#kingoftheclaudespoll

Propaganda

Captain Louis Renault (Casablanca) - The best and most iconic character of the entire film, if not the entire movie genre. He is what makes this movie possible and I honestly couldn't imagine it without him. Claude's back must've hurt from absolutely carrying this film and according to records, he finished his filming for Now, Voyager and literally the next day, jumped right into shooting for Casablanca. That's dedication right there. I adore Renault, his stupid mustache, and he has more rizz in that right eyebrow than more people do in their entire bodies. I wouldn't need convincing in order to get an exit visa from him. He oozes charm and has the perfect velvety voice in order to carry out his orders (when he feels like it!) and plays both sides to perfection. I desire him carnally (can I put that here?) and he's such a special character and he's what brought me into the wonderful world of old movies. To me, he'll always be the true King of the Claudes!

Erique Claudin (Phantom of the Opera) - My favorite Phantom! Does it differ wildly from the book? Yes. Do I care? NO! Claudin starts the movie by BREAKING YOUR HEART IN TWO and then after the first act he gets to lean into the creep factor by murdering people who get in the way of him helping his daughter achieve her opera goals. While the father/daughter story was cut from the final film, you can 100% see it in Claude Rains' wonderful performance that this is a man so filled with regret at leaving his infant daughter 20 years ago, that he is willing to do anything to help her succeed…even if she doesn't know that he's the one helping her.

This is the final match up for The King of the Claudes Tournament! Other polls and results can be found here!

Additional Propaganda under the cut!

**Both of these fine Claudes have a lot of propaganda, so we are attaching what we can and making another separate propaganda post to include all submissions, which you can find HERE!**

Propaganda

Captain Louis Renault (Casablanca) - The best and most iconic character of the entire film, if not the entire movie genre. He is what makes this movie possible and I honestly couldn't imagine it without him. Claude's back must've hurt from absolutely carrying this film and according to records, he finished his filming for Now, Voyager and literally the next day, jumped right into shooting for Casablanca. That's dedication right there. I adore Renault, his stupid mustache, and he has more rizz in that right eyebrow than more people do in their entire bodies. I wouldn't need convincing in order to get an exit visa from him. He oozes charm and has the perfect velvety voice in order to carry out his orders (when he feels like it!) and plays both sides to perfection. I desire him carnally (can I put that here?) and he's such a special character and he's what brought me into the wonderful world of old movies. To me, he'll always be the true King of the Claudes!

Dr. Jack Griffin (The Invisible Man) - He may be an invisible loser but he's MY invisible loser! He's my favorite Universal Monster and just a whole lotta growling energy packed into a small package. I love his laugh and his soft moments when he's with Flora. It really brings a sense of humanity to a "monster" and those thirty seconds he's "visible" gave me a "Oh, no! He's hot!" reaction. His monologues pop off and he can do so much with his voice, going from 0 to 100 in a millisecond. Not to mention, I think he has the highest kill count for a Universal Monster, which is surprising. I guess only an invisible English dude with a vendetta is more powerful than Dracula, haha!

This is round one for The King of The Claudes tournament and other matchups can be found here!

Additional Propaganda under the cut!

No propaganda, just spooky vibes and general ghoulishness!

~Happy Halloween!~

Hello everyone! We're so excited to begin our tournament which will start at 7 PM EST. Again, we're planning on scheduling one poll a day, each one lasting one week and having five polls a week. You can submit propaganda via our ask box or by tagging us to reblog it @kingoftheclaudes. Match-ups can be found via our pinned post and that will update with each new poll. Thank you all so much for sending in propaganda so far and we hope everyone has fun!

And, on a related note...

Happy Birthday Claude Rains!

Propaganda

Dr. Jack Griffin (The Invisible Man) - The raw POWER this man has in his voice makes me want to give him all my money and go gathering nuts in May. We don't even see him until the very end for like thirty seconds. Please, he had us in the beginning trudging through all the snow. Plus, he strips to run away from his problems!

Sir John Talbot (The Wolf Man) - yeah, sure. tie me to a chair. i wasn't going anywhere anyways.

Erique Claudin (Phantom of the Opera) - Look, I may not be a proud individual after my submission but...DILF. Silver fox to the max.

This is part of our Halloween Mini-Polls! Follow our #halloween minis tag for more polls!

More propaganda under the cut!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you all so much for your submissions, propaganda, votes, and all-around support for this silly little tournament. Never did we think we would get so much love and we're glad to bring to light the career and highlights of one of the world's greatest actors - Mr. William Claude Rains.

This blog still will remain active and will continue to be Tumblr's hotspot for all things Claude Rains-related and we'll be hosting more tournaments in the future as well as keeping up with reblogs and other fun stuff. We're likely going to be announcing the start date for The Queen of the Claudes mini-tournament sometime soon and our ask box is always open for questions, comments, and general silliness!

A silly little place with polls about our favorite silly little actor, Claude Rains!

Prior to the creation of this blog, we were shocked (shocked!) to find that across the Tumblrverse, time and time again, Claude Rains would be beaten by fearsome opponents in the race for the crown of various hottest/scrungliest/what-have-you titles. So, we've decided to take matters into our own hands to give some well-deserved love to this beloved character actor through various polls!

The King of the Claudes Tournament has ended! Congratulations to Captain Louis Renault! Long may he continue to round up the usual suspects!

The Queen of the Claudes Tournament has begun! Matchups can be found HERE or through our #queenoftheclaudespoll tag!

Our next tournament, as decided by the voters, will be Best Villains! Stay tuned for more details and propaganda submission guidelines!

Just here for the polls? Check out our #kingoftheclaudespoll tag! Looking for photos? Have a gander at our #the daily claude tag! Weenie roast related asks can be found by following the #weenie roast tag!

Specific past polls can be found HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE or through our #round one, #round two, #round three, #round four, #quarterfinals, #semifinals, #finals, and #redemption round tag!

FAQs

Who's Claude Rains? Great question! William Claude Rains was a British screen/stage/radio actor who was primarily known for his character acting and there was never a role he couldn't seem to play (When asked about his versatility as an actor, he replied that he "can play the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker"). He was a frequent collaborator with stars such as Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, and Cary Grant, among others and worked with directors such as Michael Curtiz and Alfred Hitchcock. He was nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and won a Tony Award for his role in Darkness at Noon. Oftentimes, people know him as "that guy" when talking about his roles in iconic films (such as Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Invisible Man, and Lawrence of Arabia). He also served in WW1 (even fighting alongside individuals such as Basil Rathbone and Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and called himself a "gentleman farmer", often returning back home to tend to his farm in between shooting for films. Also, if you search up the term character actor, you see a lovely still of him in Sons of Liberty!

Why is this blog a thing? Because it has been a deeply saddening affair to watch Claude Rains get stricken down during various polls (and we mean every. single. one. [although, we had a grand Round One victory over on @vintagetvstars!]) and we feel he deserves to win something! Also, this blog hopes to bring more recognition to his great work! We'd also like to thank @hotvintagepoll for directly inspiring us to create this blog and if you haven't already, please go check them out!

Where can I find [character] and/or [movie] related content? We have a pretty extensive tag system both by character and by movie as well as the movie's release year, so for example, searching up "Victor Grandison" or "The Unsuspected" should bring you to what you're looking for! If you can't find something, please feel free to send in an ask or message us! :)

What's a weenie roast? Weenie roasts are (usually) nights where our ask box is open for fun questions and a time to kick back to enjoy around a virtual bonfire with plenty of marshmallows and weenies to go around! Follow our #weenie roast tag for all answered asks!

Who should I vote for? We are judging the portrayal of the character here, not the characters themselves. Claude played a lot of baddies (some worse than others) but we are not judging how good or bad a character is morally, only on the portrayal. Who will be the winner? That's up to you!

How can I submit propaganda? Before a tournament starts, we will be accepting propaganda through a Google Form and we will be accepting written and visual propaganda(pictures, GIFs, and video clips) to go along with each character. We're also only looking for propaganda from the particular film a character is in, but we're open to headshots/professional stills from the time it was filmed! Please only submit propaganda for one character at a time and don't hesitate to send in multiple submissions! We'd like for each character to have propaganda, so go nuts in your submissions!

Looking for a complete list of Claude Rains characters and movies? Here is a list of all the wonderful movies! We're also pretty good at finding places to watch all of them so if you'd like any direct links or advice, shoot us an ask!

Additional Propaganda? We encourage additional propaganda through our ask system or by tagging us @kingoftheclaudes. As previously stated, we will only be accepting/boosting propaganda from Mr. Rains' film career, so no GIFs from his various Alfred Hitchcock Presents or radio snippets from his various Lux Radio Theatre broadcasts. We also tag each film and each Claude in an effort to make things easier when searching through the taglist.

These polls are mean to be short 'n sweet (much like Mr. Rains!) and not meant to be taken seriously! We just want to have a good time enjoying the many works of Claude Rains and all views expressed in propaganda and tags are not our own!

What happens after the polls end and the crown is handed off? We're working behind the scenes on scheduling the next set of mini-polls for 'Best Villain'! We may be open to doing a series of mini-polls, such as 'Best Father', 'The Battle for Science', 'King of TV Land' and 'Historical King of the Claudes' among some others. If you have some more ideas, let us know!

My question isn't answered! Feel free to send in an ask but always check the FAQ before, since your question may have already been answered!

We hope you enjoy our fun little polls and wish all the Claudes the best of luck!

(sneaky @tournament-announcer tag and a bonus Claude as a thanks for reading this far! :))