MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935)
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Duration: 61 Minutes
Video: B&W 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1) Aspect Ratio with side mattes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Bela Lugosi, Jean Hersholt, Elizabeth Allen, Carroll Borland, Lionel Atwill
Director Tod Browning (Freaks) re-teamed with Bela Lugosi (Dracula) for this remake of his still lost silent film London After Midnight (1927). Set in a Prague village where the mysterious death of Sir Karell Borotyn (Holmes Herbert, Sorry, Wrong Number) has caused quite a stir after what appear to be small puncture-wounds on his neck are discovered, with the local Dr. Doskil (Donald Meek, You Can't Take It With You) and the villagers gossiping about the presence of a vampire, embodied by the mysterious Count Mora (Bela Lugosi, Dracula) and his spooky daughter Luna (Carroll Borland, Scalps) who live in a nearby castle and only seem to creep about after dark. The murder goes unsolved for a year, and the late Borotyn's close friend Baron Otto von Zinden (Jean Hersholt, The Mask of Fu Manchu) is anxious to protect Borotyn's daughter Irena (Elizabeth Allan, The Lodger), to that end he enlists the help of occult/vampire expert Professor Zelen (Lionel Barrymore, It's A Wonderful Life) to unravel the mystery of the murder and bloodsucker, alongside the disbelieving Inspector Neumann (Lionel Atwill, Dr. X).
The movie has some fantastic vampire atmosphere with Lugosi basically replaying his most iconic role in a ghoulish, nearly wordless performance, with a weird gunshot wound to his temple of his head, that is never explained but featured quite prominently. He is joined by his blood-sucking daughter Luna, played with intense creepiness by Carroll Borland, whose white face, long hair and shroud-like dress must surely have been an influence on the design of Morticia Adams. The vampire duo are seen creeping around a cobweb ensconced castle, mirroring the bloodsuckers entrance in Dracula, full of creepy crawlies, and later we see them entrancing and sucking blood of their victims, and there's even a scene of Luna flying into a room on batwings in human form at one point, which looks pretty terrific for this era.
The film is not played straight, other the the vampire scenes which are quite spooky, this seems to be The Bride of Frankenstein style send-up of Universal's Dracula, with plenty of comedy bits from the hired-help, wrapped-up in a crime-caper film. The performances from Barrymore, Atwell, Hersholt and Zelen are top-notch with some great interplay between them all, but the way this film pulls the rug out from under viewers at the end will be a hard swallow for some. The switch-up pre-figuring something like April Fool's Day (1986), and is equally as puzzling as it's hard to explain what we've seen, who saw it, and with how's it is explained. Regardless of the rug-pulling the film is stylish and quite handsome looking with fantastic turns from all, plus I love the fog-wafted cemetery scenes, the creepy Gothic castles, the look of ghoulish vampires, and the way that hypnotism figures into it all is quite entertaining, even if it's a big cheat and makes absolutely no sense.
Audio/Video: Mark of the Vampire (1935) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Warner Archive 1080p HD fullscreen (1.37:1) sourced from a master from 4K scan of original nitrate camera negative. It looks glorious with a velvety layer of fine film grain throughout, the black and white contrast is nicely layered with copious fine detail.
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles. The track is in fantastic shape, or at least has been wonderfully restored, and sounds appropriately thin for a track of it's vintage but is always intelligible.
Onto the extras, we get an archival Audio Commentary by Kim Newman and Steve Jones that I believe first appeared on the Warner Bros. release of Hollywood Legends of Horror
Collection DVD set that contained this film. It's a thoroughly entertaining listen as the UK personalities have a great rapport, deep love of vintage horror, and an equally deep breadth of knowledge, in addition to plenty of humor as they discuss what works and what does not about it. Warner Archive also include the 2-min Theatrical Trailer, plus a pair of MGM shorts from the era of the film, we get the live-action cautionary crime-drama The Thrill For Thelma (18 min) and the animated Happy Harmonies short- The Calico Dragon (8 min),
Special Features:
- New 1080p HD master from 4K scan of Original Nitrate Camera negative!
- Audio Commentary by Kim Newman and Steve Jones
- Classic MGM Short “A Thrill for Thelma” (18 min)
- Classic MGM Cartoon “The Calico Dragon” (8 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
Screenshots from the Warner Archive Blu-ray:
