Baron Meinster, at it again
THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960)
"She is no longer like the living...not even, God help us, the dead."
Great stuff. One of my favorite Hammer films. Heck, one of my favorite horror movies altogether; if I ever made a list of Top Twenty-Five Horror Flicks, this would almost certainly be on it. It helps that I first saw it at an impressionable age but rewatching it just now when I am old and cranky, it still entertains. There are so many cool moments in this, like when the padlock falls off the coffin up on supports, and the old man finds that the padlock is still closed somehow....!The dialogue is also crisp and perfect. ("Then you know who I am." "I know who you were.")
Peter Cushing is absolutely great. I don't hesitate to rank him with the best actors to make horror movies, contrast this role with his Baron Frankenstein. His version of Van Helsing hits every mark without a false step. He's brave and determined, while still remaining polite and dignified (no teeth-clenching grimaces and yelling of angry threats). When he deals with the tragic Baroness Meinster (a remorseful vampire who hides her fangs in shame), he's compassionate. After he gets bitten by an Undead, Van Helsing shows resourcefulness and sheer fortitude in a way that stuns audiences even today.* With Count Dracula dead (as shown in HORROR OF DRACULA), Van Helsing is going around tracking down the remaining vampires the way a doctor would look for anyone infected by someone with an awful disease.
One interesting aspect is that vampirism is described several times as a cult, "obscene" and aiming to "corrupt the world." It sounds to me as if Jimmy Sangster equated vampirism with moral degeneracy, as if vampires were Socialists or Beatniks or something. To be honest, in the less tolerant atmosphere of 1960, my first thought is that vampirism is equated here with homosexuality... something unspeakable that formerly straight-edge decent young lads were seduced into. ("Yes, and you laughed at their wicked games. Till in the end one of them took him and made him what he is," the Baron's nurse tells the dead Baroness.) This also gives the movies a bit of menace as vampirism is actively trying to expand and conquer. The Undead are not content just to loll around big old country estates (as in UNDERWORLD, for example) and pick off a few victims as needed. Vampirism is an active threat to the living. Van Helsing describes the cult of the Undead as "a sickness partly physical, partly spiritual." Interesting approach.
It's so nostalgic to see a crucifix (and other sacred objects like holy water) shown as effective weapons against evil. That element of horror movies was lost decades ago, with nothing really coming along to take their place. this leaves mankind less able to deal with the menaces and presents the supernatural as one-sided in favor of evil. I'm agnostic myself (bordering on atheism most of the time), but I like the symbolism and the way faith used to be presented as a valid defense against the powers of darkness. Now, if a character tries to use a crucifix in a movies, the vampires laugh and kill him first. We've lost a lot, perhaps more than we realize.
Taking Dracula's place this time around is the Baron Meinster. Instead of trying to get someone more intimidating than Christopher Lee (good luck with that), Hammer went in a different direction. David Peel plays the Baron as a spoiled son of aristocracy, soft-spoken and boyish with a mop of wavy blond hair and wearing a soft grey-blue cloak instead of all black. But when it's time to get mean, when the fangs come out and the red eyes glitter, Meinster is just as scary. Peel's rather mild good looks makes it more plausible when he talks the naive young teacher into freeing him from the ankle chain his mother uses to keep him around. Yvonne Monlaur as Marianne is okay (not the most skilled actress in cinema history, you know?), she is a standard damsel in distress who means well but who sets the Baron loose to stir things up. As the devoted nurse Greta, Freda Jackson is terrific. She goes all out and really chews up the scenery in the best way When she is coaching the fledgling vampire to dig her way up out of the grave ("She comes. There's my little beauty. A clever one," cackling all the while). The degraded human servants of vampires (not TWILIGHT fans specifically...) add a lot to the genre.
BRIDES OF DRACULA was adapted for paperback by Dean Owen for Monarch Books. (There's a review of it herehttp://dochermes.livejournal.com/850142.html:
Judging by the same author's GORGO that year, I imagine this book contains some mildly erotic passages; probably more than GORGO did in fact, since there is always some sexual context with vampires that you just don't get with giant rampaging dinosaurs (Which is just as well.) I haven't read the Monarch paperback but I might track down a copy at some point out of curiosity. It makes me smile to think of all the preteen readers of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND in that era who cheerfully sent away for copies of these books and got a few surprises ("Whoa! Hey, Tommy, check this out!")
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*Wrapping a rope around one hand to anchor himself, Van Helsing cauterizes the bites on his own throat with a red-hot poker. Yikes! Then he splashes the wounds with holy water and lies gasping as he heals. Cushing sells the moment with his body language, it's completely compelling.