Vampires (5 page)

A major plus to the film is when Barbara Shelley is vampirized and turns from a prim and prissy Victorian snob into a raging hellion, snarling and spitting at the monks who hold her down to prepare her for Father Sandor’s graphic staking. Miss Shelley was the third Hammer starlet to succumb to a violent, on-screen, deliverance of the soul. It must also be pointed out that, apart from the grisly slaying of Alan Kent, this is the only blood-letting in the entire film, unless we count the cat scratch that Christopher Lee inflicts on himself to seduce Suzan Farmer. Even his death scene is reworked so that no blood is spilled and it seems as if Hammer were really focused on trying to keep the censor at bay by conspicuously omitting the fabled Kensington gore!

Many of the cast had further association with Hammer horror movies. Francis Matthews had appeared in
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958
) as Dr Hans kleve and, with Barbara Shelley, Suzan Farmer and Christopher Lee, would go on to star in
Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1965),
shot back-to-back with this movie. On Television, he is possibly best remembered as BBCs amateur private detective
Paul Temple (1969 – 1971)
and the voice of Gerry Anderson’s hero Captain Scarlet in
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-1968).

Barbara Shelley would also star in
Rasputin, the Mad Monk.
She had previously been seen in the savage prisoner of war films
The Camp on Blood Island (1958)
and
the sequel
The Secret of Blood Island (1964).
She starred in
The Gorgon (1964))
as the doomed Carla. In 1967 she partnered with Andrew keir in
Quatermass and the Pit.
Other genre films include
Blood of the Vampire (1957)
and
Shadow of the Cat (1961).
She also starred in TV and appeared in the first episode of
Danger Man/”View From A Villa” (1960)
with Patrick McGoohan. Now retired, she still attends horror conventions in the UK and was seen in the BBC series on British horror
A History of Horror (2010).
Her scream in
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
was dubbed by co-star Suzan Farmer.

Decorative Suzan Farmer played the object of Rasputin’s lust and she turned up in many television roles of the 1960s and the 1970s such as
The Saint
with Roger Moore and
Man in a Suitcase
with Richard Bradford. In 1965 she married the actor Ian Mcshane, which lasted until 1968.
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
and
Rasputin, the Mad Monk
feature her most high profile theatrical film roles.

Australian actor Charles Tingwell known as “Bud”, is best remembered by this author for his role as Inspector Craddock in the four comedy streamlined Miss Marple movies starring Dame Margaret Rutherford, but he  had a very distinguished acting career in Australia, Canada, the USA and the UK, with over a hundred films to his credit. After his war service begun in 1941 with the Royal Australian Air Force, he returned home in 1946, an experienced pilot of many aircraft, and married his childhood sweetheart. In 2004, he published a memoir,
Bud, A Life
and made a website that attracted 500 followers in the first week. He was awarded the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in June 1999 and inducted into the
Logie Hall of Fame
in 1994 and the
Australian Film Walk of Fame
in 2008. He died on 15
th
May, 2009 of prostate cancer aged 86 and was given a State Funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Andrew Keir was another regular character actor at Hammer. He was born in Shotts, North Lanarkshire Scotland as Andrew Buggy the son of a coal miner. Following in his father’s footsteps, he went down the mines and began acting purely by accident. Meeting a friend at the Miner’s Welfare Hall, a member of the local Am Dram group had failed to show for the performance and Keir took on the role, a small part as a farmer, but it was enough to give him the bug. He became a regular performer with the company. When he was given the opportunity to go professional at the Unity theatre in Glasgow, he found that as a coal miner at the beginning of World War 2, his job couldn’t be discarded so easily without a doctor’s note diagnosing pneumoconiosis. He obtained the necessary certificate and never looked back. After four years on the boards, he made his film debut in Hammer’s
The Lady Craved Excitement (1950).
His first major film role was in
The Brave Don’t Cry (1952)
as Charlie Ross about the September 1950 Knockshinnoch disaster when 129 men were trapped by a landslide. His most prominent role, and personal favourite, was his definitive performance of Nigel Kneale’s hero in
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
alongside Barbara Shelley. He also played Julian Fuchs in
Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb (1971).
He filled the part when Peter Cushing left the production after one days filming when his wife, Helen, was diagnosed with emphysema.
Blood
was a cursed production it seemed, as director Seth Holt also died and Michael Carreras stepped in to complete it. Keir had also originated the role of Thomas Cromwell in the Robert Bolt play,
A Man For All seasons (1960).

Stealing
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
as the gruff, rifle toting Father Sandor, he made a strong substitute for Van Helsing and I wished that he would have had a more intimate set to with the Count in the final scene. Sandor is a Franciscan Monk who shocks his flock with his straight talk and bluff manner. When Diana is bitten by the Count on the wrist, Sandor immediately puts a flame to the wound and holds it there for long lingering moments until he is sure that the poison has been cauterized. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly and berates the superstitious priest who insists on a bonfire every time a young girl dies without checking the corpse for the obvious telltale marks. But he does have an over generous side to his persona, as he lets crazy Ludwig (Thorley Walters) happily walk around the monastery letting all kinds of undesirables in through the windows. He explains to Charles, and the audience, the rudiments of destroying the vampire, adding the long forgotten running water remedy in which the fiend will drown. But he never says that it will be easy:

“To skin a cat, first, catch it!”

He shows quick presence of mind when Helen is cornered in the monastery and has Charles watch as he and several monks hold down his sister-in-law and ram a length of wood into her chest to release her soul. When Klove is trapped on the road by the two men, again he doesn’t stop to think twice about shooting the satanic butler. His further skill with the rifle is shown as he takes pot shots at the ice on the castle moat, causing it to break up under the Count’s feet and drowning the demon in its icy depths.

Father Sandor was the star of a black and white comic strip in the 70s in the
House of Hammer
horror magazine as
Father Shandor – Demon Stalker
. The series continued in the
Halls of Horror
and
Warrior
magazine, with art by acclaimed British draftsman John Bolton.

Andrew Keir was married twice. He had five children to his first wife Julia Wallace and one of his daughters is the actress Julie T Wallace. His children and second wife Joyce Parker Scott survived him when he died in hospital in London on 6
th
October 1997 aged 71.

Philip Latham portrayed Klove in the best Karloffian tradition in his most famous movie role. Born in Essex in 1929, he became a British TV favourite for his roles in
The Troubleshooters (1965-1972)
and the multi-part series
The Palisers.
At the time of writing, he still lives quietly retired from acting, since 1990, in Essex. The character name, Klove, would be used again in the
Scars of Dracula
, but it is never made clear if it was intended to be the servant from this film. Certainly, Parick Troughton’s down-at-heel handyman is many times removed from the suave killer played by Latham.

Thorley Walters appears as the lunatic Ludwig. This is obviously a pointless nod to the character Renfield in the original novel and missing from the first film. Ludwig has been taken in by the monks after he had been found wandering the grounds of Castle Dracula years earlier. He is a master craftsman, producing exquisite covers for the friar’s bound volumes in the library. But Dracula’s influence has never left him and he opens the gates to let the demon enter the monastery in his search for the Kents. Walters’ jittery dimwit appeared in several Hammer films notably
Phantom of the Opera (1962), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
and
Vampire Circus (1972).
He died aged 78 in 1991 in a London Nursing home.

In March 2012 a Region B Blu Ray DVD disc was released of this great-looking and well-acted, but ultimately flawed return of Hammer’s greatest character to the screen.

Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968)

Christopher Lee as
Count Dracula
, Rupert Davies as
The Monsignor Ernst Muller
, Veronica Carlson as
Maria,
Barry Andrews as
Paul
. Ewen Hooper as
The Priest
. Barbara Ewing as
Zena
. Michael Ripper as
Max
. Screenplay based on the character created by Bram Stoker; John Elder (Anthony Hinds). Director; Freddie Francis.  

Synopsis
The turn of the twentieth century (circa; 1906), as the Monsignor, Ernst Muller makes his visit to the town of Kleinenburg a year after the gruesome find of a violated body in a church bell. That evil is since destroyed, but there are still troubles in the town. The Priest has lost his faith and prefers drinking in the local tavern rather than saying Mass. He believes, as do the rest of the townsfolk, that the Castle of Dracula still holds sway over the town. The Monsignor berates the Priest and both of them set out to exorcise the castle once and for all. Placing a large cross on the castle doors, the Monsignor returns to his own lands, unaware that his meddling has revived the evil that he sought to have put to bed. Dracula follows and with the help of the priest intends to lay waste the family of the Monsignor and take his young niece Maria as his bride. The girl is engaged to a young man, Paul, who, to the Monsignor‘s regret, is an atheist. When the holy man is murdered by Dracula’s servant, it is down to Paul to save Maria from the demon’s clutches. He takes the faithless cleric to the vampire’s coffin and impales the monster with a large stake. Alas the Priest cannot utter the prayer that will rid them of the evil and Dracula wrenches the wood from his own black heart. He escapes taking the girl with him. An anti-climax is reached as Paul corners the vampire at his castle. The vampire is destroyed when he slips and falls landing squarely on the large golden crucifix. The Priest finds the necessary strength to complete the exorcism and the vampire melts away to nothing. Paul and Maria embrace as the Priest also dies.
   .

Review

Dracula Has Risen From the Grave
begins with an interesting prologue as a boy cycles to the church whistling and passing simple
bonhomie
to the surrounding civilians. Taking the bell rope, he finds his hand smearing with blood as the bell refuses to clang. He ventures to the tower and lets out an unearthly scream as the Priest returns. The reverend investigates and finds the body of a dead girl stuffed into the bell, her throat revealing two tell-tale marks. From that day forward, the Priest loses his faith and the boy is struck dumb. Each character meets the Count independently and I have structured my review to illustrate this

The second sequel to
Dracula (1958)
was Hammer’s highest grossing horror movie ever, but has the look of being very hastily compiled. John Elder is credited as writer for the first time and plays obsessively on the religious ironies throughout. He writes a rollover sequence to continue on from
Dracula – Prince of Darkness
that shows rain and Ice enfolding the bell-tower beneath the credits. One supposes the ice is a quick reference to Dracula‘s last incarnation on the earth. Unfortunately there are many major problems when one compares the narrative to the previous movies in the franchise. The village is now renamed Kleinenburg as opposed to Carlsbad and its natives, all male; seem to spend their time at the local Inn run by belligerent landlord, George Cooper and every home seems to be accessed by treacherous trips across the rooftops. The visiting Monsignor, Ernst Muller, narrates: