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Have you seen the Spanish language/mexican version?
ReplyDeleteI think it was made at the same time as this one and featured all the same sets and dialogue but different language and actors.
Unless I imagined it!
My kids avoid any movie that is in black and white,they just wont do it.
ReplyDeleteI think they are missing out.
I lived with my 'Nana' for a few years and she would watch any movie.
I will have to bribe/blackmail them in order to enjoy Citizen Kane and the like.
The Frankenstein re-release trailer played up Karloff, who was not a major star when the film was first released in 1931. But the Dracula trailer could be essentially the same as the original.
ReplyDeleteLugosi is an icon. Parodies (Love at First Bite, SCTV's Count Floyd, Sesame Street's Count, Count Chocula) all imitated him. And Lugosi may have started the idea of the suave, seductive vampire, which obviously influenced Frank Langella and Louis Jourdan, and maybe also David Peel and even Christopher Lee. The only previous movie vampire of note, AFAIK, was in the silent film "Nosferatu," and that creature was downright repulsive.
I've got the Spanish version on DVD, Baab. In some ways, it's better than the Lugosi version, although the actor sadly looks like Raul in the Irn Bru ads in some shots. I can't imagine anybody not wanting to watch a movie just because it isn't in colour.
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As I'm sure you know, TC, Nosferatu was an unauthorised adaptation of Dracula, so the vampire was called Count Orlock. I think the repulsive look was pretty darn good. Far scarier than Lugosi.
Kid, have you seen 'Salem's Lot' - that Count Orlock look was used for the vampire Mr. Barlow in that two-part mini-series which scared the living daylights out of me when it was first broadcast in 1981. For me 'Salem's Lot' is still the scariest thing ever. Unfortunately it was later edited down to a two-hour movie and the plot suffers as a result but the original was terrific.
ReplyDeleteI did - and I remember it being quite scary, too. James Mason was in it, wasn't he? And David Soul, I think.
ReplyDeleteYes, James Mason and David Soul were in it. I nearly jumped out of my skin the first time we saw Mr. Barlow - the scariest vampire ever, bar none. And he never spoke, just snarled like an animal which was so much more terrifying. Christopher Lee did the same in 'Dracula, Prince Of Darkness' from 1966 which is my favourite Lee Dracula film.
ReplyDeleteSaw the colour version of Vertigo recently, it way better than the black and white although some of the restored colour is noticeable in a few of the low light scenes.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed most of the Hammer Dracula films, CJ. It was probably Christopher Lee's best role.
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Vertigo was shot in colour, DSE, but it had to be restored because of deterioration to the original negatives.
Yeah there's a credit for the restorers at the end of the film, I've only ever seen the black & white print, which I recall being used for TV up until relatively recently. I had seen some extracts in colour before though, principally the dream sequence.
ReplyDeleteI think the only times I ever saw it in b&w was before we had a colour telly. After that, I think I always saw it in colour if I watched it.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that the Spanish language Dracula was much better than the Lugosi version. I have only seen a few brief scenes of it on YouTube, and it looked like the leading man was over-acting. His bug-eyed mugging would have been more appropriate for Renfield than Dracula. But it may be unfair to judge the performance from a couple of brief clips.
ReplyDeleteIIUC, Bram Stoker's widow sued the producers of Nosferatu, and most copies were destroyed. By 1979, the copyright would have expired, so it was safe to do a remake. And the original can also be shown. I saw it on TCM a few years ago. And, yeah, Orlock was an influence on Barlow.
I never saw a B&W print of Vertigo. By the time I first saw it, it had been restored. I seem to remember my mother watching it on TV in the 1960's (when we only had a B&W set anyway), but my memory could be playing tricks.
I've got the Spanish-language Dracula on DVD, TC, and it's a superior production in just about every way - except for the fact that it doesn't have Bela Lugosi. Lugosi's version is more static and less imaginative though, which is a shame. I seem to remember reading that the Spanish version has a few long-shots of Lugosi, but I'd have to study the DVD to make sure. They were shot on the same sets, the Spanish one being shot at night when the English-language one had wrapped for the day.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw Vertigo, it was on a b&w TV, but I've since seen it in colour. I don't think I knew at the time that it was a 'restored' version though - I didn't learn that 'til much later.