31 Days of Dracula- Day 31: Nosferatu Th Vampyre

The first movie I watched this month was Murnau's Nosferatu, and that's a good way to end the month, with the remake.

I've seen a lot of movies this month, but Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre practically left me speechless, even after previous viewings..

Herzog remade the Muranu movie in the late seventies and it still holds up wonderfully.

First, it's a beautiful film. Composition, lighting, sets, costumes, it's just a joy to look at. It's like the Merchant/Ivory horror film- seriously, even a die hard horror hater that lives to re-watch Room With a View could watch this movie and love it.

Secondly, the acting is superb. Klaus Kinski brings enough melancholy to the role that even with the make up you almost feel sorry for him. It is a little distracting... that sometimes... he sounds... like Peter Lorrie.

Bruno Ganz plays Harker. Watching this made me realize, I don't think I've ever really enjoyed a portrayal of Harker in the movies. He's just... there. He gets the plot moving then it's on to the back burner with him.

Isabelle Adjani, however, I think is probably one of the best Mina's I've seen- even if she's called Lucy in this production. Despite being fragile in the first part of the movie- to the degree that she faints when her husband returns home and doesn't recognize her- she finds her strength in defending her husband and city against Dracula.

And they do call him Dracula, officially, in this version, filmed long enough after Dracula had become public domain that Herzog avoided the problems of the earlier version.

Despite it being released in 1979, I didn't get around to watching it until a few years ago and I don't understand why I took so long to watch this. It's always been on my radar- my favorite reference is from John Skipp and Craig Spector's novel The Light at the End, where a vampire is preying upon New York City and a couple of movie fans realize what's happening during a showing of Nosferatu at a Times Square movie house.

Normally, I try not to include clips in my posts- it just seems like padding to me, but I want to share with you the movie gold that this thing is, so here's a clip- the ship bringing Dracula to Wismar, silently coming into port, piloted by a dead man:

 

 

31 Days of Dracula- Day 30: Waxwork

Some movies are distinctly products of their era.

Waxwork is a quintessentially eighties movie, almost a horror version of a John Hughes film.

Six college classmates are invited to a private showing at a waxworks and are transported into the tableaus. Among the scenarios are zombies, a werewolf, and Dracula's castle

.

It's a light hearted horror movie and the Dracula portion is ghoulishly hilarious.

 

The girl, Chyna, experiencing the Dracula scene isn't particularly nice, so she gets what's coming to her. She get's dinner with Dracula and family, where she's served raw meat.

 

"I haven't had steak tartar in a long time," she tells him.

 

It turns out the meat is the fiancee of the girl she's supposed to be within the waxwork. He's restrained in the basement, as food for the vampires, parceled out a bit at a time, his left leg sliced off under the knee.

 

She dispatches several vampires but eventually falls victim to Dracula, played by Miles O'Keefe, previously seen in Tarzan with Bo Derek and Ator, the Blade Master.

It's a silly little movie that's a delightful tribute to classic horror- to the degree that the Mummy sequence has Swan Lake as the soundtrack, the same piece of music that that introduced the opening credits of Boris Karloff's The Mummy.

I hadn't seen this movie in over a decade, and it's just as much dumb fun now as it was back in '88, which isn't that big a surprise since the director, Anthony Hickox, was the son of Douglas Hickox, director of Vincent Price's Theatre of Blood.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 29: The Horror or Dracula

I had so many more movies I wanted to hit but all of a sudden, we've got three days to go before October is over.  It's always been a short month for me and this is been an especially short one.

But I knew I had to do a couple of Hammer movies before it was over, because hey, Christopher Lee.

In the UK, it was simply called Dracula.  In the United States, it was called The Horror of Dracula.

Either way, it was brilliant.

Unlike the Universal film, which was based on a stage play based on Bram Stoker's novel, Hammer went straight to the novel... and started cutting.

It's still the same basic story, Van Helsing, Mina, Harker, Dracula- this time it's in Technicolor.

Vivid, red, Technicolor.

And there's liberties- the entire story is set on the European continent; there's no voyage to England here. Relationships are different. Harker is engaged to Lucy, Lucy is Holmwood's sister, Mina is Holmwood's wife. Van Helsing is still Van Helsing and Dracula is still Dracula.

But what a Dracula this is. While Lugosi was Eurosuave, Christopher Lee's Dracula was upperclass-cruel-sexy- playing the Count ten times in his career.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 28: To Die For

Tonights movie was To Die For aka Bram Stoker's To Die For aka Dracula: The Love Story to Die For aka Dracula: The Love Story aka Bram Stoker's Dracula: The Love Story To Die For.

Yeah. You know a movie with this many titles has to be good.

Well, good-ish. Apparently it was on cable a lot in the early nineties- since I didn't have cable back them I missed didn't see it.

Vlad Tepes has come to LA in 1988 and needs a real estate agent to find him a home; Kate's a real estate agent in a crappy relationship. Of course she falls for the mysterious foreigner, and finds him a big ol' castle looking thing.

He gets a Renfield in Kate's roommate Cici, who's hired as Vlad's secretary. Cici falls for Vlad, Vlad falls for Kate. Cici and Kate's boyfriends play the calvary.

It's SO totally eighties. Big hair and shoulder pads- for everybody. And it's not just 80's - it's SoCal eighties, like something out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel.

Almost a post script- I didn't mention any of the actors by name, because, honestly, it was SoCal girl 1,2, and 3, broody guy, and SoCal Boyfriend 1 & 2. But looking at the IMDB listing I saw a name the stood out: Duane Jones. Ben from Night of the Living Dead. He plays a policeman in this, and he's pretty good. Not as amazing as his turn in Night, but still pretty good.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 27: Dracula (Spanish 1931)

Universal was very, very clever back in the day. They would save money by filming foreign language versions of their movies using the same sets and scripts. Probably the most famous of these is Dracula, starring Carlos Villarias as the Count.

I wasn't sure what to think the first time I saw this movie.

I'd seen the Lugosi version several times, so I was familiar with the sets and script, but this movie stands pretty well on its own merits.

Pablo Alvarez Rubio doesn't bring the same degree of pathos to Renfield as much as Dwight Frye does, but he's certainly crazier.

Lupita Tovar is Eva, the "Mina" for this production, is much sexier than Helen Chandler.

 

And Carlos Villarias. He reminds me slightly of Steve Carrell. Which makes him all the more menacing. He's kind of dashing as well. At least for me, he lacks the sense of otherness Lugosi as Dracula, speaking accented English, surrounded by native speakers, has, since Villarias is speaking Spanish to Spanish speakers.

Director George Melford was lucky enough to watch the daily footage of Tod Browning's Dracula and was able to use what suited him while changing things as well. He's got a much more dynamic use of camera than Browning.

Of course, my favorite thing about the movie is how the film faded into obscurity until David Skal's 1990 book Hollywood Gothic brought it back on to the cultural radar, Skal travelling to Cuba in 1989 to see the best print available. 1992 saw the movie show in revival in Hollywood.

In fact, when Skal revised Hollywood Gothic for a later edition, the chapter on the Spanish Dracula is considerably longer.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 26: Van Helsing

When I saw Van Helsing at the movie theater, I hated it.

It's good to know it's just as good on dvd.

It's a sort of tribute to the classic Universal Horror movies, directed by Stephen Sommers, the fellow who did The Mummy movies. It has Dracula, Frankenstein's Creature, The Wolfman, and the Hunchbacked assistant, like the classics House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula.

Of course, the House movies didn't have superninja Van Helsing with ubercool steampunk weapons played by Hugh Jackman.

Nor did they have Kate Beckinsdale, playing Transylvanian battle vixen Anna. (Van Helsing and Underworld seem to have made her action-chick, which is disconcerting for me since I learned to love her during multiple cinema viewings of The Last Days of Disco.)

But Richard Roxburgh has a heckuva time playing Count Dracula- playing it over the top, since he is an undead prince of darkness.

Frankenstein's Creature is probably the most sympathetic here than in many productions in recent memory- in fact the opening sequence of the birth of the Creature and the angry villagers at a burning windmill is the best part of the whole movie, filmed in black and white, the sets reminiscent of the James Whale Frankenstein movies for Universal.

There's a nice tip of the hat to serious horror fans with the town undertaker, with his top hat, scraggly and feral teeth, he's reminiscent of Lon Chaney Sr in London After Midnight.

I think my main problem with Van Helsing is that it's a summer blockbuster- lots of fight scenes and explosions and plot holes you can drive a tank through (how many nights of the full moon does this story have?). I think I'd have liked it if it were a little tighter a story that wasn't so caught up on the special effects.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 25: Dracula (1979)

Well, if I hadn't seen the Louis Jourdan version of Dracula, I'd declare Dracula (1979) what I'd imagine a BBC version of Dracula would be like.

It's pretty good. Since it's an actual theatrical release it had a budget for costumes, sets and most importantly, actors. Dracula in this instance is played by Frank Langella. He's a sexyDracula though his blown-dry hair, all stylish and seventies is a little distracting.

Of course you can't have a Dracula without a Van Helsing, played here by Sir Laurence Olivier. Olivier isn't quite the classic actor he used to be but it was a good paycheck for him.

This version was an adaptation of the stage play- the same stage play that influenced the Lugosi version- that was famous for the set design by Edward Gorey. Now in the era of CGI, I'd love to see someone do a video production of Dracula using those designs.

 They've been turned into a puppet theatre- this seems to be the best visuals I could find on youtube:

 

31 Days of Dracula- Day 24: Dracula 2000

So, what did Captain Von Trapp do after The Sound of Music? He went on to be a fearless vampire killer.
At least, that's what my brain kept telling me as I watched Christopher Plummer play a descendant of Van Helsing in Dracula 2000.

Van Helsing has an antique store where one of his employees plans to rob his secret treasure vault with a group of her friends.
Unfortunately, there's nothing in the vault but a big ol' locked coffin.

Yeah, they steal it.
Yeah, it does have Dracula inside.

Turns out Van Helsing is the REAL Van Helsing, kept young-ish all these decades by shooting up Dracula's blood.

He's got an estranged daughter living in New Orleans, which is where the coffin ends up, with Dracula seeking the daughter out because she's got a part vampire heritage because her father was shooting up the Dracula blood when she was conceived.

I know. It's like they could have worked this into a soap opera or something.

The poster says "Wes Craven presents", really it's a Miramax/Dimension movie in the wake of first Scream Trilogy, but with a mostly twenty-something cast it's like some bizarre offspring of Dracula and the Scream movies.

Best Part: the casting surprises- a pre-300's Leonodias, pre- Phantom of the Opera Gerard Butler as Dracula and Star Trek Voyager's Jeri (Seven of Nine) Ryan as a reporter doomed to become one of Dracula's brides.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 23: Blacula

Blacula.
In a less capable hands, this movie could have been some cheap exploitation piece; despite being made during the golden age of Samual Z. Arkoff's AIP studio, it's got a smart script and a great leading man.
William Marshall brings a nobility and tragedy to the character of Prince Mamuwalde, who was turned into a vampire by Dracula in 1780 while appealing to the count to help end the slave trade. Dracula not only denies the appeal, the turns Mamuwalde into a vampire while entombing his wife, Luva, with him.

Nearly two hundred years later, Mamuwalde's coffin is taken back to America by two gay interior decorators. They free him and his rampage through early seventies Los Angeles begins.

He encounters the re-incarnation of Luva, Tina. Tina's sister Michelle is the girlfriend of the police scientist, Doctor Thomas, who's investigating the rash of strange deaths hitting the city.

The movie is surprisingly forward thinking for its time- the interior decorators are a bi-racial couple and not played for camp value. After they've been killed, their deaths are considered inconsequential by the police, a reflection of the contemporary LAPD's attitude toward minorities.

Unlike most of the vampires I've seen so far, Mamuwalde's story and demise has the depth to raise Blacula from a simple exploitation horror movie to a complex Blaxploitation tragedy.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 22: The Monster Squad

One fun thing about the classic Universal Horror movies was the fact that Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman crossed paths several times. These crossovers faded away to be the thing of Late-Late Shows while the Hammer Studios versions of the monsters took their place in technicolor glory, never crossing over the film series.

In 1987, The Monster Squad got the band back together.

The title refers to a group of kids, horror movie fans living in Anytown, USA. They're a band of misfits, oddballs obsessed with the macabre. Into Anytown comes the monsters the kids venerate- Dracula, leading the Wolfman, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy and The Creature- seeking an amulet that can bring about the End of The World.

They wish to do this because they're EEEEEEEEEEEEVIL of course. The Monster Squad is an eighties-infused love letter to the Universal movies, the best example of this is Frankenstein's Monster; played by Tom Noonan (the Tooth Fairy killer from Manhunter), he brings a sense of pathos to the film with his interaction with the youngest of the Monster Squad, five year old Phoebe. But this blog isn't interested in Frankenstein movies... it's Dracula's project and he totally steals the show. He's suave- rockin' that tuxedo. And classy- he's got a snazzy wolfheaded cane (the ears of the wolf detach and he hooks them to Frankenstein's Monster's electrodes to jump start the monster from a lightning bolt.) And thoroughly, thoroughly evil- he calls little Phoebe a bitch! Never mind trying to bring about the end of the world. The fact that he's played by Duncan Regehr, who'd later play the dashing Don Diego la Vega in tv's Zorro, makes him probably one of the sexier Draculas. The Monster Squad is one of those rare blends of horror and comedy where there's actually a sense of menace from the monsters, while the children's antics in the face of the horror are pretty funny (two of the high points: burning Dracula's face with a piece of garlic pizza and disabling the Wolfman with a kick to the groin ("Wolfman's got nards!"). And I won't even begin to try and describe the wonder and glory that is the Creature from the Black Lagoon in every sense of the concept but makeup- changed sufficently that The Creature wasn't a copyright infringement but a homage. The Monster Squad is some of the best eighty-two minutes I've spent during this project- it was a fun film back in 1987, and it's a terrific film twenty-four years later.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 21: Count Dracula

I mentioned the Louis Jourdan Count Dracula yesterday,  from the BBC starring Louis Jourdan as the Count, and it's refreshing to hear a Jonathan Harker that speaks with a British accent that's not annoyingly fake (yes, Keanu, I'm looking at you.) and a Dracula that isn't a metaphor for VD.

It's BBC from 1977, not the Doctor Who BBC from 1977 but the I, Claudius BBC in terms of production values, even with the occasional special effect.

As a miniseries, it's a little longer than a feature, clocking in at two and a half hours. But it's time well spent.

Top notch cast, led by Jourdan who's even more sauve than Duncan Regehr, but manages to radiate menace every second he's on the screen. The rest of the cast is very BBC, meaning they're probably classically trained stage actors. As such, there's a stage play feel to the piece, the sets giving each scene a chamber piece feel, each room decorated in period style but awarkwardly lit so the fall of the shadows give it a slightly off feel.

One scene they did go all out for was the churchyard and cemetery overlooking the sea, like in the book it was filmed in Whitby.

And the costumes- it was like a Merchant/Ivory movie.

Since it is so long, it moves at its own pace, slower than other productions, but they've been able to stick closer to the original novel than most productions. The BBC's Count Dracula is definitely required viewing from any vampire fan.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 20: BBC Dracula 2006

BBC. Dracula. I've seen the production from seventies starring Louis Jourdan that the BBC did, and it was good, especially considering how well it aged.
So when I heard there was a new, I was excited. David Suchet (Poirot) as Van Helsing? Marc Warren as Dracula? I'd seen Warren in the adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather as the assassin Mr Teatime and I was impressed. And as the new Doctor Who as the yardstick of what the BBC could do with special effects, well... Dracula should be just awesome.
Really.

It should be.

It wasn't.

I'll try and do this quick beause it hurts to think about it. First, the focus shifts from Mina and Jonathan to Lucy and Arthur Holmwood. Lucy want's to marry Arthur, but Arthur has syphilis, passed on from his mother at birth.

Arthur doesn't want to infect Lucy, so he... he contacts a cult that brings Dracula to London to help cure the VD.

Yes, really.

Things go wrong. I'd like to say "Things go wrong from there," but really, they go wrong from the moment the dvd starts playing.

Other than as something for Poirot fans to watch between seasons, I'd say avoid this version. It's well acted and the sets and costumes are nice, but the story is as dumb as a bowl of hair.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 17, 18, 19: In Search of Dracula 1972, 1975, 1977

Tonight's a catchup night, two posts, and this first one is a three-for-one.  In Search of Dracula was a popular title in the seventies. 
First, it was a book in 1972 by Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu.  My copy is from the 1994 re-release because hey!, Edward Gorey cover. 
This was an historical approach to the Dracula legend from an American acacdemic and, remarkably, a Roumanian scholar.  Remember, 1972 was still Cold War era, but Romania was beginning to be its own country in the shadow of Russia.  In a search for national identity, Romania chose their national hero, the defender of the country against the Turks during the fourteen hundreds, Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula.  This books examines the historical figure and considers him relative to the fictional character. 

The book inspired a movie in 1975, also called In Search of Dracula.
Brilliantly, the producers had a masterstroke of casting for their narrator/presenter:  Dracula himself, Christopher Lee.  Lee had played the Count in eight movies at that point, and with his magnetic presence and hypnotic, deep voice, he was the man.

Between the two pieces, ideas that we take of granted, Vlad the Impaler was Dracula, his war with the Turks, pieces that made their way into Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, became part of the legend.

Of course, the story eventually made it's way to television, in a 1977 episode of In Search Of... called, naturally enough In Search of Dracula.

It's almost as good as a truncated version of the movie, with a very special narrator of it own: Leonard Nimoy, the former Mister Spock.  Of course, at under half an hour, it's a pretty much watered down version, but hey, Mister Spock and Dracula!
Viewable here:

31 Days of Dracula - Day 16: The Dynamite Monster Hall of Fame

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This really is a a walk down memory lane, The Dynamite Monster Hall of Fame.  It's more of an overview of the classic movies of the genre, but it gets special attention because of the Lugosi Dracula on the cover, and he's give the first and longest chapter in the book..

There's the standard history and synopsis of the films, from Schreck to Lugosi to Lee, as well as an appreciation of Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and The Mummy among others.

Like the Crestwood House books, this is from 1977-78, which I'm wondering if it wasn't sort of a second wave of monster kids, not the ones who encountered the original Shock Theater and Famous Monsters, but  got to enjoy appreciations of the classic monsters from the first wave monster kids. 

There's an idea- I'll try and pursue it with future posts once October is over-and now, I'm done with Lugosi Dracula except for one more special post.  Next Week:  In Search of and Christopher Lee.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 15: Universal Monsters: Dracula- Return of Evil

Well, here's a fun one.  The premise seems hatched out of committee, but whether Larry Mike Garmon was given the premise or came up with it on his own, Dracula: Return of Evil is a fun little jaunt by someone with obviously a deep affectation for the Universal Monsters.

In a nutshell:  Florida.  Universal Studios Orlando.  Experimental super duper dvd player.  Freak accident.  The classic monsters come to life and have to be captured and returned to the projector across a series of six books.

It's a kids book so the protagonists are all in their early teens with the standard Breakfast Club archetypes.  The monsters are menacing, but really only REALLY dangerous off camera.

What was really clever was releasing this at the same time they repackaged and re-released the movies in 2001.  Even if the casual reader wasn't familiar with the stories past the names, Dracual, Frankenstein,  the videos would be readily available at the local Blockbuster. Ah, marketing.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 14: Universal Studios Monsters Presents Dracula

From the same people who brought us the tray puzzle, Golden Books, this Universal Monsters licensed adaptation of the 1931 movie is one of a series of adaptations from the company.  They had a huge push back in 1991, and two lines of books were part of this. 
One was a slightly post Berenstain Bears series of illustrated adaptations- I've got Frankenstein but Dracula as since eluded me- and the other was fourth grade level adaptation.
No illustrations, but they've got great fold out posters.

This was the not-quite-Lugosi look that Universal was running with at the time.  They'd have a look and market the heck out of it.
There was even a watch in this style.

This watch image below was snagged from ebay, but I had one back in the day- I used to wear a lot of black, read a lot of Anne Rice and smoke cloves, so a Dracula watch went pretty well with all that.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 13: Dracula Beanie From Stuffins

This nine inch tall Beanie Baby-ish figure of Dracula was originally available from CVS by Stuffins back in 1999.  I've been luck enough to pick up a collection of them over the last few years, the set including Frankenstein's Monster, the Bride, The Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Creature from The Black Lagoon, Quasimodo and The Phantom of the Opera.

They made these in three sizes, nine-, twelve-, and twenty-four inch tall- I have a nine-inch Mummy and twenty-four inch Creature, as well as a full set of the smaller ones.

Who would have imagined the King of the Vampires could be so adorable?

31 Days of Dracula- Day 12: Dracula, The Crestwood House Monsters Series

Ah, here's a bittersweet memory from childhood. I loved these books. LOVED them.
Dracula, Frankenstein.  Everyone had a book.
Orange spines from Crestwood House.

They even had a fascinating series on paranormal events- Atlantis, reincarnation, ESP, that sort of thing.

Then one day that came screeching to a halt.  One of my teachers, a math/science teacher, had contacted my mother because she was concerned for me, for my soul.  Because Satan.  These books were a gateway to Hell.

My mother tried to talk to me about it, but she was upset, and it upset me, because I thought I must have done something wrong.  I can't remember exactly how things were settled out, but I sort of stepped back from the monsters for a while.

Because in the real world, a real monster had won.  As an adult, I sort of understand where that poor, horrible woman was coming from.  Outside of school, I later learned, her son had... problems.  So she exercised control the only place she could: on a bunch of children.  She'd regularly interrupt science movies to explain why Evolution wasn't real, but dammit, there was no fucking reason for a bunch of ten year olds to know who Madeline Murray O'Hare was and why she was a threat to Democracy. (Short answer: atheist).

All I know when I think about her is she made my mother cry.  And I will never forgive her for that.

But I have moved on.  I've got a small collection of the Crestwood books.  And she's dead.

That said: These books rock.  The first part of the book, the first twenty or so pages, tells the story of the Universal film with lots of black and white photos.
Then an examination of the novel and the history of Vlad Tepes and vampires, including Elizabeth Bathory.  Next, a history of vampire movies, including a still from London After Midnight, an introduction to Christopher Lee's Hammer movies, seventies films like Blackula and Count Yorga, Vampire, as well as a look at vampires on television like The Night Stalker and Dan Curtis's Dracula.

Re-reading this, I'm amazed at how off the hook this really is:  they came out in 1977, so I would have been seven or eight... getting recommendations for movies like Yorga or Blackula, which... perhaps may not have been appropriate for the under ten crowd.

The Dracula I have has fading to the cover, like the Frankenstein on the right. I'm still looking for a sharper image with a deeper orange cover Dracula like the image on the left.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 11: Dracula is a Pain in the Neck

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I had a three day series of pieces I'd planned on doing and it was going to be HUGE.  Best set of posts EVER.  You'd never seen such amazing posts... and there was a hiccup on the internet and I lost half the first post so I said screw it and I'm doing my second kid-friendly Dracula post instead.  I'll pick up on my original series in a few days.

Dracula is a Pain in the Neck is a kids book about Sam and his little brother Robert.  Robert's best friend is his Dracula doll, who he insists on taking with him to summer camp.  Robert has a special pillow for Dracula to sleep on. Robert takes Dracula VERY seriously:

"Dracula is not a doll...He's the king of all vampires, half man, half bat. He lives at night and he drinks people's blood."

Once they get to camp, there are mysterious goings on, things that seem to indicate that Dracula is real and alive and in the woods with the campers.  It's up to Robert to uncover the truth.

This is another "I would have loved this when I was a kid" thing.  It's a proper follow up after a early childhood viewing of the Bela Lugosi movie.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 10: The Puzzle

Ok, I'm not sure how licensing works.  But Golden Books, the "Little Golden Book" people, those books that nearly everyone had at least one of when they were a kid, actually did a a line of Universal Monster stuff, including this jigsaw puzzle.  I don't know why this baffles me, but it does.  I'll be looking at some of their other items in the next couple of weeks, but imagine giving this treat to your favorite five year old. 
Actually, I know I would have loved this.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 9: House of Dracula

I have a problem with House of Dracula.  See the poster-->
You've got Frankenstein's Monster.
And Dracula.
And the Wolf Man.
And the Mad Doctor.
And the... nurse?

Oh, wait, she's billed as the Hunchback! because she does have one, yes.  But unlike the sympathetic but less than articulate Quasimodo, or the unsympathetic and won't shut up Daniel of House of Dracula or the cruel Fritz of the original Frankenstein... Nurse Nina just happens to be a hunchback; in fact, she's probably the most likeable character in the whole film.

That said, this isn't 31 Days of Nina the Hunchback Nurse.

John Carridine is back as Dracula, this time tortured by his existence, asking a scientist, Doctor Edelmann for assistance in curing his vampirism.  At the same time Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, is in town, looking for a similar cure. 

Coincidentally, Edelman discovers Frankenstein's Monster.  Hilarity ensues.  (Oh, wait, that's the next film Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein).

Of course, Dracula can't help himself and he just has to seduce Edelmann's other nurse, the one without the hunchback.  Because Dracula.

Edelmann betrays Dracula, because Mad Scientist.

It's a workable enough Saturday Matinee movie, but not one I'll likely watch unless I'm binge watching the Universal Monsters movies again.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 8: The House of Frankenstein

Yeah, after this... I'm going to do a couple of other mediums because, well... It was disappointing.

A Dracula always adds a little something to a movie, and that's what you get in The House of Frankenstein, a little something and not really much more.

It is the first time John Carridine played the role of Dracula, brought back to life by Boris Karloff, not playing  Frankenstein's Monster, but a mad scientist, Dr Niemann, determined to gain vengeance on those who imprisoned him. 

In a continuity be damned move, it seems the Count wasn't killed in London, but Transylvania, and his body wasn't dispatched by his daughter.  Instead, the staked skeleton ended up in the possession of George Zucco's traveling Chamber of Horrors.

Zucco is killed by Niemann,  who then takes over the Chamber of Horrors. 

And because pulling the stake out of the skeleton of a vampire is what you do when you have one, that's EXACTLY what Niemann does.  He and Dracula come to an understanding and he sends the Count after one of his targets.

Dracula kills a Burgermeister that helped convict Niemann, but being Count Dracula, he can't help himself and he tries to seduce the Burgermeister's grand-daughter-in-law.

This doesn't quite work out for the Count, who's thrown under the bus first chance Niemann has. 

He's back in House of Dracula though, so as usual in these movies, death isn't really the end.

My main complaint is that HoF really seems like two movies, one with Niemann and Dracula, then one with Niemann and Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman, and that the Dracula half is rushed. 

House of Dracula will be tomorrow night's movie.  Should be fun to see what they do with that.  Then it'll be non-fiction for a few days as a palate cleaner.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 7: CBS Radio Mystery Theater

I'm going to take a break from the movies for a couple of days and look at Dracula in other mediums. Today it's radio.

The May 2, 1974 episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, like usual started off with the creaking door, then EG Marshall introduced Geogre Lowther's adaptation of Dracula, directed by Himon Brown.

This adaptation had a contemporary twist: it updated the story to Connecticut.  Mercedes McCambridge plays Mina Harker, come to visit her friend Lucy, who has fallen ill- secretly the victim of the new guy in the neighborhood. 

For a die-hard horror fan, it's kind of odd, hearing the actress who voiced the demon in The Exorcist also be woman in peril, but McCambridge had the range, being nominated twice for the Academy Award in one season for best supporting actress for two different movies, and winning for one of them.

The ending kind of falls flat, rushed to resolution in the less than an hour they had to work with; Marshall provides an ending, but there's just something about the way it works that makes me think the author had planned on perhaps continuing the story and this was merely the first chapter.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 6: Son of Dracula

Well, after the weird melodrama of Dracula's Daughter, the Count's other offpring showed up in Son of Dracula.
Lon Chaney Jr. was Count Alucard, road tripping it to Lousiana, invited there by Katherine Caldwell, a morbidly inclined young lady who encountered Alucard on a trip to Europe.
Alucard kills Katherine's father and she inherits the family estate, Dark Oaks.

She marries Alucard to become a vampire, but she's playing a long game, hoping her fiancée can destroy Alucard and join her in vampirism, so they could live together, forever.

These things never work out, though, do they?

Of the six Universal Dracula films, this one actually seems more in line with contemporary Gothic sensiblilites, it's almost bingo.  New Orleans.  Vampire. Swamps. "Dark Oaks".  Gypsies.

Considering the director Robert Sidomark's noir filmography, Katherine is practically a goth noir femme fatale, playing her boyfriend against her husband, treachery and betrayal all part of her plans.

When talking with friends, Son of Dracula doesn't seem to get the respect it deserves, not the classic of the original, or as "controversial" as Daughter.... Son seems to be best know for the Alucard anagram rather for the story.

31 Days of Dracula - Day 5: Dracula's Daughter

The Count himself is hardly in Dracula's Daughter, a sequel that picks up moments after the ending of the 1931 Dracula.
In fact, he's just a wax bust of Bela Lugosi.
 Edward Van Sloan returns as Von Helsing, taken into custody after heving told the police he'd put a stake through the heart of the Count.
Gloria Holden is Countess Marya Zaleska, Dracula's daughter, come to make sure her father is truly dead in hopes it will free her from the curse of vampirism.

It doesn't.

She has her own servant, Sandor, who loves being EEEEEEEEEVIL.  She tries to soothe herself after burning the Count's body, she imagines birds and dogs, while Sandor tells her they're bats and wolves.

"Sandor, look at me. What do you see in my eyes?"
"Death."

Of the Universal Dracula movies, Dracula's Daughter stands out because the monster, the vampire, doesn't want to be one.  She longs to be normal.  She sees a psychiatrist even.

No use.  She can't escape her fate.

There is a heavy lesbian subtext here, her attempts to change her nature with the help of a doctor.  When that doesn't work, she gives in to her need by choosing a street girl as her victim.

Dracula's Daughter actually made me a little melancholy, giving us a horror character as tragic as James Whale's Frankenstein's Monster .

31 Days of Dracula- Day 4: Universal 1931

Bela Lugosi's Dracula. Where it all started.  I was a little hard pressed on what to write... there are dozens of books on the movie- I'll be looking at those books during the month- not to mention the coverage it gets in other books.  In fact, when I picked up a used copy of Tom Weaver's Universal Horrors, the chapter on Dracula was mostly missing, but I had a copy of David Skal's Hollywood Gothic that certainly compensated for the missing text.

What I'm sure I've read somewhere, but didn't actually occur to me until my rewatchings was how different the family movies (Daughter of... Son of...) were from the original, which, thanks to it's basis in a stage play based on the novel, seems like a drawing room melodrama.

Lugosi`sets the bar high in this, creating a Dracula by which all subsequent portrayals are judged, fascinating, hypnotic, menacing but suave and sophisticated.  He only played Dracula one more time- in Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein- but played variants on the theme in Mark of the Vampire and Return of the Vampire... I'll be passing on them this season since I'm focusing on Dracula specific pieces.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 3: Nosferatu

I have a special place in my heart for Nosferatu, because I didn't really appreciate it when I was younger. First, it was silent, which practically NOTHING was in the eighties of my youth.  There were the subtleties of German Expressionism, which I totally wasn't prepared for.  Combine that with the over stylized acting of silent movies and it just seemed goofy.  Count Orlock, the *NOT DRACULA* vampire, certainly was special in his unique rat like look.  I think the most memorable thing to me at the time was the fact that I should never have seen the movie at all, that Bram Stoker's widow sued to have them destroyed in a copyright infringement case.

But, a film class here, a couple of theater history classes there, and a late night rewatching of a scratchy videotape, I had the lightbulb moment... OH! now I get it.

Nowadays, I can still watch it, it's silent nature makes it good for background video when I'm focusing on something else.


 

31 Days of Dracula- Day 2: The Graphic Novel

Actually, I was wrong yesterday and didn't realize it until later.  The FIRST version of Dracula I ever read was the "Now Age Illustrated" version.  It's a graphic novel version from before they were a thing.  It's illustrated by Filipino artist Nestor Redondo.

Even today, I still remember black and white art.  The moment that stands out, even after all these years is Dracula, a gleam in his eyes and his hand raised.. asking "What devil or what witch was ever so great as Attila, whose blood is in these veins?' or whatever the quote was- I know it was abridged, but I definitely remember the part about Attila.

While I was working on this I had a moment:
OH MY.  1) Marvel did an edition of this book.  2) In color.
This was the panel I was remembering and DAMN if it isn't as effective now as it was then.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 1: The Book

Happy Halloween Month! 
In celebration of the most monsteriffic of holidays, I'm going to look at one of the greats of the genre, Dracula. 

I'll start where it all began: the novel.  Originally published in 1897, the novel has had multiple editions over the decades.  These three are the core of my bookshelf, and I'll be dealing with each of them in the next couple of weeks, but I'll start with the Essenital Dracula edited by Leonard Wolf from ibooks, the most recent version of the edition I read first. 
Yes, that does sound a little confusing.  The text used in this book is from the second printing of the first edition.  Wolf was the editor and annotator of The Annotated Dracula in 1975.  Byron Preiss Publishing updated the Annotated Dracula as The Essential Dracula, not to be confused with the Essential Dracula from McNally and Florescu from the seventies...
This is what happens when books enter the public domain.

Bats

I have to thank Kensington books for making William Johnstone's Bats available to me in galley format...the fact that I got a comped copy didn't influence me at all, but I have to say: I LOVED IT.

I love the "nature runs amok" genre, and one of my favorite movies is the eco-horror film from 1972, Frogs.  I also enjoyed the (no relation) 1999 Lou Diamond Phillips movie Bats.  So when I saw a listing for the e-release of William Johnstone's 1993 book Bats, I knew I had to read it.

It's crazy.  Johnny McManly lives alone in his compound in Lousiana, hiding from the world and kill squads after being a black ops superninja.  Then the bats show up. 

Giant bats. Smart giant bats. Smart giant mutant bats. 
A bat scientist shows up.  She's woman enough for Johnny, and he's man enough for her, in a totally g-rated sort of way.

The bats can handle sunlight. And are rabid. 
Then the Satanists show up. They aren't too smart so they let one of the bats bite them. Because Hail Satan. Rabies. Not Zombies, but rabid, bitey Satanists.

...and then there's a wild boar. A newly rabid wild boar.

Things just get crazier and crazier, in an awesome Saturday afternoon way.

The media shows up.  Johnstone gripes way too much about the liberal media, making his newspeople whiney enough that you're glad when the bats kill them.  But then, you know they're going to die because it's just that kind of book.

Because it's in football country, we get a nice chapter of Friday Night Lights go to Hell bats attack.

But Johnny McManly stops them with the power of his American testosterone.

The author is just to the left of Tim LaHaye. Not surprising given the inherent conservative nature of his usual genre, the western.

Deus Ex Machina ending, but otherwise a serviceable by the numbers nature gone amok story. Recommended.

The Swarm

There's an old joke about Pia Zadora in the title role in a production of The Diary of Anne Frank.  Toward the end of the play, someone in the audience  had gotten so annoyed with her, they yelled out "She's in the attic!".

Irwin Allen's The Swarm is like that.  A killer bees disaster movie, it should have been a hit. By the last act, though, you want to smear honey on Michael Caine and Katherine Ross, and not in the sexy way.

Following his successes with The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, and in the wake of Earthquake and the Airport movies, Allen returned to directing (after doing the action sequences in The Towering Inferno) after a sixteen year break.  He should have stuck to directing.

Based on the novel by Arthur Herzog, Irwin took a script from his Inferno writer Stierling Silliphant and turned it into a cast of thousands epic.  Michael Caine, Henry Fonda, Jose Ferrer, Olivia De Haviland, Richard Chamberlain, Patty Duke, and Slim Pickens  All wonderfully, marvelously overacting- Pickens mourning his son in a ten minute segment has more range- and EMOTION!- than I've seen in, well anything else he's done.

The effects should have been better.  It was Irwin Allen, for Heaven's sake.  But the wideshots of the swarm looked like coffee grounds.  The final bee killing conflagration was bad bluescreen.

The only redeeming things about it were A) the really, really bad science and B) awesomely snarkable material.  I can be quiet and respectful to movies when they warrant it, but this was PRIME MST3K materail.

We got a flatscreen television and a Roku for Christmas; Warner Brother has an interesting selection of movies that I'm looking forward to watching-  The Swarm?  I'm looking forward to forgetting.