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Lots of crap for you to contemplate.
Dark Shadows | Def By Temptation | Demon Planet, The | Demonsoul | Dracula (1931a) | Dracula (1931b) | Dracula (1958) | Dracula (1973) | Dracula (1979) | Dracula (1992) |
Dark Shadows
- n/r -
tv
D:
television
DEF BY TEMPTATION
- *1/2 -
1990 / 95m.
D: James Bond III / DP:
Cynthia Bond, Kadeem Hardison, James Bond III, Bill Nunn, Melba Moore, Samuel L. Jackson
In a semi-seedy New York City bar, a vampiress named Temptation (Cynthia Bond) feeds nightly from the steady supply of human livestock attracted to her charms. She takes them to her elegant apartment, sometimes fornicates with them, and sometimes just satisfies her blood thirst. Her major interest, being the devil incarnate and all, is to end preachers who are the last of their line in male lineage (why she doesn't just go after preachers or priests in general in never broached). How convenient for her that a preacher from the South (Bond III) visits his brother (played well by Hardison) and she tries seducing him to willingly violate his divinity vows. How fucking trite.
Often too preachy, sometimes wandering, nothing here grabs and/or holds our attention long enough to make this outing more than modestly worthwhile. Jackson's role is very brief, yet he gets top billing in the advertising and VHS/DVD packaging. Obviously, he was doing someone a favor.
Hardison played a vampire ghoul as Eddie Murphy's sidekick in VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN.
Tag: "."
DEMON PLANET, THE
See PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, THE
DEMONSOUL
DRACULA
- **1/2 -
1931a / 74m.
D: Tod Browning / DP:
Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, Edward van Sloan
Most cinematic conventions of Dracula derive from this most-famous adaptation ever (except garlic). Lugosi, playing the role he was born for, is still creepy despite sad, lackluster direction from silent-era Browning. Many moments are strangely silent, barely adding to the creepiness.
Based much more on the abridged play than the Stoker novel, this was originally planned to be an epic. The Depression scaled back production, however great sets, costuming and makeup are abundant.
I have to ask, "What the fuck is up with the goddamn armadillos?" Any explanation would be welcome. This is Wallachia and Transylvania, not Guadalahara!
Universal's Classic Monster Collection DVD includes a marvelous score by Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet. It also includes the Spanish-language production (see 1931b below).
DRACULA
- *** -
1931b / 103m.
D: George Melford
Carlos Villarias, Lupita Tovar, Pablo Alvarez Rubio, Barry Norton, Carmen Guerrero
Produced simultaneously with the Lugosi version, this Spanish-language adaptation is superior in several technical ways. The camerawork, staging and direction are all truly superior. Confer, for instance. the on-ship sequence, or maybe the first castle scenes, which introduce us to the dark master. The clothing is sexier and (much) more revealing on the femmes.
Unfortunately, Villarias's vamp is absolutely unbelievable. Think of Carl Reiner trying to do a straight part. The script is in parts stretched, where Browning's is more compact. Both end up being equally decent treatments. Despite what Leonard Maltin writes in his Movie Guide, this is not a "scene-for-scene line-for-line" adaptation of the Lugosi script. Now I have to admit that my copy of Maltin's otherwise indispensible guide is more than a lustrum old, how can a 74m film and a 103m film be "scene-for-scene line-for-line" duplicates? Fucking DUH!
DRACULA
1958
See HORROR OF DRACULA
