Dracula and Frankenstein died today... RIP

[RobC]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33098353

 

[Rick A]

NNnnnnnoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[benjiboy]

When a 93 year old person dies it isn't news most people don't even last that long.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

And here I was hoping he'd make some more heavy metal Christmas tunes (look it up online if you don't believe it... he recorded metal covers of Jingle Bells, Little Drummer Boy, and even the Frank Sinatra classic "My Way").

 

[ToddB]

I saw that.. He will be missed. He was the best Dracula ever. The Horror of Dracula was fantastic!

Todd

 

[gone]

Fantastic actor. I loved his work, "but Boris Karloff is the REAL Frankenstein, unless you count Peter Boyle in Mel Brooks "Young Frankenstein (Frankenstien?) who was just over the top good, and seemed born for the part.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Oh, the horror of it.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Oh, the horror of it.

Well played!

+1

 

[DREW WILEY]

Nobody has ever topped the original silent Nosferatu movie, not even close. What they did back then with mere shadow and nuance was far
more effective, spooky-wise, than all the big budget ketchup-splatter digital nonsense we have today. But we were chatting about Boris K.
here at the office yesterday - not movie-wise, but about his incredibly scenic view and stone cabin up at Cineaga Mirth in the High Sierra.
The monster had excellent taste and was obviously more interested in solitude than in screaming Hollywood victims.

 

[pentaxuser]

I suspect that Mr Lee's death may not mean as much in the U.S. but here in the U.K. starved as we were of colour films even in the late 1950s he treated us to great horror films in the kind of full colour that made Velvia and Ektar look anaemic

The scene when his nemesis Van Helsing( played by his great friend in real life, Peter Cushing) tears down the heavy curtains to let in the light and turn him slowly into dust via disappearing skin, skeleton and finally each bone was a tour-de-force that I still remember

pentaxuser

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

Sir Christopher Lee was a fine British actor.
I really enjoyed the Dracula films and the Mummy series in which Sir Christopher played as well.
Many of Hammer horror films were very good.
I have to find now a copy of "Serial" and especially "Jinnah".

On the same BBC News, you can also read that Ron Moody has died aged 91.
I'm sure most of your have never heard that name.
He was the actor that played Fagin in "Oliver!".

In any case R.I.P. to all who died today.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

I suspect that Mr Lee's death may not mean as much in the U.S. but here in the U.K. starved as we were of colour films even in the late 1950s he treated us to great horror films in the kind of full colour that made Velvia and Ektar look anaemic

The scene when his nemesis Van Helsing( played by his great friend in real life, Peter Cushing) tears down the heavy curtains to let in the light and turn him slowly into dust via disappearing skin, skeleton and finally each bone was a tour-de-force that I still remember

pentaxuser

That was when "Special Effects" were actually special.

 

[Truzi]

Being in the U.S. the title had me thinking Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff (who was the narrator in the Grinch cartoon), but I am familiar with Christopher Lee, having watch many of his movies on late-night TV when I was a child.

I quite like Christopher Lee, and not just his Horror movies; though he was the last of the great Horror actors, in my opinion.

 

[winger]

I haven't seen as many of his horror films, but I knew him as Saruman - and he was great in that part. He seemed like a true actor, not in it for the celebrity status. I was also impressed by the fact that he was married for so long and that she made sure the family all knew before telling the media. Good priorities.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Never cared for the Christopher Lee Dracula.

Some years ago I purchased the original Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi. Included on the DVD was the Spanish language version. This version used an entirely different cast but the same sets. The English film was made during the day and the Spanish at night. I think the Spanish version was even creepier than the English. True classics in which we see no blood or any fangs!

What is truly awful are such shows like Twilight and their ilk where the vampires act like spoiled millennials They seem to drink more booze than blood and walk around in the daylight. Is nothing sacred! Or should I say "unsacred" in this case?

This is a link to a review of the Spanish version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(1931_Spanish-language_film)

Then too Rotten Tomatoes rates the 1922 German expressionist silent film Nosferatu as the second best horror film of all time. The very first Dracula film. Because the German director could not get rights to the Bram Stoker book some changes were made for legal reasons. Dracula became Count Orloff, etc.

The last vampire movie that I thought was any good was the 1960 French film Blood And Roses based on a Sheridan le Fanu story. The costume party scene where Mel Ferrer suddenly turns around wearing the bat mask is truly shocking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_and_Roses

 

[Tamara]

Are they still going to be able to make movies? He was in all but four or five of them.

 

[Tamara]

When a 93 year old person dies it isn't news most people don't even last that long.

Oy vey.

“Because,” hissed Zaphod, “you were there when your planet did the big firework.”

“We have this thing on Earth…” began Arthur.


“Had,” corrected Zaphod.


“…called tact. Oh, never mind…”

 

[Gerald C Koch]

When I was in college I was attending a midnight showing of a vampire movie, actually Blood And Roses, with some friends. There were two drunk football players behind us. One of them made the following comment on the film, "What a great life sleep all day, drink all night."

 

[Jim17x]

Bela Lugosi was the true Dracula, he even said so himself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqr3yzr64V4

`+1 Lugosi & Karloff were the best!

 

[Photo Engineer]

I am going to the laboratory and construct myself a monster! Muahahahahahah.

 

[MattKing]

I am going to the laboratory and construct myself a monster! Muahahahahahah.

A new Kodachrome :devil:?

 

[Sirius Glass]

A new Kodachrome :devil:?

Talk about scary monsters, the last thing we need here is another Kodachrome thread.

 

[Tamara]

"Yeth, Marthterrrrr!"

 

[Gerald C Koch]

The creature in the Mary Shelley book Frankenstein Or The New Prometheus is far from the monster in the films. It is he who is suffers from humanity's cruelty.

 

[Rhodes]

And he's been reunited with Vincent Price and Peter Cushing. There'll be one heck of a knees up in heaven tonight!