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"We are the music-makers / And we are the dreamers of dreams" - Arthur O'Shaughnessy

Precisely on the last stroke of ten, the factory door opens and a figure slowly walks into view. The first thing you notice is his dress style, one part Beau Brummel and three parts Mad Hatter - camel-colored top hat, deep plum frock coat, oversized gold bow tie, riotously flowered vest - but despite his baroque appearance his demeanor is sternly sad and he walks with a stiff-legged limp, leaning on his gold-handled cane to maneuver him along the red carpet. A profound hush falls over the crowd, so that the sounds of the figure echo in the stillness as he makes labored progress along the red carpet - step-click, step-click - toward the wrought-iron factory gates. Just before he reaches the crowd, the cane lodges firmly between two cobblestones, and for a few steps he continues without it. Slowly, comprehension dawns on his face as he futilely grasps at the air. A beat, and he slowly falls forward... then tucks and rolls, doing a neat somersault. As he rises up before the crowd, top hat in hand and wild curls set free, the sad blue eyes suddenly twinkle with delight and a smile breaks over his face, as though he had just shared some secret and marvelous joke. He spreads his arms wide - and as they say in the sports world, the crowd goes wild.

In just under one minute of screen time, Gene Wilder has managed to do two notable things: first, he has concisely expressed the unpredictable, magical quality of the character of Willy Wonka; second, he has his audience - both onscreen and off - eating out of his hand. And all this is accomplished without a single word of dialogue. According to the Internet Movie Database, Wilder accepted the role only on the condition that he be allowed to introduce the character with this scene, which was his own idea. He believed that by firmly cementing the concept of Willy Wonka as a trickster, the audience would stay with him no matter what else he did - and he was right.

Wilder must have known that he would need the audience to stay with him. Willy Wonka is, after all, a character of many moods - not all of them sweet and whimsical. He may sing a dreamy little song as he introduces his guests to the fantastic Chocolate Room, but he also whips his cane down hard enough to draw welts and bruises on those who might be tempted to stray too far ahead, and he isn't above pulling hair to get a child's attention. His laissez-faire methods of letting

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