Customer Reviews

United Artist Cinema Greats Collection, Set 2 (The Great Escape / Rocky / West Side Story / The Thomas Crown Affair)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this for $6 New, from PieceOfMindMedia and i have to say that this is definetly one of the best deals i have got...EVER. All of these Classic Movies for $6 is Unheard of! Rocky, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair and West Side Story. If you bought these individualy you would spend at least $60. AWESOME GIFT!

I loved this one, and in some ways it is superior to Dracula(30). There is a strong cast with Lionel Barrymore and Bela Lugosi. This one has a good atmosphere that is worthy of Universal. This would make(and maybe it did in its heyday!) a good double feature with the original Dracula(30).

While this movie isn't exactly frightening, it does manage to entertain! The acting is good, effects are excellent for the times, and the plot twist at the end is nothing of what you expected! This is a recommended buy!

Well, it is the return of Dracula in everything but name. Tod Browning's direction is often more impressive here than in the original, pioneering Dracula, and he certainly has a more eventful story to play with. However, it seems vital chunks of the story may well have been cut, for example, the explanation as to why Lugosi's character had a bloodied temple is not here. Lugosi, John Barrymore and especially Carroll Borland are excellent, but the final twist comes as something of a disappointment. Very old and very, very creepy.

I don't know why most reviewers seem to hate this movie! but I guess it's because it's not the typical vampire movie or the typical horror movie and is actually more of a mystery and suspense movie but I actually thought that it was a good movie and I enjoyed the whole things aren't what they appear plotline and I thought the ending seemed very original. Seems like it would have been very original back then and also now! Not all of the actors are great but Bela Lugosi and Lionel Barrymore are great and I highly recommend this movie to fans of vampire horror movies who also like mystery and suspense!

This is a review of ASIN: B000VUNVVE Mark of the Vampire (1935)
Mark of the Vampire

Sir Karell Borotyn (Holmes Herbert) is found dead; he has been sucked dry of blood. There are rumors of the undead living near buy in the local castle. The daughter Irena (Elizabeth Allan) of the victim goes to live with her benevolent guardian Baron Otto von Zinden (Jean Hersholt of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award) next door. All is well until she hears daddy calling her. Will she and her fiancé Fedor Vincenté (Henry Wadsworth) become the next victims? Or is there more afoot than meets the eye?

At first this looks like any thirties vamp movie (a remake of "London After Midnight" 1927) we even have the obligatory Count Mora (Bela Lugosi). And the fly by night Luna Mora (Carol Borland) who does one of the best quasi-bat jobs I have seen to this day. Yet at first you say it is too formula and the focus leaves a dot to be desired. The almost absence of back ground music is spooky in its self. However soon you will be absorbed and naturally in the end you will want to watch it again for the obviously missed clues.

The drawback is with so many deleted scenes it is stilted and one must make constant mental leaps to keep up.

Yes, this one is definitely for old-movie fans, especially
those who enjoy the monster stories of days-gone-by!
The epitome of the sacred "twist" will leave the viewer
grinning ear-to-ear. I can only imagine my 13-year old
father, with his candy and popcorn, mesmerized by Bela
Lugosi, but appreciating the clever finale!

It would be stopping just short of a criminal act if this sinister gem were not preserved in a contemporary format for current and future generations, especially in light of the fact that the movie which is considered to be it's immediate inspiration, the legendary "London After Midnight" is a lost film.

One has to wonder why this title has been neglected in the race to commit so many vintage titles to dvd. Certainly, features with far less merit have found their way to this format.

Despite a script which feels muddled in places and a twist ending which leaves many viewers feeling cheated, "Mark of the Vampire" ranks among the greatest within the genre for stark, yet sumptuous, visual feasts and genuinely creepy atmosphere - it certainly meets and out-gruesomes the works which originated from powerhouse rival Universal at that time.

Best of all - it's brief, at least in it's current form. At only about an hour in running time, it's a quick and morbid morsel, just right on it's own, or for sandwiching between, say, a couple of those longer-running Universal monster classics. Still , it's a safe bet that fans of the movie and of it's stars want to see the nearly 20 minutes of missing footage discovered and restored.

Even though his role is a non-speaking one,(until the very end) Bela Lugosi still manages to out-vamp and out-menace even his own original Dracula screen performance. Carroll Borland (as Luna Mora) silently steals any scenes in which she appears; her unusual beauty and mute performance solidified the look and demeanor for several decades' worth of cinematic and TV undead females, and in no small way lives today in every goth girl.

Together Lugosi and Borland creeped the bejeezus out of me as a kid with their synchronized movements. Witness her amazing, all-too-brief flying scene (some of which was cut before the film's initial release), and then marvel that that image and the countless others in this film were all achieved in "real" life: all visual effects were made to occur in real time, in real life, and in 3 real dimensinons by artists and technicians for "real" in front of the camera, and in front of the actors, not simulated on some virtual set with the aid of a computer.

I can't recommend it enough.

The murder of the wealthy Sir Karell Borotyn in the study of his Czechoslavakian castle sparks renewed interest in a local legend that claims that the place is haunted by corpses that rise up at night to suck the blood of mortals....Supposedly, this flicker is a remake of Lon Chaney's 1927 silent LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, which was based upon a story by director Tod Browning entitled THE HYPNOTIST. M-G-M actually imported South American bats for this film: the US Government ordered that they be destroyed upon the film's completion! An alternate twist ending had Barrymore's character receive a telegram from the vaudeville actors apologising for not making their train - in order to get to the castle - it was rejected by Browning. Apparently, this film was taken quite seriously by moviegoers back in 1935: an esteemed anonymous doctor stated thusly: "a dozen of the worst obscene pictures cannot equal the damage the damage that is done by such films as MARK OF THE VAMPIRE" (!). The letter concluded: "In my opinion, it is a crime to present such films"....in light of what is allowed in the cinema today, this is hilarious.

SPOILERS, but I'm sure most people know about this movie already.....I suppose what would disappoint Bela Lagosi fans is that he is not a vampire, but is an vampire actor. What really makes this film shine through is not Bela, but "Luna"-a very beautiful gothic woman who does amazing vampire stares, and looks like pure goth. It's basically a detective movie but not a disappointing one..lots of women screaming, and the vampire scenes are done suprisingly well; even the bat props look real. It has bugs, rats, crawling spiders, and very well done fog.

The movie is only 60 minutes long :-( so I would consider this more of a "moviette" or mini-movie. I found it very satisfying. Too bad it's only available on VHS.