Vampires

Praise for The Romance of Dracula

“A really great read. A must for any Dracula fan or vampire buff. Well researched and detailed it’s a delight to read. It could be a set text for any media course featuring the count. The amount of research is impressive, little known and interesting facts are crammed on almost every page yet anything less like a dry text book would be hard to find. Its unique Witty and well written it is truly a fine romance.” – Abigail Bell

“Part of the fun of a book like this is that it's not a dry textbook attempting to objectively quantify these films by the standards of world cinema. This is a book by a vampire fan that is intended to be read by vampire fans.” – Brian P. Mckinley

“I've been a Dracula aficionado all my life, and besides reading Bram Stoker's masterpiece I've watched many film versions and read many other Dracula books, but this is the first one I've found that gives a full summary and critique of every major Dracula adaptation, not only that but the author has illustrated every chapter, which is devoted to a specific Dracula adaptation, with a portrait of the title Dracula actor. The book is worth its price for these fine drawings alone in my opinion, but his commentary on each of the films is amusing, candid and insightful, so it's a great and worthy addition to my extensive Dracula library.” – Mr. G Caci

“Mr. Butler's addiction to vampire movies is only slightly less than the blood-lust of his hero Count Dracula but has a lot more research going for it. His summaries and commentaries on Dracula films from silent Nosferatu to Technicolor Hammer horror via Louis Jordan and Jack Palance are detailed, loving and always interesting.” – Michael Yates

“This book will be enjoyed by film and vampire buffs alike. After reading Mr. Butler's book, I've added to my list of must-see vampire films. It's clear that The Romance of Dracula was written with someone who has a true passion for the genre.” – Vampire Admirer

“Reading Mr. Butler's book, I found myself spending time on the computer hunting down each of the flicks that he mentioned. Many are back on my purchase list, and I'm eager to see the films through the author's descriptive eyes.” – T. Ouija “Tam”

“His review of the original novel is breathtaking. It sweeps you up with a fervor. With a series of Dracula quotes and subsequent musings that are at times jaw dropping and at others, downright entertaining.” – n Larry

“Charles Butler's reviews are 100% accurate. He has watched the movies carefully, he has done the research into their making and he treats them all with respect without falling into fanatical worship. These pieces are all thoughtful; he loves the material but also sees their flaws.” Audrey R Cladh

“One hopes that Butler will provide more detailed thoughts on the various sequels, spin-offs, and the rest of the vampire movie sub-genre in future review books. A must-have for any Dracula fan's collection!” – Donald C. Weiss

“The book is everything I had hoped and more!! Brilliant author and artist. I am looking forward to future endeavors by Mr. Butler!!!!!!!” – Gift “Lorraine Alberti Bartenbach”

“The Romance of Dracula tackles various incarnations of the good Transylvanian noble head on and is written not in a sycophantic style, but rather someone who is describing something they really like and that infectious warmth does sink in.” – D W Newell

Vampires Under the Hammer

Written and illustrated

by Charles E Butler

For my beautiful sisters:

Patricia, Susan, Joan and Lorna

Published by Charles E. Butler/Su asti publishing. Copyright 2013. All rights reserved.

Other books by Charles E. Butler and available at Createspace at Amazon

The Romance of Dracula: a personal journey of the Count on celluloid

Detections in a Scarlet Vein; an irrelevant investigation
(Kindle pad only)

Vampires Everywhere:  the Rise of the Movie UnDead.

Guest appearances

The Lure of the Vampire
edited by Bertena Varney M.A.

Vampires: Romance to Rippers an anthology of tasty stories
edited by Scarlette D. Noire.

“Listen to them – the children of the night. What music they make!”

-
Bram Stoker (1897)

Introduction

The theatre lights dim and the screen illuminates beneath the curtains. A silence of anticipation as the drapes are drawn back and the film begins. A stone gargoyle resembling a proud eagle fills the screen to the resounding track of a thunderous music score. The words,
“A Hammer Film production”,
are superimposed in red gothic fonts. As the camera pans around the set piece of what seems to be an authentic gothic castle, the names of the cast are displayed; Peter Cushing, Melissa Stribling, Michael Gough, Carol Marsh and Christopher Lee as
Dracula
. More names, the supporting cast, Miles Malleson, Valerie Gaunt, John Van Eysson, and George Woodbridge. A credit tells us that the riveting score is from the pen of James Bernard and we are viewing the glorious set pieces designed by Bernard Robinson that invoke a curious blend of Victorian England and a distinct European Neverworld that would become an indelible fixture in our minds. Phil Leakey is credited as the make-up supervisor. Waiting in the wings – and uncredited – is the very economical and very talented assistant, Roy Ashton. A screenplay by Jimmy Sangster based on the novel
“Dracula”
by Bram Stoker. Produced by Anthony Hinds.

The camera ventures through a cellar door and rests on a coffin bearing the one word:
Dracula
. Blood drips onto the word as the final credit is displayed

Directed by Terence Fisher
.

The year is 1957 and we have found ourselves in the hands of the studio that would become the world’s foremost purveyors of fantasy cinema. We are trapped in the lair of the vampire that would become known as
The House of Hammer.

********

It must first be said that
Vampires under the Hammer
is in no way an analysis of the success of Hammer Film studios as a whole. Like my previous books,
The Romance of Dracula
and
Vampires Everywhere
, it is a personal reminiscence of the enjoyment gleaned from the studio’s movies that inspired me in my formative years. Hammer films typified the character of the vampire on an international scale from 1958 to 1974. The influence, specifically of Count Dracula and the decadent Karnstein family, can still be felt in the tremendous output of vampire media that seems to double almost daily across the globe. Unfairly scorned by critics on their original release, the films themselves have now taken their place as the foremost classic output of the genre. This fact can be corroborated very easily if one ventures onto the internet, where there are innumerable fan groups that hold undying allegiance to the economical genius that was Hammer films. These fan bases and film and comic conventions across the world continually grow in great numbers and, like the vampire’s bloodletting, there seems to be no end in sight. I never saw the movies discussed here on their original release, I was born in 1966, but the films followed me through my childhood on television and then as a puzzled teen on video and now still hold my undivided attention on DVD and through the World Wide Web. I grew up with their interpretations of
Frankenstein
and
Dracula
and they very quickly became old fiends from late night horror installments in the
Appointment With Fear
TV series. I remember viewing Christopher Lee putting the bite on Isla Blair in
Taste the Blood of Dracula
from
behind the sofa
! Happily, today, they are reviewed and remembered fondly as the timeless classics that they are.

The Curse of Frankenstein
with its shameless display of blood, sex and unadulterated violence, thumbed a cocky finger to the film making establishment when it was first released in 1957, laying as it did the groundwork for decades of horror movies that were to follow. With their literate scripts and commendable acting turns by all concerned, I could only sense a kind of political intrigue when reading reprints of the day’s critical community. I do point out, however, that many of the films hold the allusion of being very quickly assembled, and many – some without in-depth scrutiny – defy even the most basic logic. This is also true of their vampire output on many levels. Unlike Universal, however, Hammer still tried to rely on keeping their stories horrific and their creations frightening. But, in their final years, the company would turn out quantity instead of quality. Shifts in residence, management and trains of thought would eventually tell on the creative merits of their films.

Here then are my own thoughts and reminiscences on the Creatures of the Night as depicted in Hammer films. Founded and conceived at the now legendary Bray Studios in England. From Count Dracula to Baron Meinster: Count Ravna to Countess Mircalla Karnstein and more. They are
The Vampires under the Hammer
.

Vampires before the Hammer struck

Across the years, Hammer has had unfair and unkind comparisons to the
classic
monster outputs created by Universal studios. For the record, Universal made four classic horror movies in the sound era,
Frankenstein (1931). The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933)
and – in many opinions, the greatest horror movie ever -
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Ardent fans will argue that
Dracula (1930)
and
The Wolf Man (1941),
should be added to the list, but I tend to disagree. Except for one or two points, the cinematography on
Dracula
and the great script by Curt Siodmak on
The Wolf Man,
they are just fondly remembered thrillers from a bygone age that quickly leave themselves open to parody.

Lugosi’s Count Dracula is a cardboard bogeyman so misunderstood by the film makers at Universal that he quickly becomes a B movie bad guy. In later films in the series, he joins forces with similar cardboardian mad scientists as they try to resurrect the Frankenstein monster for their own nefarious deeds. In the final
Dracula
movie for Universal, Bela Lugosi himself becomes the scientist and his character of Dracula only has a passing interest in other people’s blood. These mad monster marathons would be egregiously copied throughout the next six decades by film makers as diverse as Jess Franco, Paul Naschy, Al Adamson, Fred Dekker and Stephen Sommers.

The vampire himself had entered the movies as far back as 1913 – even further if one decides that Georges Melies,
Le Manoir Du Diablo/The Haunted Castle (1895),
is actually a vampire story. Some of these silent one shots have even made it onto the internet when they were thought to have been lost forever.
The Vampire of the Desert (1913)
is based on Rudyard Kipling’s 1897 poem,
The Vampire.
Chapter play serials,
The Exploits of Elaine (1914)
and
The Great London Mystery (1920),
attribute some of their content to vampire activity. The most promising supernatural serial of the time was made in France and titled simply,
Les Vampires (1915).
The heroine is named Irma Vep, an anagram of the word
‘vampire’
, for emphasis. Mention must go to a 1914 USA movie that doesn’t have vampires as we know them today, but has a great title in
Vasco, the vampire!