Reposted from DRACULAND: The Dracula´s Blog | Go to Original Post

● Happy Birthday Count Lugosi, born 20 October 1882.

Reposted from DRACULAND: The Dracula´s Blog | Go to Original Post

Bela Lugosi created his unique characterization of Count Dracula

on the Broadway stage in 1927 and brought it to the screen in 1931.

One of the first members of the Screen Actors Guild, he was a true

American film pioneer. Although Count Dracula never “drank” wine,

Bela Lugosi, the man, had impeccable taste in wines.

With the creation of the Bela Lugosi brand wines, the Lugosi

family pays tribute to their patriarch, a man of distinction, while

acknowledging the icon that will forever be – Dracula. 


Continuing the family’s enthusiasm for wine inspired by Bela Lugosi,

Lugosi Wines will seek varietals sourced from superior wine-growing

regions. Winemakers will create exceptional wines from distinct

appellations to assemble a portfolio of the Bela Lugosi brand wines

that will celebrate the best varietals from around the

world.

With each new release added to Lugosi Wines’ offerings, the Bela

Lugosi collection will exemplify the distinct qualities of Bela Lugosi,

the man, in a unique compilation of outstanding wines. Lugosi Wines

is proud to announce the release of the first vintage of the signature

series wines.

The Domingo Hermanos Winery in Argentina produced this vintage

exclusively for Lugosi Wines. The vineyards are located in Salta,

Argentina, and at 7200 feet altitude, are one of the highest in the world.

●The label artwork is by Argentinean citizen, Bruno Fernandez.

●Only 1200 hand numbered bottles were produced.

●

BELA LUGOSI MALBEC

●

●

VINTAGE: 2007

Malbec 85%, Cabernet Sauvignon 15%

Salta – Argentina

●VINEYARD SOURCES

50% Malbec, Yacochuya, Salta, Argentina at

6,600 ft. altitude.

35% Malbec, Quebrada de las Flechas, Salta,

Argentina at 7,200 ft.

15% Cabernet, Quebrada de las Flechas, Salta,

Argentina at 7,200 ft.

●WINEMAKING

Only 1200 numbered bottles were produced.

●ANALYSIS

-Alcohol: 14.8%

-Total Acidity: 6.00 g/l

-Volatile Acidity: 0.52 g/l

-Resid. Sugar: 2.89 g/l

-PH 3.6

●

WINEMAKER’S NOTES

Different terroirs with the right blend, makes wonders. The special

microclimate of these areas allows for optimal grape ripeness,

providing them with the ability to develop and express their unique

identity. Careful elaboration and proper aging for 8 months in French

oak add great complexity and balance.

Great concentration with intense dark purple-red color has a fresh,

ripe red-fruit aroma with notes of vanilla, chocolate, mocha and

spices. Long velvety finish.

●RECOMMENDATIONS

Enjoy this wine with grilled meats, well-seasoned pasta dishes,

or cheese. Best when served between 63º- 66º F. Please decant

1hr before consumption.

For more information, please, contact and visit the Official Site

Lugosi Wines or Twitter account

●For online sales please visit: Southern Wines


●For distribution inquiries please visit: Undiscovered Wines

Reposted from DRACULAND: The Dracula´s Blog | Go to Original Post

● Artwork by Gor Mandra for Bela’s 129th.

Bela Lugosi was born 129 years ago today. Lugosi,

born October 20, 1882 as Béla Ferenc Dezcö Blasko

in Lugos (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, now

Lugoj in Romania).

He was, he is and will be, the best Dracula that

ever been done. Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and can’t die.

“Death could kill the Man, but it couldn´t kill the Legend…”

“But first, sent to earth as a vampire.

Your

corpse

will escape from the grave

as a ghost

prowl his

hometown, sucking

the blood of all

yours…”

●

The Giaour, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

●

In Bela we Trust

●

Reposted from DRACULAND: The Dracula´s Blog | Go to Original Post

Vampyr (German: Vampyr – Der Traum des Allan Grey) is a
1932 horror film directed by Danish director Carl Theodor
Dreyer. The film was written by Dreyer and Christen Jul based
on elements from J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s In a Glass Darkly.

Vampyr was funded by Nicolas de Gunzburg who starred in
the film under the name of Julian West among a mostly
non-professional cast. Gunzberg plays the role of Allan Grey,
a student of the occult who enters a small village outside of
Paris which is cursed by supernatural creatures known as
Vampyrs who lure townspeople to suicide so they can become
servants for the devil.

Vampyr was challenging for Dreyer to make as it was his first
sound film and had to be recorded in three languages. To
overcome this, very little dialogue was used in the film and
much of the story is told with silent film-styled title cards.
The film was shot entirely on location and to enhance the
atmospheric content, Dreyer opted for a washed out, fuzzy
appearing photographic technique. The audio editing was
done in Berlin where the character’s voices, sound effects,
and score were added to the film.

Vampyr had a delayed release in Germany and opened to a
generally negative reception from audiences and critics.
Dreyer edited the film after its German premiere and it
opened to more mixed opinions at its French debut. The
film was long considered as a low part in Dreyer’s career,
but modern critical reception to the film has become much
more favorable with critics praising the film’s disorienting
visual effects and atmosphere.

>>Plot:

On a late evening, Allan Gray arrives at an inn close to the
village of Courtempierre where he rents a room to sleep.
Gray is awakened suddenly by an old man, entering the
room and leaving a square packet on Gray’s table with “To
be opened upon my death” written on it. Gray takes the
package and walks outside finding shadows guiding him
to an old castle where he sees several shadows dancing and
wandering on their own. Gray also sees an elderly woman
and encounters the village doctor. Gray leaves the castle and
walks to a manor. Looking through one of the windows, Gray
sees the man who gave him the package earlier. This old man
is suddenly murdered by gun shot. Gray is let into the house
by servants who rush to the aid of the fallen man but find it
too late to save him. The servants have Gray stay the night,
where the Lord of the manor’s youngest daughter, Giséle
leads Gray to the library where he learns that her sister,
Léone is gravely ill. Gray and Giséle then see Léone walking
outside. They rush to her finding her lying unconscious with
fresh bite wounds. They have her carried back up to the manor
where Gray remembers the parcel given to him. On opening
the parcel, Gray finds the book is about horrific demons called
Vampyrs.

After reading the book, Gray discovers Léone is a victim of a
Vampyr and that the Vampyr also can have humans forced into
her submission. The village doctor visits Léone at the manor,
who Gray recognizes as the old man he saw in the castle. The
doctor tells Gray that a blood transfusion is needed and Gray
offers his blood to save Léone. Exhausted from blood loss, Gray
wakes sensing danger, and rushes to Léone finding the doctor
who has just dropped a poison vial from his hand. The doctor
flees the manor, as Gray finds that Giséle has gone missing.
Gray follows the doctor finding himself in the castle where he
has a vision of himself being buried alive. After waking from
this vision, he succeeds in rescuing Giséle while the doctor is
able to get away. The old servant of the manor finds Gray’s
Vampyr book and discovers the way to defeat a Vampyr is
with an iron bar through their heart. The servant meets Allan
Gray by Marguerite Chopin’s grave behind the village Chapel.
They open the grave and find the old woman laying there and
begin to hammer a large metal bar through her heart, killing
her. The village doctor has found refuge in an old mill, but
finds himself locked in a chamber where flour sacks are
filled. The old servant arrives and activates the mill’s
machinery, making the Vampyr’s associate drown in the
flour that comes crashing from above. The curse of the
Vampyr is lifted when Léone recovers. Giséle and Gray cross
a foggy river outside by boat and find themselves in a brighter
clearing.

Carl Theodor Dreyer.

>>Cast:

Julian West as Allan Gray: A young wanderer whose studies of
devil worship have made him a dreamer. Gray’s view of world
in the film is described as a blur of the real and unreal.

Rena Mandel as Giséle: The younger sister of Léone and the
daughter of the Lord of the Manor. Giséle is kidnapped by the
Village Doctor late in the film.

Sybille Schmitz as Léone: The older sister of Giséle, who is
bedridden and finds her strength growing less day by day.

Jan Hieronimko as the Village Doctor: An old man who is a pawn
of the the vampyr Marguerite Chopin. The village doctor kidnaps
Giséle late in the film.

Henriette Gérard as Marguerite Chopin: An elderly women who
commands her minions to make the people in the village commit
suicide which will send their souls to hell.

Maurice Schutz as the Lord of the Manor: The father of Giséle and
Léone who offers Gray a book vampirism to help Gray save his
daughters. After his death, a vision of the Lord of the Manor
appears to the village doctor at the mill.

Albert Bras as an Old Servant: A man who works for Lord of the
Manor. After the death of his master, he finds Gray’s book on
vampirism and aids Gray in killing Marguerite Chopin in her
grave.

>Production:

>>Development:

Director Carl Theodor Dreyer began planning Vampyr in late 1929,
a year after the release of his previous film The Passion of Joan of
Arc. The production company behind Dreyer’s previous film had
plans for Dreyer to make another film, but the project was dropped
which lead to Dreyer deciding to go outside the studio system to
make his next film. Being Dreyer’s first sound film, it was made
under difficult circumstances as the arrival of sound put the
European film industry in turmoil. In France, film studios lagged
behind technologically with the first French sound films being shot
on sound stages in England. Dreyer went to England to study sound
film, where he got together with Danish writer Christen Jul who was
living in London at the time.[4] Dreyer decided to create a story
based on the supernatural and read over thirty mystery stories and
found a number of re-occurring elements including doors opening
mysteriously and door handles moving with no one knowing why.
Dreyer stated proudly that “We can jolly well make this stuff too”.

VAMPYR Programme (Danish, 1933)
This is the original Danish programme from 1933 with art by
Erik Aaes (art director on Vampyr, Day Of Wrath, and Ordet).

In London and New York, the stage version Dracula had been a
large hit in 1927. Dreyer and Jul created a story based on vampires
which Dreyer considered to be “fashionable things at the time”.

Vampyr is based on elements from J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s In a Glass
Darkly, a collection of five stories first published in 1872. Dreyer
draws from two of the stories for Vampyr, one being Carmilla, a
vampire story with a lesbian subtext and the other being The
Room in the Dragon Volant about a live burial. Dreyer found it
difficult to decide on a title for the film. It may have initially been
titled Destiny and then Shadows of Hell. When the film was
presented in the film journal Close Up it was titled The Strange
Adventure of David Gray.

>>Pre-production:

Dreyer returned to France to begin casting and location scouting.
At the time in France, there was a small movement of artistic
independently financed films, including Luis Buñuel’s L’Âge d’or
and Jean Cocteau’s The Blood of a Poet which were both released
in 1930. Through Valentine Hugo, Dreyer met Nicolas de Gunzburg,
an aristocrat who agreed to finance Dreyer’s next film in return for
playing the lead role in it. Gunzberg had arguments with his family
about becoming an actor, so he created the pseudonym Julian West,
a name that would be the same in all three languages that the film
was going to be shot in.

The village doctor suffocates under flour dropped from the mill
above. This scene was added to the script during the film’s production
and was told to be toned down by German censors.

Most of the cast of in Vampyr were not professional actors. Jan
Hieronimko, who plays the village doctor, was found on a late night
metro train in Paris. When approached to act in the film, Hieronimko
stared blankly and did not reply. Hieronimko later contacted Dreyer’s
crew and agreed to join the film. Many of the other non-professional
actors in the film were found in similar fashion in shops and cafes.

The only professional actors in the film were Maurice Schutz, who
plays the Lord of the Manor, and Sybille Schmitz, who plays his
daughter Léone. Many crew members of Vampyr had worked with
Dreyer on his previous film The Passion of Joan of Arc. Returning
crew members included cinematographer Rudolph Maté and art
director Hermann Warm.

The entire film was shot on actual locations with many scenes shot
in Courtempierre, France. Dreyer and his cinematographer
Rudolph Maté took part in scouting for locations for Vampyr.

Dreyer left most of his scouting to an assistant, who Dreyer
instructed to find “a factory in ruins, a chopped up phantom,
worthy of the imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. Somewhere in
Paris. We can’t travel far”. In the original script, the village
doctor was supposed to flee the village and get trapped in a
swamp. On looking for a suitable mire, the crew found a mill
where they saw white shadows around the windows and doors.
After seeing this place, they changed the film’s ending to take
place at this mill where the doctor dies by suffocating under
the milled flour.

>>Filming:

Vampyr was filmed between 1930 and 1931. With everything
being shot on location, Dreyer believed it would be beneficial
by lending the dream-like ghost world of the film as well as
allowing them to save money by not having to rent studio space.

Dreyer originally wanted Vampyr to be a silent film, as it uses
many elements of the silent era such as the use of title cards to
explain the story. Dialogue in the film was kept to a minimum.
For the scenes with dialogue, the actors mouthed their lines in
French, German and English so their lip movements would
correspond to the voices that were going to be recorded in
post-production. There is no record of the English version
being completed. The scenes in the chateau were shot in April
and May 1930. The chateau also acted as housing where the
cast and crew lived for the filming period. Living in the chateau
was unpleasant for them as it was cold and infested with rats.
The church yard scenes were shot in August 1930. The church
was not an actual church, but a barn with a number of tombstones
placed around it. This set was designed by the art director
Hermann Warm.

Critic and writer Kim Newman described Vampyr’s style as closer
to the experimental features such as Un chien andalou then a
“quickie horror films” made after the release of Dracula (1931).
Dreyer originally was going to film Vampyr in what he described
as a “heavy style” but changed direction after cinematographer
Maté showed him one shot that came out fuzzy and blurred. This
washed out look was an effect Dreyer desired, and had Maté shoot
the film through a piece of gauze held three feet (.9 m) away from
the camera to re-create this look. For other visuals in the film,
Dreyer found inspiration from the fine arts. Actress Rena Mandel,
who plays Gisèle, said that Dreyer showed her reproductions of
paintings of Francisco Goya during filming. In Denmark, a
journalist and friend of Dreyer, Henry Hellsen wrote in detail about
the film and the artworks it appeared to draw on. When being asked
about the intention of the film at the Berlin premiere, Dreyer
replied that he “had not any particular intention. I just wanted to
make a film different from all other films. I wanted, if you will, to
break new ground for the cinema. That is all. And do you think this
intention has succeeded? Yes, I have broken new ground”. The filming
of Vampyr was completed the middle of 1931.

>>Post-production:

Allan Gray (Nicolas de Gunzburg) finds a coffin containing
himself in a dream sequence. Modern critics praise this
sequence as one of the most memorable sequences from Vampyr.

Dreyer shot and edited the film in France and then brought it to
Berlin where it was post-synchronized in both German and French.
Dreyer did the audio work at Universum Film AG, as they had the
best sound equipment available to him at the time. Most of the
actors did not dub their own voice. The only voices of the actors
that are their own in the film are of Schmitz and Gunzburg. The
sounds of dogs, parrots, and other animals in the film were fake
and were done by professional imitators. Wolfgang Zeller composed
the film’s score and worked with Dreyer to develop the music.

There are differences between the German and French releases of
the film. The character Allan Grey is named David Gray for the
German release, which Dreyer attributed to a mistake. The German
censors ordered cuts to the film that still exist today in some prints.
The scenes which had to be toned down include the doctor’s death
under the milled flour and the vampire’s death from the stake. There
are other scenes that were shot and included in the script that do
not exist in any current prints of Vampyr. These scenes reveal the
vampire in the factory recoiling against a shadow of a Christian cross
as well as a ferryman guiding Gray and Gisèle by getting young
children to build a fire and sing a hymn to guide them back to the
shore.

Dreyer had prepared a Danish version of the film which was based
on the German version with Danish subtitles and title cards. The
distributor could not afford to have the title cards completed in
the manner they appear in the German version, which were instead
finished with a more simple style. The distributor also wanted to
make the pages in the book shown in the film as plain title cards
which Dreyer did not allow. Dreyer responded to this idea, saying
that “the old book is not an text in the ordinary sense, but an
actor. Just as much as the others.”

Fonts: Wikipedia

Reposted from DRACULAND: The Dracula´s Blog | Go to Original Post

Official licensee Postersandstuff continue to delight fans
the world over with their exclusive range of high-quality
reproduction film posters featuring the original artwork
for classic Hammer films.

December sees the issue of reproduction posters for two
horrors starring recently knighted Christopher Lee –
Dracula Prince Of Darkness and To The Devil A Daughter.

Each of the posters features the artwork from the original
British theatrical advertising, scanned from original posters
and painstakingly restored using digital technology to remove
blemishes, creases, foldlines, pinholes etc. The artwork is
then printed using special inks on 180 gsm paper to the
original 30 x 40 inch size.

There are currently 31 posters available, through selected
retailers, including the new official Hammer shop (launching
January 2010). Or you can purchase directly through
Postersandstuff here.

Fonts: Hammer Films

Reposted from DRACULAND: The Dracula´s Blog | Go to Original Post

Tony Espinosa (Gor Mandra).

You can see my presentation at the prestigious Web of
Horror “Zombos’ Closet of Horror” created by John Cozzoli here.

>>John Cozzoli´s Bio:

Founder of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers, expiring writer,
and critic of the horror, sci-horror, and fantasy genres found
in cinema and literature.

John Cozzoli (Iloz Zoc).

>>Biography:

Tired of being a corpse-orate zombie, I traded in the needles
and voodoo doll effigies of my coworkers for the more rewarding
pleasure of writing my blog, Zombos’ Closet of Horror. As my
horror-oriented alter ego, Iloz Zoc, I write about the genre that
people love to fear. Growing up as a monster-kid in the 1960s,
and having two theaters in my neighborhood, it was bound to
happen sooner or later.

Zombos’ Closet of Horror.

>>Interests:

The horror and fantasy genres as reflected in pop culture.

I live in Westbury, New York with my wife and son, and dream of
one day owning an old-styled movie theater serving steamy hot
popcorn, smothered in real butter, ice-cold Bonbons, and lots of
horror movies.

The League of Tana Tea Drinkers.

More Info:
Zombos’ Closet of Horror
The League of Tana Tea Drinkers

Reposted from DRACULAND: The Dracula´s Blog | Go to Original Post

House of Dracula was an American horror film released by
Universal Pictures Company in 1945. It was a direct sequel
to House of Frankenstein and continued the theme of
combining Universal’s three most popular monsters:
Frankenstein’s monster, Count Dracula and The Wolf Man.

>>Cast:

-Lon Chaney Jr….Lawrence Stewart Talbot
The Wolf Man (as Lon Chaney)
-John Carradine…Count Dracula
-Martha O’Driscoll…Miliza Morrelle
-Lionel Atwill…Police Inspector Holtz
-Onslow Stevens…Dr. Franz Edlemann
-Jane Adams…Nina
-Ludwig Stössel…Siegfried (as Ludwig Stossel)
-Glenn Strange…The Frankenstein Monster
-Skelton Knaggs…Steinmuhl

John Carradine (Count Dracula).

>>Plot:

The main plot is that Dracula and Larry Talbot are both
seeking a cure for their respective monster afflictions from
Dr. Edelmann (Onslow Stevens).

Dracula actually appears to be searching for a cure for his
vampirism. Somehow Dracula survived his destruction by
sunlight exposure from the previous film House of
Frankenstein and initially seeks to be cured of his vampirism
at the hands of the doctor as he seems apparently tired of his
monster nature. But after re-meeting the doctor’s beautiful
assistant whom he knew in his alias of “Baron Latos”, Dracula’s
monsterous nature reasserts itself and infects Edelmann
through a blood transfusion of his vampire blood, which turns
Edelmann into a Jekyll and Hyde like creature. Though
Edelmann succeeds in destroying Dracula, Edelmann realizes
that he is slowly degrading into a murderous monster himself.

Lawrence Talbot soon arrives at Edelmann’s castle, seeking a
cure for the curse that turns him into a werewolf (As with
Dracula, his return from destruction dealt at the end of the
previous entry is not explained, but his recuperative ability
via moonlight has already been established in the earlier
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man). The Frankenstein Monster
plays a minor role in this film, only being found during
Talbot’s attempt at suicide by drowning in the ocean late in
the film. The Monster does not actually go into action until
almost the climactic finish, which results in Talbot finally
being cured of his affliction and falling in love with
Edelmann’s attractive assistant, Miliza Morrelle (Martha
O’Driscoll) and killing the Hyde like version of Edelmann.
The Frankenstein Monster is burned to death in yet another
fire destruction of the castle he is in.

Also appearing in the film is Jane Adams, whose character,
Nina, is a hunchback and was thus billed as one of the
monsters in the film. In fact, her character is portrayed
sympathetically and the use of an attractive actress to play
an otherwise misshapen individual is notable for the time.

Although Glenn Strange appears as the Monster in most of the
film, footage of Chaney as the Monster from The Ghost of
Frankenstein and Boris Karloff from Bride of Frankenstein was
recycled. In the Ted Newsom documentary “100 Years of Horror”,
Carradine suggested his portrayal of Dracula was meant to reflect
the description of the character in the 1897 Bram Stoker novel.
Universal only agreed upon Carradine having a thin moustache.

Fonts:
Wikipedia
Imdb

Reposted from DRACULAND: The Dracula´s Blog | Go to Original Post

García Sánchez, Javier: Ella, Drácula. Madrid,
Editorial Planeta, 2002.

Javier García Sánchez.

In the early seventeenth century lived in Hungary a unique
character, the aristocratic Erzsébet Báthory.

Erzsébet Báthory.

Within eight years kidnapped, tortured and brutally murdered
seven hundred girls. Fanatic witchcraft and the cult of blood,
she, and not Vlad Tepes, was the real Dracula.

This is a fictional recreation of his life and his crimes, and a
brave plunge into the genealogy of pure evil.

She, and not Vlad Tepes, was the real Dracula, as he committed
with his own hands, a systematic genocide unparalleled in the
annals of criminology of all time.

More Info Sepiensa.org

Reposted from Classic Movie Monsters | Go to Original Post

Reposted from Classic Movie Monsters | Go to Original Post