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VAMPYR
Criterion. 1932. 73 mins. German with optional English Subtitles.

DVD review by Mark Gross, accessible elsewhere on the FIR site. Here is an excerpt:

The newly restored Criterion edition of Carl Th. Dreyer’s VAMPYR (1932), a masterpiece of dream-like, hallucinatory horror–or sleepy scary, as a friend of mine puts it–arrives in a slipcase of pale grey, showing a frail, sleeping woman with the gigantic shadow of a scythe suspended above her head. Open the set, and you’re confronted with a grinning skull; then, on cardboard flaps holding the double discs in place, the startling face of a gnome-like man behind fog-enshrouded windows. (Leave the box lying about when people are visiting, and you’ll find it a real mood enhancer.) With their usual abandon, Criterion has included not only the expected 60 page booklet of essays and interviews, but also a 215 page book, “Writing Vampyr”. This contains the screenplay by Dreyer & Christen Jul (which has a number of scenes missing from or altered in the final film), as well as the film’s inspiration, Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella “Carmilla”, one of the first literary works to deal with vampires. (Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” was published in 1897, twenty-five years later.)

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RODAN/WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS
Toho. 1956 & 1962.

DVD review by Mark Gross, accessible elsewhere on the FIR site. Here, an excerpt:

Fortunately you can’t hear me, as I’ve been practicing sounding like Rodan the flying monster for about a week now. Generally, I wave my arms up and down as if they were wings to get the full effect. All this is a clever way of saying I’ve been waiting impatiently for the Japanese version of RODAN to come out on DVD, and it’s a real revelation. Both versions (the disc includes the original Japanese and US edits) start with a wavy mosaic of red and blue over which comes the scream, high-pitched and mesmerizing, of the title monster. That sound rooted me to my chair as a six year old, and it’s still highly evocative today. In fact, I’m so excited by the visual splendor and humanist (that’s right, humanist) underpinnings of this film, I’m not sure where to begin.

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THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
Warner Bros Home Entertainment of an MGM film. 1945. 110 mins. B&W. Commentary track featuring Angela Lansbury.

Directed by Albert Lewin. Screenplay by Lewin, from a novel by Oscar Wilde. Cinematography by Harry Stradling. Original Music by Herbert Stothart. Editing by Ferris Webster. Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters. Technicolor decaying portrait by Ivan Albright.
With: Hurd Hatfield, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Donna Reed, Lowell Gilmore, Peter Lawford.

This is a classically produced, classically framed, classic Hollywood melodrama. It has been a long time coming, and I can’t imagine why, as there were two laser disc releases, both quite nice looking. Based on, and faithfully (in spirit) adapted from, Oscar Wilde’s only novel, it tells the tale of a young man who, unwilling to abandon his youth, makes a deal with the devil wherein his portrait will age while he remains forever young. Something about the deal, plus the cynical, insidious coaching of a jaded society friend (Lord Henry Wotton – George Sanders), persuades him to take advantage of his eternal, pretty-boy, untarnished appearance to indulge in all manner of depravity, until, many years later, the portrait is an unrecognizable tableau of depravity and vile imaginings.

In her revealing commentary track, Angela Lansbury – a vision of innocent beauty in the film as Sibyl Vane, Dorian’s first victim – reveals that Hurd Hatfield, whose lost career has been blamed on the indelible portrayal of Dorian Gray, was a fun-loving guy off camera, nothing like the immobile-visaged eponymous character he played, and that both Basil Rathbone and Laird Cregar were considered for Lord Henry Wotton before George Sanders landed the role. Rathbone would have been wrong. Cregar would have been as good as Sanders, partially because he looked like Wilde. Sanders is excellent, though not, in my opinion, more suited for the role than any other he ever played. And that I attribute either to Director Albert Lewin or Screenwriter Albert Lewin, because while Sanders’ narration is superb, half of his Wildeian witticisms spoken on camera fall flat. And though she was never seriously considered, Greta Garbo wanted to play Dorian Gray in drag.

The film’s slow, elegant pace holds up today, bolstered by immaculate art direction and a mournful, powerful score employing Chopin’s Prelude. Apparently the shoot went far over budget, micro-managed by a literate, disdaining imp of a director, yet, thankfully, it made a profit when released. Lewin’s output was sporadic, and his later, Cardiff-photographed PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, is very much a retread of DORIAN GRAY in that it features a man living forever, narrated by an observer in much the same manner of Sanders, and contains highbrow after highbrow reference as it moves on its stylistic way toward a downbeat resolution.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE TV SERIES, SEASON ONE
Paramount Home Entertainment. 1987-88. 19 hrs 39 mins.

This is a very strange series, emanating from Canada. Its protagonists are oddly directed, their dialogue feels off, and its videography both dates it and diminishes it. But it has its devotees and is probably worth a look. Why is it featured in our Halloween Column? Because one of its episodes – FAITH HEALER – is directed by David Cronenberg. And it’s pure Cronenberg…on a debillitatingly low budget, but pure Cronenberg nonetheless. You can see all his trademark obsessions at play, and much of it will remind you either of VIDEODROME or one of his other visceral excursions into man’s vulnerable amalgam of flesh and gore. For Cronenberg completists, this is an essential addition to the DVD shelf.

And stay tuned for coverage of the SONY HAMMER HORROR ICON collection, featuring THE GORGON and SCREAM OF FEAR.

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