of_Wonder_Woman

Batman Influences

This a collage of Batman influences. I made this to broaden minds about the character. Batman was intended to have elements of film noir crime drama viglantism, dramatic thriller, with Gothic German expressionism influences, and detective mystery. Vigilante Zorro, the Bat film, detective Sherlock Holmes, vigilante the Shadow were original inspirations on creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Paul Kirsey in Death Wish, Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver and Dirty Harry Callahan have been inspirations especially on writer Frank Miller's Batman material.

Bob Kane explained in his autobiography Batman & Me (1990), "The Mark of Zorro (1920), a movie starring Douglas Fairbanks, Zorro's use of a mask to conceal his identity as Don Diego gave me (and Bill Finger) the idea of giving Batman a secret identity. Like the foppish dandy and wealthy Spanish count, Bruce Wayne would be a man of means who put on a facade of being leisurely effete. Zorro rode a black horse named Toronado and would enter a cave and exit from a grandfather clock in the living room. The bat-cave was inspired by this cave in Zorro. The Bat (1926) wore a costume that looked like my early Batman's, with a black robe and a bat shaped-head. This made him look like a bat -- very ominous."

Bill Finger explained in Jim Steranko's History of Comics volume 1 (1970), "My idea was to have Batman be a combination of Douglas Fairbanks (Zorro), Sherlock Holmes, the Shadow, and Doc Savage as well. My first script was a take-off on a Shadow story. I patterned my style of writing Batman after The Shadow. Also after the old Warner Brothers movies, the (film noir) gangster movies with James Cagney, George Raft, Bogart. I always liked that kind of dramatic point of view. It was completely pulp style."

Bob Kane explained in his autobiography Batman & Me (1990), "The Shadows' auto-gyro was the inspiration for DC writer Gardner Fox to create the Batgyro, the first Batplane (Detective Comics # 31 (1939))."

Frank Miller explained in Comics Interview # 31 (1986),"Batman has his roots in pulps, specifically the Shadow. Much of what he does to criminals is staged like a horror movie. He's the hero who acts like a villain - the epitome of the Dionysian hero. Batman represents a very powerful specific force that movie-makers attempt to represent with Dirty Harry (1971), Paul Kirsey in Death Wish (1974). I don't think it's necessarily a simply violent power fantasy. Society has made itself impotent to the point where people do not resist evil on a large level, particularly violent crime. New Yorkers carry bribe money to buy off muggers. I think there is a desire right now that the intelligentsia aren't aware of and can't relate to - the desire to take back the power that we've given away as human beings, to say no to criminals."

I see the obvious Travis Bickle Taxi Driver (1976) influences in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One (1986) when Bruce Wayne's walking down the streets around porn theaters and he meets the underage prostitute Holly and the pimp Stan, and he tries to save the girl from the pimp. In Taxi Driver Travis walks down the streets around porn theaters and he meets the underage prostitute "Easy"/Iris, and the pimp "Sport"/Matthew, and he tries to save the girl from the pimp.

Superman Influences

This is a collage of classic Superman film and TV influences. I made this to broaden minds about the character. Superman was intended to have elements of comedy, and romance, as well as sci-fi. Harold Lloyd invented the romantic comedy film and inspired Clark Kent. Reporter Torchy Blane was a major inspiration on the creation and characterization of Lois Lane and in the film Torchy Blane in Panama (1938) played by Lola Lane was the inspiration on the creation of the name Lois Lane.

The film His Girl Friday (1940) was another inspiration on the characterization of Lois Lane. The competitive banter rivalry working relationship between Maddie Hayes and David Addison in the Moonlighting (1985-1989) television series was close to classic Lois Lane and Clark Kent by Siegel in the 1940s, the George Reeves and Phyllis Coates portrayal in the 1950s, John Byrne's reboot in the 1980s, and even influenced the Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher portrayal in the 1990s.

Jerry Siegel said on Superman: The Comic Strip Hero documentary (1981), "The concept was that there would be a mild mannered reporter Clark Kent, Lois Lane who scorned him, but flipped over Superman, not knowing that Superman and Clark Kent were one and the same person. Both Joe (Shuster) and I wore glasses most of the time and it occurred to me that there was no adventure comics hero at that time who wore glasses and it would be quote different to have Clark Kent wear glasses and also the wearing of glasses gives the impression of meekness and mildness, which goes into Harold Lloyd. There was the influence of Harold Lloyd on us and his movies. We're both great movie fans and we especially loved those movies in which Harold Lloyd would start off as a sort of mamma's boy being pushed around, kicked around and thrown around, and then suddenly he would turn into a fighting whirlwind." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTUrFYU2e_I


A major inspiration on the creation and characterization of Lois Lane was reporter Torchy Blane in films played by Glenda Farrell and specifically the name Lois Lane was inspired by Torchy Blane in the film Torchy Blane in Panama (1938) played by Lola Lane. Hildy Johnson in the film His Girl Friday (1940) played by Rosalind Russell was another inspiration on the classic characterization of Lois Lane. Jerry Siegel explained in 1988 in a letter to Time magazine, "Our heroine was, of course, a working girl whose priority was grabbing scoops. What inspired me in the creation was Glenda Farrell, the movie star who portrayed Torchy Blane, a gutsy, beautiful headline-hunting reporter, in a series of exciting motion pictures. Because the name of the actress Lola Lane (who also played Torchy) appealed to me, I called my character Lois Lane."
http://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics/comics.php?topic=articles/lois-lane

Lois Lane in the Fleischer Superman cartoons in the 1940s was very similar in look and attitude to Rosalind Russell's portrayal of aggressive, sarcastic and humorously caustic reporter Hildy Johnson in the film His Girl Friday, which had debuted the year before.
http://www.redboots.net/loislane/actress.htm

John Byrne said in Amazing Heroes # 96 (1986), "'My' Lois is based almost entirely in personality on the way Rosalind Russell played Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday. The female reporter of the 1930s, seems to have had a liberated bent that her sisters were not allowed at that time. It's interesting to see those films now and realize they're 50 years old, and the woman reporter is very much with it and together and knows her job and is respected by her fellow reporters, male and female. So, like Russell's Hildy Johnson, Lois is self-aware, self-possessed, strong, gritty, but with a feminine side. It's possible to be feminine without being weak."

John Byrne said, "Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant make a terrific Lois and Clark in 'His Girl Friday'." http://images.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17757&PN=0&TPN=1

Voice actress Dana Delany said she based her performance of Lois Lane from Superman: The Animated Series on Hildy Johnson in the film His Girl Friday (1940) played by Rosalind Russell. Dana Delany explained, "As an actor you just take it from the words, and it was written in that 'ratatat' style of the ‘40s film dialogue. I immediately thought of Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, which makes sense because she was a reporter in that film. Rosalind Russell, especially in that movie, always had a quick delivery; kind of snappy, and I just decided I was going to model Lois after Rosalind Russell in that movie." http://comicsalliance.com/dana-delany-interview-lois-lane-superman-animated-series-flashpoint/

In the course of John Byrne's Amazing Heroes # 96 (1986) interview, it occurred to Byrne that he was portraying the relationship between Clark and Lois something like the one between the Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd characters David Addison and Maddie Hayes in the television series Moonlighting (1985-1989). "I hadn't really thought of it that way, but it is going to be close. She resents and will always resent, the fact that he beat her to that first Superman story and still beats her to stories. They're rivals. She secretly admires him and he certainly admires her. He has no reason to dislike her. Every once in a while, she has to remind herself how much she hates him." Lois calls him "Kent" all the time, but significantly, when he is thrown overboard by terrorist in the fourth issue of The Man of Steel, "she goes 'Clark!'"

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997) producer Deborah Joy LeVine called the series "Moonlighting with a cape."