Review: Christopher Lee Still a Sexy Beast in "Horror of Dracula"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 31 (of 2015) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Horror of Dracula (1958)
Dracula – original title
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
Running time:  82 minutes (1 hour, 22 minutes)
Not rated by MPAA
DIRECTOR:  Terence Fisher
WRITER:  Jimmy Sangster (based upon the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker)
PRODUCER:  Anthony Hinds
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jack Asher (D.o.P)
EDITOR:  Bill Lenny
COMPOSER:  James Bernard

HORROR

Starring:  Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, Olga Dickie, John Van Eyssen, Valerie Gaunt, and Janine Faye

Dracula is a 1958 British horror film from director Terence Fisher.  Written by Jimmy Sangster, this was the first in a series of movies from Hammer Films that were inspired by Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula.  For its release in the United States, the film's title was change to Horror of Dracula so that it would not be confused with the 1931 film, Dracula (starring Bela Lugosi), which was apparently still quite popular in the U.S. at that time.  In Hammer's Dracula, vampire expert Van Helsing fights to stop Dracula from taking revenge against the family of a former colleague of Van Helsing's.

Horror of Dracula opens on May 3, 1885, Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) arrives at a castle near Klausenburg (in Romania).  It is the home of Count Dracula (Christopher Lee), and Harker is there to take up his post as Dracula's librarian.  Almost immediately, Harker experiences a series of strange events, including meeting a young woman who claims to be Dracula's prisoner.

A few days later, Harker's colleague, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), arrives in Klausenburg, looking for Harker.  What he finds chills his blood.  Van Helsing returns to Karlstadt to inform Harker's fiancée, Lucy Holmwood (Carol Marsh), of the bad news.  Lucy's brother, Arthur Holmwood (Michael Gough), and his wife, Mina (Melissa Stribling), are reluctant to give any bad news to Lucy, who has been ill of late.  Van Helsing alone suspects that the terrible evil of Count Dracula's castle has arrived in Karlstadt to haunt the Holmwoods.

Horror of Dracula was the first of seven movies for Hammer Films in which Christopher Lee played Count Dracula, which is why Lee is arguably the second most famous Dracula in film history, after Bela Lugosi.  Lee made Dracula both sexual and dangerous, like a creepy guy who ignores any rejection to his advances.  [He just knows that he can “love” you good, girl.]  There is a moment in this film when Dracula rubs his face against Mina's face which encapsulates Dracula's power of seduction.  He is essentially a home invader slash rapist, but his moves make him see like the masculine hero of a romantic tale that is also a rape fantasy.

While fans remember this 1958 Dracula film for Lee, I remember it equally for Peter Cushing, one of my all-time favorite actors.  Cushing is the consummate stoic and stalwart horror and scary movie hero.  Cushing's monster fighters can keep their cool even when surrounded by killer monsters and other strange creatures.  Throw in a natural disaster, and maybe a Cushing hero will break a little sweat.

Cushing and Lee, who were close friends in life, formed one of the best hero-villain combinations in film history.  I wish Horror of Dracula were a longer film in order to give us more of the two locked in conflict.  [There is apparently various longer versions of this film.]  I must also make note of another British actor that I like, the late Michael Gough, who played Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, in four Batman movies, beginning in 1989.  Gough manages to keep his Arthur Holmwood from turning invisible behind Van Helsing and Dracula.

With Christopher Lee's recent passing, I decided to see this movie again, which I had not seen in its entirety in over a decade.  I am glad I did.  It was good to see Cushing (who died in 1994) and Lee in action.  They don't make movies like Horror of Dracula anymore.  There aren't actors like Lee and Cushing anymore, either.

7 of 10
A-

Wednesday, July 1, 2015


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Review: "Vertigo" Gets Better With Each Viewing (Happy B'day, Kim Novak)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Vertigo (1958)
Running time: 129 minutes (2 hours, 9 minutes - 1996 restored version); MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
WRITERS: Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor (based upon the novel, …d’Entre les Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac)
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Burks
EDITOR: George Tomasini
COMPOSER: Bernard Herrmann
Academy Award nominee

MYSTERY/DRAMA/ROMANCE/THRILLER

Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones, Raymond Bailey, Ellen Corby, and Konstantin Shayne

The subject of this movie review is Vertigo, a 1958 mystery and psychological thriller directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock (who did not receive a screen credit as producer). The film underwent a major restoration in 1996, which was produced by James C. Katz. The film is based upon the 1954 crime novel …d’Entre les Morts by Boileau-Narcejac, the penname of French crime fiction writers, Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was a box office failure at the time of its initial release, and it even received mixed critical reaction. Today, many consider the film to be Hitchcock’s masterpiece, with some going so far as to call it one of the greatest films of all time. It’s not just that the film is an unusual mixture of mystery, drama, and romance with an occasional light-hearted touch of the comic; it is also that the film is a taut suspense thriller and a doomed romance with a surprising twist.

Police Detective John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart) has a crippling fear of heights (acrophobia) and it inadvertently costs a fellow officer his life during a police foot chase across the rooftops of San Francisco. His fear causes Scottie to retire, but an old friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), comes to Scottie with a unique problem that requires his skills. Elster believes that his pretty young wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak), is possessed by the tormented ghost of her grandmother. He convinces Scottie to tail Madeleine and make sure she doesn’t come to harm in her mentally shaky state, but Scottie slowly falls in love with Madeleine while tracking her daily movements. However, a tragic accident draws Scottie into a complex vortex of deceit, murder, and obsession, and Scottie’s mind can’t handle the strain of figuring out what’s really happened.

So much about this film amazes me. Bernard Herrmann’s mesmerizing score is one of the most beautiful examples of film music; it’s so haunting and so easily alters the mood when Hitchcock requires it. The handsome cinematography is almost too lavish for a noir-ish, mystery thriller like Vertigo, but it ably serves the long, lingering shots. Edith Head’s fabulous costumes, in particularly Kim Novak’s gowns, are both stylish and evocative – creating the dreamlike and ethereal qualities that add to Vertigo’s ambiance. The performances are good with James Stewart appearing unusually limp and impotent as a besieged detective/hero. Kim Novak swoons from coquette to working girl/devil girl with chameleonic ease.

As usual, however, the star is Hitchcock the director. Despair has rarely been so beautiful and love so rarely a gorgeously concocted labyrinth of tricks. He lays it all before us, a pulsating rhythm of surreal moments, fever dreams, and brilliant switches. Reality really isn’t what it seems, or maybe it is. Reality is more than just what passes in front of the eye. If you can’t figure that out, your mind will go falling through a vortex. Vertigo is Hitchcock’s supremely clever spin on the mystery film – all the way to the haunting final shot.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1959 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color” (Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead, Sam Comer, and Frank R. McKelvy) and “Best Sound” (George Dutton-Paramount SSD)

1989 National Film Preservation Board: National Film Registry

Friday, January 27, 2006