The first film I ever saw was Goldfinger, the classic Bond film starring Sean Connery. And since watching that film alongside my father, who spoon-fed me Bond after Bond film, I have had a slight obsession with villains, bordering on madness. The villain of that particular film, the titular character, was played wonderfully by Gert Frobe. His portrayal of a villain wasnt the most dangerous one Ive seen, certainly his acrimony was meagre, but it stuck with me. Since then I have been obsessed with villains, both real and fictitious, and their crimes. The fictitious ones to which I am drawn are not only in cinema, they are where they originated in essence, literature. Some of the most iconic I have come across include Hannibal Lector, Alex Delarge and the Joker. The true essence of the criminal is not entirely in what he does, but instead in how he does it. If we look to my all-time favourite villain from any genre throughout history, Arthur Conan Doyles Professor James Moriarty: here is a mastermind, a man with a brain so powerful that he presides over a self-built criminal Empire which carries out such eclectic crimes with such secrecy that he has managed to become the most dangerous criminal mind of all time. He is never suspected (except by his nemesis, Sherlock Holmes), never seen, always feared and all-powerful. Moriarty never acts out his plans himself, instead leaving that to his muscle and occasionally, when the job requires special talent, to his loyal henchman, Colonel Sebastian Moran. Moriarty is a psychopath who suffers from hereditary criminal strains in his tree. He has no moral compass; he is pure evil, a man who wants only power and money. This kind of criminal, the genius whose byzantine operations are always successful is the most dangerous. He is meticulous in planning, managing to set off bombs and more in such anonymity that the reader or viewer is astounded, even though this man is a fiction. He is dangerous because he is precise, his absolutely incredible mind can penetrate the most powerful defences, he knows where to strike in absolute precision, a strike which can destroy the pillars of whatever it is he is attacking in an instant. He is worse than a destructive idiot because the idiot will go running at the pillars with a hammer, and he will be seen and stopped. I mentioned that he was a fiction, that wasnt entirely honest of me. Moriarty is based in part on Adam Worth, one of the greatest geniuses to have ever walked this Earth, certainly perhaps the greatest criminal mind weve ever seen. Worth was the man nicknamed the Napoleon of the criminal world," a title Doyle used for his iconic villain in the altered form of the Napoleon of crime. Worth was an odd criminal, but a wonderful mind. He insisted that his men, part of his major criminal network, never use violence, and they obeyed for the best part. They never knew his name or who he was or where he was from. One of his iconic operations was one he carried out personally, the theft of over five hundred thousand dollars in uncut diamonds from South Africa. Worth didnt storm in and steal it, he befriended the postmaster, playing chess with him and adjusting himself to the mans personality. Earning the mans trust, Worth managed to make a wax impression of the fellows keys and when he had a chance, opened the doors and stole what he came for. But Worths greatest crime was the simple theft of
Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire, a wonderful painting by Thomas Gainsborough. The offence took place in 1876. Directly opposite to what any other criminal would have done, Worth kept the painting for himself some say he loved the Duchess. He probably did. He kept it in a false bottom of his suitcase for years. Worth died penniless. An article one said of Worth: If the Devil ever existed, Worth lifted his keys, wallet and watch. Moriarty is a driven character, a man of an insane sight who can destroy any object that presents itself to him, aside from the one exception of the only person as clever as he is, Sherlock Holmes, who eventually causes the Professors death on the Reichenbach Falls. What makes a mastermind villain? A real-life supervillain? He hardly ever she requires a dichotomy of genius and evil, or at the very least, genius and borderline moral insanity. He needs an eye for detail, a meticulous planner and obsessive perfectionist (the criminal version of Stanley Kubrick, perhaps?) and a fearful character. If he is not fearful in person, then he must make his people scared of him by never revealing himself, by remaining anonymous, thus shading himself in darkness. Anyone can commit a crime, I feel entirely certain that I could rob the shop where I work and Id easily get away with it, but it takes a certain genius to formulate a plan to steal diamonds, to kill a politician or do any of that crazy crap. I dont know that I should be so interested in criminals but then again, what of those people who study criminology in such detail? The geniuses of crime are fastidious planners, eccentric geniuses, morally insane and hell-bent on their own personal desires. They use gangsters and thugs like tools, paying them in large funds for their loyalty and when necessary, scaring the hell out of them to keep them fearing their boss. For me though, none will come close to Moriarty, the epitome of a supervillain.
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