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Classic (and relatively rare!) 1935 horror gem featuring Bela Lugosi as the title bloodsucker...though it was impossible for this MGM film to call him Dracula because the rights to that name were locked up by Universal. Lionel Barrymore is tobilled. Tod Browning (yes, the director of Universal's DRACULA) is behind the camera.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent chiller from Tod Browning,
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This review is from: Mark of the Vampire (VHS Tape)
Released in 1935 and directed by Tod Browning, Mark of the Vampire is actually a remake of Tod Browning's very own silent movie London After Midnight, which starred Lon Chaney Sr. and is now a lost film. No known copies of London After Midnight are around anymore and if there is one left who knows what condition it would now be in. Some guy using the original screenplay put together London After Midnight using a new score and still photos, but that while interesting doesn't quite cut it so Mark of the Vampire is the only way to sort of see London After Midnight.
Tod Browning made a name for himself in the 20s with a slew of silent flicks, which starred Lon Chaney Sr. and his popularity grew in 1931 when he directed the classic Dracula with Bela Lugosi in the title role and Browning was a director with a lot of pull until Freaks. While now seen as a cult classic upon its release Freaks was panned by critics and fans a like and pretty much destroyed Tod Browning's career. Freaks was banned in several countries including the United States. Mark of the Vampire was a way to resurrect his career and while a decent hit it didn't do much for his career. Tod Browning is re-teamed with Bela Lugosi and I personally think Mark of the Vampire is a lot better than Dracula and almost as good as Freaks. Mark of the Vampire is a murder/mystery with a horror twist. This movie rates as one of my very favorite horror flicks from the 30s and one of my favorite vampire flicks. The screenplay by Guy Endore & Bernard Schubert is well written overall and makes a quite interesting premise, in which vampires are suspected of a murder and the script does a solid job with the vampire lore. The characters are ok, but the movie is well enough written to make up for any lack of character development. Even though the script is good what makes this such a classic is the direction by Tod Browning. He creates quite an eerie movie. I just love the look of horror movies from the 30s they always seem to have this creepy vibe and with such a talented director like Tod Browning it makes it all the better. This is the type of movie that without the right director can be boring, but it never is thanks to Tod Browning. Mark of the Vampire only runs at about 60-minutes so it has to move at a quick pace and thankfully does. I remember reading once during the making of Dracula, Browning had a little bit of trouble directing the dialogue scene; I don't know if that's true or not, but the best scenes of Dracula in my opinion are the ones with no talking so I suppose it could be true. But true or not, Browning doesn't have that problem here, but the scenes in which there is no talking as the vampires roam around are by far the best due to the creep factor. The mystery angle works well, but it's the vampire scenes that elevate this; Lugosi is excellent as Count Mora even though he has no dialogue at all until the end of the movie. He's quite creepy though as he watches and stalks, but it's Carroll Borland as his daughter Luna Mora that steals the show. She just looked downright creepy and the scenes with her walking in the graveyard are quite chilling. About the only problem is the twist in the movie; the twist is hailed by some as brilliant and others as horrible and I agree with both actually. The twist is fairly smart and you won't see it coming, but the problem is it sort of rules everything that came before it kind of pointless. I really can't say much since I'd ruin the movie and if you know the twist going into the movie you won't enjoy it as much. It's one of those twists you'll love or hate it since again it does sort of make what came before pointless, but personally I liked the twist. At first I didn't and I disliked the movie due to it, but seeing Mark of the Vampire again I've grown to like the twist and without the plot twist I don't think this would have been as good. There are problems with the twist where you wonder why all that was went through and start to question scenes due to the movie contradicting itself, but don't think about it too much and just take it all in as Mark of the Vampire is an excellent movie and one of Tod Browning's very best pictures.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Bela Lugosi Classic,
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This review is from: Mark of the Vampire (VHS Tape)
Mark of the Vampire is one those vampire movies that deserve classic status because of the unusual ending for a horror movie. Any fan of Bela Lugosi will not want to miss this one. You will be surprised. Excellent movie making.
3.0 out of 5 stars
MGM trying to cash in on Browning and Lugosi,
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This review is from: Mark of the Vampire (VHS Tape)
Mark of the Vampire (Tod Browning, 1935)
Hollywood's obsession with vampires is nothing new, though it does tend to run in stages. The first big vampire craze happened during the early thirties. Sure, vampire movies had been made before, some of them now recognized classics (look no further than Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens, Murnau's 1922 game-changer that introduced a radical new concept: the pan shot). but it was Tod Browning's Dracula, in 1931, that kicked things off. Suddenly, vampires were everywhere, and it was inevitable that Browning would get pulled back into the craze. After all, Browning had visited that mythology before Dracula, even (1927's London After Midnight, considered one of the world's great lost films). And thus we have Mark of the Vampire, an amusing, if minor, film Browning made towards the end of his career. (It is quite possible the film is actually better than what we've seen; MGM cut twenty minutes of footage before the film's release, which contain, as far as anyone can tell, a great deal of backstory.) We open with a murder, as we often do, and the investigation surrounding it. This is led by the slightly cracked Professor Zelen (Lionel Barrymore), who is convinced the victim was killed by a vampire. This leads to a houseful of paranoid guests. Things get worse when the supposed vampires, Count Mora (Lugosi--how could he not be in this movie?) and his daughter Luna (Carroll Borland, who made only five films in her career--three in the thirties and two in the eighties), start hanging around throwing scares into people. Zelen, along with the local doctor, Inspector Neumann (Lionel Atwill) of the local constabulary, and Irena (Elizabeth Allan, from the 1935 David Copperfield), the victim's daughter, have to figure out what's really going on before everyone ends up dead. Or worse. I can't tell you what's really going on, of course, for that would spoil the surprise, but Mark of the Vampire is not the horror movie you were expecting from the director of Dracula, not at all. Whether this has to do with Browning or MGM is never quite established; Freaks, Browning's last film, had been a box office disaster, and Browning had no say in the changes MGM made to the finished film. How much of that deleted footage would have made this the classic you can sometimes feel lurking beneath the surface, rather than the potboiler/comedy that it is? It's not a bad film; after all, Browning directed it. But it is not one of his better works, even if that's not entirely is fault. Worth checking out for fans of Browning, Lugosi, Atwill, etc., but no need to go out of your way. ** ½
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