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Voltan is the main antagonist of then 2001 Woody Allen film The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. He is a hypnotist/magician and amateur criminal.

He was played by the late David Ogden Stiers, who also plays John Ratcliffe in Pocahantas, Mr. Maellard in Regular Show, one of Satan's human guises in Touched by an Angel, and the Penguin in Batman: The Mystery of the Batwoman.

Personality[]

Voltan is very smooth-talking and charming, especially when performing in front of public. But when he has his victims under his power, he shows his true colors as a scheming and greedy two-bit crook. Voltan also appears to be very cunning when assigning his victims to make robberies by making specific instructions when he calls them to say the trigger word to hypnotize them, including making them forget that they committed the crimes. He is also smart enough to make more-than-one sleeper agent as when C.W. becomes indisposed after being arrested for his unwitting thefts, he turns to Betty Ann to complete them.

Biography[]

Voltan first appears perfomring at a club where he designates the movie's protagonists, C.W. Briggs and Betty Ann Fitzgerald, into being in his hypnosis act. He unleashes his hypnotic abilities through his small golden scorpion statue called the (titular) Jade Scorpion and hypnotizes Betty Ann and C.W. into thinking their married and on a honeymoon before releasing them from his spell. He has also used the trigger words "Madagascar" and "Constantinople" on them respectively.

That night after the show, Voltan calls C.W. and re-hypnotizes him into stealing valuable jewels from the wealthy Kensington family and orders him to keep the jewels in his house and go back to sleep and to not remember what occurred. The heist is a success and C.W. is utterly oblivious that he committed the crime when it was reported the next day.

He later triggers C.W.'s hypno word again to steal from another wealthy estate and to, again, hide the jewels in his home. When clues of C.W.'s guilt is found by the authorities, C.W. repeatedly denies al of the evidence pointing to him due to his lack of recollection. When Betty Ann begins to doubt his guilt, she soon finds the jewels in his apartment and an ill-timed phone call from Voltan to make C.W. take the Kensington jewels and put them in a safe box at Grand Central Station. The jewels from the second heist are recovered and C.W. is arrested and tried for theft while Voltan recovers the Kensington jewels.

Voltan later re-hypnotizes Betty Ann after C.W. is no longer available due to being on the run after escaping custody and hiding at Betty Ann's place. He orders her to steal from another wealthy estate and hide the jewels in her apartment and to have no memory of what happened after the theft is complete. The next day, after news of the heist is unleashed, Betty Ann assumes that C.W. used her to commit more crimes.

Later that day, C.W. and his friends, George and Alvin, soon uncover Voltan's hypnosis conspiracy after the latter two accidentally brainwash C.W. again by uttering his trigger word. Once C.W. is permanently released from the trance, he regains his memories of stealing the jewels and suddenly worries that Betty Ann is now facing the same problem. That night, he goes to he apartment and discovers an address for Chinatown and puts out an A.P.B. on Voltan, who is awaiting in Chinatown for the hypnotized Betty Ann to bring him the jewels she stole. C.W. arrives to confront Voltan on his scheme and when he pulls a gun on C.W., the latter calls his bluff, saying that a small-time crook such as himself does not have the audacity to commit murder. This is proven true as Voltan gives a look of hesitation while holding the gun. Suddenly, police sirens are heard wailing and Voltan tries to escape with the jewels but the police chase after him. They likely catch him and arrest Voltan for conspiracy and theft while C.W. and Betty Ann (who is soon freed from the hypnosis) are absolved of the thefts and the jewels are returned to their rightful place.

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