The Penguin's accessories

[The Laughing Fish]

The promotional character poster, as well as the election campaign poster within the film, shows the Penguin wearing his monocle and holding a cigarette holder in his mouth. In the film, however, the only time he is seen wearing the monocle is when he's researching at the Gotham Hall of Records and the only time we see him with a cigarette holder is when Josh gives it to him to reclaim his birthright before Penguin spits it out of his mouth in annoyance.

Along with the rest of the portrayal, I can imagine the most die-hard comic book purists at the time would've hated how these details were underutlised, but it makes sense in the film. It's a little unreasonable to expect him to keep these aristocratic details when he was abandoned by his own family and left to float alone in the sewers as an infant. Obviously, if he had not been born with these birth defects, Penguin may have adopted these accessories much more often.

Has anybody encountered anyone else having some gripes about the lack of these accessories worn by the Penguin?

[thecolorsblend]

I was slightly irked by them back in 1992. Their brief use felt like I was being placated.

These days, that stuff doesn't bother me as much. If anything, their usage on the campaign posters while the real Oswald never has them rings true. The campaign posters are trying to sell a freakish, deformed monster to the city. And the posters are using lies and subterfuge to do it. For some reason, that works just fine for me.