Black and White Menace – Feathers McGraw in The Wrong Trousers
Horror Moments, Wallace and Gromit Edition
‘Horror Moments’ is a light-hearted series examining horror-inflected scenes and themes in unexpected places. The ‘moments’ are published weekly on Thursday mornings, and I share bonus content on the history of magic, theatre, storytelling, and more on Monday afternoons – don’t forget to subscribe!
[Spoilers: The Wrong Trousers (1993), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Night of the Demon (1957) and Night of the Hunter, (1955)]
From the moment Gromit lays eyes on the visitor who has answered the ‘to let’ sign in the window, we all know that something is terribly wrong.
The penguin stares Gromit down before wordlessly making it clear that he will not be taking the shabby guest room, but Gromit’s own bedroom. Soon, he is blasting his radio loudly into the night and forcing Gromit to sleep in the doghouse.
Wallace is no help at all as the penguin starts ingratiating himself with the master of the house, fetching his slippers and the morning paper — both jobs Gromit always used to do. In one of the most devastating scenes in animation, Gromit finally decides to leave, gazing mournfully at a photo of him and Wallace before packing up a few possessions and heading out into the night.
But things are about to get much worse. The new lodger has noticed a pair of mechanical trousers, programmed to do chores around the house, capable of walking on ceilings — and this has given the penguin an idea.
Driving Gromit away has all been part of his sinister plan.
Menace is a strange, mercurial thing which is difficult for filmmakers and actors alike to capture connivingly. It’s a testament to how brilliant Aardman is as an animation studio that they have succeeded so well with a plasticine penguin, but it’s also evidence of how horror-literate the Wallace & Gromit franchise is. Every angle and every shadow helps to tell the story, drawing on a long tradition of menacing villains on screen.
In honour of The Wrong Trousers, here are three of my favourite menacing black and white villains that are almost as terrifying as the beady-eyed penguin.
Dr Caligari
The German Expressionist movement has arguably never been topped for monochrome menace and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is one of its most enduringly influential films.
With its stark theatrical sets, bold makeup and exaggerated costume it feels ahead of its time and of its time, making the most of all the stylistic elements silent films did best before technology moved on. It’s a genuinely unsettling watch even to a jaded modern horror fan.
Facial expressions and body language are everything in Dr. Caligari which stars Conrad Veidt — surely one of the most expressive faces ever put to film — as the troubled sleepwalker Cesare.
Caligari himself, played by Werner Krauss, is a hypnotist with a disturbing influence over Cesare, using his somnambulism to puppeteer him and commit crime, just as Feathers McGraw uses a sleeping Wallace installed in the ‘wrong trousers’ to steal a diamond from the local museum.
Karswell
Night of the Demon (1957), an adaptation of the M.R. James’ short story ‘Casing the Runes,’ had a troubled production history and for many doesn’t quite count as a horror ‘classic.’ I love the film, to a great extent because it offers one of my favourite menacing villains.
Julian Karswell is the rumoured leader of a Satanic cult who has used magic to curse his detractors and is apparently in control of a formidable demon. He’s a fascinating personality, at one point found prowling the grounds of his mansion in clown makeup performing sleight of hand for local children, congenial and charismatic, yet poised and ever-watchful. His polite façade is a conspicuous mask which we feel could drop at any moment.
Niall MacGinnis is responsible for breathing so much menace into the character who steals every moment he’s on screen, even if it’s just one of his hands. We constantly second guess the things he says, wondering whether he is telling us the truth and whether he is really in control of the occult forces he unleashes. “The magician doesn’t like to expose his magic,” Karswell warns us “black or white.”
Harry Powell
I watched Night of the Hunter (1955) for the first time recently and was blown away: it’s an astonishing film, now regarded as one of the best ever made yet totally rubbished when it was first released.
Robert Mitchum plays Harry Powell, a serial killer posing as a preacher who justifies his exploitation of women with biblical misogyny. When he arrives at the home of the recently-widowed Willa Harper, Willa’s son John immediately suspects that something is wrong. John’s instincts are correct: Powell had shared a cell with John’s father before his execution for bank robbery, and he knows that someone in the family has access to the stolen $10,000.
What follows is a cat and mouse chase where John, and his little sister Pearl, must flee a man who will stop at nothing to discover their fortune. That some have detected hinted themes of child abuse makes the pursuit all the more menacing, and the cinematography is sublime. It’s such a shame that director Charles Laughton thought he’d made a flop.
In Wallace & Gromit, the penguin lodger is discovered to be none other than the wanted jewel thief Feathers McGraw who has escaped detection through the cunning use of a chicken disguise which makes him virtually unrecognisable.
Luckily his dastardly plans are thwarted and he is marched to jail by the same ‘wrong trousers’ he had used in his heist—
—but not forever! Feathers McGraw is returning very soon in Vengeance Most Fowl, due to be released this Christmas (2024). I was so pleased when I heard about this film, I can’t wait to see what this black and white menace does next. Until then, check out these other villains if you haven’t watched their films already, and let me know in the comments which ones I missed,
Happy nightmares everyone!
Horror moments are posted every Thursday and a wide variety of articles exploring the history of magic, theatre, storytelling, and more are published on Monday afternoons.
It's the dead eyes. I love Feathers McGraw
"Feathers McGraw who has escaped detection through the cunning use of a chicken disguise which makes him virtually unrecognisable."
Excellent.
Feathers McGraw was one of the most terrifying childhood villains, to the point where I have never gone back to revisit "The Wrong Trousers" even as an adult. However, I did enjoy revisiting by way of your film analysis!