Friday, January 31, 2020

The Brides of Dracula






 The Brides of Dracula
1960

Director- Terence Fisher
Cast- Peter Cushing, Yvonne Monlaur, David Peel, Martita Hunt, Freda Jackson, Andrée Melly, Marie Devereux
         
     Marianne (Yvonne Monlaur) finds herself stranded in a rural town when the coach inexplicably leaves her behind. A local aristocrat, the Baroness Meinster, offers her shelter at her castle. Marianne accepts the invitation but quickly regrets it. The Baroness says she lives alone, but Marianne sees a young man in the castle. He says  that he is the Baron, the Baroness’ son, and is being held against his will. Marianne helps him escape and tragedy soon follows. He kills his mother, flees the castle and the servant, Greta, seems to have gone mad.
            

     Marianne leaves the castle and is found by another traveler, Dr. Van Helshing (Peter Cushing, reprising his role from Horror of Dracula). He connects her story to the death of a young girl in the village and suspects that he knows what is happening. He puts Marianne up in a boarding home for girls and sets out to confirm his suspicions. He finds that the recently deceased village girl (the buxom Marie Devereux ) has risen from the grave as a vampire, helped by the mad Greta. He also finds that the Baroness has returned to life herself, turned into a vampire by her own son!
            

     

   The Baron, hiding his vampiric identity , finds Marianne and convinces her to marry him. He also stalks another girl in the home (Andrée Melly) and turns her into a vampire. He is quite prolific in creating new undead! Van Helsing warns Marianne that her boyfriend is a vampire and then goes out to hunt them. He gets cornered, three on one, and in a rare defeat, the vampires get the upper hand on Van Helsing.

   The Baron chokes him out and when Van Helsing comes to, he is sporting a fresh bite on his neck. In what has to be one of the most hardcore scenes in any vampire movie, Van Helsing throws an iron into hot coals and heats it until it’s glowing red and then brands the side of his neck in an attempt to treat the wound! Of course, this is Peter Cushing, so you know that he is somehow going to sort these vampires out in the end.

   So the first thing you’ll notice is that despite lots of brides, there is no Dracula. The film was originally intended to be Disciple of Dracula, with the Count making a short appearance to help introduce a new vampire. In the rewrite phase this was changed. This was the first sequel to Horror of Dracula and it would be 6 more years before another sequel (Dracula, Prince of Darkness) would come along. With that film, Christopher Lee would become the face of the franchise. It seems like, at least in the beginning, that the plan was for Cushing to be the star.

  I think the movie itself has taken a back seat to the later Hammer vampire films that were bloodier and sexier, but this film has a lot to recommend it. First, there is the aforementioned scene where Van Helsing brands himself. It also brings up some rarely explored themes. If we except (and I think we have to) that the vampire bite is a symbol representing sexual penetration, then this movie give us the taboo of a son turning his own mother into a vampire. We also see a male vampire bite a male victim, something that is still not seen that often compared to a “heterosexual” bite. It also gives us a lot of vampires and Hammer starlets. Though Marie Devereux didn’t get much chance to show off how beautiful she was, Andrée Melly, created some of the most recognizable images of any Hammer starlet. Her vampire is unique and memorable with her wide mouth and bright, wild eyes. Truly beautiful!

 I will always love the more salacious Hammer films of late 1960’s and early 1970’s, but there is still room to enjoy the more classic feel of this film. Watch it to see the master vampire hunter in action.
   





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