FILM REVIEW OF ''DRACULA UNTOLD" (2014)

“Dracula Untold” (** OUT OF ****) is a picturesque potboiler.  A tapestry of gorgeous computer generated imagery, this predictable prequel about Bram Stoker’s immortal bloodsucker before he forsook his sword for fangs springs few surprises. Essentially, it looks like Universal has revamped the franchise.  Luke Evans, who played in “Clash of the Titans,” “Immortals,” “The Three Musketeers,” and the last two “The Hobbit” movies, seems appropriately cast as the virile protagonist.  Sadly, he brings little charisma to the role.  When he wields a sword, rides a horse, and cavorts about in period apparel, Evans displays more than enough competence.  Indeed, he is the ‘before’ Dracula, better known as Vlad Tepes, who impaled his adversaries on stakes for the terrible psychological effect it wrought.  Unfortunately, Dominic Cooper struggles to be villainous.  Aside from his ominous eye-liner and elaborate armor, the plucky little Englishman from “Need for Speed” poses little threat.  The problem is that Cooper’s Turkish Sultan Mehmed II isn’t half as wicked as his sinister lieutenant, Dumitru (Diarmaid Murtagh of “The Monuments Men”), who instills greater fear.  Although Dracula and Mehmed clash swords in a dramatic but drawn-out fight scene near the end, with Dracula stumbling around on a treacherous floor of silver coins, the fight is virtually anti-climactic after our hero’s encounter with Dumitru.  Comparably, as supernatural horror movies go, “Dracula Untold” isn’t scary.  Some spooky scenes in a cave with Charles Dance hideously made-up as the Master Vampire generate anxiety, but this PG-13 rated release relies more on spectacle rather than shivers.  Imagine the brawny Gerald Butler action fantasy “300” crisscrossed with Peter Jackson’s J.R.R. Tolkien trilogies, and you’ll have a clue about what to expect from this nimble, but immaculate 92 minute melodrama.

“Dracula Untold” unfolds with a prologue about Vlad’s sadistic wartime past as narrated by his son Ingeras.  Suspense takes flight from the outset since we know nothing catastrophic can occur to Ingeras if he can provide fodder about his father’s infamous feats. The imperial Ottoman Turks enthrone Dracula as the Prince of Transylvania after his splendid sadistic exploits in battle.  Our hero marries a sweet, lovely, but naïve bride, Mirena (Sarah Gadon of “Charlie Bartlett”), promises her peace, and they have a son, Ingeras (Art Parkinson of “Freakdog”), who has not a care in the world. Dracula continues to appease the Sultan of Turkey with tributes that consist of treasure chests piled with silver coins.  One day, while Dracula and two soldiers are out scouting the countryside, they find a dented Turkish helmet in a stream and search for the army that the Sultan has sent to their homeland.  Dracula and company trace the helmet back to a cave in Broken Tooth Mountain where they encounter the Master Vampire (Charles Dance of “Last Action Hero”) who makes mincemeat out of Dracula’s lieutenants.  No sooner has Dracula survived this predicament than he arrives home to be greeted by a Turkish envoy who wants more than his customary monetary tribute.  Not only does the envoy demand thousands of boys as conscripts for the Sultan’s army, but also he specifically wants Dracula’s son Ingeras.  Naturally, Dracula refuses to hand over Ingeras.  Later, after a disastrous diplomatic episode ends with bloodshed, Dracula returns to the mountain and negotiates a pact with the Master Vampire.  Since he lacks an army to pit against the Sultan, Dracula resorts to sorcery.  Of course, when he reveals he has sold his soul, Dracula finds himself persona non grata.  As the Sultan’s armies lay siege to Dracula’s Castle, all Hell breaks loose, and Dracula prepares to retaliate with his supernatural powers.

Moviegoers who relish buckets of blood as well as an abundance of severed body parts will be sorely disappointed with “Dracula Untold.”  Freshman film director Gary Shore, who has been directing television commercials, provides a high enough body count by anybody’s standards, but the MPAA’s chaste PG-13 rating has compelled him to scale back considerably on the bloodletting. Swords shriek as combatants unsheathe them and glint as the aforementioned slash with feverish abandon at their enemy.  Nevertheless, contact between blade and flesh has been minimized.  One of the more imaginative images of warfare used to mask the violence is the reflection of bloodshed on a sword.  Only time will tell if an unrated version will accompany the home video release.  Meantime, Shore keeps the action moving briskly enough, in part because rookie co-scripters Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless have penned such a formulaic, origins screenplay.  Memorable dialogue is certainly not one of their assets.  Meantime, after impaling thousands of combatants on pikes, Vlad must have lost his nerve because he behaves like a wimp when the Sultan shows up looking for juvenile recruits.  Indeed, Sazama and Sharpless paint Dracula into a corner, but it is still difficult to believe Dracula would have degenerated from a warlord into a whiner.  Since Shore had to diminish the violence, the only thing menacing about the Sultan’s army is its immense size.  Mind you, Dumitru’s coiffure qualifies as pretty disturbing.  Once Dracula acquires immortality courtesy of the Master Vampire, he is practically invincible.  Evans is shown poised atop a cliff, gesticulating passionately like a wizard, as he dispatches colonies of bats against the marauding Turks, emphasizing the true meaning of the word ‘combat.’  Nevertheless, the violence is depicted in such broad strokes that you cannot see how the bats are actually slaughtering their opponents.

Little in “Dracula Untold” constitutes a revelation.  Most of what happens is roughly based on sections of Stoker’s 1897 Gothic tale of terror.  Francis Ford Coppola’s above-average “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” covered his chapter of Dracula’s life with greater artistry and action. Additional movies such as “Vlad” (2003), “Dracula the Impaler” (2002), Vlad Tepes” (1979) as well as the made-for-television opus “Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula” (2000) has embellished Dracula’s origins. Universal has tacked on a provocative modern-day epilogue should audiences want a sequel. Although it possesses some potential, "Dracula Untold" amounts to a second-rate sword and sorcery saga.

FILM REVIEW OF "SON OF DRACULA" (1943)

Although I'm a super big fan of Lon Chaney, Sr., I've never admired his son Lon Chaney, Jr. While Junior fared better as the sympathetic Lawrence Talbot in "The Wolf Man," this big, burly individual is woefully miscast as the urbane, sophisticated Count Dracula in Robert Siodmak's "Son of Dracula." Okay, I'll give Chaney credit for being the first Dracula with a mustache. Was it Chaney's idea or Siodmak's? Other than John Carradine and Christopher Lee, most Draculas are smooth-shaven gents, but Junior needed more than a mustache to make himself a menacing bloodsucker in this otherwise imaginative but flawed chiller. Junior constitutes the chief flaw. His delivery is stilted beyond belief. When he utters 'decadent' as de-kay-dent, you want to chuckle. Chaney's dialogue delivery doesn't sound scary.  Perhaps he should have adopted a strong dialect.  In any case, he doesn't radiate that evil Bela Lugosi glint in his eyes. Moreover, he doesn't send a chill either up or down your spine. He looks handsome in his outfits, but he lacks the arrogance of immortality. The lack of aristocracy in his conduct doesn't help. Oddly enough, Dracula comes off as somewhat of a chump. Moments of atmosphere, particularly the off-beat setting for this second sequel, and the strange nature of the screenplay compensate for some of the weird things. The sight of Dracula and his bride letting a Justice of the Peace marry them is faintly amusing. On the other hand, the Count's emergence from the swamp is a nice touch.  Dracula's ability to turn into mist and bats before our eyes makes "Son of Dracula" worth-watching.

Appropriately enough, "Son of the Dracula" opens with a pair of hands clearing out cobwebs. Remember eight years had passed since the release of "Dracula's Daughter." The Southern Gothic setting with the moss covered swamp lands is wonderfully sinister. Initially, Frank Stanley (Robert Paige of "Flying G-Men") and Dr. Harry Brewster (Frank Craven of "Barbary Coast") arrive at a railroad depot to greet Count Alcuard. The Transylvanian nobleman, however, is nowhere to be seen. They spot the railway luggage cart stacked high with two chests and other assorted luggage bearing the family crest of Alcuard. Immediately, Brewster notices when he spells Alucard backwards that it reads Dracula. Dracula (Lon Chaney, Jr.) makes his first appearance outside 'Dark Oaks,' the antebellum planation where Katherine 'Kay' Caldwell (Louise Allbritton of "Parachute Nurse") eagerly awaits his arrival. She has thrown a dinner party for him, but he arrives too late to participate.  She plans to marry Dracula.

Katherine's elderly gray-headed father, Colonel Caldwell (George Irving of "Coquette"), is Dracula's first victim.The Colonel's death is the catalyst for the plot.  Initially, when Judge Simmons reads the Colonel's will, Katherine and her sister Claire receive equal shares of everything.  This will is dated August 24th.  Katherine produces a newer will.  She inherits Dark Oaks, while Claire gets everything else. Frank Stanley is madly in love with Katherine, but she only has eyes for Dracula. She met Dracula during a trip to Budapest and hasn't been the same girl.. Meanwhile, Dr. Brewster summons a renowned vampire hunter, Professor Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg of "Invisible Agent") from Memphis. Like Van Helsing, Lazlo knows everything about Dracula, especially how to destroy him. Frank shoots Dracula with a revolver after he learns that Kirby married them. He flees in horror when his first bullet penetrates Dracula and kills Kay. Frank fires two more shots, discards the revolver, and charges through the dark swamp. He takes refuge in Dr. Harry Brewster's house. Later, Frank surrenders to the authorities and takes the blame for Kay's murder. Dr. Brewster visits Dark Oaks but finds Kay alive. She carries on a conversation with him from her bed.

Dracula's first rendezvous with Kay in the swamp is truly atmospheric. The Count's coffin emerges from the watery depths like a submarine. A mist percolates out of it and turns into Dracula. Literally, Dracula levitates himself across the water to Kay. They drive off to the Justice of the Peace with a jealous Frank shadowing them. The special effects transformation where Dracula turnS his back to the camera and then turns into a flying bat is impressive for its day. It looks cool when the lady vampire dematerializes as a fog bank in the jail cell. The burning of Dracula's coffin as a way to destroy him was a new one on me. Mind you, every studio that has ever made a vampire movie

tampers with the formula. The premise that a woman would flirt with Dracula to obtain immortality then double-cross him is interesting. Dracula cuckolded!? Indeed, "Son of Dracula" seems more like film noir than horror. Things get pretty complicated and these complications make "Son of Dracula" worth watching.

The gimmick of spelling Dracula's name backwards is clever. Anybody but Lon Chaney, Jr., would have made a serviceable Dracula. The guy looks like he ought to be stuffing baloney into his big hammy jowls instead of draining bodies of blood with his fangs. Incidentally, you never see his fangs, but then you never saw either Lugosi's fangs or Carradine's fangs. The Production Code Administration (PCA) probably ruled out such a toothy display on the grounds that it was too repellent. George Robinson's white photography is textbook perfect. He takes a two-dimensional format and gives it a three-dimensional look by bringing out the foreground from the background and the mid-ground.

Altogether, "Son of Dracula" surpasses "Dracula's Daughter." Nevertheless, you have to overlook the obvious lapse of continuity in "Phantom of the Opera" scenarist Eric Taylor's screenplay that he

derived from Siodmak's story. Basically, the studio maintained no continuity for Dracula. Siodmak and Taylor make no references to previous "Dracula" movies. Universal Studios observed far greater

continuity in the "Frankenstein" and "The Wolfman" franchises. Doesn't it say something when the second "Dracula" sequel appeared eight years after "Dracula's Daughter?" The latter in-name-only sequel without Lugosi and only a glimpse of the infamous Count in a coffin with a stake driven into his heart amounted to a letdown compared with the vintage original. The change in the character of Dracula is even more apparent in "Son of Dracula." Perhaps they simply couldn't conjure up a reasonable excuse about how to keep reviving the count. Of course, Universal should have brought back Lugosi. Presumably, studio politics kept Lugosi from encoring in the role until "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein." "Daughter's Daughter" and the remaining "Dracula" movies qualify as stand alone sequels. Remember, Countess Zaleska burned Dracula's body in "Dracula's Daughter." In "Son of Dracula," however, the vampire expert states the Dracula died in the 19th century.