[[Paul Rhys]]
[[Tony Gardner]]"},"occupation":{"wt":"Scientist, Amateur Detective"},"gender":{"wt":"Male"},"nationality":{"wt":"American"}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwBA">Fictional character
Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen | |
---|---|
First appearance | The Problem of Cell 13 |
Created by | Jacques Futrelle |
Portrayed by | Douglas Wilmer Paul Rhys Tony Gardner |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | Scientist, Amateur Detective |
Nationality | American |
Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., M.D., M.D.S. is a fictional character in a series of detective short stories and a novel by Jacques Futrelle, the best known being The Problem of Cell 13 . [1]
In the stories, Professor Van Dusen solves a variety of different mysteries with his friend and companion, Hutchinson Hatch, reporter of a fictional newspaper called The Daily New Yorker.
The professor is known as "The Thinking Machine", [2] solving problems by the remorseless application of logic. This nickname was given to him after his winning of a match against the fictional chess champion of the day, Tschaikowsky, in a demonstration to show the power of applying pure logic. He was able to win against the reigning champion, having only been taught the game the morning of the match. Many of his titles are actually honorary degrees awarded to him, serving only to amuse the universities and scientific institutions that crown him with those titles.
Van Dusen's catchphrases include, "Two and two always equal four," "Nothing is impossible" and "All things that start must go somewhere."
His first story gives numerous details about his background, physical appearance, and personality:
In appearance he was no less striking than in nomenclature. He was slender with the droop of the student in his thin shoulders and the pallor of a close, sedentary life on his clean-shaven face. His eyes wore a perpetual, forbidding squint—the squint of a man who studies little things—and when they could be seen at all through his thick spectacles, were mere slits of watery blue. But above his eyes was his most striking feature. This was a tall, broad brow, almost abnormal in height and width, crowned by a heavy shock of bushy, yellow hair. All these things conspired to give him a peculiar, almost grotesque, personality.
Professor Van Dusen was remotely German. For generations his ancestors had been noted in the sciences; he was the logical result, the master mind. First and above all he was a logician. At least thirty-five years of the half-century or so of his existence had been devoted exclusively to proving that two and two always equal four, except in unusual cases, where they equal three or five, as the case may be. He stood broadly on the general proposition that all things that start must go somewhere, and was able to bring the concentrated mental force of his forefathers to bear on a given problem.
First Series
Second Series
Third Series
Fourth Series Cut short by Futrelle's death on the Titanic.
"The Golden Dagger," "The Problem of the Knotted Cord," "The Problem of the Organ Grinder," "The Problem of the Private Compartment," "The Problem of the Ghost Woman," "The Problem of Convict No. 97," and "Five Millions by Wireless" have never been reprinted in book form. "The Grinning God," "The Case of the Scientific Murderer," and "The Tragedy of the Life Raft" have been reprinted only in magazines and anthologies.
The story "The Problem of Cell 13" was broadcast as "The Problem of Cell Block 13" on the American TV series Kraft Mystery Theater in 1962, with actor Claude Dauphin as the van Dusen character (but named Lowell in the episode). The program also featured Philip Pine and Vic Perrin. [3]
The professor appeared in two episodes of the 1970s Thames Television series The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes . Douglas Wilmer portrayed Van Dusen in "Cell 13" and "The Superfluous Finger." [4] The 1981 Australian Broadcasting Commission series Detective dramatised "The Brown Coat" with John Hannan as Dusen.
Between 1978 and 1999 the German radio station RIAS produced and broadcast 79 radio plays based on the character. A few of them were based on original stories by Futrelle, but most of the scripts were new creations by German author Michael Koser. The role of Hutchinson Hatch is a lot more prominent in the radio plays than it was in the original; Hatch was made into the fictional narrator in the radio version. The series has been revived in 2015 with 37 new cases available via CD and downloads. Since 2010, the old radio plays are being remastered and made available on CD with comments by Koser, director Rainer Clute and former cast members.
In 2011, the BBC Radio 4 series The Rivals featured Paul Rhys as Professor Van Dusen in Chris Harrald's adaptation of "The Problem of Cell 13", which was directed by Sasha Yevtushenko. He returned for the first episode of the second series in 2013, in Chris Harrald's adaptation of "The Problem of the Superfluous Finger", produced by Liz Webb. In the fourth episode of the fourth series in 2016, "The Mystery of the Scarlet Thread", Van Dusen was played by Tony Gardner.
In 2013, the character appeared in Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's graphic novel Nemo: Heart of Ice ; the character aids explorer Janni Nemo in 1925 when she encounters H. P. Lovecraft's Elder Gods in Antarctica. He returns in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: The Tempest , the final part of the series; set in 2010. He has been resurrected as a sentient A.I., becoming a literal 'thinking machine.'
Gene Weingarten, twice Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist at The Washington Post , named his MacBook Pro "Augustus Van Dusen" after the character. [5]
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