[profh0011]

The fact that you have an OLD Van Helsing, who by the end is working WITH the police... is beginning to make me think, after all these years, that "DRACULA A.D. 1972" was partly inspired by this. Aside from being a blatent remake of "TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA", I mean... 🙂



Just watched my AMC videotape for comparison. Slightly-fuzzy picture, slightly-hissy sound. But otherwise, not too different. I'll have to watch the Blu-Ray again very carefully near the end to see if some of the shots involving the castle are too dark or okay, but otherwise, this film (like, so far, EVERY other film I've watched in the Universal "CLASSIC MONSTERS" box set) is okay, with the outstanding EXCEPTION of "DRACULA" (1931), which is just TOO DAMNED DARK in several spots, just like the 1966 film or the 1958 film (the latter is too dark all the way thru).

More similiarities... they repeatedly mention "Chelsea", and "Chelsea" was almost included in the TITLE of "A.D. 1972". Also, Jeffrey Garth has a CURVED bookcase in his place... JUST like Peter Cushing did in "A.D. 1972" and "SATANIC RITES".

It just struck me, the "high society" party early in the film could have inspired the birthday party at the rich guy's home in "A.D. 1972". Another visual similarity. There's just too many for it to all be coincidence!

It's really like somebody decided to to an "updated" remake of "TASTE THE BLOOD..." (very, very similar story) but wound up being inspired by and borrowing a pile of elements from "DRACULA'S DAUGHTER". Crazy, huh?

Of course, the last act of "...DAUGHTER" is inspired by the novel, with a mad chase to get back to Dracula's castle (as also seen in most adaptations, including the 1958 one, and also in "...PRINCE OF DARKNESS" and "...RISEN FROM THE GRAVE"). By comparison, the stage play and 1931 film, the climax is in "Carfax Abbey". A disused church is ALSO the climax of "HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS" and "A.D. 1972". I love taking note of stuff like this.

Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger) continues to annoy the HELL out of me, he's just not likable, even if he is one of the only people (aside from Van Helsing) to "get" what's going on. I just don't see what Janet Blake (the gorgeous Margueritte Churchill-- my God, those EYES!) sees in the bastard. I see a BAD marriage coming for those two.

So far, the only other film I've seen Kruger is was "MURDER MY SWEET" (1944), where he played the #2 villain. At least there he was a COMPLETE bastard.

Many reviewers complain about the humor with the police at the start (Billy Bevan and Halliwell Hobbes both also appeared in several SHERLOCK HOLMES films), but for me, it's Sir Basil Humphrey (Gilbert Emery) who is by far the MOST-irritating and annoying character in the entire half-baked story. The guy is an ASSHOLE, and it's positively mind-boggling that someone as stupid as he is ever got into such a high position of authority in Scotland Yard.

I keep wondering where they found such a CREEPY-looking guy as Irving Pichel, who played "Sandor". He's got an "Eric The Phantom" haircut in this, and a face & voice that reminds me of Chaney JR. And what kind of vampire's servant acts like HE's the one in charge, and threatens to kill his mistress's intended, as well as her, then goes ahead with it? We're talking serious management-labor problems here.

What baffles me is how the watch-tower stairway from "BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN" replaced the one from Carfax Abbey in "DRACULA" at the beginning, yet, the actual great hall and stairway in "DRACULA" makes an all-too-brief CAMEO at the end of this film. Everything about the final act feels rushed, like they were in a desperate hurry to get the film done and out of the way. Perhaps they were all too aware how far it was over-schedule and over-budget, and just how precarious Universal's financial situation was.

Pieces of the score were later re-used in "FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS", including for the opening titles.

"DRACULA" may have been a flawed classic, but it certainly deserved a better sequel than this thing wound up being.

[profh0011]

THEATRE MACABRE:  The System Of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether
Chaos At The Crazy House     ****   (of 10)

A photo-journalist considers having his depressed, neurotic girlfriend stay at a mental hospital, but things don't seem normal when he arrives. He later returns on his own, and things REALLY prove to be chaotic. Allegedly, the doctor in charge believes in letting patients "cure themselves" by freely acting out their delusions. But something is SERIOUSLY wrong.

A very-loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's story itself goes COMPLETELY haywire simply by NOT following the story to it's original and amusing ending. Unlike every other episode of THEATRE MACABRE, which have all been "costume period pieces", this one is updated to the present day (1970). THAT's not the problem. Ignoring what Poe wrote IS. So often, screenwriters are taken to task for not following source material, when a short story needs to be padded out to feature-length, but this anthology TV series should be custom-made for adapting short stories. WHY, therefore, do they repeatedly deviate so wildly from said source material?

Despite that, I still found this one of the more watchable episodes in a series that tends to be needlessly downbeat and pointless. I just wish somebody had done some kind of clean-up/restoration on the SOUNDTRACK, as every single episode in the Severin Films box set sounds muffled and difficult to make out what's being said.

[profh0011]

THEATRE MACABRE:  The Rajah’s Diamond
The Stolen Jewels     ******   (of 10)

A wife of a rich man conspires with her brother and her lover to steal his collection of jewels. HILARITY ensues.

Seriously, I could go on more about the plot, but that would needlessly blow it for too many people. Suffice to say, what follows is a series of scenes where one person is being chased for having stolen the jewels, the jewels fall into the hands of someone else, and someone else, and it keeps going from there.

Nearly every episode of THEATRE MACABRE has been so depressing. Sure, you might think, it's a "horror" anthology, but there's dark & scary, and then there's just needlessly downbeat. THIS episode went the other way, for which I'm quite grateful.

I guess it's safe to say that Russian writers are absolute specialists when it comes to "depressing".  Which makes me wish this Polish TV series had adapted more American or English writers!

I've no idea if this follows Stevenson's original story or not (so far, it seems, EVERY other episode of the series has deviated in ways that tend to be uncalled-for), but, at least, this one DOES work on its own merits, and even includes a doubly-amusing ending.

Now if only Severin Films (or somebody) could have done something about the MUFFLED soundtrack that makes it hard to hear what's being said...

[profh0011]

Just last night I watched "DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE" (1968) for the very 1st time in WIDESCREEN. Unlike the 1958 & 1966 films, the Blu-Ray of this one doesn't have any problem with the picture being too damned dark to see what you're looking at.

Near the end, when Christopher Lee said, "Now at last my vengeance is COMPLETE.", I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I mean, now that I know the line was SWIPED from a German "Poe" film!

At the beginning of the film, when it's discovered there's a girl stuffed and hung UPSIDE-DOWN in the church bell, I suddenly realized after decades that the scene is swiped from Poe's "Rue Morgue", with a church bell taking the place of a fireplace.

"...GRAVE" is fun to watch, but it's never been much of a "story". I guess this was what happened when Anthony Hinds tries to write without Jimmy Sangster's help.

[profh0011]

I'd put off re-watching my Hammer DRACULA videotapes for at least the last 4 years, taking a break with comedies, sci-fi movies, sword-fighting movies, and other stuff.  Now that I'm (slowly) buying the series on BLU-RAY, I've been comparing the old (sometimes really old) videotapes against the new discs.

MY GOD, was this a TERRIBLE copy I'd been putting up with with around the last 40 YEARS!  It came from Philly's Channel 3, "Saturday Night Dead".  So, it had commercial breaks I had to cut out back when.  (The film was only missing about 30 seconds.)  I believe it was before we got cable, as it looks like it came off the roof antenna-- so it was FUZZY and had "GHOSTS" in spots (depending on how the wind was blowing).

In general, it was in FULLSCREEN, the color was DREADFUL, there were streaks on the print in spots, but, as if all that wasn't bad enough, the sound was HORRIBLE.  Totally-muffled all the way through.  How in God's name did I ever put up with this for so long?

The nice thing is, the 2015 Warner Archive Blu-Ray has CRYSTAL-CLEAR picture and sound, and I'd rank the quality as drastically-better than either "DRACULA" (1958) or "DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS" (1966).  This is more on the level of the discs for "THE BRIDES OF DRACULA" and "THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE", except that, apart from the Trailer (which is in pretty damned good shape) there's NO other extras at all.  Oh well!

5 more Hammer DRACULAs to go!  I'm hoping to get the rest by the end of the year.

[profh0011]

One of the FUNNIEST "1000 Mispent Hours" reviews yet!

"Dracula’s master plan is to get back at the jerk who changed the locks on his house while he was out."

http://1000misspenthours.com/reviews/reviewsh-m/draculahasrisenfromthegrave.htm

[The Australian Panther]

BiffBangPow just posted a link to this movie, which is a typical 50's monster film, with a tendency in this case, to moralizing, but quite an interesting take on a Dracula movie.
Don't think it could have been very popular, because its not well-known.
BLOOD of Dracula ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN-37tFJcNQ
Link to the book: Famous Monsters Trading Cards 

And I just found this one,
The innocents
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRFDqv6GqlU
Excellent print, creepy in a more subtle way. Hithcockian.

cheers!

[profh0011]

Scarlet Street magazine (is that still around?) focused on horror and mysteries-- what a great combo.  They once did a pair of articles in one issue covering THE INNOCENTS and THE HAUNTING.  I think Deborah Kerr is in both of them.

I got to see both on TCM.  I much preferred THE INNOCENTS.  It's an adaptation of "The Turn Of The Screw".

But I'd sort of seen it much earlier.  The very 1st DARK SHADOWS storyline I saw in the late 60s was "The Ghost Of Quentin Collins", which was clearly based on "The Turn of the Screw".  David Selby (Quentin Collins) had the Peter Wyngarde role, while Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans) had the Deborah Kerr role.

At the end, just when it looked like the kids were going to DIE, Barnabas used the "I-Ching Wands" they found in Quentin's room, in the hope of contacting Quentin's ghost and finding out why he was haunting the house.  BUT INSTEAD... Barnabas found his own spirit thrown back in time to 1897, trapped in his own body (at the time locked in the coffin in the secret room of the mausoleum), and when he was released, he found Quentin was still alive-- MONTHS before the yet-unknown events that would lead to his DEATH! 

The "1897" sequence went on for 9 MONTHS... and is considered by most DS fans the best run of the entire series.

[profh0011]

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1983)

I understand this had a long and troubled production history. Whatever happened, and whatever changes were made, from the first time I saw it in the 80s, I've long felt this was one of the most PERFECT films ever to come from Disney. There was about a 15-year stretch after Walt passed away where nearly every single film they were involved with was either flawed or bordering on unwatchable. THIS finally turned things around, creatively. What a shock that it BOMBED badly at the box office, making back only about one-THIRD its budget.

I went to so many movies in the 80s, I wondered how it was possible I missed this and had to tape it off cable. When I saw the release date, I realized what happened. My 1st car had gotten DESTROYED in an accident, and I was without one of my own (and at the mercy of my Dad's schedule and whims) for the next 2-1/2 years. And this movie came out the SAME month as the accident. That answered a long-standing mystery!

I love every single aspect of this film-- the screenplay, the setting, the cast, the directing, the acting, the dialogue, the visual effects, the music, all of it. Of the 2 actors I'm most familiar with, this is almost certainly my favorite film with Jason Robards, while it remains, in my eyes the role of a lifetime for Jonathan Pryce. Thank God Disney decided to cast HIM-- to keep the budget down (they said)!

I currently rank this among the best 4 films Disney ever released-- the others, of course, being 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, MARY POPPINS, and GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE.

[Captain Audio]

I've wondered how they managed the character played by James Stacy. Stacy had lost an arm and a leg in a motorcycle accident so he was perfect as the mutilated former athlete, but how did they manage to show him later as completely whole and vigorous marching in the parade?
He had lost the leg at the hip and the arm at the shoulder. I don't think prosthetics were advanced enough at the time to have pulled this off so seamlessly.

[profh0011]

I saw Bradbury in person at Rudgers University in Camden in the mid-80s.  He spoke for a half-hour, and talked about the film, saying it was, "The first time Hollywood ever got one of his stories right."

Considering how many reviewers at the IMDB complain about what went on behind-the-scenes, and how it's "not as good as the book", and that even Bradbury in later years said it "was a good movie, but not a great one", there seems to be too many people with impossibly-high standards.

As a teenager, I SAW a lot of Disney movies in the 1970s.  Most of them were PAINFUL to sit through!  When they started trying different things at the end of the decade, they did some BIG-budgeted epics with INCREDIBLE visuals and special effects, which were still PAINFUL to watch, and always because of the STORIES.  Among them:

THE BLACK HOLE 
THE BLACK CAULDRON 
TRON 

It is compared to THOSE awful things I compare SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, and from the first time I saw it, I came away thinking, "This is the BEST DAMNED THING Disney has since Walt Disney passed away."  If people are blind to the environment it was created in, and can only see its flaws, that's just too damned sad for them.

And I found it interesting-- even HILARIOUS-- that the company name "Walt Disney Productions" appears NOWHERE in the opening credits at all-- and ONLY appears at the very end of the end credits, in the COPYRIGHT notice.  "Disney" was EMBARRASSED to be associated with a film this good and this scary!

6 MONTHS later, they started their "Touchstone" subsidiary to do "PG" films and go after the teen audience, and it was INCREDIBLY successful!!!!!  It allowed them to do "family" films again and keep the "Disney" name associated only with "CHILDREN's" films.

As an aside... when I first saw 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954) uncut-- I was very surprised by how dark and serious it was in spots.  It is NOT a "kids' film".  However, it was pointed out on some website I found several years ago that, no sooner did the movie come out, but seemingly EVERY piece of related merchandise was aimed squarely at KIDS.  They made every possible attempt to "tone it down", "kiddie-fie" it, and make Captain Nemo seem less of the angry, tragic, vengeful, MURDEROUS character that he was in the film.  You can find various examples of it posted at my "Professor H's Wayback Machine" blog.

Here's an example:
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2014/05/jules-verne-part-12.html

[Captain Audio]

A few fans of 20,000 leagues have as adults built their own man carrying submersibles modeled after the Nautilus.
I think that is super cool since I wanted to do the same one day.

[profh0011]

One of the coolest things I've seen online is how in Japan they built what looks like a replica of Nemo's volcano base HQ as a tourist attraction.

[profh0011]

Today's movie:

TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA (1970)

I first saw this as the headliner of a triple-bill at the Venus Theater in Houston. What a Saturday afternoon that was!

About 9 years later, I taped it off The CBS Late Movie on a Friday night, when it probably came on about 12:40 AM. Apart from being fullscreen, it turned out the film was also cut quite a bit around the commercial breaks, and had at least one major scene almost completely cut, the one where the 3 "pillars of society" KICK THE CRAP out of Lord Courtley and wind up killing him in the desanctified chapel in the cemetery.

I've been putting up with the 2nd-rate copy for 42 YEARS!!! About a year or two back, I finally saw that murder scene in a short clip on Youtube, and was delighted that I wasn't imagining how badly CBS cut the film. (Keep in mind, the picture quality on CBS / Channel 10 in Philly was still way better than some of the UHF stations, or even some of the commercial cable channels.)

I've been taking my time with this too much, but last year I started upgrading my Hammer Draculas to BLU-RAYs, and I'm determined to finish the set before the end of this year. It looks like I'm gonna make it.

What a joy to see this again in WIDESCREEN, and UNCUT-- even more UNCUT than when I saw it on a BIG SCREEN. Notoriously, part of the "brothel" sequence showed a bit of nudity, and was REMOVED before it ever got to theatres in either the UK or the US. Tsk, tsk! SAW it today... and it wasn't all that much... but, apparently, enough to give it an "R" rating NOW. Sheesh!

Back in Houston in 1971, if it had an "R" (or, at the time, it would have been an "M") I'd have been REQUIRED to be accompanied by an adult. That's what PREVENTED me from seeing THE VAMPIRE LOVERS the week the Venus ran that one. Didn't see that until the early 90s!!! I did see THE CONQEUROR WORM at the Venus, but, only because my Mom (who was working as a secretary on weekends) paid a friend of hers to take me-- who wound up sleeping thru at least half of that afternoon's quadruple-feature. (4 films for a BUCK-- can you imagine?)

Just in the last week, I've seen A STUDY IN TERROR, and THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, and I thought how the "Whitechapel hookers" in one and the "Satanic ritual" in the other both managed to find their way into this film, along with the "powedered blood ressurection scene" from D:POD.

This 2015 Warner Brothers Blu-Ray is CRYSTAL-CLEAR, with what I would consider PERFECT picture and sound... better than either HORROR OF DRACULA or DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS. No doubt before the weekend's over, I'll be running my 42-year-old videotape "one more time" just to really compare the two, which has become my habit of late when upgrading.

It's funny, looking back on this after so many years, Linda Hayden physically reminds me a lot of Kaley Cuoco, though the personality's very different. James Bernard's "love theme" (a more-serious arrangement of which really debuted in "D:POD") may be the most beautiful piece of music he ever did, and some years ago I borrowed it for the finale of my own "Horror In Haddon Heights", a story I wrote and then actually compiled a "full soundtrack" for consisting entirely of already-existing music.

TASTE... has long been a favorite of mine for various reasons, and never fails to bring back memories of those 6 months I spent in Houston. I was also quite surprised, the same month CBS ran it on that late Friday night, they also ran A.D. 1972, and I discovered the latter film was actually an updated REMAKE of the former, made only 2 years later! Of course, the later film became my FAVORITE in the series, mostly because they finally brought back PETER CUSHING for it. He was severely missed in the previous 4 films in a row.

[profh0011]

Saturday night, I decided to dig out my 1980 CBS Late Movie recording of "TASTE..." and watch it to compare with the Blu-Ray. I always thought the CBS print was pretty good, apart from being fullscreen and CUT in several places. However, I was reminded Saturday that my previous "regular" TV was MUCH easier to adjust brightness & contrast on, and for many years I had the brightness cranked REALLY high up. Not so on my current flat widescreen TV.

About HALF the film looks right, but the other half is WAY too dark. In fact, there were places where right before my eyes, I saw it get brighter or darker right in the middle of a scene where the brightness should NOT have changed. There were also a few scenes where the colors went totally nuts, and one where I saw electrical bands slowly moving upward across the screen. It seems to me CBS had a print that had started to go bad, before they tampered with the film.

I can't say for sure what CBS cut vs. what was cut in the theatres. I've read about the "brothel" scene being cut. In the CBS broadcast, it went straight from "Felix" sending in the girls, to immediately, Felix in the hall trying desperately to stop Lord Courtley from interrupting his 3 best customers. The entire missing scene, intact on the disc, showed Courtley walking into several other rooms before this, apparently looking for a particular girl, and in each room, you had a brief scene of some girl TOPLESS. This was apparently all it took to give the current version of the film an "R" rating, though it seems very mild to me!

Later, a scene of Alice changing clothes gave us a view of her full back for a moment, also cut on CBS.

When the 3 "pillars of society" KICK COURTLEY TO DEATH, at least HALF of it was missing.

I think there was a couple other things cut, but the most noticable one was when Dracula DECOMPOSES on the altar. The entire last half of that was missing. The strangest cut had to be right in the middle of a sentence (I can't remember the line) where HALF of a WORD was missing. No idea what happened there (it wasn't profanity or anything).

A full 6 MINUTES were missing on CBS!!! Although, I'd have to time the "brothel" scene, it's probably that only half of that was actually cut by CBS, as the brothel scene was cut before it got to theatres.

Seeing this makes me really glad I got the Blu-Ray, as in this case, it's DEFINITELY a big upgrade from my 42-year-old tape. In general, the picture was actually MUCH fuzzier on the tape compared to the disc. The disc allows me to see everything with CRYSTAL clarity... especially Linda Hayden. (There's nothing more annoying with Blu-Rays than when a decades-old videotape LOOKS BETTER. Which has happened several times this year, including on the 1929 MGM "Mysterious Island", where the underwater scenes are MUCH clearer on my old "TNT" copy.)

[profh0011]

I know it's crazy... but I just watched SOMETHING WICKED... 5 times in 2 weeks, alternating between the 80s VHS recorded off HBO and the 2004 DVD. The 4th time I watched, I took note of some 14 different points in the movie, and marked down the time. When I watched the tape again... I took note of those points again, and in EVERY case, the time was increasingly "off". I confirmed my suspicion... BOTH copies were "uncut"-- but whatever HBO ran in the 80s, was running at THE WRONG SPEED. The film was 4 MINUTES shorter than it should have been. And somehow, it was subtle enough that I couldn't be sure without timing all those points.

At the halfway point, it was exactly 2 minutes short.

HEARING the film at the correct speed actually allowed me to make out a lot of dialogue that simply went by TOO FAST on the HBO videotape.

My best friend just told me that Cinemax did the same thing with a film HE watched back in the 80s or 90s. These PAY channels should be ashamed of themselves. I thought it was only The CBS Late Movie that screwed over things this way in the 80s.

[profh0011]

OH my God.... I just finished re-watching my (probably) 40-year-old Philly Channel 29 videotape of "SCARS OF DRACULA". This was in WAY worse shape than "...RISEN..."

Apart from being fullscreen, FADED, FUZZY, and having electrical bands all over the place (bad broadcast signal)... it was missing 9 WHOLE MINUTES. And, unlike "HORROR..." which was missing 16 minutes-- most in big chunks-- this one was cut ALL OVER the place, some big chunks, some short snips here and there. Basically, if there was any blood onscreen, chances are, most of it was cut.

Right at the start, they had some kind of technical problem, as the long shot of the castle, the film froze-- then jumped. You didn't see the girl attacked near the beginning. About 2/3rds of the shots of the corpses in the church were cut. The beginning of the bedroom scene with Paul & Alice was missing, as was ALL of her rear nudity. When Tania was preparing to put the bite on Paul and you saw her fangs... MISSING. You never saw the Count STAB her! He just leaned forward as he was about to lap up her blood... but then, nothing (I read the UK censor cut the lapping scene, and then it somehow NEVER turned up in ANY prints, ever).

Of course, the Count "punishing" Klove-- NOT there at all. (He apparently does it twice, but, only the 2nd time is in the film, so when I saw it uncut, I thought it was cut on the disc, but it turned out, not, you only saw it the 2nd time. On the local channel, not at all.) The priest getting killed-- the bat grabbed his neck, that was it! The shot of Paul hanging on the wall-- mayhe HALF a second. The print was so dark, you could barely make out Dracula scrambling up the wall. About half of the bat attacking Sarah-- GONE! About 5 seconds of Dracula on fire-- THEN, he's falling and screaming. That's maybe an entire MINUTE of his burning that was cut. Sheesh.

The crazy thing is, about a decade before I ever saw this BUTCHER-job, I'd read the novelization. So I "saw" more in my mind than is even in the finished movie. Like, Paul having sex with Tania. HOT stuff. Or... the (subtle?) change, in that, in the book, Sarah is in love with Paul, and she's more concerned with finding him than she is concerned with Simon. Yet we know he doesn't deserve this. And as the story progresses, she slowly falls for Simon. It was a big surprise to me when I first saw the film around 1980 or so that you could see she DID love Simon from the beginning, but he was lacking confidence, because Paul got ALL the girls, Paul was successful, while Simon was still in school.

I still laugh at the climax. First, the cross gets in the way. Then, Klove. Then, Simon. There's this repeated feeling on Dracula's face of, "Now, where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?" And then, when he's about to kill Simon... he gets STRUCK BY LIGHTING. Yes, EVEN GOD wants this bastard dead! 

I also thought he had a major labor relations problem. He KEEPS KILLING his employees!

[profh0011]

Combine "THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM" with a bit of "THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS", and toss in a hefty helping of PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING, and you've got...

"SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM" (1963)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ2GeYgPnWQ

[profh0011]

Just watched the 1st of the 2 audio commentaries on the "SCARS" disc last night, which delves in painful, excrutiating detail into exactly WHAT and HOW this movie turned out SO WRETCHEDLY AWFUL.

Perhaps the most shocking part was learning that the entire 1st act of the film was supposed to be almost completely-different... and somehow, it seems to me they never properly explained WHY that part of the screenplay was totally-rejected, in favor of what we got.

Also... Paul & Sarah were supposed to be brother & sister! Who the hell thought it was a good idea to change THAT?

Looking back these days, I keep wishing instead they'd have done a DIRECT sequel to "TASTE..." which would be set in London, and bring back Van Helsing and a Hammer-style retelling of the latter part of Stoker's story.

Someone really should do a film-- or at least, a graphic novel-- telling that story, which, of course, would lead DIRECTLY into "A.D. 1972".

[profh0011]

You know, it really is amazing how much of the film was inspired by "PSYCHO", and somehow, over the last 4 decades, I NEVER noticed this!!! (I didn't get around to seeing either film until around 1981 or 82.)

As I learned the other night, the first act was supposed to involve Paul STEALING something from some rich person, to give to a charity that would help others in need. THIS was why he was supposed to be on the run from the cops... not having at it with the Burgomeister's daughter.

Then after a change of vehicle, he finds himself in some remote spot, the phrase "bed and breakfast" having been mentioned earlier (HONESTLY). Following a short polite chat, he goes to bed...

...and when he wakes up, SOMEBODY yanks aside a curtain and STARTS STABBING a woman to death! Seriously, HOW did this never catch my attention?

THEN, the rest of the film involves the guy's brother and his girlfriend (as opposed to Janet Leigh's sister) searching for them, winding up in the same place, and the owner acting strange.
It was interesting to hear Christopher Lee refer to the castle interior set looking like it came from some "big-budget movie". YES, I do think it looked BETTER than any previous Hammer Dracula castle interior ever did. And it turns out... I never noticed this either... it was built for "HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN" and then redressed. Someone mentioned how as both films were issued on a double-bill, so it was probably more obvious than anyone intended.

My FAVORITE part of the movie was the climax, with Dracula being stymied first by a cross, then Klove, then Simon, and finally, GOD. (heeheehee) Just wasn't his day-for-night. And then 90% of the burning was CUT on the local TV station. Nice to finally see that INTACT.

All the same, I'd have much-preferred a DIRECT sequel to "TASTE..." with Dracula revived again in London, and Van Helsing TRACKING him down there. Lorrimer said his grandfather compiled ACTUAL physical scientific PROOF of a real vampire in London. Would have loved to have SEEN him do that! Among other things, it would have been a wonderful tribute to the STAGE PLAY.

And let's face, ANY movie with PETER CUSHING in it is better than one WITHOUT him. A proper Dracula story NEEDS a Van Helsing.

[profh0011]

DRACULA A.D. 1972

At the Hammermaniacs FB group, one of the moderators has a non-stop hate-filled hard-on for this movie.  Every single time anyone ever mentions it in any way, the guy has to be RUDE AND OBNOXIOUS about it.  EVERY SINGLE F***ING TIME.  So, as I just got the Blu-Ray, I decided to try the diplomatic approach.  Before I even get started, I just posted the following message, accompanied with a photo from the film:


I have a favor to ask. For over a year now, I've been building up to this, and this weekend, I finally got my hands on a decent print of my #1 FAVORITE Hammer Film. And I'd like to talk about here in great detail. What I would really, really appreciate is... if anyone here has anything NASTY, NEGATIVE, RUDE, INSULTING or SNARKY to say about the film... could you PLEASE post your comments in an entirely SEPARATE thread? I'd really appreciate it. (I'm trying to be as polite about this as I can be, and I'd hope others would be as well.)


I really don't think that's asking too much.  But, we'll see.

[The Australian Panther]

 HORROR CLASSIC ~ The Old Dark House stars Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas Movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BoJo_6KPe8

Not a bad print.

enjoy!

[ComicMike]

The atmosphere of these old films can no generate today in modern movies. Fortunately, there are enough classics for many a nice movie night. 

[Robb_K]

HORROR CLASSIC ~ The Old Dark House stars Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas Movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BoJo_6KPe8

Not a bad print.

enjoy!

One of my favourite films from my youth.  It was broadcast on Canadian TV during the early 1950s, and in addition to 2 of my favourite actors, Boris Karloff and Charles Laughton, it contained a third, Canadian star, Raymond Massey.  I love the atmosphere, enhanced by the use of the contrast between light and shadow in those old black and white films. 

[profh0011]

HORROR CLASSIC ~ The Old Dark House stars Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas Movie  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BoJo_6KPe8
Not a bad print.
enjoy! 

I got the Blu-Ray of this.  ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!!  It blows my mind to be able to see a film that old look SO GOOD it looks like it was filmed "yesterday".

Melvyn Douglas is another highlight of THE OLD DARK HOUSE.  Not long after that, he starred in THE LONE WOLF RETURNS (1935), which I'd never seen before.  I wound up agreeing with just about every review at the IMDB, that he was the BEST actor in that role (at least in the sound films-- most of the silents are still missing in action, either lost or just not currently available).

I went after quite a few films from the 1920s-30s this year.  Kept pushing back my Hammer Dracula upgrading, but that's finally out of the way.

Still got a list of 1920s-30s films to go after, plus a number of film series (the next one on my wanted list is, strangely enough, DR. KILDARE!), and then of course there's the Roger Corman POE films.  (So much fun to look forward to!)