Wednesday, 7 January 2015

Dracula


Also Known As:
Unknown
Year:
1931
Country:
United States…
Predominant Genre:
Horror
Directors:
Tod Browning… Karl Freund…
Outstanding Performances:
Helen CHANDLER… Dwight FRYE… Bela LUGOSI…
Premiss:
An ancient vampire preys upon the virtuous.
Themes:
Alienation
Atheism
Christianity
Coming-of-age
Courage
Destiny
Emotional repression
Empathy
Grieving
Guilt
Humanity
Identity
Loneliness
Nostalgia
Original Sin
Personal change
Redemption
Self-expression
Solipsism
White culture
White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Dracula
Review Format:
DVD

Classy Stuff

Wonderful old-time horror movie proving Bela LUGOSI was the best nosferatu of all.

Highly stylized and somewhat stilted, this eloquently creates the necessary gothic atmosphere: The only way to tell a story so replete with implicit sexual yearning and danger. Understanding how closely related are fear and sexual desire, makes it easy to see how LUGOSI seduces so many young women with his eyes and gentlemanly manners.

Helen CHANDLER is excellent as the ingenue who realizes she is turning intro a vampire yet who, out of love for her fiancé, warns him to stop loving her. Her inner conflict of a woman unable to focus her sexuality against the polygynous attractions of the undead is well expressed.

Dwight FRYE is also superb as an everyday estate agent who then goes mad - in the kind of way Peter Lorre would rightly envy - after being bitten by the eponymous lead character.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.