I went to the AFI with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greenygal this weekend, and saw Curse of Frankentstein and Horror of Dracula, two classic horror films from Hammer Studios.
By today's standards, they're not terribly gory, and possibly not even that scary, but rather fun anway.
Curse of Frankenstein has Peter Cushing as Frakenstein and Christopher Lee as the Creature, and the framing device is Frankenstein trying to explain what happened to a priest.
I have to say this was one of the more sociopathic versions of the good doctor I've seen. He really didn't seem to understand why relentless pursuing his goal of making a man from parts might be a bad idea, even when he murders someone he likes to get a brain. And his treatment of the servant woman whom he was having a sexual relationship was disgusting and abusive -- I was surprised that he hadn't used her for parts after he managed to get her killed by the Creature. No wonder his lab partner stepped back and refused to corroborate any bit of his story when he was arrested for murder.
Horror of Dracula featured Cushing as Van Helsing, Lee as Dracula, and Micheal Gough as Arthur, a composite character who is Lucy's brother and Mina's husband -- necessary, because the script killed and vampirized Jonathan Harker in the first act. A lot of the plot could have been cut, if either of the men had just told the women that there was a vampire running around, but it is a 1950s script. It was fun to see Lee running around in the cape, which looked super dramatic when he leapt a table to confront Harker -- who didn't learn from the experience and staked a minion first instead of Dracula when he had to choose between the two. The death scene -- Dracula turning to ash when exposed to sunlight -- was a fairly creepy practical effect that stood up well despite its age.
The AFI is going to be showing the 1931 Dracula and the 1931 Frankenstein on Halloween, and I will probably go. Anyone else interested?
greenygal this weekend, and saw Curse of Frankentstein and Horror of Dracula, two classic horror films from Hammer Studios.By today's standards, they're not terribly gory, and possibly not even that scary, but rather fun anway.
Curse of Frankenstein has Peter Cushing as Frakenstein and Christopher Lee as the Creature, and the framing device is Frankenstein trying to explain what happened to a priest.
I have to say this was one of the more sociopathic versions of the good doctor I've seen. He really didn't seem to understand why relentless pursuing his goal of making a man from parts might be a bad idea, even when he murders someone he likes to get a brain. And his treatment of the servant woman whom he was having a sexual relationship was disgusting and abusive -- I was surprised that he hadn't used her for parts after he managed to get her killed by the Creature. No wonder his lab partner stepped back and refused to corroborate any bit of his story when he was arrested for murder.
Horror of Dracula featured Cushing as Van Helsing, Lee as Dracula, and Micheal Gough as Arthur, a composite character who is Lucy's brother and Mina's husband -- necessary, because the script killed and vampirized Jonathan Harker in the first act. A lot of the plot could have been cut, if either of the men had just told the women that there was a vampire running around, but it is a 1950s script. It was fun to see Lee running around in the cape, which looked super dramatic when he leapt a table to confront Harker -- who didn't learn from the experience and staked a minion first instead of Dracula when he had to choose between the two. The death scene -- Dracula turning to ash when exposed to sunlight -- was a fairly creepy practical effect that stood up well despite its age.
The AFI is going to be showing the 1931 Dracula and the 1931 Frankenstein on Halloween, and I will probably go. Anyone else interested?
From:
no subject
Thinking about the movie again today, it occurred to me that this could in fact fix the issue of how he got arrested for Justine's murder when there's no evidence: he did intend to use her for parts, and so her body (or, uh, some of it) was preserved somewhere in the lab for Paul and Elizabeth to find. No wonder Paul looks at him like he's pond scum.