Bald man with the long nose

bald man with the long nose
A Series of Unfortunate Events character
First appearance	The Bad Beginning
Last appearance	The Carnivorous Carnival
Information
Occupation	Trouper
Portrayed by	Luis Guzmán
Appearances	The Bad Beginning The Miserable Mill The Hostile Hospital The Carnivorous Carnival

The bald man with the long nose (often simply referred to as the bald man) is a fictional character in the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. He is a tertiary antagonist in the series and a member of Count Olaf's theater troupe. Although the bald man's real name is never given, he is frequently referred to as "Flacutono", an anagrammatic pseudonym based on the letters in "Count Olaf".

Characterization

Luis Guzmán as the bald man in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

The bald man with the long nose, named as "among the nastiest members of Olaf's troupe",^[1] is described by Snicket as "bald as an egg"^[2] (a trait he hides while in disguise by wearing a wig). His nose is of such unusual length he is forced to hide it, too, when in disguise, and Snicket describes it as "all curled up […] like an alligator hiding in the mud" when hidden under a surgical mask;^[2] his nose is also described as "enormous",^[3] perhaps indicating it is more than just long. When first introduced in The Bad Beginning, the bald man is described as wearing "a long black robe",^[4] a costume he retains throughout the series;^[5] he is further described as having bony hands.^[6] The bald man has "dark and beady eyes"^[2] and a "rough…voice"^[7] (openly contrasted with Olaf's shiny eyes and smooth voice),^[7] and laughs with a "high-pitched giggle".^[8] Snicket describes the bald man as "quite clever",^[1] although in The Miserable Mill Dr. Orwell asserts that he is not as clever as Olaf or herself.^[9]

In The Bad Beginning, the bald man implies a friendly relationship with Olaf,^[10] though no further evidence of this is shown throughout the series. He displays a paraphilic attraction to Violet not shared by the other troupers on several occasions, ogling her when they first meet^[8] and referring to her as "little sleeping beauty" when her unconscious body is being prepared for decapitation.^[11] In addition, he is consistently crueler than the hook-handed man, with whom he is often paired, even getting in an argument in The Hostile Hospital over the necessity of killing Violet,^[12] expressing a desire for her to awaken while her head is being sawed off^[13] and stating that "it's lots of fun fooling innocent people."^[14] While in disguise as Foreman Flacutono, he is verbally and physically abusive toward the Baudelaires, whereas the hook-handed man is markedly genial while disguised as Dr. Lucafont and even helpful to the Baudelaires while disguised as the doorman of 667 Dark Avenue.

While disguised as a foreman, the bald man institutes tyranny over the lumbermill workers, prompting one to call him "the worst foreman the world has ever seen",^[15] and repeatedly mispronounces the Baudelaires' last name and calls them "midgets". In The Hostile Hospital, he confesses to the other members of the theater troupe that things have been "very stressful" at work (hunting down the Baudelaires), leading to his sour disposition.^[16] The bald man repeatedly expresses prejudice against the freaks at the Caligari Carnival, and remarks that watching Beverly-and-Elliot (Violet and Klaus's two-headed freak disguise) try to eat is "more fun than kidnapping."^[17] When the freaks try to join Olaf's troupe, the bald man expresses his objections;^[18] his attempts to stop the freaks from joining eventually lead to his death.

In a review of Tim Curry's audiobook narration of the series, Laura Miller of Salon.com praised Curry's voice performance as the bald man.^[19] Luis Guzmán, who portrays the bald man in the film, called the part a "dream role". He described the character as "a follower with no place to go."^[20] Nevertheless, the bald man's role in the film, where he appears as a buffoon, is greatly diminished.

Character biography

The Bad Beginning

See also: The Bad Beginning

The bald man with the long nose is first introduced in The Bad Beginning (1999) at a dinner party thrown by Count Olaf. The bald man ogles Violet and tells her not to upset Olaf, lest the count wreck her "pretty little face."^[8] When Olaf forces Violet and Klaus to take part in The Marvelous Marriage (a play composed to secretly marry Violet to Olaf), the bald man stands onstage next to Klaus in the orphan's only scene. He warns the children that if they fail to participate, the hook-handed man will murder their sister Sunny on Olaf's behest.^[6] When Sunny is released and the marriage is annulled, the bald man assures Klaus that Olaf will murder the three children after the audience leaves;^[21] but when Arthur Poe attempts to arrest Olaf, the count escapes with the bald man and the rest of his troupe.

The Miserable Mill

See also: The Miserable Mill

The bald man makes his second appearance in The Miserable Mill (2000). A week prior to the Baudelaire orphans' arrival at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill, Olaf murders the mill's foreman, Firstein,^[15] and the bald man takes the foreman position under the pseudonym "Flacutono" (an anagram of "Count Olaf"). As foreman, the bald man wears a wig and a surgical mask to disguise his distinguishing traits from the Baudelaires, and earns the contempt the mill's workers as overly retributive and verbally abusive, even flouting the mill's co-owner, Charles. Count Olaf (disguised as the receptionist "Shirley Sinoit-Pécer") concocts a plan with the aid of the hypnotist Dr. Georgina Orwell to force Klaus to murder Charles. The bald man carries out much of this plan, tripping Klaus and breaking his glasses so the orphan must visit Dr. Orwell (who is an optometrist) and issuing the hypnotic commands (by means of the trigger word "lucky") that lead Klaus to bind Charles to the mill's head saw. After Violet dehypnotizes Klaus and Dr. Orwell is killed by the saw instead of Charles, the bald man (still disguised as "Flacutono") pretends to have been acting under the optometrist's hypnotic influence, but when Arthur Poe sees through Olaf's receptionist disguise, the bald man and the count escape through the Lucky Smells library window.

The Hostile Hospital

See also: The Hostile Hospital

The bald man makes his third appearance in The Hostile Hospital (2001). After the Baudelaire orphans escape Olaf, his girlfriend Esmé, and a mob (on false charges of murder) at the end of the previous book, the count brings together his complete troupe in order to search out the orphans. When Esmé captures Violet in the library of records at Heimlich Hospital, the bald man with the long nose and the hook-handed man are tasked with preparing her unconscious body for a public decapitation. The bald man adopts the pseudonym "Dr. Flacutono" (the so-called "surgeon who invented the cranioectomy"),^[22] and he and the hook-handed man try to outperform one another in pandering to the audience of the operating theater. When Klaus and Sunny (disguised as the white-faced women in an attempt to rescue Violet) are revealed as the "Baudelaire murderers" to the crowd, the bald man remarks, "Now you know what it feels like to be a villain."^[23] After Olaf sets fire to the hospital, the bald man escapes with Olaf, Esmé, and the surviving members of the theater troupe.

The Carnivorous Carnival

See also: The Carnivorous Carnival

The bald man makes his final appearance in The Carnivorous Carnival (2002). He travels with Olaf and his troupe to Olivia Caliban (disguised as the fortuneteller "Madame Lulu") at the Caligari Carnival. Olaf creates a carnival attraction in which randomly selected sideshow freaks are fed to the starved V.F.D. lions. The theater troupe members, including the bald man, dig a pit overnight to contain the lions. Esmé, who is jealous of Olaf's affection toward Olivia, informs the freaks that if they feed Olivia to the lions, they will be inducted into Olaf's troupe. When the attraction is held, the freaks try to push Olivia into the pit, but the bald man, partly as a result of believing the freaks unworthy of membership and partly as a result of the chaos that ensues, tries to stop them, and he and Olivia fall into the pit together and are eaten by the lions.

See also

Novels portal

• Count Olaf's theater troupe
  • Hook-handed man
  • White-faced women
  • One who looks like neither a man nor a woman
• V.F.D. members
• Count Olaf

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} p. 178, The Hostile Hospital
2. ^ ^{a b c} pp. 32–33, The Miserable Mill
3. ^ p. 5, The Carnivorous Carnival
4. ^ p. 47, The Bad Beginning
5. ^ p. 54, The Reptile Room
6. ^ ^{a b} p. 139, The Bad Beginning
7. ^ ^{a b} p. 64, The Miserable Mill
8. ^ ^{a b c} p. 49, The Bad Beginning
9. ^ p. 162, The Miserable Mill
10. ^ p. 48, The Bad Beginning: He asks, "Are these those wealthy children you were telling me about?" while in the presence of other troupers (as opposed to saying "…you were telling us about?"), implying the conversation was limited to the two of them. Further, the bald man tries to sit in the front seat of the troupe's getaway vehicle in The Hostile Hospital, but is kicked out by Olaf, who gives the spot to Esmé (pp. 251–252, The Hostile Hospital).
11. ^ p. 182, The Hostile Hospital
12. ^ p. 180, The Hostile Hospital
13. ^ p. 185, The Hostile Hospital
14. ^ p. 200, The Hostile Hospital
15. ^ ^{a b} p. 25, The Miserable Mill
16. ^ p. 181, The Hostile Hospital
17. ^ p. 57, The Carnivorous Carnival
18. ^ p. 245, The Carnivorous Carnival
19. ^ Laura Miller (Salon.com)
20. ^ Rudy Arispe (Conexión)
21. ^ p. 149, The Bad Beginning
22. ^ p. 192, The Hostile Hospital
23. ^ p. 219, The Hostile Hospital

References

• Arispe, Rudy (December 16, 2004). "In his own light: Luis Guzmán still is learning the craft he stepped into". Conexión. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SAEC&p_theme=saec&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=1125AE5755454830&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. 
• Miller, Laura (November 14, 2003). "A delicious voice speaks of abominable things". Salon.com. http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2003/11/14/snicket_audio/index.html. 
• Snicket, Lemony (1999). The Bad Beginning. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-440766-7. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2000). The Miserable Mill. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-440769-1. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2001). The Hostile Hospital. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-028891-4. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2002). The Carnivorous Carnival. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-441012-9.