IS RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE A SEQUEL TO DRACULA?

I intended to write a review of Return of the Vampire like I do other horror films, but instead I want to weigh in on a my thoughts on why this was made. The story goes that Columbia Pictures wanted this was to be a sequel to the 1931 Universal Dracula film, but Universal threatened to take them to court. Columbia changed the the name of Bela Lugosi's character from Count Dracula to Armand Tesla.

Having watched the movie many times, I fell that it is not sequel, but a very good knockoff of the Universal horror films.

The story involves Armand Tesla (Bela Lugosi), a vampire who is brought back to life after the Luftwaffe bombs the cemetery where he was buried. Tesla had taken the life of many people in London at the turn of the century. He had a spike driven into his heart by Professor Walter Sanders and his female assistant, Lady Jane Ainsley. The professor's small daughter, Nicky, had been attacked by Tesla. When the doctor destroys Tesla, it also removes a spell that he put on a man named Andreas Orby, that turned him into Tesla's werewolf slave.

Volunteers cleaning up the cemetery after the Blitz remove the spike from Tesla's body, thinking it is debris. Tesla takes control of Andreas, who now works for Lady Jane, and turns him back into werewolf. Lady Jane ask Andreas to meet Dr. Hugo Bruckner, a scientist that has escaped a concentration camp and will be working for her. Tesla and Andreas kill Bruckner and Tesla assumes his identity. Dr. Bruckner is invited to an engagement party for Lady Jane's son John and Nicky. Tesla goes after Nicky again. 

I will stop her because Return of the Vampire has a twist ending. In fact, an episode of Sanford & Son worked that into an episode. Fred and Grady start to watch the film and Grady tells Fred how the movie ends before it starts. Fred, in retaliation, dumps a bowl of potato chips on Grady's head.

Photos of Lugosi as Tesla have appeared in books and been misidentified as being Dracula. The werewolf makeup was reused by Columbia for the 1956 horror film called The Werewolf. This is also the first film to feature both a vampire and werewolf. You could probably say that this isn't the sequel to Dracula, but a forerunner to Twilight and Underworld. On second thought, let's not say that.

The reason I don't think it is a sequel is that it doesn't follow a storyline that is even close to the original story. Too many elements in the story (Werewolf, Tesla's book) seemed to suggest that this was not an attempt to make an original vampire movie and not a Dracula movie.

This film would be a great movie for kids (or anyone) to watch on Halloween. After all this has too monsters for the price of one.

   

Animation Legend Lou Scheimer Dead

R.I.P. Animation Legend Lou Scheimer

SELECTIONS FROM THE HAUNTED HOUSE AND OTHER SPOOKY POEMS AND TALES

A co-worker gave me this Scholastic Records EP from 1970 entitled Selections from the Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales. The stories and poems are read by Paul Hecht and Carol Danell.
The back cover list the selections on the record.

Someone has uploaded both sides to You Tube. "The Velvet Ribbon" is my favorite.

THE CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN - Movie Review

The Creature With The Atom Brain is one of those movies that was once a staple of late movies on local TV and became a monster kid favorite. Like The Rats Are Coming, The Werewolves Are Here, the title just screams bad horror film. Some reviews and film history books try to make this 1955 thriller a statement on Cold War hysteria like The Thing, Invaders from Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I don't think the script of the movie was well thought out enough and if there is a political subtext it certainly doesn't make itself known.

The plot of the movie revolves around a gangster named Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger), who with the air of a Nazi scientist (Gregory Gaye), is using dead men, brought back to life with atomic power, to kill people responsible for having him deported. The atomic power makes the dead men impervious to bullets and gives them super-strength.

Forensic scientist Dr. Chet Walker (Richard Denning) and his partner, Capt. Dave Harris (S. John Launer), work to find who is controlling the dead men. Walker makes the connection between two victims and the killer's words, recorded on a victim's Dictaphone. "I said I would see you die and I will!" It turns out Buchanan told the jury that convicted him "I will see you die!"  When they start getting close, Dave is kidnapped and turned into an atomic killer. Luckily, he only succeeds in dismembering Dr. Walker's eight year old daughter's doll.

Besides being a classic Late Late Show fixture, this movie inspired the 1980 Roky Erickson song by the same name. Erickson incorporated re-enactments of the movie's dialogue including the first creature murdering mobster Hennesey and his goons shooting at the creature, as well as the news report of D.A. McGraws murder into the song. The lyrics focus on the discovery that Capt. Harris has become one the creatures ("Threw the doll right down, Ripped its guts out and threw it on the ground")

"Do you think he is one of them?"

Even though the script was by Curtis Siodmak, it seems like this could have been put together in a meeting of the marketing department at Columbia Pictures."Let's see what do people like in movies...I know, we will make a movie with gangsters, Nazis, atomic power, walking dead, soldiers and police shooting people. Okay, Siodmak, knock out a script on that."

While I don't believe this is an allegory about the Cold War, it is certainly a product of the Cold War and the 50s. You could almost do MST3K style riffs on the film, while satirizing the idiotic right-wing rhetoric found in memes on Facebook.

• Remember the good old days when the paper boy delivered the newspaper to your door?
• Remember the good old days when men slapped their wife's butt on the front porch in front of the neighbors?
• Remember the good old days when women were too feminine and delicate to drink martinis?
• Remember the good old days when our military would use all of their resources to find radioactivity in cities?
• Remember the good old days when eight year old girls talked like four year old girls and they played with giant dolls instead of twerking in clubs all night?
• Remember the good old days when zombies wore nice suits and had saddle stitching on their foreheads?

The Creature With the Atom Brain is a fun movie, because it can't be taken too seriously.

A GREAT MOMENT FROM DARK SHADOWS -- Tom Jennings is Destroyed!

VIXEN GUITARIST JAN KUEHNEMUND DEAD AT 51

Here is the story from Loudwire.

"DR. SHRINKER" ACTOR JAY ROBINSON DEAD AT 83

I just learned of the death of actor Jay Robinson, who played Caligula in The Robe and Demetrius and the Gladiators and the 70s Saturday morning kids adventure show, Dr. Shrinker. Even worse was finding a good mainstream news story about his death. It is a shame because not only would many Generation X people remember him, but the story of his career is really interesting. Here is the best article I found, it is this excellent post from The Scott Rollins Film and TV Trivia Blog.

He was busted for drugs at the height of his career, followed by years of not being able to work and legal problems. Bette Davis helped him get back to work. Here is a portion of the Better Davis episode of This Is Your Life, where Jay Robinson thanks Bette for being his friend (Robinson is after Victor Bueno and comedienne who does an impression of Davis).

Dr. Shrinker is one of the pop culture villains that I used as a model for my writing voice on the original blog. Here is a bit of Dr. Shinker.