An old favourite: Dance of the Vampires or ....

Roman Polanski's 1967 spoof DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES or THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS is still an absolute delight - and should really be seen on a large screen as it's widescreen images are just marvellous - I particularly like that moment when Polanski (he plays Alfred the bumbling rather dim-witted assistant to Professor Abronsius himself) is fleeing from Count Von Krolock's son ("a sensitive youth" as his father, the leader of the vampires, says) and he - Polanski - runs all around the four sides of the castle cloisters to return to the point he started from where the vampire son [Iain Quarrier] is waiting for him .... delirious stuff.

This was Polanski still in English movie mode, after REPULSION and CUL-DE-SAC before heading to America and ROSEMARY'S BABY, so it was made with his usual collaborators, writer Gerard Brach and composer Krystof Komeda. Veteran actor Jack McGowran is the dotty professor hunting for vampires in Transylvania with his assistant Alfred. They stay at an inn where everyone is superstitious and afraid of vampires. Alfred gets to meet and fall for the inn-keeper's daughter Sarah (Sharon Tate, quite lovely here) who has also come to the attention of the mysterious Count whose eerie castle is outside the village. Sarah is addicted to taking baths and during one the Count enters and takes her away. Alfred and the Professor follow but not before the inn-keeper (who is Jewish, played by Alfie Bass) also falls victim to the vampire, as does his busty barmaid/mistress Fiona Lewis.

This is all spendidly realised with great sets for the inn and the castle. They find the resting places of the count and his son but it too late as the sun goes down ... Count Von Krolock materialises and has his own plans for the Professor and Alfred who can provide some intellectually stimulating company for them during those long winter nights as the centuries pass by. The son Herbert takes a shine to Alfred and there is that delicious scene as Alfred sitting on the bed as Herbert gets closer realises his is the only reflection in the mirror ... hence that chase around the castle. So we have a Jewish vampire and a gay vampire, both hilariously done, and Ferdy Mayne is a perfect arch vampire.

Sarah will be initiated into the vampires during the great ball held once a year and there is that great moment as ancient tombs open as the rather decrepit vampires emerge for their ball. The ball is a delight with everyone dancing but the large mirror only shows Alfred, Abronsius and Sarah .... they manage to get away as the vampires give chase in some very funny scenes and the ending is quite nice, while Komeda's score is just right.... It is all just a perfect delight from start to finish and one I can relish any time - a key Polanski movie too, before those later darker movies like his MACBETH and CHINATOWN or THE TENANT, or his recent THE GHOST (WRITER). Back in '69 or '70 when I was living around Chelsea I turned from Sloane Square into Kings Road and there was Polanski in front of me talking to someone - you could never mistake him for anyone else!

Stylish horror for Halloween ...

We don't do tortureporn or slasher moves or teen frightmares here at the Movie Projector, but we do like  good stylish horror fantasy, particularly if starring one of our favourite French ladies - or Vincent Price, or a deliciously twisted item from Roman Polanski .... Let's recap a few favourites:   
We had to re-visit the deliciously camp BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN from 1935 too, a James Whale classic, lovingly spoofed by Mel Brooks in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN in 1974 where Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Terri Garr and Marty Feldman are all ace.

THE HUNGER. It was nice to have another look at Tony Scott's THE HUNGER too, that popular vampire flick from 1983, capturing that early '80s look nicely. That terrific opening scene at the nightclub looks like the old Heaven club in London, as our vampires prey on urban clubbers and pick up another couple, while Bauhaus intone "Bela Lugosi's dead" on the soundtrack ..... David Bowie and Deneuve are perfect casting - Bowie though is ageing rapidly and will have to be placed with the ageless Miriam's past lovers locked away in their caskets - I liked that quick flashback to Ancient Egypt with Miriam in full vampire mode. 
Then there is that great scene with Susan Sarandon who asks the piano-playing Miriam if she is making a pass at her to which Miriam cooly replies "Not that I am aware of, Sarah" .... love that final shot too of the new ageless vampire looking out over her new domain ... its a glossy exercise in style of course, but it certainly satisfies the eye. Deneuve's vampire is the equal of Delphine Seyrig's countess in DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (see item below). Sarandon was amusing in that THE CELLULOID CLOSET documentary, noting that her character had to be drunk to allow herself to be seduced by Catherine Deneuve, one of the great beauties of the movies!  

Roman Polanski's 1967 (though I think it was 1969 when it played in British cinemas) spoof DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES or THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS is still an absolute delight - and should really be seen on a large screen as it's widescreen images are just marvellous - I particularly like that moment when Polanski (he plays Alfred, the bumbling rather dim-witted assistant to Professor Abronsius himself) is fleeing from Count Von Krolock's son ("a sensitive youth" as his father, the leader of the vampires, says) and he - Polanski - runs all around the four sides of the castle cloisters to return to the point he started from where the vampire son [Iain Quarrier] is waiting for him .... delirious stuff.

This was Polanski still in English movie mode, after REPULSION and CUL-DE-SAC before heading to America and ROSEMARY'S BABY, so it was made with his usual collaborators, writer Gerard Brach and composer Krystof Komeda. Veteran actor Jack McGowran is the dotty professor hunting for vampires in Transylvania with his assistant Alfred. They stay at an inn where everyone is superstitious and afraid of vampires. Alfred gets to meet and fall for the inn-keeper's daughter Sarah (Sharon Tate, quite lovely here) who has also come to the attention of the mysterious Count whose eerie castle is outside the village. Sarah is addicted to taking baths and during one the Count enters and takes her away. Alfred and the Professor follow but not before the inn-keeper (who is Jewish, played by Alfie Bass) also falls victim to the vampire, as does his busty barmaid/mistress Fiona Lewis.

This is all spendidly realised with great sets for the inn and the castle. They find the resting places of the count and his son but it too late as the sun goes down ... Count Von Krolock materialises and has his own plans for the Professor and Alfred who can provide some intellectually stimulating company for them during those long winter nights as the centuries pass by. The son Herbert takes a shine to Alfred and there is that delicious scene as Alfred sitting on the bed as Herbert gets closer realises his is the only reflection in the mirror ... hence that chase around the castle. So we have a Jewish vampire and a gay vampire, both hilariously done, and Ferdy Mayne is a perfect arch vampire.

Sarah will be initiated into the vampires during the great ball held once a year and there is that great eerie moment as ancient tombs covered in snow open as the rather decrepit vampires emerge for their ball. The ball is a delight with everyone dancing but the large mirror only shows Alfred, Abronsius and Sarah .... they manage to get away as the vampires give chase in some very funny scenes and the ending is quite nice, while Komeda's score is just right.... It is all just a perfect delight from start to finish and one I can relish any time - a key Polanski movie too, before those later darker movies like his MACBETH and CHINATOWN or THE TENANT, or THE GHOST (WRITER) (see Polanski label). Back in '69 or '70 when I was living around Chelsea I turned from Sloane Square into Kings Road and there was Polanski in front of me talking to someone - you could never mistake him for anyone else!

We have already covered Harry Kumel's 1971 perverse delight DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS here, see recent post below, and we reviewed Franju's 1959 EYES WITHOUT A FACE too. 

Roger Vadim's 1960 BLOOD AND ROSES delighted me when I saw it in my early teens, when living in Ireland, and it has eluded me since, but I now sourced a copy, and it is a mysterious and erotic as I remembered. 
Made after his Bardot films and before the Jane Fonda ones, it featured his then wife Annette Stroyberg, a rather passive beauty - who also featured in his previous film, LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES in 1959, but Jeanne Moreau and Gerard Philipe walked away with that one. BLOOD AND ROSES is adapted from Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" by Vadim who creates a perverse darkly romantic love story with that Gothic atmosphere. Elsa Martinelli and the dull Mel Ferrer are the engaged couple, but her friend Annette is jealous ... It is simply one of the best vampire movies ever made, miles better than those silly Hammer soft core items of the early 70s. The best Hammer vampire is BRIDES OF DRACULA in 1960, with the marvellous Martita Hunt - as per my review, Horror Label. 

Also in the '60s of course we had Roger Corman producing in the UK those two Vincent Price classics THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH with its great imagery and sets, and colour by Nicholas Roeg, with Price in his element as evil prince Prospero with those rooms in different colours, and the lovely young Jane Asher as well as stalwart Hazel Court, and the stylish THE TOMB OF LIGEIA was just as good. Price though was utterly terrifying as the THE WITCHFINDER GENERAL in 1968, a grim look at life back in the Civil War with superstitious villages isolated from each other. It's young director was Michael Reeves whose early death was surely a great loss to the horror genre, but Vincent was soon back in high camp mode in THEATRE OF BLOOD and the DR PHIBES films. WITCHFINDER GENERAL though is terrifying in its depiction of sheer cruelty as old women are dragged away to be hanged as witches or ducked in rivers to see if they sink or swim - either way they are doomed. The Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins is making money from it all as he goes from village offering his services as a persecutor of witches, and soon alights on the village where Rupert Davies is the priest and Hilary Dwyer his comely daughter who is in love with solder young Ian Ogilvy, whose sidekick is young Nicky Henson. It builds to a terrific climax as the Witchfnder is hacked to death by the enraged Ogilvy after seeing his girl tortured by his sadistic helper, who also gets his. It remains a savage disturbing film. 

Rosemary's Baby

Our London National Film Theatre is also showing a season of Polanski films in January and February. I shall be going to see one of my favourites, his 1967 DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES (or THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS - see Polanski, Horror labels) there as its ideal on the big screen with those scope compositions and I always enjoy it so much, so endlessly inventive and amusing with the gay and Jewish vampires and that castle we roam around; as luck would have it ROSEMARY'S BABY was screened on tv here last night.  I had not seen this landmark horror film since its release back in 1968 ... where Roman (whom I passed in the Kings Road Chelsea once) after his British hit REPULSION and that cult classic CUL-DE-SAC moved next to New York and the film of Ira Levin's novel.

With its inspired casting, terrific design (Richard Sylbert), camerawork (William Fraker), and score (by Polanski regular Komeda), the director's first American film is an exemplary thriller about a woman believing herself impregnated by the Devil in the guise of her husband. Crucial to its success - commercial as well as artistic - is the ambiguity as to whether her fears about Satanism in Manhattan are grounded in reality or the paranoia of the mother-to-be ...

It is still a marvellous movie, Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as her actor husband who gets that lucky break, are both ideal - and Ruth Gordon is again simply marvellous as neighbour Minnie ... the film was made at just the right time, when the old Hollywood was changing, it is a landmark film of its era, up there with BONNIE AND CLYDE, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, MIDNIGHT COWBOY .... the old studios and production codes were breaking down and more realistic films could be made with those interesting new performers and directors - as per my reviews at 60s label.  

One can see the film as a study of an isolated woman's descent into madness as she worries about her unborn child. We slowly begin to realise that the hysterical ravings of the heroine could be true .... later horror films like THE OMEN had to ramp up the shocks, but Polanski here paces everything we see perfectly (as with his classic CHINATOWN), what though happened to that other girl who had been taken up by the Castevets and ends up splattered on the sidewalk ?

Mia Farrow has hardly ever been better (I liked her in DEATH ON THE NILE too) it is a towering performance - like Catherine Denueve (right) in Polanski's '65 REPULSION, or Faye Dunaway in CHINATOWN, as per recent review); Cassavetes is ideal as the opportunist husband and Ruth, with her herbal drinks, does a dry run for her HAROLD AND MAUDE, young Charles Grodin scores too. The Dakota apartment block too is the perfect background.  Now I really must get around to watching those dvds of Polanski's THE TENANT (with favourites Isabelle Adjani, Shelley Winters, Jo Van Fleet, Lila Kedrova in that weird Paris apartment block) and also that neat Colin Firth thriller set in Buenos Aires APARTMENT ZERO ...

Back to 1974: Chinatown

I had forgotten how stunning CHINATOWN was and still is, how we loved it back in 1974 - it was on again this week as part of a Jack Nicholson season on tv (along with THE PASSENGER below). Everything about it is so perfect, Polanski fashions a movie of great moments from Robert Towne's script, changing the ending of course. It captures the L.A. of the 1930s as it must have been, all those 1920s houses etc and the perfect costumes and hairstyles. There's that first great scene as Jack persists in telling his Chinaman joke unaware of Mrs Mulwray behind him ... and then that teasing plot of what is happening to the water supply .... and who is behind it all, as Noah Cross plots for "the future" ...

She never sees anyone for long ...

We had got used to Nicholson's rather lazy performances over the decades since, but he was on the ball here, as he was for Antonioni and Forman. Faye Dunaway is equally mesmerising, and its as much her movie as Jack's as her Evelyn Mulwray contains the dark heart of the film, along with Noah Cross, her venal father, as ripely played by John Huston. Faye's marcelled hair and plucked eyebrows give her a unique look here, she looks inscrutably oriental (as they used to say) in that scene in bed with JJ Gittes. (Funny, much as we liked CHINATOWN we simply had no interest in seeing the later THE TWO JAKES...).  That ending too still stuns and that final line  "Forget it, Jake...it's Chinatown" is of course up there with "Nobody's perfect" or "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn". I like the old style credits and that melancholy lovely score by Jerry Goldsmith is exactly right, particularly at the end. Faye and Polanski of course had one of the great feuds, seems he pulled a hair out of her head .... she is so brilliant here though that there should have been a tie for best actress that year. Perhaps her win in 1976 for NETWORK was for CHINATOWN as well ...

In all, perhaps the finest balance of Hollywood classicism and European art cinema any director has ever conjured, and a key '70s movie and part of the new Hollywood of Coppola, Scorsese, De Palma et al. Polanski is now subject to a two-part retrospective in London, where CHINATOWN will be getting 38 screenings and those other ones we like like REPULSION and his delicious vampire satire DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES (Polanski label). Geoff Andrew of the BFI refers to CHINATOWN as "A dazzlingly intelligent film of great dramatic power and near-mythic import."

Movies I love: Dance of the Vampires

Roman Polanski's 1967 (though I think it was 1969 when it played in British cinemas) spoof DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES or THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS is still an absolute delight - and should really be seen on a large screen as it's widescreen images are just marvellous - I particularly like that moment when Polanski (he plays Alfred the bumbling rather dim-witted assistant to Professor Abronsius himself) is fleeing from Count Von Krolock's son ("a sensitive youth" as his father, the leader of the vampires, says) and he - Polanski - runs all around the four sides of the castle cloisters to return to the point he started from where the vampire son [Iain Quarrier] is waiting for him .... delirious stuff.

This was Polanski still in English movie mode, after REPULSION and CUL-DE-SAC before heading to America and ROSEMARY'S BABY, so it was made with his usual collaborators, writer Gerard Brach and composer Krystof Komeda. Veteran actor Jack McGowran is the dotty professor hunting for vampires in Transylvania with his assistant Alfred. They stay at an inn where everyone is superstitious and afraid of vampires. Alfred gets to meet and fall for the inn-keeper's daughter Sarah (Sharon Tate, quite lovely here) who has also come to the attention of the mysterious Count whose eerie castle is outside the village. Sarah is addicted to taking baths and during one the Count enters and takes her away. Alfred and the Professor follow but not before the inn-keeper (who is Jewish, played by Alfie Bass) also falls victim to the vampire, as does his busty barmaid/mistress Fiona Lewis.

This is all spendidly realised with great sets for the inn and the castle. They find the resting places of the count and his son but it too late as the sun goes down ... Count Von Krolock materialises and has his own plans for the Professor and Alfred who can provide some intellectually stimulating company for them during those long winter nights as the centuries pass by. The son Herbert takes a shine to Alfred and there is that delicious scene as Alfred sitting on the bed as Herbert gets closer realises his is the only reflection in the mirror ... hence that chase around the castle. So we have a Jewish vampire and a gay vampire, both hilariously done, and Ferdy Mayne is a perfect arch vampire.

Sarah will be initiated into the vampires during the great ball held once a year and there is that great moment as ancient tombs open as the rather decrepit vampires emerge for their ball. The ball is a delight with everyone dancing but the large mirror only shows Alfred, Abronsius and Sarah .... they manage to get away as the vampires give chase in some very funny scenes and the ending is quite nice, while Komeda's score is just right.... It is all just a perfect delight from start to finish and one I can relish any time - a key Polanski movie too, before those later darker movies like his MACBETH and CHINATOWN or THE TENANT, or his latest THE GHOST (WRITER) (already reviewed here, 2000s label).
Back in '69 or '70 when I was living around Chelsea I turned from Sloane Square into Kings Road and there was Polanski in front of me talking to someone - you could never mistake him for anyone else!

The Ghost: paranoia thrillers revived

Roman Polanski's latest, THE GHOST [or THE GHOST WRITER as the American dvd is titled] splendidly revives the paranoia thriller of the '70s (like Pakula's trio KLUTE, THE PARALLAX VIEW and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN) and also has that 'look': the metallic steel colours, creepy destinations and the feeling of not being able to trust anyone. Robert Harris's book was a terrific read and could hardly be more topical - a British ex-Prime Minister lying low while preparing his memoirs as moves are made to try him for war crimes regarding the war in Iraq.

The publishers have a problem as the first ghost-writer brought in to knock the dull manuscript into shape has been washed up dead off Martha's Vineyard where our PM and his entourage are holed up in the winter off-season. Hack writer Ewan McGregor (a tad too young perhaps?) is brought in and gets the gig and is soon on his way to the deserted USA East Coast. Kim Catterall is Amelia the brisk, rather under-written, aide who welcomes him to the bunker-like retreat as he settles down with the manuscript, which cannot leave the premises. The vistas of the gloomy retreat are nicely done, with the incessant rain and cold, and our hero is about the only guest at the empty Inn - apart from the odd man who asks if he knows Adam Lang (our PM in hiding - Pierce Brosnan is just right here with that mix of arrogance and bluff).

Slowly our un-named ghost begins to find out about what happened to his predecessor as his fears grow for his own safety. Where does the Prime Minister's wife Ruth fit into all this - Olivia Williams is also perfectly judged here ... showing the bitterness of the wife in exile, whose husband seems to be closer to his aide Amelia (Catterall). Out cycling in the rain the ghost comes across the old guy who insists the body could not have been washed up where it was found - this is a few minutes cameo by Eli Wallach, now in his 90s (in movies since the mid-50s, with memories of his Guido in THE MISFITS for one) its great to see him here, even if briefly. On using the car last used by his predecessor its satnav delivers him to that house deep in the woods with the unwelcoming professor Emmett (Tom Wilkinson, also splendid as ever). Minor quibbles here are surely that everything used by the previous ghost would have been removed by Lang's security, and can one really Google information about operatives of the CIA?

While Lang and his aides are away the ghost and the PM's wife tentatively get closer, but then the tension racks up with our ghost being tailed from the professor's house (just as his predecessor was) but Ewan is cleverer and manages to get off the ferry giving his followers the slip ... then Lang returns as events come to a head. Back in London the manuscript is now successfully published as Amelia invites the ghost to the opening and a chance remark of hers leads him to the secret contained in the manuscript. This is nicely handled in the book as the ghostwriter realises he must flee and go into hiding, but the ending seems rather rushed here - it seems improbable that a car would be waiting for him so quickly ... but the last image of the pages of the manuscript blowing away in the wind is perfectly apt, and its CHINATOWN all over again.

Polanski (I passed him in Sloane Square, Chelsea once back in the late '60s) now in his mid-70s is at the top of his form here, and no matter what else, he is one director actors will want to work with. [I still rewatch his delightful 1967 spoof DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES and of course REPULSION, CUL-SE-SAC and CHINATOWN are essential]. He assembles a terrific team here, it was filmed in Germany I believe fitting in nicely for the East Coast USA, but surely it looks under-populated - often there is nobody else around on those deserted roads and towns; but as a film it is leagues better than those tedious, boring, uninvolving so-called thrillers like MICHAEL CLAYTON which I had enough of after 40 minutes!

Robert Harris was one of prime minister Tony Blair's inner circle until leaving over the Iraq question, so he writes with knowledge of the workings of British politics, and its amusing to see the Langs as the Blairs. The book is a terrific read - literally unputdownable - and the film does it justice. The cast is just right, particularly Olivia Williams. Highly recommended then. Polanski was also involved in setting up a film of a previous highly readable Harris novel POMPEII, pity that did not happen...it just became a mini-series, it would have been fascinating seeing what Roman did with it. I have been keeping Harris' new highly praised novel LUSTRUM (more intrigue in Ancient Rome) as a holiday read but I don't think I can wait that long now...