SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #187

Peripheral JACK CARSON acted in an episode of TWILIGHT ZONE with--

Primary ARTE JOHNSON, who voiced "Virman Vundabar" on JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED.

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Primary JOHN CARSON (not shown) acted in CAPTAIN KRONOS VAMPIRE HUNTER  and in episodes of INVISIBLE MAN, ADVENTURES OF SINBAD, THE AVENGERS and THE NEW AVENGERS.

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Primary JOHN DAVID CARSON , best known for movies like THE SAVAGE IS LOOSE and EMPIRE OF THE ANTS, voiced the character of DINO BOY.

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Primary JOHNNY CARSON made a couple of cameos on GET SMART.

THE PREMATURE BURIAL (1844)

Poe starts out this story with a serious tone, surveying the life of a man fearful of being buried alive due to his catalepsy. However, halfway through the story, Poe takes an antic turn, and the fellow actually gets his act together and overcomes his death-obsession.

It's a rare example of a Poe protagonist getting over his "psycho" nature. The 1962 film mostly adapted Poe's idea of the protagonist making a special crypt from which he could escape premature burial, and then added a "murder the husband" plotline.

THE OBLONG BOX (1844)

The unnamed narrator of this story is sort of an anti-Dupin. On a sea-voyage, he notices some odd behavior in the party of a well-to-do man, who happens to have a large "oblong box" in his luggage. The narrator attempts to suss things out and comes to completely wrong conclusions. The truth only comes out because the ship takes on water and sinks, which causes the man with the oblong box to reveal its entirely mundane contents.

The title was the only thing the 1969 movie had in common with Poe.

"THOU ART THE MAN!" (1844)

I haven't read enough Gothics to be sure what was the first time anyone used the trope of the "phantasmal figuration"-- which usually, though not always, consists of the attempt of some character in a story to project the illusion of some weird or supernatural entity. However, "Thou Art the Man" *might* be the first time anyone created such an illusion for the purpose of causing a criminal to expose himself. (Granted, Hamlet crafts a play designed to "catch the conscience of the king," but the performance doesn't create any illusion as such, it merely makes King Claudius nervous enough to retaliate.)

An unnamed narrator follows the case of an apparent murder-victim, the wealthy Barnabas Shuttleworthy. The narrator doesn't reveal his suspicions to the reader, but describes in detail the ways in which Shuttleworthy's boon friend  Charles Goodfellow conveniently finds enough clues to condemn another local of the crime (though as yet Shuttleworthy's body has not been found by police). The narrator finds the body, though, and uses the corpse and his own ventriloquist skills to make Goodfellow confess his guilt--after which the murderer drops dead and the innocent man is released.

Clearly in this story of detection, Poe was less interested in touting the superiority of the sleuth than in satirizing the stupidity of the townspeople.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #186

Primary DIAHANN CARROLL voiced the character of "Queen La" in THE LEGEND OF TARZAN.

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Primary JANET CARROLL acted in an episode of KNIGHT RIDER.

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Primary JOHN CARROLL starred as the title character of ZORRO RIDES AGAIN.

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Primary LEO G. CARROLL played "Mr. Waverly" on both the MAN FROM UNCLE and GIRL FROM UNCLE shows.

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Primary PAT CARROLL, best known as "Urusla" in THE LITTLE MERMAID, voiced "Queen Hippolyta" in a 1988 SUPERMAN cartoon, and also voiced characters in THE SUPER SIX and in ASTERIX AND THE BIG FIGHT.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #185

Primary BARBARA CARRERA acted in CONDORMAN, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, and an episode of FORTUNE HUNTER.

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Primary TIA CARRERE starred in the series RELIC HUNTER and acted in KULL THE CONQUEROR, MERLIN THE RETURN, and episodes of HERCULES and WAREHOUSE 13, as well as voicing characters in ASTERIX VS. EARTH, AMERICAN DRAGON JAKE LONG, and MEGAS XLR.

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Primary JIM CARREY acted in THE MASK, KICK ASS 2, and BATMAN FOREVER.

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Peripheral LEO CARRILLO acted in the 1943 PHANTOM OF THE OPERA with--

Primary FRITZ FELD from the 1966 BATMAN.

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Primary REGINA CARROL acted in DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN.

THE SYSTEM OF DR. TARR AND PROF. FETHER (1844)

I'm surprised that this story has never been very popular in cinema and TV. Perhaps its "big reveal" would seem too obvious to many modern viewers, that of "the inmates running the asylum."

Another unnamed narrator chooses to take a tour of a modern asylum, and finds that all of the members of the staff, including director Monsieur Mallard, seem to act strangely at dinner. The narrator even notices that the people's clothes don't fit them well, but at no time does he tip to the solution. By chance the normal asylum-staff-- who have been tarred and feathered by the reigning lunatics-- manage to break free and re-take the madhouse, though the tarred-up employees look like "big black baboons from the Cape of Good Hope" to the befuddled narrator.

Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether are merely figments of Mallard's imagination, his joking reference to the torments he and his fellow nutcases have visited on the asylum-staff. By story's end the unusually thick narrator still thinks that the fictional authorities still exist, so maybe he's had his own mental breakdown.  

THE PURLOINED LETTER (1844)

In the last of the M. Dupin stories, Poe is careful to have the narrator mention the detective's previous two cases, as if they were something every reader ought to know about. (Shades of Stan Lee's cult of continuity!)

The ingenious solution of the "purloined letter" is now so well that it needs no detailing here. Most of the story takes place in conversation, with Dupin making his usual pithy observations at the expense of unobservant mankind.

MESMERIC REVELATION (1844)

Mesmerism is merely a means for Poe to unleash another of his Poe's philosophical-discourses-in-tale-form. Over a series of treatments, an unnamed narrator uses mesmerism on an asthma-sufferer named Vankirk. VanKirk goes into a trance and tells the narrator that he's passed into a half-world between life and death. The hypnotized man relates his insights into the commensurate nature of God, the universal mind, and "unparticled matter."

This is clearly Poe trying to reconcile theism with the physics-discoveries of his time. Within the story there's no proof of Vankirk's exegesis, except for one odd aftermath. Vankirk dies, and the narrator observes that in less than a minute the man's body "had all the rigidity of stone." I would term this trope "freakish flesh" in that the reader cannot be sure that it's anything but a physiological effect brought on by the sufferer's unique mental condition.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #184

Primary CAMILLE CARR, best known for LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. acted in LOGAN'S RUN.

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Primary DARLEEN CARR acted in episodes of V, BLUE THUNDER, MAN FROM ATLANTIS, and STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE and voiced characters in PIRATES OF DARK WATER, REAL ADVENTURES OF JONNY QUEST, CAPTAIN PLANET, and G.I. JOE.

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Primary DAVID CARRADINE achieved quasi-immortality for his role in KUNG FU, and also racked up numerous credits like KILL BILL, DINOCROC VS. SUPERGATOR, both DEATH RACE 2000 and its 2008 remake DEATH RACE, DUNE WARRIORS, CIRCLE OF IRON, WIZARDS OF THE LOST KINGDOM II, the teleseries KUNG FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, and episodes of CHARMED, AIRWOLF and QUEEN OF SWORDS. He also voiced characters on DANNY PHANTOM and JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES.

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Primary JOHN CARRADINE acted in TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT and episodes of WONDER WOMAN, GIRL FROM UNCLE, GREEN HORNET, ADVENTURES OF FU MANCHU, MAN FROM UNCLE, and KUNG FU.

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Primary KEITH CARRADINE acted in COWBOYS VS. ALIENS and episodes of DOLLHOUSE and ENTERPRISE, as well as voicing "J. Jonah Jameson" in the 2003 SPIDER-MAN cartoon.

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Primary ROBERT CARRADINE acted in ESCAPE TO L.A., SHARKTOPUS VS. PTERACUDA, and the 2003 TIMECOP, as well as episodes of KUNG FU, KUNG FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, and LOIS AND CLARK.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #183

Primary PRIMO CARNERA (left) played "Anteo" in HERCULES UNBOUND.

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Peripheral ALAN CARNEY (not shown) acted in 1959's LI'L ABNER with--

Primary LESLIE PARRISH for the role of "Glacia Glaze" on BATMAN.

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Primary ART CARNEY is best known (in these circles) for playing "The Archer" on BATMAN, but also acted in THE LAST ACTION HERO and FIRESTARTER.

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Primary LINDA CAROL  acted in FUTURE HUNTERS.

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Peripheral LESLIE CARON acted in THE GLASS SLIPPER with--

Primary ELSA LANCHESTER from an episode of THE MAN FROM UNCLE.