The Monster That Challenged the World

Well, my first two movies this year were beachy,  so I decided to keep with that theme, so tonight I went with a little twist:  it's an inland beach on a salt lake- California's Salton Sea.

Honestly, the story is secondary to me for that.  I mean, yeah, killer mollusks are pretty cool.  And yes, it's nifty having Disney's Captain Hook, Hans Conreid, play the wise older scientist. (Seriously, in my head, I'm hearing him scream at a boy in an elfsuit).

And as a kid, watching this on a weekend creature feature, one of the monsters got a spear through it's eye and that was...impressive.

The monster is hunted by the Navy, who had a base on the sea til 1978.

But their trips off base, to the vacation destination to close the beach, was what really got me as an adult.

Because of agricultural run-off, the lake became... post-apoclayptic.  Algal bloom, fish die offs, things became unpleasant.  Life on the shores ceased to be as vacationy and things went to Hell in a handbasket.

This movie provides a snapshot of "before".  KQED produced a fascinating documentary, narrated by director John Waters. 

KQED has made available online- enjoy!

Attack of the Crab Monsters

As I was writing the post for Island Claws, it occurred to me that I haven't seen Attack of the Crab Monsters in... probably decades.

I remedied that thanks to Amazon Streaming.

There's a Joe Bob Briggs comment, when asked ,hsow many movies he'd seen,  he quotes a huge number (6,800 drive in movies) and that he'd gone to

"this one drive-in where they start at dusk and show twelve movies every night. And I said there ares't enough hours in the night time to see twelve movies...Joe Bob said 'You han't seen these movies.'"

At an hour and five minutes, this is one of those movies.

A joint navy - science team arrives on a Pacific island to investigate a missing research group.

The island is geologically unstable and there's talk about the impact of nuclear testing in the Pacific, which "explains" what happen to the previous team: crabs got them.  Not just any crabs. Carnivorous crabs that gain the knowledge of the people they've consumes.  As they've consumed scientists, they're clever crabs indeed.  Also, there pretty good mimics, replicating the voices of those they've consumed.

And arrogant as fuck.  Threatening the party, the crab tells them  "So, you have wounded me; I must grow a new claw.  Well and good, for I can do it in a day!  But will you grow new lives when I have taken yours from you?".  It doesn't call them "puny mortals" but that was some serious Doctor Doom level threatening there.

I realize Corman's movies are the big screen equivalent, or ancestors, of SyF surey originals, but they sure are a fun way to pass an overcast afternoon.

Island Claws

Well, I'm horrified.
Horrified that I haven't posted anything here in over a year.

I'm going to change that in 2019, starting with the "it totally should be a classic, why isn't it?" Island Claws from 1980.

On a small Florida coastal island, bad things are happening.  First, there's been a leak at the local nuclear plant.  Then, the local crab population, the subject of a biological experiment, seems to be getting out of control.

The ominous massings of crabs, click-click-click click-click-click, are the first indicators.  The death of the town banjo playing idiot at the hands of a crab swarm let's us know they're not playing around.  To really raise the stakes, a pretty blonde girl is their next victim.

Just to cement the fact: the crabs then kill a dog and cause a small girl to lapse into a coma.

Evil, evil crabs.

Not until the third act do we get to see the kicker that'd been foreshadowed... a GIANT crab.  As fine a special effect as anything seen in a Roger Corman movie (see Attack of the Crab Monsters), Island Claws is  a fun romp that harkens back to the fifties nature-gone-wild, like Them! and The Deadly Mantis, with an ensemble cast including Nita Talbot (the Russian woman from Hogan's Heros), Barry Nelson (Mr Ullman from The Shining), and Robert Lansing (Gary Seven! from Star Trek).

What really surprised me about Island Claws, other than seeing Ricou Browning (Creature from the Black Lagoon) in the writing credits, was how subtle and timely some of the bits were and still are- yes, the Three Mile Island-ness of the local power plant was reminiscent of Fukushima and a subplot involving Haitian refugees echos some of the recent issues with Nicaraguan asylum seekers.

The Boy of a Thousand Faces

The Boy of A Thousand Faces by Brian Selznick  is one of those books that I wish I'd had as a kid. "After the crowd lit their torches and chased the Phantom into the river, after the Hunchback met his death in the darkness of the tower, and after the Creature disappeared back into its black lagoon, Alonzo King went to bed."

Alonzo loves classic horror movies, has a favorite horror host- Mister Shadows- and wants to be the next Lon Cheney.

He's started working on his own collection of a thousand faces when he discovers that Mister Shadows died years ago-  after sending him one of his make up Polaroids.

Soon the beast is spotted in town...

A special touch is one piece of make up that is only on the cover- the Weird-Oh! from Dick Smith's Monster Make Up.    This was found on news stands and through ads in the back of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Book Review Monday: Fascist Lizards From Outer Space

It's one of those things, that you don't even know exist, but when you find out, it's something you've waited for, for years.

 All of a sudden, the little piece of unknown empty is filled. For some, it's religion. For others, it's love. For me, it was Dan Copp's Fascist Lizards From Outer Space: The Politics, Literary Influences and Cultural History of Kenneth Johnson’s V.

Seriously.

When I saw the title on the list, without the subtitle, I knew I had to read it. Then, discovering it's 1) Non-fiction, 2) From one of the best pop-culture publishers ever, McFarland, and 3) About the coolest science fiction television show of the eighties... well. Sounds like perfection to me. I was able to get an reader's copy, and I was more than pleased.

First, Copp fills a fanboy need we didn't even know exists. V, the original, was two mini-series and a short lived prime time series about lizard aliens in people costumes, who came to Earth for our water and people as food. FLfOS provides an excellent view of the behind the scenes development process, from Kenneth Johnson's original ideas in the original mini-series, to the follow-up mini-series that Johnson wasn't involved, to the weekly series that... had flaws. Copious interviews with not just the production staff, but the stars as well, give the reader not just a terrific background on a cult favorite show, but also allow for a deeper understanding of just what goes into developing a network television show.

For the old-school V fans, Copp provides something that Trek fans take for granted: an episode guide. He's rewatched every classic eighties episode and provides some pretty good commentary.- for example, because it was SCIENCE FICTION and I was a kid, the Diana/Lydia/ Dynasty thing was lost on me. I was all about the lizard people eating rats, or the makeup tricks that seem simple today, but at the time, were pretty spectacular- like the unmasking of one of the Visitors: he was captured by the resistance and unmasked on live-tv in the story, so they made a prosthetic face piece for the actor, of his own face, that went over an alien face piece that went over the actor's skin. I think it was TV Guide that showed how it was done.

Of course, like good cult television, it didn't die just because the show got canceled. There were novels, from Pinnacle then Tor. Several moves ago, I lost my collection of them, but they're easy enough to replace. There was also a short lived comic book. I think the artwork impacted that more than the cancellation of the show- it was by classic Flash artist Carmine Infanto. This was the hey-day of George Perez and John Byrne, and Infanto's art seeemed... clunky.

Copp includes a look at both of those, as well as what might have been- Johnson's generation mini-series, over several years, and even a follow up from Babylon 5's J. Michael Straczynski. But these were not to be, sadly, because in 2009 ABC brought V back with a reimagining for the post 9/11-Obama era.

I found this part of Fascist Lizards a little dryer than the earlier part of the book, mostly because  I never saw the reboot, not a single episode. Apparently, I wasn't alone. Fraught with behind the scenes shakeups, V-The Reboot never really grabbed the audience like the original did.

Copp reminds us, however, that Kenneth Johnson still owns the rights to the movie version, so there's always hope.

As with all McFarland books, Fascist Lizards from Outer Space is lovingly and exhaustively researched. At $19.99 it's more accessable to the fans than most of their other titles, a good shelf companion to a box set of DVDs and yellowing mass market paperbacks. Highly entertaining and informative.

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

Th

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.