THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN: DAY 26

(The Many Faces of Christopher Lee as Dracula)

Because Sir Christopher Lee nearly played Dracula silently,

his face usually told the tale for the viewer.

Here, Lee discusses trying to play Stoker's Dracula...

Here Christopher talks about life after Dracula and how he tried to escape type-casting:

And now hear Lee's lines as DRACULA....

To end our evening with Hammer's very own Dracula, a bit of music by

Toadies--my favorite song by these folks and one I'd never interpreted as a vampiric song until recently...

"Possum Kingdom"

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN 2013: DAY 1

It's going to have to be a much more casual countdown to the hallowed holiday that we all know and love as HALLOWEEN this year--mainly because I've not had the proper frame of mind to get myself organized as of yet.  Usually by now I've gotten this thing broken down into weeks and possibly even days, thoroughly planned out pics and tales and reviews and, well, you know, THE GOODS.

Didn't quite make it this year.

But, fear not, dear reader (or maybe you should!), for all will be well as the days draw down to the darkness that is to come.  The "BLOG OF BLOOD" as I have temporarily labeled this place, will yield it's due come reaping time!

The title "BLOG OF BLOOD" is fitting this year because my main focus will be those blood-sucking fiends, the vampire--and the granddaddy of them all, DRACULA!  Figured it was about time to give Bram Stoker's invention a good looking over and, of course, the lore that inspired the good Count.

And, all the while, I'll be giving the novel a listening to on audiobook to enhance the countdown--if nothing else, it makes me sad that the arts of letter-writing and journal-keeping have fallen so far to the way-side.  Mina could teach kids today the importance of good correspondence.

(Like myself, it appears good ol' Christopher Lee hasn't quite summoned the Halloween spirit yet...)

Before we go, I must first encourage you to click on the "Countdown to Halloween" button to get linked up to the center of our blog circle from which you can visit one of a multitude of blogs such as this for a peek at the plethora of paths we all take to reach that dark, gooey center of ourselves as the darkness grows more present and the cool air creeps in under the doors!

I will, regardless of my slow start, make an effort to post something of value each and every night this month, so stick around as we continue the...

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN!

MONSTER-MONTH: A COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 27)

Tonight we focus on Kenneth Branagh’s contribution to the myth of the Monster known as MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN.  Made in the wake of the very successful DRACULA remake by Francis Ford Coppola, Branagh’s adaptation of the Shelley novel is an ambitious one.  It reaches for the tale as it was originally told, it struggles to find the emotional core of the Creator and the Creation.

Considering that the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster has been around for more than 170 years, mounting yet another screen version seems like trouble.

"The territory has been covered many, many times," acknowledges the filmmaker, 33. "The black and white melodramatic versions have been done. The gory, gory versions, the suspense versions, the comic ver sions: They have all been done. I wanted to make the romantic, cinematic version. That's why I felt that sweeping camera movements were required. I wanted to give people a cinematic experience full of big ideas, vibrant colors, big landscapes.

"I wanted to see people against large mountains and lakes, almost as if I were telling a fairy tale, with Victor and Elizabeth as Hansel and Gretel. I wanted that big, blue ballroom and a long, sweeping staircase. I wanted Victor's home to be lovely but also to be a place that had a dark side, just like in a fairy tale."

And it does have that dark side--especially considering the words by Mary Shelley that open the film:

“I busied myself to think of a story, which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror.  One to make the reader dread to look around, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.”

The film opens on Aidan Quinn as Captain Robet Walton commanding a ship that has become icebound in the arctic as he attempts to find a route to the North Pole.  They are attempting to break free when they begin to hear monsterous cries in the darkness and see the approach of a man.  That man is Victor Frankenstein and he tells his tale to the Captain as the storm and Creature draw near.

The tale within a tale begins with the adoption of Elizabeth (played by Helena Bonham Carter) when she was, perhaps five, into the Frankenstein family as her parents died of the scarlet fever.  Cut to a fifteen years later and Victor confesses his love for Elizabeth and asks for her hand in marraige.  She agrees, but only after Victor is to go to University and she has time to prepare the Frankenstein estate for his return and their family.

Before all this, Victor’s mother has died a tragic death in childbirth and he has sworn to end this thing that has happened to her.  He swears to conquer death itself.

His studies that deal with alchemy make him unpopular with some teachers, but find him kinship with Henry Clerval (Tom Hulce) and a mentor in Professor Waldman (John Cleese).  Victor believes that the only way to cheat death is to birth new life.  Waldman tells Victor that his theory is flawed, that he has experimented with such ideas and the result was an abomination.

Waldman is killed by a patient, soon thereafter and Victor seeks out all of Waldman’s research, incorporating it into his own experiment.  He even includes Waldman’s brain and the body of a murderer into his creation.  Late one night, Victor finally succeeds in giving his own creation life, but is repulsed by it and renounces his experiments.

Thus the tale begins and the tragedy unfolds...

Robert DeNiro’s Monster is one of massive scars and stitches, a bald head a stout build and cunning intelligence.  More true to Shelley’s creation and yet, more creepy and less sympathetic.  His cruelty seems more by intent than by ignorance.  This Monster knows selfishness, cruelty and all of the darker nature of man, because he has known these things more than the other side of our nature.

The film disappointed at the box office and was moderately a critical success.  It has very strong visuals, but I think I agree with part of Roger Ebert’s review that the film was too frantic and manic to allow for the full dramatic effect of the core moments register.  To me, it seems this was, in part, an effort to recreate the Hammer feel of filmmaking as the plot rushes forward and the drama is high.

Not the best FRANKENSTEIN film, but a very worthy one to contribute to the legend, Branagh in the learning process of telling a tale of the fantastic.

FIVE FRANKENSTEIN FUN FACTS:

1. De Niro studied stroke victims to get a feel for one struggling to speak.
2. Branagh insisted that everyone refer to DeNiro’s character as “The Sharp-Featured Man” as he was identified in the credits.
3. Producer Francis Ford Coppola originally planned to direct thie film as a companion piece to DRACULA, but stepped back to allow Kenneth Branagh the job.  Coppola later regretted the decision after disagreements with Branagh.
4. After viewing a rough cut, Coppola insisted on cutting the first half hour of the film.  When Branagh refused, Coppola publicly denounced the film.
5. This film contains several references to previous FRANKENSTEIN films, such as Thomas Ediston’s, James Whale’s, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Curse of Frankenstein, Frankenstein: The True Story, Terror of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Unbound.

And now for your postage needs:

MONSTER-MONTH: COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 17)

We now take a look at Hammer’s first color horror film

and their first film featuring the story of FRANKENSTEIN.

The worldwide success of this film led to several sequels

and the growing studio’s new versions of Dracula (1958)

and The Mummy (1959) and established Hammer as

the preeminent studio for horror.

(I'm the Frankenstein Monster and I approved this message!)

“THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN WILL HAUNT YOU FOREVER!”

(Click to Frankensize)

In Hammer Film Productions’ movie THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957), the true monster of the story is the Doctor--played brilliantly and twistedly by Peter Cushing in his most villainous role.  The Monster, in this case, is played by Christopher Lee as a violent psychotic.  The kind of mindlessly violent creature who is more force of nature than relatable living being.

(Click to Frankensize)

In the beginning, Baron Victor Frankenstein awaits execution or murder in prison.  There, he tells the story if his life to a priest.

At a very young age his father’s estate is passed on to him when his father dies.  Young Frankenstein (hee-hee) is then mentored

by a man named Paul Krempe who begins to help Victor’s natural leanings toward science advance.

Eventually, after successfully bringing a dead dog back to life,

Victor proposes that they create a human life from scratch.

(Click to Frankensize)

Krempe tries to assist Victor with his pursuit, but eventually drops out because he cannot tolerate the continuous search for human remains.  The body of the creation is assembled from a corpse found swinging on a gallows, hands and eyes purchased from charnel house workers.  And for the brain, the all too essential mind of this new life, Doctor Frankenstein plans to murder a distinguished professor so that the monster can have his mind.

(Click to Frankensize)

And so he has the professor over in the guise of a friendly visit, but pushes the man from the top of the staircase, killing him in what appears to others to be a simple accident.  Once the professor is buried, Victor tries to steal his brain, but Krempe, who now is actively working against Victor’s ambitions, fights Victor and the brain is damaged in the scuffle.

                                                                            

Finally, with all of the parts assembled, including the damaged brain of the murdered professor, Frankenstein brings the Monster to life.  Because he is uncontrollably violent, Victor locks the Creature away but it escapes and murders an old blind man.  Victor and Krempe hunt down the Monster, shoot it and bury it.

(Click to Frankensize)

Once Krempe leaves, Frankenstein digs up and revives his creature, using it to murder his maid, Justine, when she threatens to tell authorities about his experiments.  Eventually, the Creature escapes again and threatens Victor’s bride, Elizabeth.  Victor attacks the Monster again, causing it to fall into a vat of acid and completely destroying it, leaving no proof that it ever existed.  Victor is then imprisoned for Justine’s murder.

Frankenstein begs Krempe to testify to the priest and jailers that it was the creature who killed Justine.  Krempe refuses and Victor is led away to his execution.

(Click to Frankensize)

Universal Studios fought to prevent Hammer from duplicating aspects of their 1931 film, and so make-up artist Phil Leakey to design a look that bore no resemblance to Boris Karloff’s original Monster as created by Jack Pierce.  On May 2, 1957, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN opened at the London Pavilion with an X certificate from the censors.

The film was remastered by Hammer films with its original aspect of 1:37:1 known as “The Academy Ratio” used on films up to 1953.  The restored frilm includes the previously banned eyeball scene, but not the head in the acid bath scene which remains lost.

(Click to Frankensize)

Unlike the Universal FRANKENSTEIN series, in which the Monster was the focus and recurring figure, it is Baron Victor Frankenstein who was the featured player throughout the Hammer series, while the Monsters varied.  And it was Peter Cushing who always played Victor except THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN, which was merely a remake of the original THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

(Click to Frankensize)

Warren Publishing in 1966 adapted THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN as fumetti.  And was adapted into a twenty page comic strip published in two issues of the magazine THE HOUSE OF HAMMER.  It was drawn by Alberto Cuyas from the script by Donne Avenell (based on John Burke’s novelization)  The cover of the second issue featured a painting of the Baron being attacked by his Monster by Brian Lewis.

(Click to Frankensize)

For many years THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN was the most profitable film ever produced in England by a British studio.

(Click to Frankensize)

A plethora of informative sites worth citing:

http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/cult_movies/curse_frankenstein.htm

http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/horror/hammercinema/cof.html

http://www.hammerfilms.com

http://www.hammerfilms.com/news/article/newsid/409/the-curse-of-frankenstein-release-date

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/455382/

http://www.britmovie.co.uk/films/The-Curse-of-Frankenstein_1957/

The censored eyeball shot:

The entire movie is available at Dailymotion, here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xlt6am_the-curse-of-frankenstein_shortfilms

Even better: Turner Classic Movies is offering THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN on for your viewing pleasure (alongside a hoary host of HAMMER HORROR to boot):

Wednesday, October 17, 2012 on TCM

8pm - HORROR OF DRACULA (1958)

9:30pm - THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)

11pm - THE MUMMY (1959)

12:45am - THE GORGON (1954)

2:15am - THE DEVIL’S BRIDE (1968)

4am - THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES (1966)