Brides of Dracula

Title:
Brides of Dracula

Description:
http://uranium-cafe.com Brides of Dracula Author: Joe Stemme (gortx) from United States Certainly, one of the oddest successes for Hammer. Determined to make a sequel to HORROR OF Dracula, but with a lead character turned to dust and an actor refusing to be 'typecast' (Christopher Lee), the film still manages to be one of the best "Dracula" films (as well as one of Hammer's of the era). Set up with a narrated prologue (sublimely eerie photography) that explains that Dracula has left a 'cult' legacy behind, BRIDES picks up with a gorgeous French woman (Yvonne Monlaur) who is passing thru (does one pass thru Transylvania??). From there she meets a Baroness (Martita Hunt) who takes her in for the night. That night the young woman unwittingly lets loose her son the Baron (David Peel). Peel is, of course, a Vampire. It's at this point that Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) enters the scene and so the story is set up. BRIDES OF Dracula has two main points of interest. First, the truly creepy Oedipel relationship of the Baron and his Mother (if one thinks about it, the Mother is one of the title 'Brides' - someone call Dr.Freud!). There is also the overly protective Housekeeper (Freda Jackson) who thoroughly abets The Baron and his Brides upon his 'release'. Second, there's Peter Cushing's magnificent performance as Van Helsing. In only his second time out in the role, he thoroughly owns it - and comes to dominate the picture. What's also amazing is Cushing's physicality. While there no doubt are some stunt double shots, the majority of the action scenes are clearly handled by the actor himself. Something that too often is over-looked when commenting on the nearly always reliable character actor. A couple of quibbles. Since Vampires can change into bats, why can't the Baron escape a human sized shackle? And, since the Housekeeper is so smitten with him, why doesn't she release him herself? One could search and ponder why the script doesn't address these issues, but I believe the simple matter of fact is that they just weren't thought through. The film works quite well, nitpicks aside. Author: ian-433 from Edinburgh, Scotland Probably Hammer's best horror, even though it doesn't have Christopher Lee. But David Peel is equally formidable as an aristocratic young disciple, and Peter Cushing's Dr Van Helsing is still the scourge of vampirism in Victorian Europe. It begins with a wonderfully spooky tracking shot over a misty woodland lake (actually Black Park next to Pinewood Studios) and ominous narration (`Transylvania, land of dark forests, dread mountains and black unfathomable lakes. Still a place of magic and devilry as the 19th century comes to a close.'). Hammer gothic depended heavily on photography for mood and Jack Asher lit their early horrors masterfully, but the always budget-conscious studio let him go as his often exquisite set ups took to long. Pretty Parisian Marianne Daniel (Yvonne Monlaur), en route to her first teaching appointment in a Transylvanian finishing school, is lured into spending a night at the forbidding Chateau Meinster by its haughty Baroness. Explaining away the extra dinner place set by servant Greta, the Baroness says it is for her absent son, `feeble-minded' and locked away in another wing (`We pray for death, both of us. At least, I hope he prays.'). When naïve young Marianne lets Meinster out, Greta cackles in demented glee as a wolf howls into the night (`There's a wolf down there. And an owl. He'll get them all astir, trust him.'). It all comes together in Brides of Dracula. Script, characterisation and acting (Cushing, Peel, Martita Hunt as the Baroness, Freda Jackson as Greta all splendid; even the comic turns - the inimitable Miles Malleson as a sceptical country doctor and Henry Oscar as pompous schoolmaster Herr Lang - are just perfect). And its horrors, as directed by Terence Fisher, are sudden and violent. Bitten by Meinster, Cushing purges the wound with a red-hot branding iron, doused by holy water. But perhaps the single most macabre moment Hammer has ever devised is the scene where Greta sits astride a new grave like a hellish midwife, urging Meinster's latest victim to rise out of her coffin. Can Cushing save the village daughters from a fate worse than death? The stakes are high!

Author:
billdancourtney

Tags:
Brides, of, Dracula, hammer, horror, peter, cushing, terence, fisher,