Post by Melissa Kane on Nov 9, 2012 7:46:52 GMT
A Brief Vampire History In Media.
In The Beginning...
For centuries, vampires, those evil, blood-drinking yet strangely desirable creatures of legend, have haunted our oral and literary history, from whispered stories told to warn children away from venturing out after dark and the early mentions of Revenants, the term ascribed to visible ghosts or animated corpses, in William of Newburghs Chronicles in the latter part of the 12th Century to 19th Century penny dreadfuls like Thomas Pecket Prest's (also ascribed to James Malcolm Rymer) 1845 series of tales featuring "Varney The Vampire". From these humble beginnings, the literary vampire appeared in the lauded classics such as Joseph Sheridan De Fanu's "Camilla" (1872), H. G. Wells' "The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid" (1894) and Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897), the count if the tale was purportedly based upon the 15th Century Wallachian Prince Vlad Tepes III, a man of immense skill in warcraft and invention of tortures (1431-1476). Stoker built on the notoriety of his now-famous character by providing another tale entitled "Dracula's Guest", published in 1913, though this was simply a part which had been edited from the original published "Dracula" novel.
And for as long as we have had movie cameras and the ability to use them, we have had vampires on our screens. Some of the earliest times a vampires were seen 'in the flesh' were in the 1896 silent short film "Le Manoir Du Diable" starring the vampire Mephistopheles, the 1909 silent movie "Vampires Of The Coast", "The Vampire's Trail" made in 1910 and the earliest British vampire film offering in 1912, rather intriguingly entitled "The Secrets Of House No. 5". In 1913 the silent film "The Vampire" was released, though the female vampires in question were seductresses more than the murderous, blood-sucking vampires we know now. "A Night of Horror", "Nachte des Grauens" in its native language, from 1916 is said to be a vampire film. Then, in the now lost film "Lilith Und Ly" in 1919 introduced us to a plotine involving an inventor named Herr Worrmann (Herr Akner) who uses a jewel to bring life to a statue of Lilith (Elga Beck), the Mother of Demons and often referred to as Adam's first wife in the Bible, mother to Cain and Abel, with whom he falls in love. However, he later realises that Lilith is not only stealing his life force, but the body and soul of his new lover, Ly (also played by Elga Beck). I can only think that this film was deemed heretical in many circles at this point in time.
The Terrifying Twenties
However one of the first and most memorable screen vampires appeared in 1922's chilling silent movie, "Nosferatu" directed by F. W. Murnau. The story was allegedly borrowed from Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1921, and the parallels within the story, character names and setting notwithstanding, are glaringly clear, so much so that the widow of Bram Stoker filed a successful lawsuit for copyright infringement against Murnau. The outcomeof the lawsuit was that Mrs. Stoker wanted all copies of the film to be destroyed. Fortunately for us, some survived allowing us to be chilled by the film nearly 100 years later. And what a crime it would've been to be denied this film! Who can easily forget that looming shadow mounting the stairs, heralding the arrival of the pasty-faced, rat-fanged vampire himself as he seeks out his prey in the form of shapely Greta Schroeder? "Nosferatu", though an unofficial adaptation, was the earliest surviving attempt to bring the story of Dracula to the screen, after Russia and Hungary both had their attempts in 1920 and 1921 respectively. It was a scant two years later that a stage version of Bram Stoker's book adapted by Hamilton Deane was revealed and had a little known Hungarian-born actor named Bela Lugosi as the titular character.
As the 1920's marched along, the film industry also moved on allowing the vampire to sink his teeth into the dark, primal fears which periodically lurk in the back of everyone's minds. This fear and interest in vampires was helped along when the crimes of Friedrich 'Fritz' Harmann, the 'Vampire of Hanover' was convicted of murdering 24 young men and boys, though perhaps as many as 27 in total, in 1924. He was put to death for his crimes in 1925 by guillotine.
More stories of vampires and their ways appeared, inevitably most depictions were drawn from the inspirational "Varney the Vampire" and "Dracula". As 1927 dawned and gave us a film which has as much lore about it off screen as on - "London After Midnight" or "The Hypnotist" starring Lon Chaney as Inspector Edward C. Burke of Scotland Yard who investigates the death of Roger Balfour (Claude King). The death is considered a suicide but five years later, when strange, ghoulish creatures, one with pointed teeth and bulging eyes (who may or may not be a vampire) are observed in Balfour's former home, his neighbour Sir James Hamlin (Henry B. Walthall) once more calls in Inspector Burke to investigate. Strangely, it is the film itself which has an equally creepy tale to tell. It's rumoured to have sent everyone who saw it quite mad, and apparently there are no surviving copies after a fire in 1967. There IS, however, a partially reconstructed version which may build an idea of what the entire film was like.
During the 1930's, the vampire was very much in vogue thanks to Bela Lugosi's unforgettable performance of Count Dracula in 1931, alongside some quite random armadillos in the ruined outer part of Castle Dracula. This followed his popular stint playing the same character on stage, his perfect vocal timbre and proud way of carrying himself cementing that iconic character in our minds.
The Thirsty Thirties to the Fang-tastic Fifties
Away from the world of make believe, 1931 also saw the execution of another "real vampire" from Germany, that of the child-murderer Peter Kurten (though strenuously denied by its creator, Fritz Lang's first 'talkie' "M", made and released in 1931, bears uncanny similarities to the Kurten case, including location and events) who claimed 9 young lives and made attempts on at least 7 more. He too was put to death by guillotine.
Soon though, despite the films, books and strange cases of life mirroring fiction, vampires' popularity waned after the horror market was saturated, almost literally draining the life from the monster, with a mass of films including "Vampyr" (1932), "Vampire Bat" (1933), "Condemned To Live" and "Mark Of The Vampire", both (1935), "Dracula's Daughter" (1936) and the somewhat lacklustre vampire played by Humphrey Bogart in "The Return Of Dr. X" in 1939.
And, in the real world, in February 1949 in England, a series of bizarre murders for financial gain took place. The perpetrator was one John George Haigh who murdered, by his count, 9 victims were murdered and disposed of, including that of 69-year old wealthy widow Mrs Olive Durand-Deacon whose sudden disappearance sparked the investigation which uncovered his crimes, in a bath of acid in his garage after dismembering them and drinking a cupful of their blood. He was sentenced to death and was hanged in Wandsworth Prison on 6th August 1949. Another human vampire bites the dust.
There were many vampire films produced right into the mid-1940's and 1950's, including a rather interesting addition to the genre, the 1942 film "Asylum" which features odd alien vampires. There were several more adaptations of the Dracula story and in 1956, the first Japanese vampire story, "Kyuketsuki Ga" was released on film. However, despite this glut of vampire tales, the interest in the subject was and still is very cyclic.
Next up: The Sexy Sixties to the Eerie Eighties.
In The Beginning...
For centuries, vampires, those evil, blood-drinking yet strangely desirable creatures of legend, have haunted our oral and literary history, from whispered stories told to warn children away from venturing out after dark and the early mentions of Revenants, the term ascribed to visible ghosts or animated corpses, in William of Newburghs Chronicles in the latter part of the 12th Century to 19th Century penny dreadfuls like Thomas Pecket Prest's (also ascribed to James Malcolm Rymer) 1845 series of tales featuring "Varney The Vampire". From these humble beginnings, the literary vampire appeared in the lauded classics such as Joseph Sheridan De Fanu's "Camilla" (1872), H. G. Wells' "The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid" (1894) and Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897), the count if the tale was purportedly based upon the 15th Century Wallachian Prince Vlad Tepes III, a man of immense skill in warcraft and invention of tortures (1431-1476). Stoker built on the notoriety of his now-famous character by providing another tale entitled "Dracula's Guest", published in 1913, though this was simply a part which had been edited from the original published "Dracula" novel.
And for as long as we have had movie cameras and the ability to use them, we have had vampires on our screens. Some of the earliest times a vampires were seen 'in the flesh' were in the 1896 silent short film "Le Manoir Du Diable" starring the vampire Mephistopheles, the 1909 silent movie "Vampires Of The Coast", "The Vampire's Trail" made in 1910 and the earliest British vampire film offering in 1912, rather intriguingly entitled "The Secrets Of House No. 5". In 1913 the silent film "The Vampire" was released, though the female vampires in question were seductresses more than the murderous, blood-sucking vampires we know now. "A Night of Horror", "Nachte des Grauens" in its native language, from 1916 is said to be a vampire film. Then, in the now lost film "Lilith Und Ly" in 1919 introduced us to a plotine involving an inventor named Herr Worrmann (Herr Akner) who uses a jewel to bring life to a statue of Lilith (Elga Beck), the Mother of Demons and often referred to as Adam's first wife in the Bible, mother to Cain and Abel, with whom he falls in love. However, he later realises that Lilith is not only stealing his life force, but the body and soul of his new lover, Ly (also played by Elga Beck). I can only think that this film was deemed heretical in many circles at this point in time.
The Terrifying Twenties
However one of the first and most memorable screen vampires appeared in 1922's chilling silent movie, "Nosferatu" directed by F. W. Murnau. The story was allegedly borrowed from Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1921, and the parallels within the story, character names and setting notwithstanding, are glaringly clear, so much so that the widow of Bram Stoker filed a successful lawsuit for copyright infringement against Murnau. The outcomeof the lawsuit was that Mrs. Stoker wanted all copies of the film to be destroyed. Fortunately for us, some survived allowing us to be chilled by the film nearly 100 years later. And what a crime it would've been to be denied this film! Who can easily forget that looming shadow mounting the stairs, heralding the arrival of the pasty-faced, rat-fanged vampire himself as he seeks out his prey in the form of shapely Greta Schroeder? "Nosferatu", though an unofficial adaptation, was the earliest surviving attempt to bring the story of Dracula to the screen, after Russia and Hungary both had their attempts in 1920 and 1921 respectively. It was a scant two years later that a stage version of Bram Stoker's book adapted by Hamilton Deane was revealed and had a little known Hungarian-born actor named Bela Lugosi as the titular character.
As the 1920's marched along, the film industry also moved on allowing the vampire to sink his teeth into the dark, primal fears which periodically lurk in the back of everyone's minds. This fear and interest in vampires was helped along when the crimes of Friedrich 'Fritz' Harmann, the 'Vampire of Hanover' was convicted of murdering 24 young men and boys, though perhaps as many as 27 in total, in 1924. He was put to death for his crimes in 1925 by guillotine.
More stories of vampires and their ways appeared, inevitably most depictions were drawn from the inspirational "Varney the Vampire" and "Dracula". As 1927 dawned and gave us a film which has as much lore about it off screen as on - "London After Midnight" or "The Hypnotist" starring Lon Chaney as Inspector Edward C. Burke of Scotland Yard who investigates the death of Roger Balfour (Claude King). The death is considered a suicide but five years later, when strange, ghoulish creatures, one with pointed teeth and bulging eyes (who may or may not be a vampire) are observed in Balfour's former home, his neighbour Sir James Hamlin (Henry B. Walthall) once more calls in Inspector Burke to investigate. Strangely, it is the film itself which has an equally creepy tale to tell. It's rumoured to have sent everyone who saw it quite mad, and apparently there are no surviving copies after a fire in 1967. There IS, however, a partially reconstructed version which may build an idea of what the entire film was like.
During the 1930's, the vampire was very much in vogue thanks to Bela Lugosi's unforgettable performance of Count Dracula in 1931, alongside some quite random armadillos in the ruined outer part of Castle Dracula. This followed his popular stint playing the same character on stage, his perfect vocal timbre and proud way of carrying himself cementing that iconic character in our minds.
The Thirsty Thirties to the Fang-tastic Fifties
Away from the world of make believe, 1931 also saw the execution of another "real vampire" from Germany, that of the child-murderer Peter Kurten (though strenuously denied by its creator, Fritz Lang's first 'talkie' "M", made and released in 1931, bears uncanny similarities to the Kurten case, including location and events) who claimed 9 young lives and made attempts on at least 7 more. He too was put to death by guillotine.
Soon though, despite the films, books and strange cases of life mirroring fiction, vampires' popularity waned after the horror market was saturated, almost literally draining the life from the monster, with a mass of films including "Vampyr" (1932), "Vampire Bat" (1933), "Condemned To Live" and "Mark Of The Vampire", both (1935), "Dracula's Daughter" (1936) and the somewhat lacklustre vampire played by Humphrey Bogart in "The Return Of Dr. X" in 1939.
And, in the real world, in February 1949 in England, a series of bizarre murders for financial gain took place. The perpetrator was one John George Haigh who murdered, by his count, 9 victims were murdered and disposed of, including that of 69-year old wealthy widow Mrs Olive Durand-Deacon whose sudden disappearance sparked the investigation which uncovered his crimes, in a bath of acid in his garage after dismembering them and drinking a cupful of their blood. He was sentenced to death and was hanged in Wandsworth Prison on 6th August 1949. Another human vampire bites the dust.
There were many vampire films produced right into the mid-1940's and 1950's, including a rather interesting addition to the genre, the 1942 film "Asylum" which features odd alien vampires. There were several more adaptations of the Dracula story and in 1956, the first Japanese vampire story, "Kyuketsuki Ga" was released on film. However, despite this glut of vampire tales, the interest in the subject was and still is very cyclic.
Next up: The Sexy Sixties to the Eerie Eighties.
