For those of you who enjoy Halloween, a few recommendations. Enjoy.
I think I loved Universal horror films before I ever saw one. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Mummy, they all seeped into our culture to an extent that you don’t have to see the films to know those iconic monsters. I saw spoofs of some of these characters, saw clips of the films and saw stills in books. In my imagination, an early Universal horror film was foggy moors, spooky cemeteries, heroes -lanterns held high - traipsing through the night to save mankind. That they were old, musty black-and-white films made them more exotic.
The first old horror film I saw was Mark of the Vampire (1936), directed by Tod Browning of Dracula fame. I thought, ‘now this was Universal horror.’ It had all the tropes I thought Universal horror would have (see above). I loved it. Thing was, it was an MGM production and a remake of Browning’s lost silent film classic, London After Midnight.
Universal horror, when I did start watching the films, was more and less than I had hoped. At its best, they were original, innovative films that created film horror. At their worst, they were lazy money-grabs with bad sets and uninspired scripts and recycled plots. I also thought that there must be a ton of these Universal monster movies from the ‘30’s and early ‘40’s waiting to be discovered. Not really. A lot of mad scientist films but not too many actual monster flicks.
What I liked most was the fairytale quality of many of these films. Time and place is often amorphous, villagers have cockney accents but dress like Alpine villagers. Woman may dress as if it is the 1880’s but the men dress like its 1930. Geography is warped. England seems to bleed into eastern Europe and France seems to have disappeared altogether. It creates a timeless quality that movie historian David Skal describes as a GI’s nightmare memory of Europe.
The big films from this era are Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man (1941) and The Mummy (1932). Removed in time by more than a decade we have The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). The Invisible Man (1933) seems like it stands apart but is also a classic. Here are some recommendations from the Universal vault that are not discussed as often as the ones mentioned above but are worthy entries for a film fan. Many find these films an acquired taste so if you are a ‘no’ on black and white films, these won’t be your thing.
Dracula’s Daughter (1936):
Did you know that Dracula had a daughter? Well, he did. Countess Marya Zaleska.
The film begins with Professor Van Helsing found standing by the corpse of Dracula (a wax dummy that looks like Bela Lugosi) and he is arrested for murder. The Countess Zaleska arrives in London, with her manservant Sandor, to destroy her father’s corpse, hoping it will free her from the family curse, vampirism. That doesn’t work so she take a shot with some counseling from a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth. Naturally, she falls for the Doc while trying to cut back on the vampirism.
Meanwhile, Van Helsing (here, for some reason called Von Helsing and played again by Edward Von Sloan) teams up with Scotland Yard to chase down a vampire that hunts the streets of London.
Not as well-known as its predecessor, Dracula’s Daughter may be one of my favorite Universal horror films. The first thing of note is that, unlike many of the other Universal movies to date, it is a contemporaneous setting. There are vehicles and art deco apartments, swanky parties and a nod to the Great Depression. You can read any number of metaphors into the movie, the most obvious is addiction. The Countess does not want to be a vampire, loathes herself and seeks help.
Sandor (Irving Pichel) is a throwback, perhaps to an earlier draft of the script. He is pale, creepy and fits nicely into the Universal trope of odd, warped servants like Fritz and Igor. Gloria Holden as the Countess, is a unique leading lady. She is perfect as an austere, exotic aristocrat. According to sources, Holden hated the part which, I think, helps her portrayal of a character that hates herself. Holden, for Walking Dead fans, is the grandmother of Laurie Holden, who starred in early seasons of that show.
There are light moments, particularly with Dr. Garth (Otto Kruger) and his secretary Janet (Marguerite Churchill), who seem to think they are in a screwball comedy.
For film buffs, Dracula’s Daughter is often cited as having the first lesbian vampire scene, something that would become quite common in the ‘60’s and 70’s. In the world of the movie, this is overblown. One vampire victim happens to be female and the Countess does not attack like a feral animal. Rather, her predatory behavior is more subtle. Still, it is Dr. Garth she really wants. It is true that advertisements of the time did play-up this angle.
Dracula’s Daughter was originally set to be directed by James Whale (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Old Dark House). Whale wanted to branch out and get away from these types of films and ultimately got off the project. I would have liked to see his version as Whale was a true genius with the camera.
If you like the old Universal horror films and haven’t seen Dracula’s Daughter, its worth your time.
Dracula (1931):
While Bela Lugosi preyed on his victims on the Universal sound stage during the day, at night, Universal also filmed a Spanish-language version of the movie, a not uncommon practice at the time.
The Spanish-language version of Dracula used the same sets as its counterpart and the plot and scenes are 90% the same. However, the foreign-language version may be a better shot film. Lugosi’s Dracula is a classic. I love the film. It is a flawed film. While the first third of the film is well-done and dynamic, the remainder of the film is static and stage bound. Some blame director Tod Browning, who supposedly had a difficult time moving from silent films to talkies. Other, such as film historians, point out that midway through the film Universal brass began to get cold feet and chopped the budget. Either way, from a technical perspective, Browning’s Dracula pales when compared to Whale’s Frankenstein, released that same year.
The Spanish language version is less static than its counterpart. There is more action and less of stage-play style. Villarias acquits himself well even if he is not Lugosi. The film stars Carlos Villarias as Conde Dracula, Lupita Tovar, Barry Norton and Pablo Alvarez. The director was George Melford.
The Black Cat (1934);
This is different. A strange one, with no monster except for the human variety.
Peter and Joan head to Hungary for their honeymoon. Their tickets get screwed up and they have to share a train compartment with psychiatrist Vitus Werdegast. Werdegast is recently returned from Siberia where he spent eighteen years as a prisoner of war, having been captured by the Russians during World War I.
Werdegast is on his way to see Hjalmar Poelzig, an Austrian architect (and Satanist and sociopath).
Poelzig’s mansion is built on the same spot as a fort commanded by Poelzig during the war. This fact becomes relevant later in the film.
Peter, Joan and Werdegast end up sharing a bus which crashes. Joan is hurt and the three make their way to Poelzig’s home. There, Werdegast and Poelzig are polite to one another but icy and it quickly becomes apparent that the two are not friends. Werdegast and Poelzig verbally spare until the real action starts. The movie includes murder, a satanic cult, a black mass, a deadly game of chess, allusions to necrophilia, flaying and revenge. Not the usual fare for 1934. However, it was Universal’s biggest moneymaker of the year.
Despite the traditional setting, The Black Cat boasts an number of unique features. Poelzig’s large home is no gothic castle but rather a modern art deco mansion. Poelzig dresses in strange, cult-like robes. There is not a lot of violence but the violence, not shown directly but via shadows, is extreme. The film is not without humor, of the dark kind. When the newlyweds wish to leave they discover that the road and bridge are washed out. Karloff, in his deep, smooth trademark voice, tells them, “Even the phones are dead.”
What elevates this film is the cast. Bela Lugosi is Werdegast, Karloff is Poelzig. Its nice to see these two early horror titans paired for the first time in a Universal movie. David Manners (Dracula, The Mummy) and Julie Bishop, as the newlyweds, round out the cast. Edgar Ulmer directed the film. Ulmer was born in what was then Austria-Hungary. He had a bright future but began an affair with the nephew of Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Studios. When the affair was discovered, Ulmer was relegated to B, poverty row productions for years.