Mark of the Vampire (1935)

Mark of the Vampire
Directed by Tod Browning
1935/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing

[box] Prof. Zelin: We must all die. There’s nothing terrible about death, but to live on after death, a soul earth-bound, a vampire. You don’t wish any such fate for your beloved.[/box]

This is a sound re-make of the famous lost silent horror picture, London After Midnight, which starred Lon Chaney.  It also shares a lot of themes with Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula.  The film begins in the same ambiguous Middle European milieu with the peasants all convinced that there are vampires in their midst.  Soon Sir Karell, a local aristocrat, is found dead with tell-tale marks on his throat and his body drained dry of blood.  The doctor names the cause of death as vampire attack but the police inspector (Lionel Atwill) is not buying it.  Sir Karrell’s daughter’s (Elizabeth Allan) wedding plans are disrupted and she goes to live with her guardian (Jean Herscholt).  A year later, the daughter is visited by a shrouded female  apparition on the terrace and a Van Helsing-like  professor (Lionel Barrymore) is called in.  With a mostly silent Bela Lugosi again in his Dracula cape as “Count Mora”.

To those that like this sort of thing, this will be a hell of a lot of fun.  The mechanical bats with their visible wires and the possums lurking in the creepy castle only add to the experience.  The plot doesn’t bear much scrutiny but I found it satisfying in the end.  The cast is top-notch and any over-acting works in this context.  The comic relief maid is less annoying than many such characters.

I watched this as part of the Hollywood Legends of Horror collection which gathers six MGM horror movies of the 1930s.  I particularly liked the commentary track on this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKoia0nGKbQ

Trailer – soooo camp!  so fun!