TCM Movie: "Mark of the Vampire" (1935)

"Mark of the Vampire" (1935) was the first Tod Browning remake that involved the man himself. Five years earlier, MGM producer Irving Thalberg called for a remake of "The Unholy Three" (1925) which had been the second film out of the ten Browning made with star Lon Chaney. Chaney reprised his role as Professor Echo but was directed by Jack Conway before passing away of a throat hemorrhage seven weeks after its release. But Thalberg wanted to capitalize on MGM's contribution to horror in the style of Universal's "Dracula," so he handed the project over to writers Guy Endore and Bernard Schubert. This time, Browning would return from Universal to redirect his own film, but without the man who he worked so well with. Makeup artist Bill Tuttle remembered "if the crew didn't do something right, Browning would grumble: 'Mr Chaney would have done it better." (Bojarski. The Films of Bela Lugosi. 1980)

But the ensemble, including Chaney's previous star in "Dracula" Bela Lugosi and Lugosi's onstage protege Carroll Borland, were completely in the dark when it came to the ending of the film they were shooting. Browning withheld the ending for as long as he could. "When [Borland] and Bela found out on "The last day" that they were only playing actors, they were disappointed. Both found it "absurd"[...] The last pages inserted into the final shooting script, dated January 18, seem to prove that the cop-out conclusion was not revealed until the end of the production." (Lennig. The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi. 2010) Browning even rejected an alternate ending with an additional Endore and/or Schubert even offered where Lionel Barrymore's Professor Zelin receives a telegram from the vaudeville actors apologizing for not making their train on time for the castle assignment.

"Mark of the Vampire" finished shooting mid February 1935 but wasn't released until late April. 15 or 20 minutes were mysteriously cut. Even a few deleted scenes involved "large South American bats" which a contemporary New York Times news item pointed out that the government ordered the deportation or killing of after the film was finished. The "old crone" (Jessie Ralph) is scared off by a bat in the cemetery before returning to her "tumbledown, weather-beaten shack" where she abuses her "thin... albino daughter" for letting her cauldron of herbs burn too long. In another scene, Barrymore's Professor Zelin examines a sleeping bat that might be a vampire. "He straightens up and brings his head on a level with the bat -- stands there, studying it... Slowly the little beady eyes of the bat open -- and stare at the Professor ... he stares back at the bat ... its eyes blazing ... The pupils of his eyes dilate -- then grow filmy. Slowly his head moves forward -- nearer the bat ... The Professor's face draws slowly closer and closer -- as if drawn by some hypnotic power ... Professor: 'I wish I knew! Could it be!'"

Browning's newest vampire film was released April 26, 1935, earning a profit of $54,000. Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times moralized "let it be enough merely to add that, for all its inconsistencies, "Mark of the Vampire" should catch the beholder's attention and hold it, through chills and thrills, right up to the moment when the mystery of the vampires of Visoka is solved. Like most ghost stories, it's a lot of fun, even though you don't believe a word of it." The Motion Picture Herald lauded "This is a picture which should give the 'horror' fans all they want. It's full of shrieks and screams, gasps and shudders. The stuff commonly supposed to change red blood to ice water starts right at the beginning; a little slowly, perhaps, as the explanatory groundwork is being laid.

Nearly a month later, Dr. William J. Robinson wrote into the New York Times with "a dozen of the worst obscene pictures cannot equal the damage that is done by such films as The Mark of the Vampire. I do not refer to the senselessness of the picture. I do not even refer to the effect in spreading and fostering the most obnoxious superstitions. I refer to the terrible effect that it has on the mental and nervous systems of not only unstable, but even normal men, women and children. I am not speaking in the abstract; I am basing myself on facts. Several people have come to my notice who, after seeing that horrible picture, suffered nervous shock, were attacked with insomnia, and those who did fall asleep were tortured by the most horrible nightmares. In my opinion, it is a crime to produce and to present such films. We must guard not only our people's morals -- we must be as careful with their physical and mental health."


 

"Mark of the Vampire" will be shown on TCM at 1:15 AM CST/2:15 AM EST