SPANISH DRACULA (1931)

Although the Spanish-language Dracula – filmed at night on the same set while the American version was filmed at day - follows essentially the same plot as the American, this film is a more interesting version. The dialogue has been enhanced; the cinematographer has found more interesting camera angles; and the dress has allowed for an eroticism (apparently you could get away with it with Spanish audiences) found in the novel by Bram Stoker but... Read more

ON THE SHORES OF LAKE GENEVA: THE STORIES OF BYRON, SHELLEY AND POLIDORI

In The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories, editor Alan Ryan describes the European party that produced  Frankenstein, The Vampyre, and Lord Byron’s Fragment of a Novel: “George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), the great English romantic, did not confine his dark and often gloomy imaginings to his poetry. In 1816 Byron planned a trip across Europe, intending to visit Switzerland, where he would meet with his friends, Percy Bysshe Shelley and... Read more

DRACULA (1931 FILM)

It doesn’t hold up as well as the Frankenstein films, which are more fluid. The 1931 Dracula is a bit slow; it’s more like a stage production that must linger longer on a particular set than it should, even though in this case, cinematographer Karl Freund was one of the greatest. The criticism must fall into the lap of the director - Todd Browning was good, but was not a genius. LUGOSI However, there’s no denying that Bela Lugosi will forever... Read more

PREFACE TO FRANKENSTEIN

Following is Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s preface to her work, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus .  It’s interesting because it provides insight on how the story came to be and on the values of Romanticism.  Note that Shelley considers her work to be based on the possibilities of science; science run amok and inhuman is one of the themes of Romanticism.  I am struck by the fact that Shelley, rather than spinning some yarn of the... Read more

ON DIRECTOR ROGER CORMAN

Roger Corman might be known to some for movies like Swamp Women (his first movie), Hot Mamas in Chains and The Wild Angels, as he practically invented the exploitation movie, and quite a number of films –masterpieces, really –were based on the works of Poe, and other horror films, such as The Little Shop of Horrors.  As a matter of fact, a few years later American International tried to cash in on the success of the Poe movies by changing the... Read more

THE RAVEN (THE POEM, 1845)

The story begins late, late into a bleak December night, which has endured the melancholy of the fall of autumn leaves and the bareness of the trees, but has not yet entered into the hope of a new year,  It begins in the midst of a midnight not only in darkness but in dreariness – the roots of which are not sad, but also bloody and gory. The embers in the fireplace are dying. The soul of the narrator is shrouded with discouragement. His sorrows... Read more

THE RAVEN (1935 ORIGINAL)

The Raven (1935 version) is the second of two movies that Boris Karloff (notably billed only as ‘Karloff’) and Bela Lugosi did together based on Edgar Allen Poe titles - the first being The Black Cat – but neither followed the plot of the story they were named after. The movie gets its title and its relationship to Poe from the antagonist’s fanaticism of the early American author, replete with a stuffed raven in his study and Poe-inspired... Read more

THE RAVEN (1963 RE-MAKE)

This 1963 American International comedy-horror film based on the poem by Edgar Allen Poe,  starred Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff and was directed by Roger Corman. Karloff had starred in the original 1935 version. It was late for both Karloff and Lorre in their careers, so they were probably not being swamped with offers; this might account for this budget movie having both these great actors. In fact, this was the next to last film... Read more