Mark of the Vampire

Mark of the Vampire is a piece of cinematic silliness from 1935, directed by Tod Browning and starring a virtually silent Bela Lugosi, who only gets lines to deliver at the end of the film:

"This vampire business, it has given me a great idea for a new act! Luna, in the new act, I will be the vampire! Did you watch me? I gave all of me! I was greater than any REAL vampire!"

Casting aside his cape, he caps the short film with his revelation. The rest of it, amazingly enough for a film made by the director of the original Dracula (1931), as well as Freaks (1932) and films from the silent era starring Chaney, such as the masterful The Unknown, from 1927 (Chaney starred alongside the voluptuous Joan Crawford), is a by-the-book vampire snoozer, albeit atmospheric and high camp, with a few indelible images along the way.

Sir Karell Borotyn (Holmes Herbert) is murdered, and the doctor who examines the body (Donald Meek), as well as Baron von Zinden (Jean Hersholt, who starred as Marcus in Erich von Stroheim's silent film masterpiece Greed, from 1924) feel that he was killed by vampire "Count Mora," portrayed by a silent Lugosi skulking around alongside daughter Luna (Carol Borland), a striking, prototypical goth witch with long. straight Morticia Adams hair and a Lily Munster gown. There's a very effective, pseudo-comic grotesque scene of her flying down from the castle ceiling with huge batwings instead of arms. This primitive cinematic visual freakery is so sudden and unexpected, in this very talk-heavy movie, that it surprises the viewer and offers a wry bit of amusement. It's almost reminiscent of an illustration by Edward Gorey.

Police Inspector Neumann (Lionel Atwill) arrives on the scene to poo-poo the putative vampire killing, but then we get the less-incredulous (because he's an "occult expert" in the manner of any good Van Helsing) Professor Zelen (Lionel Barrymore), who arrives on the scene just in time to suggest a remedy of "Bat Thorn" (whatever the hell that is) and chopping of vampire noggins to cure the menace of the undead sweeping through the land. But they don't say jack and sh*t, man, about driving a bloody stake through the unbeating heart of the Count and his progeny. And so I feel a bit cheated. And no garlic or holy water, either. Where's the respect for tradition, I ask ya'?

In the middle of the film, everyone stops for a lecture. Talk, talk, talk, instead of show. At thirty minutes I kept getting distracted. Maybe they should have called this "Halfway Mark of the Vampire."

Borotyn (sounds like a medication) has a daughter, Irena, (Elizabeth Allan) who is your stock 1935 blonde hoity-toity petty aristocrat, dahling, ready to weep on the heaving chest of the Big Strong Handsome Leading Man. She is menaced by the creeping fog that brings the bat-on-a-fishing line that transforms into Lugosi, who otherwise is relegated to spooking the cardboard tombstones and rusted gates of the high-camp cemetery. (His castle, besides having what appears to be a nasty roach infestation, is replete with fake bats, spiders, rats, etc. But they threw in a few real ones for good measure, surprisingly, which is something these old films didn't usually do. It didn't stop them from using the obviously fake mechanical animals, though.)

All-in-all, a film with nice cinematography, beautiful really; and set design worthy of any late-night horror host's show from an era long, long ago. But even star Lugosi (who had not yet hit the skids) here seems to foreshadow the humiliation afforded by his "final appearance" in Plan Nine from Outer Space (1956), wherein a chiropractor (Tom Mason) skulks around as Lugosi's posthumous double, a cap thrust over his face, mute. The cemetery scenes here seem to presage Plan Nine by twenty years. Not, shall we say Tod Browning's best work (rumored to be his attempt to remake his lost silent film, London After Midnight (1927), which starred Lon Chaney Sr. as a vampire with a particularly shark-like set of fangs.)

Sixty minutes. By modern standards, a very short film. But seems much, much longer.

Wake me when it's over. I'll be in the crypt below, taking a long, long nap.

Mark of the Vampire Official Trailer #1 - Bela Lugosi Movie (1935) HD