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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. My name

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Speaker 1: is Joe McCormick. Today we're bringing you an older episode

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Speaker 1: of Weird House Cinema. This was our feature on the

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two tragic romantic horror classic Blackula, directed by

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Speaker 1: William Crane starring William Marshall. This episode originally aired on

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Speaker 1: February two, twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 2: Enjoy, Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production

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Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 3: Hey you, welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 1: This is Rob Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. And

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Speaker 1: today on Weird House Cinema, we are going to be

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Speaker 1: talking about the nineteen seventy two tragic romantic horror film Blackula.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, so this is in a sense another Dracula movie.

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Speaker 3: We'll get into that in a bit, and I'm generally

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Speaker 3: down for any Dracula film. We've covered various Dracula movies

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Speaker 3: already on Weird House Cinema. Most recently we talked about

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Speaker 3: nineteen seventy two's Dracula Ad nineteen seventy two, in which

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Speaker 3: the Count awakens in contemporary London. Today's movie is also

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Speaker 3: a nineteen seventy two release, and it also centers around

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Speaker 3: a vampire prints awakening in the contemporary world, only this

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Speaker 3: time it's Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: Is it Los Angeles? I kept thinking that the exterior

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Speaker 1: shots looked like LA, But then I would see, like

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Speaker 1: there was a scene at the police station where in

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Speaker 1: the background, I'm pretty sure they had a map of

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Speaker 1: Staten Island on the wall.

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Speaker 3: Well, I didn't notice that. I believe the movie when

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Speaker 3: it told me it was Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: Well wait, did the movie even say it was LA?

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Speaker 1: I didn't remember that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, our character, doctor Thomas, supposedly works for the Los

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Speaker 3: Angeles Police Department.

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Speaker 1: Oh okay, then, oh, maybe he's just like a Staten

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Speaker 1: Island map hobbyist.

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Speaker 3: That's up there.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, but you know what. So this movie

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Speaker 1: had been on my radar for many years, but I

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Speaker 1: hadn't seen it until you picked it for the show. Rob.

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Speaker 1: First of all, I really liked it, But second, it's

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Speaker 1: a very different movie than I imagined. I think because the

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Speaker 1: title is a pun and because I understood it to

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Speaker 1: be part of the black exploitation wave, I had always

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Speaker 1: expected it would be more of a satirical horror comedy

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Speaker 1: that it would be sort of a satirical take on

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Speaker 1: American culture from a black perspective, using some using like

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Speaker 1: vampire themes to get across some of its like comedic observations.

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Speaker 1: But it's really not a comedy at all. Instead, it

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Speaker 1: is a I think, very serious and very effective, tragic,

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Speaker 1: romantic horror film.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and it's interesting it. We'll be discussing this

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Speaker 3: a bit, like the degree to which that transformation seems

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Speaker 3: to have taken place, because I think the studio initially

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Speaker 3: envisioned something that was more of a comedy and was

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Speaker 3: more of a more satire and was just about, you know,

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Speaker 3: given the audience a good time. But this was transformed

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Speaker 3: by at least two of the key individuals involved, if

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Speaker 3: not more.

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Speaker 1: Also, I have to say the comparison to Dracula nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy two AD is hilarious because multiple things. So, first

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Speaker 1: of all, I think Blacula is a much better film

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Speaker 1: than that. But the other thing is that we kept

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Speaker 1: joking in that episode that Dracula in nineteen seventy two

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Speaker 1: a D did not really put Dracula in nineteen seventy

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Speaker 1: two a D. He was almost like he just hangs

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Speaker 1: out in and abandoned church the whole time, and then

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Speaker 1: victims are brought to him, so he never encounters modern

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Speaker 1: culture or anything like that. And we talked about the

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Speaker 1: potential for realizing, you know, Dracula as a sort of

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Speaker 1: fish out of time character who's running into all of

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Speaker 1: the texture of the modern world and having friction when

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Speaker 1: interacting with it. You could expect that that Blacula could

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Speaker 1: be like that as well, but really there is not

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Speaker 1: much fish out of time about it at all. In fact,

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Speaker 1: by the time our our vampire hero arrives in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy two, he's like the coolest person in nineteen seventy two.

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Speaker 1: He's like more at ease and at home than anybody

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Speaker 1: who just normally lives their life here.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so. Yeah, Black Youa is a very well

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Speaker 3: known film in the history of horror and vampire movies

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Speaker 3: and certainly has a has its place in the history

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Speaker 3: of black cinema. So like yourself, Yeah, I've been familiar

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Speaker 3: with it for a long time, but I'd never taken

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Speaker 3: the time to actually sit down and watch it. And

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Speaker 3: and part of, you know, part of that was, like

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Speaker 3: I assumed it was more of a comedy, you know,

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Speaker 3: I wasn't sure how it might have aged, how it

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Speaker 3: was received, and what his legacy was, because you know,

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Speaker 3: not everything that is often categorized into the broad label

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Speaker 3: of black exploitation is worth a revisit. But I just

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Speaker 3: kept seeing more film creators, more artists, more historians, especially

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Speaker 3: artists and historians of color, singling it out for its strengths.

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Speaker 3: One such artist is Rodney Barnes, an American screenwriter and

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Speaker 3: producer whose writing credits include Everybody Hates Chris, The Boondocks,

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Speaker 3: and also the TV series Winning Time on HBO. He

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Speaker 3: was also apparently and he has an additional crew credit.

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Speaker 3: I'm blade. I'm not sure what he did on that,

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Speaker 3: but still in nice vampire connection. But I picked up

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Speaker 3: his twenty twenty three graphic novel Blacula, Return of the King,

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Speaker 3: illustrated by Jason Sean Alexander, and it's really fun. It's

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Speaker 3: a modern sequel to the film Blacula, reawakening our central

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Speaker 3: Prince character once more in contemporary Los Angeles and on

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Speaker 3: a collision course, this time with his vampiric maker. It's

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Speaker 3: really again, really good, really fun, and it includes an

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Speaker 3: extended intro in which Barnes describes being a horror fan

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Speaker 3: as a kid and being at the time mostly dependent

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Speaker 3: on a diet of hammer horror films which featured predominantly

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Speaker 3: white casts and never a black vampire. So he mentions

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Speaker 3: like seeing the ads for the first time. I think

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Speaker 3: he says that he saw them during the commercial breaks

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Speaker 3: for a Soul Train and he was instantly excited. As

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Speaker 3: a child, he was like, you know this, this is

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Speaker 3: something different. This is here. Here is a case where

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Speaker 3: I get to see like a black vampire character in

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Speaker 3: a film. So black Yela the movie called to him

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Speaker 3: ultimately helped inspire him to become a creator himself. And

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Speaker 3: you know, he acknowledges that the film has its flaws,

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Speaker 3: but that its power was undeniable. Now, I want to

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Speaker 3: throw into one quick note about the language of the film.

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Speaker 3: While the film is rated PG and doesn't really contain

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Speaker 3: anything objectionable in terms of gore or sexuality, we should

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Speaker 3: stress that a homophobic slur is used at least a

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Speaker 3: couple of times, one instance by a key protagonist, and

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Speaker 3: once in a really unnecessary and hurtful way. It certainly

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Speaker 3: ding's enjoyment of the film, especially since there's so many

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Speaker 3: captivating elements of the picture otherwise, so I wanted to

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Speaker 3: single that out. I was reading a little bit more

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Speaker 3: about this in The Dracula and the Blacula nineteen seventy

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Speaker 3: two Cultural Revolution by Lemon and Browning. This was published

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Speaker 3: in two thousand and nine's Draculas, Vampires and Other Undead

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Speaker 3: Forms Essays on Gender, Race, and Culture. And this article

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Speaker 3: makes the case that we also see efforts in the

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Speaker 3: movie at challenging homosexual stereotypes, just as the film challenges

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Speaker 3: stereotypes of black and African characters, though the authors here

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Speaker 3: acknowledged that the film fumbles in this and ultimately quote

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Speaker 3: encourage stereotypes and bigotries concerning homosexuality more than they challenged them.

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Speaker 3: So I just wanted to throw that out there in

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Speaker 3: case anyone was looking to pause the podcast go watch

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Speaker 3: the film. I think it's just a good heads up

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Speaker 3: to have. All Right, well, at this point, let's go

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Speaker 3: ahead and have a little trailer audio. The actual trailer

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Speaker 3: for the film is a bit long, but we were

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Speaker 3: able to dig up the radio spot here. I love

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Speaker 3: a good radio spot, so let's listen to the original

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Speaker 3: radio spot for Blackula.

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Speaker 4: You Shall Black Prince. I pressure with my name, you

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Speaker 4: shall be black Cula, Blackcula, the black avenger rising from

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Speaker 4: his tomb to fill the night with horror.

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Speaker 5: Blackcula, tracula soul brother, deadlier even than he Blacula. He

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Speaker 5: first for your blood, he hung less for your soul,

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Speaker 5: more horrifying than Draccular, the Black of anger. Blackcula, an

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Speaker 5: American International really rated PG. Parental guidance suggested.

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Speaker 3: Now, of note that voice you heard at the beginning,

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Speaker 3: that is the voice of Count Dracula, as we'll discuss.

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Speaker 1: M You know, that raises another way in which this

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Speaker 1: movie I think is different than what some people might

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Speaker 1: assume going into it, which you might assume of the

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Speaker 1: premise is what if Count Dracula were black, but instead

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Speaker 1: our black vampire prints in the movie is very much

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Speaker 1: set in opposition to Count Dracula, Like Count Dracula is

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Speaker 1: still the villain.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, absolutely complete and utter villain, but then also

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Speaker 3: one that will not factor into the film directly after

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Speaker 3: after just a few minutes into the film, really.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he disappears after like three or four minutes in.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. All right, Well, if you're intrigued, if you're interested

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Speaker 3: in watching this one on your own, before proceeding with

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Speaker 3: the rest of the episode. It's pretty widely available. We

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Speaker 3: watched it on the twenty twenty three Blue from Sandpiper Pictures.

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Speaker 3: It's bare bones, doesn't really have anything in the way

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Speaker 3: of extras, but the quality is great. We rented it

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Speaker 3: from Video Drum here in Atlanta, though I believe it's

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Speaker 3: also streaming on Prime and other sources. So again, you

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Speaker 3: shouldn't have any problem getting a hold of this movie.

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Speaker 3: All right, let's get into the people who made this film,

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Speaker 3: starting at the top with the director. William Crane born

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Speaker 3: nineteen forty nine, American director in UCLA Film School graduate,

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Speaker 3: best remembered for this film and thus his contributions to

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Speaker 3: black cinema of the seventies and more broadly, the horror

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Speaker 3: genre itself. Prior to Blacula, he'd worked in TV. He

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Speaker 3: directed a nineteen seventy one episode of Mod Squad, though

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Speaker 3: he apparently worked as an uncredited intern director on the

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Speaker 3: nineteen seventies Sydney Quadier movie Brother John, which also features

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Speaker 3: Paul Winfield. But anyway, after Blacula, he continued to direct

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Speaker 3: episodes of such TV series as Starsky and hutch Swat

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Speaker 3: and The Rookies, before returning to the world of black

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Speaker 3: centric horror films with nineteen seventy six is Doctor Black

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Speaker 3: Mister Hyde, starring Bernie Casey in the lead roles.

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Speaker 1: No, I'd be interested to see that one too.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I saw a bit from an interview with

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Speaker 3: him where he said he had more freedom in that one,

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Speaker 3: So I'm interested to read more about it, see how

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Speaker 3: it was received, and potentially watch it now. Afterwards, he

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Speaker 3: directed episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard, Matt Houston, and

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Speaker 3: Designing Women. There are a lot of interviews with him

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Speaker 3: out there. I ran across one from a This is

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Speaker 3: a twenty twenty one interview on WBBM News Radio with

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Speaker 3: Mike Ramsey. He says, AIP, that's American International Pictures. They

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Speaker 3: were doing exploitive movies. The rumor was they were in

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Speaker 3: the red and so they were going to do a

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Speaker 3: black vampire movie. I happened to be in the right

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Speaker 3: place at the right time. The original concept was Count

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Speaker 3: Brown's in Town. It was this Shuckin' and jivin and

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Speaker 3: I didn't want to do it, but they hired me

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Speaker 3: to do this movie. William Marshall said, let's just make

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Speaker 3: this straight.

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Speaker 1: So William Marshall is the actor who plays Memo Walde,

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Speaker 1: the main vampire in the movie, And yeah, this is

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Speaker 1: in line with what I've read that he was a

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Speaker 1: big force in reimagining the movie as a more serious

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Speaker 1: dramatic project.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, according to Lemonon Browning in that article, I decided

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Speaker 3: when he came on board to star in the picture,

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Speaker 3: he insisted on certain changes to Mamalwalde's character and wrote

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Speaker 3: or rewrote key scenes concerning Memalwalde's eighteenth century mission to

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Speaker 3: Europe as well as his connection to his wife Luva.

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Speaker 3: So he seems to have been heavily involved in the

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Speaker 3: choices that made this film notable.

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Speaker 1: But by emphasizing the tragic romance at the core of it,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to undersell the horror elements of this

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Speaker 1: film now because, to come back to Crane's approach to

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Speaker 1: it as a horror film, I think the scary scenes,

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Speaker 1: though it's not wall to wall scares, the scary scenes

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Speaker 1: are quite effective. There are some extremely creepy shots in

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Speaker 1: this movie, like it does a thing a couple of

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Speaker 1: times where a character like a monster, a vampire character

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Speaker 1: is just directly approaching the camera, So the camera is

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Speaker 1: at a fixed position and the vampire is just gliding

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Speaker 1: straight into your face. And I don't know, that's not

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Speaker 1: a kind of shot that I think of is very

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Speaker 1: common in horror films. But even though it seems like

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Speaker 1: it would be, I don't know why it's not. But

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Speaker 1: it's very effective here.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, you can imagine these scenes really sizzling on

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Speaker 3: the big screen in front of a packed house. And

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Speaker 3: it's worth noting that this film was quite a success

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Speaker 3: and certainly played an important part in sort of paving

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Speaker 3: the way for additional black horror films that came out afterwards,

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Speaker 3: though we should also note this was not I think

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Speaker 3: sometimes this is described as the quote first black horror film,

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Speaker 3: which is not the case. There were earlier examples of this.

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Speaker 3: The credited right on this are Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig.

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Speaker 3: I don't have dates for them. I don't think dates

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Speaker 3: are available, though I believe Joan Torres at least is

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Speaker 3: still still around. This and the nineteen seventy three sequel

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Speaker 3: Scream Blacula Scream are their only credits. Joan Torres has

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Speaker 3: a website, Joan Torres dot com, which details her additional

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Speaker 3: work as a playwright and a novelist. Given the subject

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Speaker 3: matter the film, it's notable that neither of the credited

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Speaker 3: writers was themselves black, But again, the film's black director

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Speaker 3: and black lead evidently further crafted the screenplay in this

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Speaker 3: more serious direction.

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Speaker 1: Just wanted to note you mentioned the sequel Scream, Blacula Scream,

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Speaker 1: which does also have William Marshall in it. I don't

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Speaker 1: know anything about the reputation of that movie, but I

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Speaker 1: wanted to note it does have Pam Greer in it.

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Speaker 1: So that's the reason to watch true.

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Speaker 3: All right, Well, let's come back to William Marshall again.

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Speaker 3: This is our star who plays Prince Mama Walde, the vampire.

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Speaker 3: William Marshall lived nineteen twenty four through two thousand and three. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: the star of this picture and just an irrefutable central

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Speaker 3: force in the making of the film. What it making

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Speaker 3: the film what it is bringing dignity, power and complexity

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Speaker 3: to a character that otherwise could have unlikely would have

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Speaker 3: been a much more shallow exercise in vampire horror. Marshall

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Speaker 3: was an American actor, director, and opera singer with impressive

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Speaker 3: credits across stage, screen and TV. He studied at the

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Speaker 3: Actor's Studio in New York and was I believe had

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Speaker 3: some opera training. I'm not as informed about his career

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Speaker 3: regarding opera, but he performed on Broadway in the late

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Speaker 3: forties and early fifties, and he played the title role

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Speaker 3: in Othello in both the US and Europe. There's a

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Speaker 3: nineteen eighty one production of A Fellow with him in

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Speaker 3: the lead role that was filmed and I believe is available.

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Speaker 1: I'm not surprised to hear that he was an opera

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Speaker 1: singer because he has an absolutely magnificent voice, just a

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Speaker 1: beautiful bass, like a I'm trying to think, what's the metaphor,

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Speaker 1: it's like a ship sailing through smooth Is this just

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Speaker 1: like an amazing voice. It is the kind of voice

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Speaker 1: that every time he speaks, people just turn and listen.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's captivating. So his TV credits, he has a

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Speaker 3: lot of TV credits, include a second season episode of

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Speaker 3: The original Star Trek. This one was titled The Ultimate

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Speaker 3: Computer in which he played a brilliant human computer scientist.

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Speaker 3: And then he may also be a familiar face from

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Speaker 3: his later years for some of you because he played

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Speaker 3: the King of Cartoons on Peewee's Playhouse, according to his

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Speaker 3: New York Times obit. In nineteen eighty three, he appeared

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Speaker 3: in a one hour, one man show for PBS called

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Speaker 3: Frederick Douglas, Slave and Statesman, and he adapted this for

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Speaker 3: the theater as inter Frederick Douglass, which he performed for

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Speaker 3: many years. And yeah, he has a whole bunch of credits.

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Speaker 3: I did note that on the old nineteen eighty Spider

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Speaker 3: Man cartoon he voiced both the Juggernaut and Tony Stark,

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Speaker 3: whoa in cinema. His other credits include nineteen fifty four's

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Speaker 3: Demetrius and the Gladiators, nineteen seventy three sequel Screen Blackula,

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Speaker 3: Scream of Course, the nineteen seventy four zombie movie Abby,

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Speaker 3: seventy seven's Twilight's Last Gleaming, and nineteen ninety four's Maverick.

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Speaker 3: So again, yeah, he's absolutely commanding in this role. You

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Speaker 3: can see how he was such a powerful force on

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Speaker 3: the trajectory of this film as well, first of all

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Speaker 3: in pushing for these changes, and secondly, according to Crane

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Speaker 3: in that interview, I was looking at in being able

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Speaker 3: to deliver on those changes in such a way that

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Speaker 3: as the dailies or the raw footage was rolling in

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Speaker 3: from the filming the studio like they just followed suit.

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Speaker 3: They didn't fight it because they saw that it was

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Speaker 3: absolutely working, all right. So moving on to the rest

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Speaker 3: of the cast, we have a dual role here of

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Speaker 3: Tina and Luva, which we'll get into what that means

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Speaker 3: here in a bit. But these characters are played by

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Speaker 3: Vanetta McGhee, who lived nineteen forty five through twenty ten,

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Speaker 3: American act who'd been in several films prior to this,

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Speaker 3: including the Italian western The Great Silence. Her subsequent films

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Speaker 3: included nineteen seventy three as Shaft in Africa and Detroit

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Speaker 3: nine thousand. In nineteen seventy five, she was in The

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Speaker 3: Eiger Sanction opposite Clint Eastwood. I believe that was She's

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Speaker 3: like second build on that. She's in nineteen eighty four's

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Speaker 3: Repo Man in nineteen nineties to Sleep with Anger, all right,

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Speaker 3: now playing Tina's sister in nineteen seventy two. The sister's

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Speaker 3: name is Michelle, played by Denise Nicholas born nineteen forty four,

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Speaker 3: American actress with extensive television credits, including an episode of

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Speaker 3: Night Gallery Love American Style, Different Strokes, The Love Boat,

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Speaker 3: and sixty nine episodes of In the Heat of the Night.

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Speaker 3: Her film credits include seventy seven's capricorn I, nineteen nineties

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Speaker 3: Ghost Dad, in two thousand's Ritual. She won a nineteen

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Speaker 3: seventy six NAACP Image Award for her role in Let's

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Speaker 3: Do It Again.

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Speaker 1: I feel like a big part of Michelle's role in

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Speaker 1: the plot is we have to have somebody who is

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Speaker 1: skeptical of the vampire stuff, because Tina ultimately is going

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Speaker 1: to become wooed by the power of Memo wall Day,

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Speaker 1: and you know, she ultimately is like, yeah, Okay, I'll

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Speaker 1: be a vampire because I love you. The character we're

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Speaker 1: about to talk about, doctor Gordon Thomas, he's pretty much

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Speaker 1: from the beginning is like, I think a vampire could

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Speaker 1: be responsible for these killings. So Michelle is going to

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Speaker 1: be the one who's like, I don't believe this, and

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Speaker 1: I do not want to go dig up a grave tonight.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So let's get to doctor Gordon Thomas

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Speaker 3: because he's essentially the Van Helsing character yes of the movie.

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Speaker 1: He's the investigator, the human hero.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and he is played by Thalmus Rassulula. He lived

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Speaker 3: nineteen thirty nine through nineteen ninety one American actor with

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Speaker 3: extensive TV credits going back to nineteen sixty including Perry Mason,

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Speaker 3: The Original Twighlight Zone, All in the Family, Mission Impossible,

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Speaker 3: Sanford and Son, The Jefferson Kojak, The Incredible Hulk. He

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Speaker 3: also shows up in an episode of Star Trek The

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Speaker 3: Next Generation, playing the character Captain Donald Varley. Also notable,

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Speaker 3: he pops up on a nineteen seventy five episode of

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Speaker 3: Saturday Night Live, specifically in a skit titled Exorcist two

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Speaker 3: in which he plays Father Marrin.

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Speaker 1: I like that the implied comedy of this skit is

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Speaker 1: how ridiculous it would be to make a sequel to

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Speaker 1: the Exorcist. But then just a couple of years later,

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Speaker 1: they literally did yeh of.

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Speaker 3: Note that episode of Saturday Night Live was hosted by

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Speaker 3: Richard Pryor, you know, the great stand up comedian, and

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Speaker 3: the musical guest was a legendary Gil Scott Heron. Reportedly,

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Speaker 3: Pryor only agreed to host the show if both of

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Speaker 3: these men were involved, so they were like handpicked. He's like,

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Speaker 3: I'll do it. You got to bring in gil Scott

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Speaker 3: Heron and you got to bring in Thalmus to be

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Speaker 3: in this skit with me.

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Speaker 1: He's really effective in this movie. And he has a

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Speaker 1: sort of thankless role to play because William Marshall's character

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Speaker 1: gets to be the vampire, gets to be the tragic

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Speaker 1: prince and at the center of this tragic love story,

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Speaker 1: whereas Gordon Thomas Thomas Roussoula's character has to be hunting

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Speaker 1: him down and doing so in a like. The character

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Speaker 1: is written as an irascible and business oriented man. Like

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Speaker 1: he's not fun, and yet it is fun watching the

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Speaker 1: character do what he does.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's a really solid performance. You know,

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Speaker 3: he's like he's a grumpy but smooth Van Helson character. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: all right, this is a minor character. But I also

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Speaker 3: want to call out that Jaitu Kombuka is in this

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Speaker 3: playing the character Skillet. Skillett is a bit comic relief

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Speaker 3: character who really likes Memwalde's Kate. Yes, but it's a

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Speaker 3: memorable brief bart. He lived nineteen forty through twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 3: He was a main cast member on the Spice series

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Speaker 3: A Man called Sloan with Robert Conrad and Dan o'hurlehay.

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Speaker 3: He was in Roots's. His other credits include Doctor Black,

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Speaker 3: Mister Hyde, nineteen seventy one's Brian Song, seventy six is

384
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Speaker 3: Bound for Glory, eighty five Brewsters Millions, and nineteen eighty

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Speaker 3: nine's Harlem Knights.

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Speaker 1: This character appears multiple times to admire Memolde's cape and

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Speaker 1: to comment that he has one strange dude.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's his sole purpose here. All right. We mentioned

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Speaker 3: that Dracula is in this movie, and we'll discuss the

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Speaker 3: way Dracula is envisioned in this film here in a

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Speaker 3: bit in more detail. But Dracula here is played by

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Speaker 3: Charles McCauley, who lived nineteen twenty seven through nineteen ninety nine,

393
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Speaker 3: an American actor of stage, screen, and TV, whose earliest

394
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Speaker 3: film role is an uncredited part in Roger Corman's horror

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Speaker 3: comedy Creature from the Haunted Sea nineteen sixty one. We

396
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Speaker 3: haven't watched this one on Weird House, but it's often

397
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Speaker 3: considered part of a trilogy of horror comedies that Corman did,

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Speaker 3: along with Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors.

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Speaker 3: McAuley also worked with Corman, credited, this time in nineteen

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Speaker 3: sixty two's Tower of London. His filmography features a great

401
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Speaker 3: deal of mainstream TV work, along with various entries in

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Speaker 3: the horror genre. On TV, he appeared on two episodes

403
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Speaker 3: of The original Star Trek, thirty five episodes of Days

404
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:21,920
Speaker 3: of Our Lives, He was on Mission Impossible, Night Gallery, Colombo,

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Speaker 3: and much more. In film, his credits include sixty eight's Head,

406
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Speaker 3: seventy twos, Twilight People, seventy four's The House of Seven

407
00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:33,239
Speaker 3: Corpses seventy five is the Hindenburg Airport seventy seven, and

408
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Speaker 3: he played the President of the United States in the

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Speaker 3: nineteen eighty four Mermaid comedy Splash, which just I haven't

410
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Speaker 3: seen Splash in a while. Watched it a lot as

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Speaker 3: a kid, but now I'm just imagining, like President Dracula.

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Speaker 1: Uh huh, I've never seen it, but now there's a

413
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Speaker 1: treat waiting for me.

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Speaker 3: If I ever get there. Oh yeah, I remember it

415
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:54,199
Speaker 3: as being fun. More on Dracula in a bit, but

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Speaker 3: it is. It's a very memorable Count Dracula. Yeah. This

417
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,479
Speaker 3: is just an aside, I guess mostly for people who

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Speaker 3: were big into like the history of stunt work and

419
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:07,080
Speaker 3: or grappling and so forth. And pro wrestling. But one

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Speaker 3: of Dracula's henchmen is played by Jean LaBelle, who lived

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Speaker 3: nineteen thirty two through twenty twenty two. Noted grappler, judo practitioner,

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Speaker 3: pro wrestler, stunt man. He pops up in a lot

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Speaker 3: of things, often in just like really small roles.

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Speaker 1: It is funny in this movie that Dracula just has

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Speaker 1: wrestlers working for him, Like he calls out his wrestlers

426
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Speaker 1: and they've got the you know, the Lacey cravats on,

427
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Speaker 1: but they're just like these beefy.

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Speaker 3: Guys, all right. Get a few credits from behind the

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Speaker 3: scenes here. Sandy DeVore is the title designer on this

430
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:42,119
Speaker 3: film who lived nineteen thirty four through twenty twenty American artist,

431
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:44,920
Speaker 3: graphic designer, and title designer who worked with some big

432
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:48,479
Speaker 3: recording artists of the day, including Sammy Davis Junior, and

433
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:51,040
Speaker 3: went on to create title sequences for such TV shows

434
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:55,560
Speaker 3: as The Partridge Family. We've actually seen some of Sandy

435
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:58,440
Speaker 3: Devorre's work on Weird Howse Cinema before, because he did

436
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 3: the excellent title sequence four The Dunwich Horror, which had

437
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,520
Speaker 3: a very similar style only instead of like red black

438
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,080
Speaker 3: and white, it was like blue and black.

439
00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: Yeah. I really like the title design in this movie.

440
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,879
Speaker 1: It's sort of a like an animated bat chasing a

441
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:19,199
Speaker 1: red outline of a woman around in this abstract landscape

442
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:23,360
Speaker 1: that almost looks like you've zoomed in a lot on calligraphy,

443
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,880
Speaker 1: and the figures are trying to navigate in the spaces

444
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:28,440
Speaker 1: between the bars of the letters.

445
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it's really cool and it's like a nice

446
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 3: I like how it breaks up the film too, because

447
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 3: we have a very heavy opening and then we get

448
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:40,119
Speaker 3: this fun title sequence before Trent's pourting to the modern

449
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:43,359
Speaker 3: day of nineteen seventy two. And I'll also add that

450
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:47,160
Speaker 3: there's an excellent website called artofthetitle dot com and they

451
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 3: have multiple examples of Divorre's work, including the intros to

452
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 3: Blacula and the intro to The Dunwich Horror. He also

453
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 3: did one on a nineteen sixty nine film called DSAD.

454
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:03,200
Speaker 3: This was a Row Roger Corman film starring Kerr Dooley

455
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,439
Speaker 3: as the Marquis de Sade. Also has John Houston in it.

456
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,880
Speaker 3: But it's also like similar style and also very amusing

457
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 3: to watch the composer on this film on Blackula is

458
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,640
Speaker 3: Gene Page, who lived nineteen thirty nine through nineteen ninety eight,

459
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:21,879
Speaker 3: American composer and record producer. He also did arrangements on

460
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,200
Speaker 3: tracks for some of the biggest musical acts of the

461
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:29,919
Speaker 3: time period. He has something like fifteen hundred and fifty

462
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,680
Speaker 3: five writing and arrangement credits on discogs what including Yeah,

463
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,320
Speaker 3: it's like this man works a lot working with artists.

464
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:38,119
Speaker 3: I can't even list them all, but just as a

465
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:44,160
Speaker 3: brief overview, people like Barry White, James Taylor, Michael Jackson, Cher.

466
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 3: It seems to be the main main work that he did.

467
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,919
Speaker 3: This is his most well known film score out of

468
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 3: only a handful of score composition credits.

469
00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:58,520
Speaker 1: I love the music in Blackula, and it works I

470
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: think on every level. Like there's i'm just non diegetic

471
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 1: background music that you know, it brings the right horror ambiance.

472
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,879
Speaker 1: But then there is also plenty of funk in the movie,

473
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:15,359
Speaker 1: and then even some diegetic on screen band performances that

474
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 1: are fantastic as well.

475
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:21,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we're going to discuss them in just a second,

476
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,679
Speaker 3: but yeah, I all agree, absolutely wonderful score. It's funky

477
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 3: and soulful, blazingly upbeat in places, but it also does

478
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,199
Speaker 3: get into that what I like to think of is

479
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:34,200
Speaker 3: like the horror jazz night gallery zone as well, tweaked

480
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 3: with some synth weirdness in places. It really drives on

481
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 3: the creepy moments. Now, the musical performances that you mentioned,

482
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:45,640
Speaker 3: these are performances by the Hughes Corporation. They were a

483
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:49,159
Speaker 3: pop and soul trio, best known for a hit that

484
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 3: would come out a couple of years later in nineteen

485
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 3: seventy four, Rock the Boat. I mean, I don't even

486
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 3: have to humme it. You all know it. You've all

487
00:27:56,600 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 3: heard Rock the Boat. At the time of Black consisted

488
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:04,200
Speaker 3: of Saint Clair Lee who lived nineteen forty four through

489
00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:08,879
Speaker 3: twenty eleven. This is the vocalist with the headband H. M.

490
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 3: Kelly born nineteen forty seven, and Carl Russell. I believe

491
00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 3: he left the group after the movie, but also maybe

492
00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:20,479
Speaker 3: returned later during a time period when they got back

493
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 3: together again. I'm a little foggy on how all that works,

494
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 3: but they are a lot of fun in their performances

495
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:27,920
Speaker 3: in Black Law.

496
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,879
Speaker 1: They get at least two on screen musical performances in

497
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:33,880
Speaker 1: the film, or are there even more.

498
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,920
Speaker 3: They have at least three tracks on the soundtrack. There's

499
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 3: There He Is Again, which we'll talk about in a bill.

500
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, wonderful. There's What the World Knows, which is

501
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 3: a more soulful, romantic number, and then I'm Gonna Catch You,

502
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 3: which is also a really fun song. It's like a

503
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 3: cheating heart song, but it's really good.

504
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: There He Is Again is my favorite because it's it

505
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 1: can the lyrics can be read as a song about

506
00:28:57,760 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 1: a vampire.

507
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:02,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely like it if you're not analyzing the lyrics

508
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:05,080
Speaker 3: too closely, like, yeah, yeah, of course it's about Mamawaldi,

509
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 3: it's about this vampire. I also note there are two

510
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 3: tracks on the soundtrack by the twenty first Century LTD.

511
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 3: This is or I guess I would say twenty first

512
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 3: century limited heavy changes and main chance. These are both

513
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 3: romantic numbers, and I honestly can't remember how they're integrated

514
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 3: into the film or you know, to what extent they are.

515
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:39,720
Speaker 1: Okay, you're ready to talk about the plot, let's do it.

516
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 1: So we open on the exterior of a castle on

517
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,960
Speaker 1: a darkened, stormy night. Rain pours down, battering the castle towers,

518
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,560
Speaker 1: and bolts of lightning cut through the darkness, and a chiron.

519
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:55,960
Speaker 1: Text on the screen says Transylvania seventeen eighty Castle Dracula.

520
00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 1: So we cut inside the castle to an ornate dining

521
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:04,120
Speaker 1: room illuminated by candles and a roaring fireplace, and Count

522
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 1: Dracula is here and he is hosting a pair of

523
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: guests after what seems to have been some kind of

524
00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 1: international diplomatic function meeting with dignitaries. Now, this Count Dracula

525
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: is not exactly of the Bela Lugosi variety. He has

526
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,640
Speaker 1: like longer hairs, kind of grayish brown in color, and

527
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: a goateee. He's wearing a black and gold coat over

528
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 1: a blue vest with a frilly white cravat, and he

529
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:36,880
Speaker 1: is immediately unlikable, smarmy palpably untrustworthy, and we will soon

530
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 1: come to realize racist he is. He's at first kind

531
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 1: of superficially friendly to his two guests, and the guests

532
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:48,479
Speaker 1: are Prince mam U Walde and his wife, Princess Luva,

533
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: who are royalty from what is initially an unnamed African country,

534
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 1: but we will later learn that they are from the

535
00:30:55,920 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 1: Ibani nation in the northeast of the Niger Delta. Memoalde

536
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: is dressed in a dark suit with a powder blue cravat,

537
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:08,239
Speaker 1: and Luva is wearing a beautiful, elaborate multicolored dress with

538
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 1: beadwork jewelry. So they've just seemingly finished a meeting with

539
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 1: an array of diplomats and heads of state from around

540
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:20,240
Speaker 1: the world, and Dracula is pouring cognac all around. Memoalde

541
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 1: and Luva explained to Count Dracula that they're here for

542
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: a reason. They are on a mission to gain international

543
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 1: allies in support of what seems to be a treaty,

544
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 1: a treaty to do what well. Luva pulls out a text,

545
00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 1: a document to present to Count Dracula, and he reviews it,

546
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:44,080
Speaker 1: and then he recoils from the document in disbelief. Apparently,

547
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 1: this treaty that they're pursuing would bring about the cessation

548
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:52,320
Speaker 1: of the international slave trade. Dracula doesn't like this idea.

549
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: He counters that. He says, surely slavery has merit, and

550
00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 1: Memoalde raises an eyebrow. He asks how one would find

551
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 1: in barbarity, but Dracula says, well, slavery may be barbaric

552
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 1: from the point of view of the slave, but it

553
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 1: holds lots of appeal to the slave owner, and then

554
00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 1: he transitions to making revolting comments with sexual overtones about

555
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 1: how it would in fact be appealing to him to

556
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 1: own luva.

557
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, the overt racism of Dracula is quite fascinating here.

558
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 3: I think the film delivers the vibe in a way

559
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 3: that a mere summary doesn't really capture. But yeah, this

560
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 3: Dracula is, in many respects presented, is almost a kind

561
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 3: of He's almost the institution of slavery incarnate. You know,

562
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 3: it's all done in a few short scenes here, but

563
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 3: you know, he dismisses objections to the practice on economic

564
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 3: and sort of this is the world grounds, but quickly

565
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 3: slides into it increasingly overtly racist rhetoric before directly provoking

566
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 3: Mamma Walde by offering in cruel jess to buy his wife.

567
00:32:56,480 --> 00:33:01,240
Speaker 3: And this then quickly transcends into physical assault, separation, murder,

568
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 3: and a curse that transcends human lifetimes. And we also

569
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 3: see his aristocratic mass completely slip from again from this

570
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:13,920
Speaker 3: like snide aristocrat to just absolute evil, cruelty and hunger.

571
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 1: Yeah. So at the beginning of the exchange, Dracula is

572
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 1: condescending and smarmy, but it's interesting to see how it

573
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 1: just flips to overt hostility as soon as he is

574
00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 1: faced with something he disagrees with. So, of course Mamowalde

575
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 1: won't tolerate this shocking behavior from Dracula, but he keeps

576
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 1: his composure. He rises from his seat and he gathers

577
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: Luva and says that they are leaving, but the evil

578
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 1: Count will not allow it. He summons his minions, his

579
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 1: hinchman to take hold of them, and then violence breaks out.

580
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: Memowalde puts up a valiant fight. He uses like improvised

581
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 1: weapons from the room. I think he grabs a torch

582
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 1: off the wall, and then one of the henchmen grabs

583
00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 1: a saber off the wall and they fight there in

584
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:04,400
Speaker 1: front of the fire. But eventually Miawalde is outnumbered and

585
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: overpowered by the Count's fighters, and eventually we see the

586
00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 1: Count's side including not just like the muscly wrestlers the

587
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:14,640
Speaker 1: stuntman we were talking about earlier, but like a whole

588
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 1: coven of looming ghouls and these wheezing hooded blood drinkers,

589
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:23,960
Speaker 1: and this whole group approaches Prince Mama Welde and then

590
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:27,000
Speaker 1: Dracula exposes his neck and bites.

591
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:28,719
Speaker 3: It's all very well done, but I will note that

592
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 3: one of the vampires in that scene does look to

593
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 3: be an actual, actual, actual vampire from the apple she has.

594
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:39,280
Speaker 3: It's kind of like wide eyed and big, big fangs,

595
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:43,760
Speaker 3: But that's still it doesn't doesn't attract from the sequence.

596
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:48,520
Speaker 1: But it goes onto a horrifying escalation here. So there

597
00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:52,000
Speaker 1: is an interment scene. Luva and Mama Welde are walled

598
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:55,680
Speaker 1: up in a secret room in the castle where Dracula

599
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: is going to doom Luva to die of thirst and

600
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 1: starvation in the room, while Mamo Walde is locked inside

601
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:06,680
Speaker 1: a coffin to transform into a vampire and forever yearn

602
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,040
Speaker 1: for blood that he cannot have. And here Dracula he

603
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 1: places a curse. He says, quote, I shall place a

604
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 1: curse of suffering on you that will doom you to

605
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:20,560
Speaker 1: a living hell. A hunger, a wild, gnawing animal. Hunger

606
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 1: will grow in you, a hunger for human blood. Here

607
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:27,800
Speaker 1: you will starve for an eternity, torn by an unquenchable lust.

608
00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:31,680
Speaker 1: I curse you with my name. You shall be Blacula,

609
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,640
Speaker 1: a vampire like myself, a living fiend. You will be

610
00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:38,720
Speaker 1: doomed never to know that sweet blood which will become

611
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:43,239
Speaker 1: your only desire. And then slam slam shut the coffin door.

612
00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:46,919
Speaker 1: They pad lock it, and they close the wall, and

613
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 1: the curse to Mamowalde and Luva are left trapped in

614
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 1: this room forever.

615
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:56,719
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's heavy stuff, and it's also worth noting here

616
00:35:56,760 --> 00:36:00,319
Speaker 3: like this. We hear the name Blacula here, and we'll

617
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:03,399
Speaker 3: hear an echo of this later. But Mama Walde never

618
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 3: in this film self identifies as Blacula, Like this is

619
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:09,960
Speaker 3: the name uttered by Dracula as he curses him.

620
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:16,080
Speaker 1: Yes, now, it might seem curious why Dracula is portrayed, Robin,

621
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 1: I bet you picked up on the same thing. He's

622
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 1: portrayed not just as being cruel to them, but specifically

623
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:27,240
Speaker 1: as having an orientation of vengeance. He is vengeful towards

624
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:30,799
Speaker 1: Mamma Walde and Luva, and they've done nothing whatsoever to

625
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:34,360
Speaker 1: harm him, Like there's no reason for him to be vengeful.

626
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:36,960
Speaker 1: But I think it fits. It goes with the theme

627
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 1: like this is a common posture of racism, like vengeance,

628
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,840
Speaker 1: a feeling of need for vengeance in response to nothing.

629
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's a great point. I want to

630
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:52,640
Speaker 3: again mention that Macaulay is really great in this sequence.

631
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:57,680
Speaker 3: He continues to lay on Dracula's evil very effectively, and

632
00:36:57,760 --> 00:36:59,400
Speaker 3: I love the way that they made him up, so

633
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:01,840
Speaker 3: blood dripping from his lips after he has fed on

634
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 3: Mama Walde and he's taunting Luva, but is also draining

635
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 3: from his eyes, you know, like he's like he's he's

636
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 3: a vicious beast that's so fatted on blood that his

637
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 3: body can't contain it all anymore, and it's just kind

638
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 3: of leaking out of every orifice. And yeah, it's just

639
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:20,240
Speaker 3: brutal stuff.

640
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,279
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and I think the blood running out of

641
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,880
Speaker 1: the eyes, to me, it is a visual signal to

642
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:27,319
Speaker 1: convey hate. Do you get the same thing?

643
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:28,279
Speaker 3: I think?

644
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:29,200
Speaker 5: So? Yeah.

645
00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:31,560
Speaker 1: So here we go to the credits, and again I

646
00:37:31,680 --> 00:37:35,200
Speaker 1: love the design of the credits. There's groovy modern music.

647
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:37,840
Speaker 1: There's the animated bat chasing a woman around in the

648
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:42,280
Speaker 1: abstract landscape. It's very cool. After the credits, we return

649
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 1: to Dracula's castle, but it's the present. Dracula's house is

650
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 1: undergoing an estate sale, and we've got a couple of

651
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:53,799
Speaker 1: wholesale antique buyers from America who are here too. They're

652
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:56,800
Speaker 1: about to sign the paperwork to buy everything from the castle.

653
00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:00,480
Speaker 1: The two antique dealers are the character's Bobby McCory and

654
00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,480
Speaker 1: Billy Schaeffer. And these are the characters I think you

655
00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:07,399
Speaker 1: alluded to earlier, rob who are portrayed as very stereotypically gay.

656
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 1: Apparently they don't find out until the last minute that

657
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,239
Speaker 1: all of the stuff they're about to buy belonged to

658
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:19,359
Speaker 1: Count Dracula. The seller is worried that this is going

659
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 1: to endanger the deal and gives them a discount. But

660
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,080
Speaker 1: do they really need one, answer is no, because the

661
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,799
Speaker 1: Dracula thing is a bonus to them. Bobby says, where

662
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 1: we come from, Dracula is the Krim de la crim

663
00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:34,080
Speaker 1: of camp. We're going to get a fortune for these things.

664
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:38,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, the guy here was worried about, you know, about

665
00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:41,279
Speaker 3: about having a deal with a Dracula refund or a

666
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:44,480
Speaker 3: Dracula discount. He should have been he should have been

667
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:46,399
Speaker 3: adding to the price. He should have been asking more

668
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:47,760
Speaker 3: for all this Dracula stuff.

669
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,880
Speaker 1: Billy also says that he has seen all of Dracula's movies,

670
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: So I think it's interesting that it, like, what is

671
00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:59,920
Speaker 1: the understanding of Dracula in the world of this movie.

672
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:03,200
Speaker 1: Here's what it seems to be. First of all, in

673
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 1: this movie, vampires are real. Count Dracula was a real

674
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 1: historical vampire in the late seventeen hundreds, though some modern

675
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:16,000
Speaker 1: characters believe he was just a myth. And this character

676
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:20,920
Speaker 1: is separate from Vladim Paler who lived in the fifteenth century. Also,

677
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:25,239
Speaker 1: in this universe, Dracula exists as a character known in

678
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:30,520
Speaker 1: horror films and stories. Presumably the novel Dracula exists.

679
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting to tease all this apart. Rodney Barnes

680
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,960
Speaker 3: in the in blacular Return of the King, the way

681
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:41,200
Speaker 3: he kind of treated it was okay, Mama Walde had

682
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,120
Speaker 3: knew that this Count Dracula had there were some rumors

683
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:46,919
Speaker 3: about him about how he might be connected to this

684
00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 3: earlier tyrannical figure, but he just dismissed it as myth. So, yeah,

685
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 3: there are multiple layers of fiction and history and fictional

686
00:39:57,239 --> 00:39:59,680
Speaker 3: history that you have to juggle in this scenario.

687
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:04,400
Speaker 1: But it also portrays the historical figure Count Dracula in

688
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:08,920
Speaker 1: the late seventeen hundreds as having been an influential player

689
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:13,879
Speaker 1: in international politics, because like the reason Luva and Mama

690
00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:16,640
Speaker 1: Walde are going to his castle is to get his

691
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:20,160
Speaker 1: support for trying to get allies for an international treaty.

692
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,279
Speaker 1: So he's not just seen as like, you know, a

693
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:25,480
Speaker 1: reclusive figure of mystery. This is like somebody who has

694
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:27,680
Speaker 1: influence over the affairs of state.

695
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:31,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, he is not an evil in the background of

696
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:36,640
Speaker 3: Europeans aristocracy. He is in the forefront, which which I

697
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:39,799
Speaker 3: think is key here. But anyway, he's long dad at

698
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 3: this point.

699
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:42,719
Speaker 1: Oh that's right. In fact, the guy at the estate

700
00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: sale mentions how Dracula died.

701
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, he says, you know, don't worry about him. It

702
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:52,920
Speaker 3: was all over hyped anyway, and Van Helsing destroyed him

703
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:56,160
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty years ago. So it's interesting, you know,

704
00:40:56,200 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 3: we're set to encounter a reawakened mamal Wal in a

705
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:05,239
Speaker 3: world where his greatest adversary is him is himself long destroyed,

706
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:07,920
Speaker 3: but the legacy of his crime still resonate.

707
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:08,640
Speaker 5: Right.

708
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:11,880
Speaker 1: So while going around with the seller, Bobby and Billy

709
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:15,319
Speaker 1: in the castle here discover an undisturbed coffin in a

710
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:19,360
Speaker 1: hidden room behind a wall, and we see, we the

711
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,120
Speaker 1: audience know that this is the room where Memo, Wilde

712
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:26,280
Speaker 1: and Luva were buried alive so they add the coffin

713
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,880
Speaker 1: to their haull and we see it brought back to

714
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:31,799
Speaker 1: the States via cargo ship. And here we get some

715
00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:34,960
Speaker 1: a little bit of fish out of time texture, so

716
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 1: we see modern streets and traffic and it's set to

717
00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 1: a funk soundtrack. Get some you know, wuah wah guitar,

718
00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 1: and then we see Bobby and Billy get the coffin

719
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:49,320
Speaker 1: back to their warehouse and Billy is discussing the idea

720
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:51,840
Speaker 1: of using it as a guest bed at their house.

721
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 1: I like this idea.

722
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 3: Bobby is doubtful, though, He's clearly doubtful of this idea,

723
00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:58,239
Speaker 3: and he's like, okay.

724
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:01,160
Speaker 1: So they start trying to open the stuff. But before

725
00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:03,840
Speaker 1: Bobby can get the coffin open, I think he breaks

726
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:06,239
Speaker 1: off the lock, but he doesn't open it yet. At

727
00:42:06,239 --> 00:42:08,560
Speaker 1: the other end of the room, Billy cuts himself while

728
00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:11,400
Speaker 1: prying at the lid of another crate, and it seems

729
00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 1: the smell of fresh blood stirs something inside the coffin,

730
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 1: and so while Bobby and Billy are not looking, the

731
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 1: lid creaks open and Mama Walde, now transformed into a vampire,

732
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:24,560
Speaker 1: begins to rise.

733
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:27,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is our first real shot of the awakened

734
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:32,719
Speaker 3: prince Man Wwalde facing the camera, Dracula's curse audibly resonating

735
00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:35,319
Speaker 3: in his mind. Pretty haunting stuff.

736
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:38,279
Speaker 1: Right, So he rises from the coffin and he he

737
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:43,400
Speaker 1: looks almost confused, like he's he's changed now, but he's

738
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:47,839
Speaker 1: torn between his conscious horror at his fate and his

739
00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:51,440
Speaker 1: immediate thirst for blood. Like the you know, his conscious

740
00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:55,319
Speaker 1: mind is fighting the vampire within him, and here might

741
00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:59,160
Speaker 1: be a good place to discuss memo. Walde's two looks

742
00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 1: as a vampire. So sometimes basically, when he's not about

743
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 1: to bite someone, he just looks like himself. He looks

744
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:09,200
Speaker 1: like the regular Prince Mamuelde from before. But when he

745
00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:12,560
Speaker 1: goes into vampire mode, when he is about to bite

746
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:16,520
Speaker 1: someone or transform into a bat or something, he grows fangs,

747
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 1: of course, but he also grows an interesting pattern of

748
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:23,280
Speaker 1: facial hair where it's like his eyebrows become very bushy

749
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:26,880
Speaker 1: and they sort of connect to the hair on his temples,

750
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:30,439
Speaker 1: and his mustache grows out longer, and he gains these

751
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:36,840
Speaker 1: sharply sculpted sideburns, and there's a redness added to his eyes.

752
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 1: He has a different look when he is about to

753
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:44,759
Speaker 1: behave more like a predatory vampire, and the fact that

754
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:48,439
Speaker 1: there is this physical transformation is almost a bit werewolfy.

755
00:43:48,880 --> 00:43:53,080
Speaker 1: I like the visual transformation because it coincides with the

756
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 1: dual nature of Mamouelde the vampire, so he hasn't been

757
00:43:57,160 --> 00:44:00,880
Speaker 1: changed into just a demon of pure evil. Most of

758
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,960
Speaker 1: the time he is simply like himself, like he was

759
00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:07,640
Speaker 1: before the change, and even in the form of even

760
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 1: as a vampire, Mema Waldey is shown to be a

761
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:16,240
Speaker 1: good and moral man. He is thoughtful, kind, suave, even

762
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:20,960
Speaker 1: tempered charming. But when he goes into vampire mode, he

763
00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:23,960
Speaker 1: thirsts only for blood and it is almost like a

764
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:25,080
Speaker 1: werewolf transformation.

765
00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:25,879
Speaker 4: Yeah.

766
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:29,839
Speaker 3: I think the pronounced widow's peak he develops when he's

767
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 3: in full vampire mode in hunger mode is key. And

768
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:35,920
Speaker 3: I think the real take home here is if someone

769
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:38,279
Speaker 3: you know you suddenly encounter them and they have a

770
00:44:38,360 --> 00:44:44,759
Speaker 3: pronounced widow peak that extends further down than their hairline

771
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:47,960
Speaker 3: originally was, then you need to run because that person

772
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:49,799
Speaker 3: has become a dracula of some sort.

773
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:54,040
Speaker 1: So Memo Walde bites and drains Billy and Bobby there

774
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:57,400
Speaker 1: in the antique warehouse, and next we go to a

775
00:44:57,440 --> 00:45:00,399
Speaker 1: scene at a funeral home where we're going to meet

776
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:04,680
Speaker 1: our other main characters. So Bobby's body is lying out

777
00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 1: for it's lying out in the coffin for visitation, and

778
00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:11,560
Speaker 1: somehow Mima Walde is there like he's looking on from

779
00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:14,279
Speaker 1: behind a curtain at the back of the room, and

780
00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:17,799
Speaker 1: slowly we see Bobby's hand begin to move from its

781
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:21,440
Speaker 1: resting place and grip the wall of the coffin, but

782
00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:24,920
Speaker 1: then Bobby stops moving when the living approach, and our

783
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:29,480
Speaker 1: living characters are Michelle this is Denise Nicholas we mentioned

784
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 1: her earlier. Michelle's co worker and romantic partner, doctor Gordon Thomas.

785
00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:39,919
Speaker 1: This is Thelmas Resulola. We get Michelle's sister, Tina, who

786
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:43,680
Speaker 1: is played by Vanetta McGhee, the same actress who played Louva.

787
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:48,600
Speaker 1: And so Michelle and Tina are visiting Bobby because they've

788
00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 1: known him since childhood. And at first, Tina is wearing

789
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:54,879
Speaker 1: a hood covering her face when she comes into the room,

790
00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 1: but there's a reveal moment. She pulls it back to

791
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:02,240
Speaker 1: reveal her face and Mamma Walde sees her and he whispers.

792
00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:05,000
Speaker 3: Luva, the hood is almost too much because I initially

793
00:46:05,040 --> 00:46:07,080
Speaker 3: thought she was gonna be some sort of sorceress or

794
00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 3: cult member or something, but we quickly learned that she's

795
00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 3: just very stylish.

796
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:14,400
Speaker 1: Well, I would say, by and large, all of the

797
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:18,400
Speaker 1: modern costumes in this movie are awesome. Like everybody's clothes

798
00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:20,880
Speaker 1: look really cool. I was gonna mention this later, but

799
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 1: like essentially everything Thalmas rasulil awares looks awesome. He has

800
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:29,080
Speaker 1: this great collection of coats and jackets. He has this

801
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:33,400
Speaker 1: cool like a herringbone blazer, and he has a double

802
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:36,280
Speaker 1: breasted jacket he wears later that looks really cool, often

803
00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:40,680
Speaker 1: paired with a turtleneck. He's got a great look. But Michelle,

804
00:46:40,719 --> 00:46:44,799
Speaker 1: Michelle and Tina also have really cool clothes. Absolutely, and

805
00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:46,840
Speaker 1: I would put the sorceress hood and cloak in that

806
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:50,880
Speaker 1: category as well. I think it looks great. You know,

807
00:46:50,880 --> 00:46:55,480
Speaker 1: people should dress like sorcerers more often. So anyway, Tina

808
00:46:55,520 --> 00:46:58,239
Speaker 1: and Michelle, they're confused about what happened to Bobby. His

809
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:02,600
Speaker 1: death doesn't make any sense, and they're asking Gordon if

810
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:05,440
Speaker 1: he can get any answers for them, because Gordon is

811
00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:10,000
Speaker 1: not just any boyfriend of Michelle. Gordon is some kind

812
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:13,160
Speaker 1: of science cop. We've talked about science cops on a

813
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:18,000
Speaker 1: weird House before. He is a forensic investigator. We're later

814
00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:22,480
Speaker 1: told he works for the Scientific Investigation Division I suppose

815
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:25,200
Speaker 1: of the police, so it seems I think he's supposed

816
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:28,000
Speaker 1: to be a medical doctor at Core, but he works

817
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:32,480
Speaker 1: as a forensic investigator. So after Tina and Michelle leave,

818
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:37,239
Speaker 1: the funeral director is there alone with Gordon, and he explains,

819
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:39,800
Speaker 1: I worked very hard on that neck wound, trying to

820
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:41,800
Speaker 1: make it look as natural as I could so it

821
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:44,719
Speaker 1: wouldn't be offensive to his loved ones. The flesh was

822
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:47,560
Speaker 1: just torn right out in a big chunk. I've never

823
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:52,400
Speaker 1: seen a rat bite that size, and Gordon says rat bite.

824
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:55,320
Speaker 1: He wants to know how deep was the wound before

825
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:57,960
Speaker 1: it was repaired, and the funeral director says two or

826
00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:04,480
Speaker 1: three inches at least. Gordon his radars pinging. Something is

827
00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:08,160
Speaker 1: seeming off to him, and he's perplexed by what he sees.

828
00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:10,239
Speaker 1: So a rat bite in the neck two or three

829
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:14,040
Speaker 1: inches deep. He starts looking at other things about Bobby's body.

830
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 1: He notices that the body is drained of blood, even

831
00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:21,160
Speaker 1: though the funeral director says that no embalming has taken place.

832
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: Gordon points out that the veins collapse under pressure. Why

833
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 1: would he have been drained of blood? Gordon decides he

834
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:31,799
Speaker 1: wants to see the body of the other victim. But

835
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:36,279
Speaker 1: the other victim, Billy, is not at his funeral home.

836
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:38,919
Speaker 1: He was white and he was sent to a white

837
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:43,879
Speaker 1: funeral home, the funeral director tells us, So our investigator

838
00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 1: is now on the case. He can tell something weird

839
00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 1: is up. We cut to Michelle and Tina walking outside

840
00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:53,120
Speaker 1: the funeral parlor and they split up because Michelle is

841
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:56,239
Speaker 1: going to go visit Bobby's family. Tina is tired and

842
00:48:56,280 --> 00:48:59,200
Speaker 1: she wants to go straight home. And while walking alone

843
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:02,640
Speaker 1: on the sidewalk at night, Tina starts to become uneasy.

844
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:06,319
Speaker 1: Something doesn't feel right. She picks up the pace. She

845
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:10,240
Speaker 1: glances around nervously. Then suddenly she comes round a corner

846
00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:13,719
Speaker 1: and runs straight into Mamma Walde. And he's not in

847
00:49:13,840 --> 00:49:17,440
Speaker 1: vamp mode here, but he is in a full vampire costume,

848
00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:20,920
Speaker 1: which he pretty much always wears, so he's in his

849
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: dark suit. He's got the cravat, and he's got this

850
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:28,160
Speaker 1: trailing black cape and he addresses her hopefully at first,

851
00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:31,840
Speaker 1: saying luva, but Tina doesn't know what he's talking about.

852
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:34,640
Speaker 1: She tries to back away and he takes hold of her.

853
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,960
Speaker 1: He says, Luva, it's me, but she doesn't know him.

854
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:41,680
Speaker 1: She screams let go, and he does. She runs away

855
00:49:41,680 --> 00:49:44,239
Speaker 1: in a panic, and she drops her purse in a

856
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:48,520
Speaker 1: pedestrian underpass tunnel and Mema Walde follows and picks up

857
00:49:48,560 --> 00:49:51,279
Speaker 1: the pocketbook. He's still looking around for where she went

858
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:53,520
Speaker 1: when suddenly he is hit by a cab.

859
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:56,600
Speaker 3: I also want to just mention really quickly William Marshall

860
00:49:56,800 --> 00:49:59,680
Speaker 3: a very physically imposing actor as well. I think he

861
00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:03,440
Speaker 3: was like six five, so that's notable in all of

862
00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:05,960
Speaker 3: these scenes where he is either perceived as a threat

863
00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:08,560
Speaker 3: or is an active threat in vampire mode.

864
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 1: That's right, and he is about to change from pining

865
00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:15,759
Speaker 1: for his lost love to thirsting for blood because he

866
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:18,120
Speaker 1: was hit by a cab. The cab driver gets out,

867
00:50:18,160 --> 00:50:22,319
Speaker 1: and this is a character named Juanita. She is sort

868
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:25,719
Speaker 1: of vulgar and starts scolding Memo Walde, telling him that

869
00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:29,759
Speaker 1: chasing Tail could get him killed. Mema Walde is very frustrated.

870
00:50:29,800 --> 00:50:32,480
Speaker 1: He says, I lost her because of you, and they

871
00:50:32,520 --> 00:50:36,239
Speaker 1: trade insults and after she hurls some disrespected him. We

872
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:39,200
Speaker 1: suddenly see a change come over him. He needs blood

873
00:50:39,239 --> 00:50:43,279
Speaker 1: once again, and he transforms into vampire mode and bites her.

874
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:46,840
Speaker 1: Now later, Tina makes it back home. She has to

875
00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:49,240
Speaker 1: use a hidden spare key to get into her apartment

876
00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:51,439
Speaker 1: because she lost her purse in the tunnel and she's

877
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:55,800
Speaker 1: extremely rattled. Michelle comes home and Tina confesses what happened.

878
00:50:56,160 --> 00:51:00,720
Speaker 1: Michelle says, maniacs are running in the streets. And meanwhile,

879
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:03,800
Speaker 1: mim Waldey goes back to his coffin in the antique

880
00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:08,239
Speaker 1: warehouse dejected. He's broken by the fact that his louver

881
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:11,200
Speaker 1: ran away from him. Now, the next day we see

882
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:15,000
Speaker 1: Gordon Thomas on the case. The doctor is paying a

883
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:17,560
Speaker 1: visit to the city Morgue to check out the body

884
00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:21,279
Speaker 1: of a cab driver found dead the night before, and

885
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:24,560
Speaker 1: here we meet a minor character, Sam the morgue worker

886
00:51:24,640 --> 00:51:27,640
Speaker 1: played by Elisha Cook Junior, who is a character actor

887
00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:30,440
Speaker 1: you've probably seen in lots of stuff. In this movie,

888
00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:33,360
Speaker 1: he plays a surly mortician with a hook for a hand.

889
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:36,479
Speaker 3: Yeah. He lived nineteen oh three through nineteen ninety five,

890
00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:39,240
Speaker 3: probably best known for such films as The Maltese Falcon

891
00:51:39,520 --> 00:51:43,200
Speaker 3: the Killing House on Haunted Hill and Rosemary's Baby. I

892
00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:45,719
Speaker 3: found an image here for you Joe from nineteen forty

893
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:48,960
Speaker 3: four's Phantom Lady, in which he's pulling this shocked face

894
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:52,160
Speaker 3: that I'm pretty sure he pulls at least once in

895
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:53,400
Speaker 3: this movie.

896
00:51:53,560 --> 00:51:55,600
Speaker 1: It's his signature. Look, it's his blue steel.

897
00:51:56,600 --> 00:51:59,120
Speaker 3: He's like, oh, and then inevitably he's about to be

898
00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:02,000
Speaker 3: murdered or has discovered a murder, or is about to

899
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:02,800
Speaker 3: be killed by a monster.

900
00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:06,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, or in these movies from the forties and fifties,

901
00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:07,480
Speaker 1: he just saw a skeleton.

902
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:09,200
Speaker 3: Yeah.

903
00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:12,160
Speaker 1: So Sam leads Gordon inside. They pulled the victim out

904
00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:15,759
Speaker 1: of the freezer. Sam's just kind of like gabbin at him,

905
00:52:15,800 --> 00:52:18,080
Speaker 1: so Gordon has to get him to leave, leave him

906
00:52:18,080 --> 00:52:20,359
Speaker 1: alone so he can investigate. And what do you know,

907
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:24,359
Speaker 1: He finds bite marks on the victim's neck. This cab

908
00:52:24,440 --> 00:52:28,120
Speaker 1: driver was also bitten, just like Bobby. So we know

909
00:52:28,200 --> 00:52:30,920
Speaker 1: what he's thinking, and we see him reacting to his

910
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:33,919
Speaker 1: own thoughts. He laughs and says to himself, come on, now,

911
00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:38,399
Speaker 1: that's ridiculous. But he's still he has to pursue this lead.

912
00:52:38,480 --> 00:52:42,640
Speaker 1: So Gordon goes to consult with police lieutenant Jack Peters.

913
00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:46,960
Speaker 1: Gordon says he needs reports on the post mortem examinations

914
00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:50,279
Speaker 1: of both Bobby and Billy, the first two victims, but

915
00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:53,200
Speaker 1: the department bureaucracy is giving him the run around while

916
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:55,800
Speaker 1: he's been looking for these reports, and eventually they admit

917
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 1: that the reports seem to have been lost. They don't

918
00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:01,799
Speaker 1: know where they are, and Gordon says, strange, how many

919
00:53:01,800 --> 00:53:07,040
Speaker 1: sloppy police jobs involve black victims. Peters, who is a

920
00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:10,239
Speaker 1: white police commander, seems to suggest he's like, hey, what

921
00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:12,600
Speaker 1: if all these neck bite murders were caused by the

922
00:53:12,640 --> 00:53:16,360
Speaker 1: black panthers? Think about it? And Gordon is like, get real.

923
00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:20,720
Speaker 1: So Peters promises they will keep looking for the info

924
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:24,280
Speaker 1: that Gordon needs, and he puts a cop named Watson

925
00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:27,920
Speaker 1: on the job. Gordon explains that if they find the reports,

926
00:53:28,200 --> 00:53:30,799
Speaker 1: he'll need them brought by the club tonight because he's

927
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:33,160
Speaker 1: going to be at the club tonight with Michelle celebrating

928
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:36,040
Speaker 1: her birthday. Oh and we also see here Gordon wants

929
00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:38,600
Speaker 1: to do an autopsy on Bobby, so he calls the

930
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:41,000
Speaker 1: funeral home and says that he's going to send some

931
00:53:41,080 --> 00:53:52,240
Speaker 1: cops over after closing to collect the body. So next

932
00:53:52,239 --> 00:53:55,359
Speaker 1: comes the club scene, a scene that is great for

933
00:53:55,440 --> 00:53:59,480
Speaker 1: multiple reasons, one of which is the awesome performance by

934
00:53:59,520 --> 00:54:03,720
Speaker 1: the house banned the Hughes Corporation, who we already mentioned earlier.

935
00:54:04,440 --> 00:54:07,000
Speaker 1: But this is a full musical number. We get to

936
00:54:07,040 --> 00:54:11,200
Speaker 1: see the entire song, full band playing. There are three

937
00:54:11,600 --> 00:54:15,439
Speaker 1: lead singers like a singing ensemble in the group, and

938
00:54:15,880 --> 00:54:18,560
Speaker 1: they are awesome dancers. They each have their own like

939
00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:21,640
Speaker 1: solos and all that. The song is called There he

940
00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:25,120
Speaker 1: is again, and the Hughes Corporation just rocks. I thought

941
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:28,359
Speaker 1: the song was killer as we I think we said

942
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:30,640
Speaker 1: this earlier, but it sounds like the lyrics could be

943
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:34,759
Speaker 1: about the vampire in the film. So the lyrics are like,

944
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:37,600
Speaker 1: there he is again looking at me from across the street.

945
00:54:37,960 --> 00:54:40,440
Speaker 1: There he is again, making my heart skip another beat.

946
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:43,640
Speaker 1: There's some line in there, oh well. The chorus is

947
00:54:43,719 --> 00:54:46,279
Speaker 1: look the other way when he comes by you. There's

948
00:54:46,320 --> 00:54:48,239
Speaker 1: one part where they're talking about how they think he

949
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:51,080
Speaker 1: can read your mind. There's a line where he says,

950
00:54:51,160 --> 00:54:53,600
Speaker 1: I know he thinks I want his love so much.

951
00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 1: I love the levels of mental simulation in that.

952
00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:01,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is my favorite of the Corporation tracks. And

953
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:05,520
Speaker 3: if I haven't mentioned it already. The combined score and

954
00:55:05,640 --> 00:55:09,120
Speaker 3: soundtrack is widely available on music streaming platforms, so you

955
00:55:09,160 --> 00:55:11,000
Speaker 3: can definitely dip in and get a taste of this.

956
00:55:11,600 --> 00:55:13,640
Speaker 3: It originally came out on vinyl as well, but I

957
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:16,120
Speaker 3: don't think it's benefited from one of those awesome modern

958
00:55:16,239 --> 00:55:18,880
Speaker 3: vinyl restorations, which which seems like a missed opportunity.

959
00:55:19,239 --> 00:55:22,000
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is truly great stuff. It doesn't just

960
00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:24,080
Speaker 1: like work in the movie. I'd love to just put

961
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:29,040
Speaker 1: this on anytime. So anyway, Gordon, Michelle, and Tina are

962
00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:33,320
Speaker 1: at the club. They're celebrating Michelle's birthday and Mama Welde

963
00:55:33,480 --> 00:55:36,799
Speaker 1: arrives and at first it's like, oh no, But then

964
00:55:37,160 --> 00:55:41,719
Speaker 1: he meets with Tina and maybe she's a little apprehensive

965
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:45,040
Speaker 1: at first, but he very kindly returns the purse that

966
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:49,040
Speaker 1: she dropped the night before, and she rethinks her initial

967
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:53,800
Speaker 1: impression of him, and Tina then surprisingly invites Mama Welde

968
00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:57,360
Speaker 1: to join them at their table. And this is not

969
00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:01,840
Speaker 1: vamp mode Mama Welde, obviously, this is evening attire Mama

970
00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:05,320
Speaker 1: wall Day. He is super charming, at the absolute height

971
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:09,320
Speaker 1: of debonair sophistication. Now it's been kind of a running

972
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:13,360
Speaker 1: theme so far that Gordon, despite being our hero in

973
00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:17,040
Speaker 1: a way, he is somewhat brusque and anti social. He

974
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:20,719
Speaker 1: doesn't exactly play nice with people. He's not polite. The

975
00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:23,120
Speaker 1: more charitable way of putting this that is that I

976
00:56:23,160 --> 00:56:25,560
Speaker 1: think he's very like task oriented and most of the

977
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:27,120
Speaker 1: time he's all business.

978
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:30,240
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, and sometimes ruffles and feathers for sure.

979
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:35,279
Speaker 1: Yeah. But his sort of anti socialness comes through in

980
00:56:35,400 --> 00:56:38,680
Speaker 1: this scene as well, because Mama Walde sits down and

981
00:56:38,719 --> 00:56:42,359
Speaker 1: tries to order French champagne, and Gordon is like, that

982
00:56:42,400 --> 00:56:46,239
Speaker 1: won't be necessary, but then the ladies overrule him, so

983
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:47,800
Speaker 1: they do get the champagne service.

984
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:51,560
Speaker 3: Now. Side note, this is another scene in a film

985
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:55,000
Speaker 3: where they're sipping champagne from coop glasses, you know, from

986
00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 3: wide glasses as opposed to flutes. I really need to

987
00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:00,600
Speaker 3: dive into the history of a pro we're at glass

988
00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:03,560
Speaker 3: wear for Bubbley, because I've seen that. I feel like

989
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:05,760
Speaker 3: we've seen this in some films we've watched on Weird House.

990
00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:08,640
Speaker 3: In HBO's The Gilded Age, which is set in the

991
00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:11,200
Speaker 3: eighteen eighties, they're also drinking all their champagne out of

992
00:57:11,239 --> 00:57:13,960
Speaker 3: coop glasses or something very close to a coup glass,

993
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:18,600
Speaker 3: and I feel like I've always heard that that argument

994
00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:20,480
Speaker 3: was like, oh no, you want a narrow glass because

995
00:57:20,560 --> 00:57:22,880
Speaker 3: you know the way the bubbles form, and so forth.

996
00:57:24,080 --> 00:57:27,600
Speaker 1: I feel like coop blesses for Champagne have come in

997
00:57:27,680 --> 00:57:29,080
Speaker 1: and out of fashion over time.

998
00:57:29,600 --> 00:57:31,560
Speaker 3: It would seem to be. But my main area of

999
00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:34,800
Speaker 3: research on this is seeing it in movies that sometimes

1000
00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:36,040
Speaker 3: have vampires in themselves.

1001
00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:39,520
Speaker 1: I don't know well anyway. One interesting thing about the

1002
00:57:39,640 --> 00:57:42,960
Speaker 1: scene is that I had expected Mama Welde would be

1003
00:57:43,080 --> 00:57:48,400
Speaker 1: more coy about who he is and his relationship to Tina,

1004
00:57:48,440 --> 00:57:51,520
Speaker 1: but instead he comes right out and tells, Tina, you

1005
00:57:51,640 --> 00:57:54,600
Speaker 1: bear in You bear an amazing resemblance to my wife,

1006
00:57:54,680 --> 00:57:57,280
Speaker 1: whom I lost a short while ago. I loved her

1007
00:57:57,400 --> 00:58:00,080
Speaker 1: very much. When you left the mortuary, I had to fall.

1008
00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:04,000
Speaker 1: I didn't consider that I might frighten you so leading

1009
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:08,040
Speaker 1: with you look like my beloved dead wife. And just

1010
00:58:08,240 --> 00:58:10,880
Speaker 1: judging by the way she looks back at him, I

1011
00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:15,600
Speaker 1: think Tina is already over whatever apprehension she had previously.

1012
00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:16,600
Speaker 1: She is charmed.

1013
00:58:16,720 --> 00:58:19,600
Speaker 3: Now. Yeah, the film will stress this later, but it's

1014
00:58:19,640 --> 00:58:23,360
Speaker 3: definitely worth noting that she is charmed. But not bewitched.

1015
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:27,960
Speaker 3: We see either and perhaps sometimes both in different vampire movies.

1016
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:32,160
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes a Dracula figure or a vampire lord

1017
00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:35,960
Speaker 3: figure is definitely controlling people and overwhelming their senses. Other

1018
00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:38,200
Speaker 3: times it is more of a I guess, a pure

1019
00:58:38,280 --> 00:58:42,480
Speaker 3: charisma role. So, yeah, he is not controlling her, and

1020
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:45,840
Speaker 3: their connection across time would seem to be legitimate.

1021
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:50,439
Speaker 1: That's right, And she seems to imply in a later

1022
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:53,160
Speaker 1: scene that maybe she feels this is true as well.

1023
00:58:53,760 --> 00:58:55,280
Speaker 1: But I guess we'll get there in a few minutes.

1024
00:58:55,280 --> 00:58:57,720
Speaker 1: So first of all, there's a cutaway to the funeral

1025
00:58:57,760 --> 00:58:59,960
Speaker 1: home where we mentioned that the cops were going to

1026
00:59:00,080 --> 00:59:02,880
Speaker 1: go collect Bobby's body. But when they get there, they

1027
00:59:03,080 --> 00:59:05,080
Speaker 1: like throw open the lid to the coffin in the

1028
00:59:05,160 --> 00:59:08,760
Speaker 1: visitation room and the body is missing. Gordon gets a

1029
00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:11,840
Speaker 1: call at the club reporting this. He has to like

1030
00:59:11,880 --> 00:59:13,800
Speaker 1: go up to the bar and take a phone call,

1031
00:59:14,160 --> 00:59:16,240
Speaker 1: and then for some reason, when he comes back to

1032
00:59:16,320 --> 00:59:19,360
Speaker 1: the table for Michelle's birthday party, he shares the news

1033
00:59:19,400 --> 00:59:24,080
Speaker 1: that Bobby's body is missing, and Mama Walde says, perhaps

1034
00:59:24,080 --> 00:59:27,160
Speaker 1: he wasn't dead. At Gordon is like, what does that mean?

1035
00:59:27,240 --> 00:59:30,560
Speaker 1: He was dead? I examined him myself, and Mama we

1036
00:59:30,560 --> 00:59:33,680
Speaker 1: Alde says just a passing thought. But then we get

1037
00:59:33,680 --> 00:59:36,800
Speaker 1: the arrival of Skillet. This is the guy who keeps

1038
00:59:36,800 --> 00:59:41,000
Speaker 1: showing up to admire Mamaelde's cape and to say that

1039
00:59:41,040 --> 00:59:46,240
Speaker 1: he's strange. But Mama Walde is suddenly driven away from

1040
00:59:46,320 --> 00:59:50,360
Speaker 1: the table because a photographer comes by, and as soon

1041
00:59:50,400 --> 00:59:54,120
Speaker 1: as she snaps a photo of their table, Mamaulde stands

1042
00:59:54,200 --> 00:59:57,520
Speaker 1: up and abruptly excuses himself, saying that it has been

1043
00:59:57,520 --> 01:00:00,720
Speaker 1: a rare pleasure. Tina chases after him, and then near

1044
01:00:00,760 --> 01:00:02,960
Speaker 1: the door, she catches him to say that she wants

1045
01:00:02,960 --> 01:00:06,080
Speaker 1: to see him again, and they promised to meet again

1046
01:00:06,160 --> 01:00:10,400
Speaker 1: at the club the next night. But the photographer comes

1047
01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:12,560
Speaker 1: it barges in one more time and takes a picture

1048
01:00:12,600 --> 01:00:15,160
Speaker 1: of them a second time. This picture is just Mama

1049
01:00:15,200 --> 01:00:18,680
Speaker 1: well Day and Tina, and this drives Mama well De away.

1050
01:00:19,040 --> 01:00:22,240
Speaker 1: He seems alarmed at having his picture taken. So here

1051
01:00:22,280 --> 01:00:25,240
Speaker 1: I guess we should describe what appears to be the

1052
01:00:25,280 --> 01:00:28,840
Speaker 1: photographer's business model. Maybe this is a thing that used

1053
01:00:28,840 --> 01:00:31,080
Speaker 1: to happen. I don't know, but it seems what she

1054
01:00:31,840 --> 01:00:35,240
Speaker 1: goes around the club taking pictures of people, and then

1055
01:00:35,360 --> 01:00:37,960
Speaker 1: she has a house right next door to the club,

1056
01:00:38,320 --> 01:00:41,200
Speaker 1: and so she runs out of the club next door

1057
01:00:41,240 --> 01:00:44,840
Speaker 1: to her house, develops the photos and makes prints, and

1058
01:00:44,880 --> 01:00:47,560
Speaker 1: then brings the prince back to the club the same

1059
01:00:47,680 --> 01:00:49,640
Speaker 1: night and sells them to people. Is that how you

1060
01:00:49,720 --> 01:00:50,320
Speaker 1: understood it?

1061
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:52,520
Speaker 3: I think so, yeah. I feel like this might be

1062
01:00:52,560 --> 01:00:54,320
Speaker 3: something that would have been more clear to the audience

1063
01:00:54,360 --> 01:00:57,520
Speaker 3: of the time. And I know, based on conversations with

1064
01:00:57,880 --> 01:01:02,080
Speaker 3: my wife, who's a photographer, were you know, there were

1065
01:01:02,160 --> 01:01:04,400
Speaker 3: all sorts of practices kind of like this back in

1066
01:01:04,400 --> 01:01:06,840
Speaker 3: the day when you had to develop your film. There

1067
01:01:06,880 --> 01:01:09,200
Speaker 3: was one in particular that I remember hearing that involved

1068
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:11,160
Speaker 3: like a zipline, Like they had to like take the photo,

1069
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:13,640
Speaker 3: get the film, zipline it down to where it was

1070
01:01:13,680 --> 01:01:15,520
Speaker 3: going to be produced. So there are all sorts of

1071
01:01:15,560 --> 01:01:18,040
Speaker 3: things like that that had to occur given the limitations

1072
01:01:18,080 --> 01:01:21,240
Speaker 3: of film technology. Nowadays, you know, it's all digital and

1073
01:01:21,280 --> 01:01:23,520
Speaker 3: so you have an entirely different model and everything moves

1074
01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:24,120
Speaker 3: so much faster.

1075
01:01:24,680 --> 01:01:26,840
Speaker 1: The only other way I could understand this is if

1076
01:01:26,920 --> 01:01:29,520
Speaker 1: she's is if this is not her job and she's

1077
01:01:29,640 --> 01:01:32,880
Speaker 1: just like a hobbyist photographer and taking pictures of her

1078
01:01:32,880 --> 01:01:35,480
Speaker 1: friends and happens to live next door to the club.

1079
01:01:35,640 --> 01:01:36,200
Speaker 5: I don't know.

1080
01:01:36,640 --> 01:01:39,800
Speaker 3: How, but the real take home here is that it

1081
01:01:39,840 --> 01:01:42,600
Speaker 3: gives us an excuse for a dark room scene, which

1082
01:01:42,640 --> 01:01:44,280
Speaker 3: I absolutely love in my movies.

1083
01:01:44,440 --> 01:01:47,080
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is great. So she runs off next

1084
01:01:47,080 --> 01:01:49,880
Speaker 1: door to develop the photos, and here we get a

1085
01:01:49,920 --> 01:01:53,080
Speaker 1: vampire attack, and I think a very creepy one at that.

1086
01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:55,560
Speaker 1: So she's in her house, she puts on a record.

1087
01:01:55,760 --> 01:01:58,560
Speaker 1: Music is playing, but other than the music playing, it's

1088
01:01:58,680 --> 01:02:03,920
Speaker 1: very still inside, and she's developing the photos and she

1089
01:02:04,200 --> 01:02:07,680
Speaker 1: notices when looking at the negatives that Mama Walday is

1090
01:02:07,800 --> 01:02:10,760
Speaker 1: missing from the pictures she took. So it's just like Tina,

1091
01:02:11,160 --> 01:02:14,880
Speaker 1: they're embracing with no one. And then she peeks out

1092
01:02:14,920 --> 01:02:17,480
Speaker 1: through the curtains of her dark room and suddenly Mama

1093
01:02:17,520 --> 01:02:23,600
Speaker 1: Waldey's there in vampire mode, gliding frictionlessly directly toward her

1094
01:02:23,760 --> 01:02:26,560
Speaker 1: fangs showing. It's a really scary moment.

1095
01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:29,280
Speaker 3: Absolutely yeah, this is this is This is one of

1096
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:33,120
Speaker 3: two really good scares in the picture. This is probably

1097
01:02:33,200 --> 01:02:33,800
Speaker 3: my favorite.

1098
01:02:33,840 --> 01:02:36,440
Speaker 1: And in fact, this scene develops into a double scare.

1099
01:02:37,160 --> 01:02:39,800
Speaker 1: No pun intended on develops with the dark one, but

1100
01:02:40,240 --> 01:02:43,520
Speaker 1: it's a double scare because Shortly after this, a cop

1101
01:02:43,560 --> 01:02:46,560
Speaker 1: shows up, because remember Gordon was supposed to get those

1102
01:02:46,760 --> 01:02:49,800
Speaker 1: reports delivered to him at the club. So this cop

1103
01:02:49,880 --> 01:02:53,640
Speaker 1: named Barnes appears to deliver the reports and he's in

1104
01:02:53,720 --> 01:02:56,120
Speaker 1: the parking lot of the club and he sees at

1105
01:02:56,160 --> 01:02:58,720
Speaker 1: the house next door a woman stumbles out of the

1106
01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:00,800
Speaker 1: front door and she appears to be dying, so he

1107
01:03:00,880 --> 01:03:03,160
Speaker 1: goes to help her. But when he picks her up

1108
01:03:03,160 --> 01:03:07,160
Speaker 1: to carry her inside, fangs it's the photographer and she

1109
01:03:07,280 --> 01:03:11,960
Speaker 1: has changed rapidly, so in the the way the mythology,

1110
01:03:12,040 --> 01:03:14,920
Speaker 1: the vampire mythology works here, you can change and I

1111
01:03:14,960 --> 01:03:16,160
Speaker 1: don't know, it seems like minutes.

1112
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:18,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's very viral.

1113
01:03:18,880 --> 01:03:22,440
Speaker 1: So she vamps the cop and Gordon never gets his reports,

1114
01:03:23,160 --> 01:03:25,520
Speaker 1: and he tells Peters as much. The next day at

1115
01:03:25,560 --> 01:03:29,280
Speaker 1: the police station, Peters is mad about this. Gordon wants

1116
01:03:29,280 --> 01:03:32,840
Speaker 1: to get permission to dig up Billy Schaefer's grave to

1117
01:03:32,920 --> 01:03:35,920
Speaker 1: do an autopsy. Peters tries to get a permit for this,

1118
01:03:36,000 --> 01:03:38,560
Speaker 1: but he can't, so then, in a very funny turn,

1119
01:03:38,760 --> 01:03:42,280
Speaker 1: Gordon he explains to Michelle that they're just gonna have

1120
01:03:42,320 --> 01:03:45,480
Speaker 1: to go and illegally dig up Billy's body. Themselves that night,

1121
01:03:45,880 --> 01:03:48,600
Speaker 1: and Michelle is kind of resistant to this idea at first,

1122
01:03:48,640 --> 01:03:51,400
Speaker 1: but he likes sweet talks her into it. He basically

1123
01:03:52,160 --> 01:03:54,280
Speaker 1: he kisses her and he's like, come on, do it

1124
01:03:54,320 --> 01:03:56,080
Speaker 1: for me, and she's like, okay.

1125
01:03:56,080 --> 01:03:59,000
Speaker 3: Okay, Well we'll go violate the graveyard.

1126
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:02,560
Speaker 1: And so that night, while Gordon and Michelle are out

1127
01:04:02,600 --> 01:04:06,760
Speaker 1: digging up a grave, Mama Walde comes and visits Tina's apartment.

1128
01:04:07,200 --> 01:04:09,120
Speaker 1: He says he couldn't wait to see her and he

1129
01:04:09,200 --> 01:04:12,640
Speaker 1: needed to speak to her alone. They've been dying to

1130
01:04:12,680 --> 01:04:16,600
Speaker 1: see one another again, and Tina explains her complicated feelings.

1131
01:04:16,640 --> 01:04:19,520
Speaker 1: He frightens her, but also when he left the night before,

1132
01:04:19,600 --> 01:04:22,680
Speaker 1: she wanted to run after him. So he says he

1133
01:04:22,760 --> 01:04:25,360
Speaker 1: needs to speak to her about something and she asks,

1134
01:04:25,600 --> 01:04:28,720
Speaker 1: is it about your wife? And he says, you are

1135
01:04:28,840 --> 01:04:32,720
Speaker 1: my wife. She says that's impossible, Mama al Day and

1136
01:04:32,760 --> 01:04:35,920
Speaker 1: he says, and yet you believe it, and it seems

1137
01:04:35,920 --> 01:04:39,840
Speaker 1: like she does. She's a bit confused, but he explains

1138
01:04:40,240 --> 01:04:45,480
Speaker 1: as if she is Luva reincarnated. He explains who they are,

1139
01:04:46,280 --> 01:04:49,919
Speaker 1: that they come from the Abani people and were sent

1140
01:04:49,960 --> 01:04:53,160
Speaker 1: as diplomats to Europe to gain allies who would support

1141
01:04:53,360 --> 01:04:57,920
Speaker 1: their protest of the slave trade. And then Mama Walde says,

1142
01:04:58,000 --> 01:05:01,880
Speaker 1: on that mission, I myself was enslaved, my wife murdered,

1143
01:05:02,160 --> 01:05:04,560
Speaker 1: and I was placed under the curse of the Undead.

1144
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:09,800
Speaker 1: Our assassin was the vampire Count Dracula. Now Tina protests

1145
01:05:09,880 --> 01:05:12,880
Speaker 1: that Count Dracula is a myth, he wasn't real, but

1146
01:05:12,920 --> 01:05:16,480
Speaker 1: Mama Walde explains he was real. Quote as real as

1147
01:05:16,520 --> 01:05:19,280
Speaker 1: I am now, as real as you are, and as

1148
01:05:19,320 --> 01:05:23,120
Speaker 1: real as my need for you. You are my luva recreated.

1149
01:05:23,960 --> 01:05:26,320
Speaker 1: So she asks again what he wants, and he says

1150
01:05:26,400 --> 01:05:30,400
Speaker 1: that he wants her to rejoin him. And it's not

1151
01:05:30,440 --> 01:05:33,520
Speaker 1: spelled out exactly what that means, but it seems that's

1152
01:05:33,600 --> 01:05:38,440
Speaker 1: understood as join him in undeath. Now she seems torn.

1153
01:05:38,600 --> 01:05:41,960
Speaker 1: She wants to, but she's afraid. She says I can't,

1154
01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:44,720
Speaker 1: and then he says, you must come to me freely,

1155
01:05:44,760 --> 01:05:47,439
Speaker 1: with love or not at all. I will not take

1156
01:05:47,480 --> 01:05:50,560
Speaker 1: you by force, and I will not return. I have

1157
01:05:50,640 --> 01:05:54,040
Speaker 1: lived again to lose you twice, and he rises to leave.

1158
01:05:54,160 --> 01:05:56,360
Speaker 1: He goes to the door, but she stops him and

1159
01:05:56,440 --> 01:05:59,480
Speaker 1: asks him to stay. They embrace. It seems she does

1160
01:05:59,520 --> 01:06:01,920
Speaker 1: want to reach join him whatever the cost.

1161
01:06:02,480 --> 01:06:03,840
Speaker 3: It's a pointed scene.

1162
01:06:03,600 --> 01:06:06,320
Speaker 1: It is, and it's emotionally complex because you can see

1163
01:06:06,320 --> 01:06:09,200
Speaker 1: in his performance that when they embrace and kiss that

1164
01:06:09,640 --> 01:06:11,560
Speaker 1: it's not just that he loves her, it's not just

1165
01:06:11,640 --> 01:06:15,440
Speaker 1: that he desires her, but there is a feeling of relief,

1166
01:06:17,160 --> 01:06:21,400
Speaker 1: of like of a burden being lifted, and because, I guess,

1167
01:06:21,480 --> 01:06:25,680
Speaker 1: because he won't have to be like this alone. And

1168
01:06:25,840 --> 01:06:31,960
Speaker 1: so meanwhile Gordon and Gordon and Michelle are doing their

1169
01:06:32,040 --> 01:06:34,800
Speaker 1: grave digging. Gordon digs up Billy's grave in the middle

1170
01:06:34,800 --> 01:06:38,000
Speaker 1: of the night while Michelle holds a flashlight. They open

1171
01:06:38,080 --> 01:06:40,240
Speaker 1: the coffin and what do you know, Billy pops up

1172
01:06:40,280 --> 01:06:44,200
Speaker 1: a full vampire. He attacks Gordon. Gordon throws some really

1173
01:06:44,240 --> 01:06:47,120
Speaker 1: good punches some haymakers, beats him up with a shovel

1174
01:06:47,400 --> 01:06:51,160
Speaker 1: and stakes him. And now it seems Michelle and Gordon

1175
01:06:51,200 --> 01:06:55,120
Speaker 1: have both seen the proof. They are definitely dealing with vampires.

1176
01:06:55,640 --> 01:06:57,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no denying it now.

1177
01:06:57,440 --> 01:07:00,200
Speaker 1: And Michelle is like, oh, all those books you've been reading.

1178
01:07:00,200 --> 01:07:02,760
Speaker 1: Apparently Gordon has been doing a lot of vampire research.

1179
01:07:04,200 --> 01:07:08,400
Speaker 1: But Gordon quickly realizes that the other vampire victims will

1180
01:07:08,440 --> 01:07:12,680
Speaker 1: also rise from their slumber and attack, including the cab

1181
01:07:12,800 --> 01:07:16,440
Speaker 1: driver at the morgue, So he calls Sam from a

1182
01:07:16,480 --> 01:07:19,880
Speaker 1: payphone that Sam was what's his name? Elisha Cook Junior

1183
01:07:21,160 --> 01:07:24,040
Speaker 1: calls him from a payphone and tells him to take

1184
01:07:24,080 --> 01:07:26,480
Speaker 1: her body out of the freezer so he can come

1185
01:07:26,520 --> 01:07:29,960
Speaker 1: and perform an autopsy with Peters, but also to leave

1186
01:07:30,000 --> 01:07:32,560
Speaker 1: her in a locked room, lock the door, and stay away.

1187
01:07:33,080 --> 01:07:35,240
Speaker 1: And then Gordon goes to pick up Peters to show

1188
01:07:35,320 --> 01:07:38,240
Speaker 1: him the evidence of the vampire menace. What's going to happen?

1189
01:07:38,280 --> 01:07:42,080
Speaker 1: Of course, there is a vampire attack, So vampire Juanita

1190
01:07:42,800 --> 01:07:46,520
Speaker 1: rises from her frozen slumber to attack Sam.

1191
01:07:46,840 --> 01:07:49,680
Speaker 3: And this is another really well done vampire attack sequence.

1192
01:07:49,720 --> 01:07:53,080
Speaker 3: The music is really great. This is this is awesome.

1193
01:07:53,280 --> 01:07:57,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a creepy, unusual shot where the door opens

1194
01:07:57,120 --> 01:07:59,480
Speaker 1: and we see from Sam's perspective, he's like at the

1195
01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:03,280
Speaker 1: phone in the hall and she's running directly at the

1196
01:08:03,360 --> 01:08:07,800
Speaker 1: camera in slow motion, just eyes wild, fangs out.

1197
01:08:08,400 --> 01:08:11,120
Speaker 3: You can imagine this whole sequence playing really well in

1198
01:08:11,120 --> 01:08:13,800
Speaker 3: the theater too, because you get that moment where he

1199
01:08:13,920 --> 01:08:16,880
Speaker 3: almost he has the keys out right, He's almost gonna

1200
01:08:16,920 --> 01:08:19,479
Speaker 3: do it. He's almost gonna gonna lock the body in

1201
01:08:19,479 --> 01:08:21,679
Speaker 3: the room, but then the phone rings. So yeah, it's

1202
01:08:21,720 --> 01:08:24,599
Speaker 3: like you can imagine like the energy in the theater.

1203
01:08:25,000 --> 01:08:29,320
Speaker 1: Right, No, no, no, So back at Tina's apartment, we

1204
01:08:29,360 --> 01:08:32,080
Speaker 1: see Tina and Mama weel day in bed and she

1205
01:08:32,360 --> 01:08:35,680
Speaker 1: expresses a desire to join him, but he says that

1206
01:08:35,760 --> 01:08:38,679
Speaker 1: can wait now. He has to leave before daylight because

1207
01:08:38,760 --> 01:08:41,760
Speaker 1: daylight would be fatal to him, and she tells him

1208
01:08:41,760 --> 01:08:45,160
Speaker 1: that she loves him. Gordon and Peters arrive at the

1209
01:08:45,200 --> 01:08:48,040
Speaker 1: morgue and they are attacked by the vampire. But Gordon,

1210
01:08:48,360 --> 01:08:50,479
Speaker 1: he's got the he knows what to do now. He

1211
01:08:50,600 --> 01:08:54,600
Speaker 1: subdues the vampire with a big, chunky silver cross. I

1212
01:08:54,720 --> 01:08:56,880
Speaker 1: like this cross. It looks really substantial.

1213
01:08:57,479 --> 01:09:00,160
Speaker 3: It's really huge, like as it's not one that you

1214
01:09:00,160 --> 01:09:02,240
Speaker 3: would normally just carry on your person, and it would

1215
01:09:02,280 --> 01:09:05,639
Speaker 3: look ridiculous on like a chain around your neck. I'm

1216
01:09:05,680 --> 01:09:06,439
Speaker 3: not sure where you got this.

1217
01:09:06,760 --> 01:09:13,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Gordon explains to Peters that vampires multiply geometrically.

1218
01:09:13,600 --> 01:09:16,280
Speaker 1: He's done the math. They have to stop this fast,

1219
01:09:16,439 --> 01:09:19,599
Speaker 1: so they put out an APB to look for dead

1220
01:09:19,600 --> 01:09:22,640
Speaker 1: people who have gone missing, like Bobby, and then we

1221
01:09:22,680 --> 01:09:24,920
Speaker 1: get another club scene. I guess it's the next night

1222
01:09:25,080 --> 01:09:27,479
Speaker 1: and they're at the club again. The Hues Corporation is

1223
01:09:27,479 --> 01:09:31,679
Speaker 1: playing again. It's another jam and Gordon, Michelle, and Tina

1224
01:09:31,720 --> 01:09:34,880
Speaker 1: are sitting around at a table and Mama Welde joins

1225
01:09:34,920 --> 01:09:39,880
Speaker 1: them once again. He cheekily orders a bloody Mary and

1226
01:09:39,920 --> 01:09:42,960
Speaker 1: then Gordon is like, hey, Mama Weldey, can maybe you

1227
01:09:43,000 --> 01:09:46,719
Speaker 1: can help me? Are you into the occult? It seems

1228
01:09:46,800 --> 01:09:49,120
Speaker 1: kind of out of nowhere, but I think maybe it

1229
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:51,559
Speaker 1: means like he's asking him because he wears the cape,

1230
01:09:51,640 --> 01:09:53,919
Speaker 1: so he, you know, looks like a vampire.

1231
01:09:53,960 --> 01:09:56,759
Speaker 3: I guess because of the I and the follow up question,

1232
01:09:56,840 --> 01:09:58,040
Speaker 3: how about the heavy stuff?

1233
01:09:58,760 --> 01:10:02,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly which craft all that? And this is so

1234
01:10:02,920 --> 01:10:05,240
Speaker 1: it turns into a general quiz on the subject of

1235
01:10:05,280 --> 01:10:08,720
Speaker 1: the occult, vampires and the devil, and Mama all Day

1236
01:10:08,920 --> 01:10:11,800
Speaker 1: is like, oh, yeah, vampires are the most interesting of

1237
01:10:11,840 --> 01:10:16,599
Speaker 1: all that stuff. We get another visit from Skillet and

1238
01:10:16,680 --> 01:10:19,960
Speaker 1: when he arrives, mamualde leaves and takes Tina with him.

1239
01:10:20,840 --> 01:10:25,080
Speaker 1: More talk about how he wants the cape. But there's

1240
01:10:25,080 --> 01:10:27,640
Speaker 1: a little tip off here. What happened to the photographer

1241
01:10:27,640 --> 01:10:30,120
Speaker 1: who was here the night before or I guess two

1242
01:10:30,240 --> 01:10:34,000
Speaker 1: nights before. Maybe Gordon decides to investigate. He goes next

1243
01:10:34,000 --> 01:10:37,760
Speaker 1: door to her house and there he finds the photos

1244
01:10:37,840 --> 01:10:42,680
Speaker 1: where Mamaualday is missing. Gordon realizes that he is the

1245
01:10:42,760 --> 01:10:45,920
Speaker 1: vampire he's been looking for, and of course this makes

1246
01:10:45,960 --> 01:10:48,320
Speaker 1: him worried for Tina, who just went home with him,

1247
01:10:48,680 --> 01:10:52,160
Speaker 1: so Gordon and Michelle rushed to Tina's apartment to rescue her.

1248
01:10:52,360 --> 01:10:55,840
Speaker 1: They bust in. Gordon and Mama Alde fight and Mama

1249
01:10:55,920 --> 01:10:58,839
Speaker 1: Alde runs off, and the police arrive on the scene,

1250
01:10:59,360 --> 01:11:02,040
Speaker 1: and then there's like chase. The people are running around

1251
01:11:02,040 --> 01:11:05,200
Speaker 1: through alleyways trying to find the vampire, and then he

1252
01:11:05,240 --> 01:11:09,200
Speaker 1: finally appears. He gets one cop isolated and he appears

1253
01:11:09,240 --> 01:11:13,439
Speaker 1: in vampire mode and kills the cop. So now Gordon

1254
01:11:13,520 --> 01:11:16,360
Speaker 1: and Peters know who the King Vampire is, but they

1255
01:11:16,360 --> 01:11:20,280
Speaker 1: don't know where he is, so they begin an investigation

1256
01:11:20,400 --> 01:11:25,760
Speaker 1: to find his coffin because, in accordance with standard lore,

1257
01:11:26,160 --> 01:11:28,759
Speaker 1: the way you can destroy him is to destroy his coffin,

1258
01:11:28,840 --> 01:11:30,040
Speaker 1: destroy his resting place.

1259
01:11:30,760 --> 01:11:32,880
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, especially I hunt him out during the day.

1260
01:11:33,280 --> 01:11:34,960
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I guess that's the other way is find

1261
01:11:35,040 --> 01:11:37,200
Speaker 1: him during the day and stake him while he's sleeping.

1262
01:11:38,360 --> 01:11:40,320
Speaker 1: So from here on out, the film becomes a lot

1263
01:11:40,360 --> 01:11:44,120
Speaker 1: more action oriented. Like there's a scene where they find

1264
01:11:44,360 --> 01:11:47,560
Speaker 1: vampire Bobby and trace him back to the antique warehouse,

1265
01:11:47,920 --> 01:11:50,439
Speaker 1: and there's like a raid on the vampire nest there

1266
01:11:50,439 --> 01:11:53,799
Speaker 1: at the warehouse, and there's a big fight with Gordon

1267
01:11:53,880 --> 01:11:58,200
Speaker 1: and the other police getting ambushed by vampires and in

1268
01:11:58,280 --> 01:12:00,800
Speaker 1: the sort of maze of crates and bobs boxes and

1269
01:12:00,840 --> 01:12:04,120
Speaker 1: they end up throwing these oil lanterns to fight them off.

1270
01:12:04,160 --> 01:12:06,320
Speaker 1: There are a bunch of like a person in a

1271
01:12:06,360 --> 01:12:09,880
Speaker 1: fire suit stunts. Oh yeah, there's a scary moment where

1272
01:12:10,000 --> 01:12:12,160
Speaker 1: you remember the cop Barns who went to help the

1273
01:12:12,200 --> 01:12:15,120
Speaker 1: photographer at her house. He of course we saw it

1274
01:12:15,160 --> 01:12:18,200
Speaker 1: in Bitten, but he's like one of their investigating party,

1275
01:12:18,240 --> 01:12:20,639
Speaker 1: and of course he turns on them. At the end

1276
01:12:20,680 --> 01:12:23,960
Speaker 1: of this fight, Mama Walde appears and then escapes in

1277
01:12:24,080 --> 01:12:26,200
Speaker 1: bat form by transforming into a bat.

1278
01:12:26,560 --> 01:12:30,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course this is a classic bit, right, vampire

1279
01:12:30,400 --> 01:12:33,479
Speaker 3: transforms into a bat. But from an effects standpoint, it's

1280
01:12:33,600 --> 01:12:37,040
Speaker 3: kind of a daring vampire movie trope to include, because

1281
01:12:37,200 --> 01:12:41,120
Speaker 3: I think we've all seen examples of it that look

1282
01:12:41,160 --> 01:12:43,400
Speaker 3: a bit silly, right, you know, you can imagine like

1283
01:12:43,439 --> 01:12:46,519
Speaker 3: here's here's a human poof of smoke, and then a

1284
01:12:46,520 --> 01:12:47,719
Speaker 3: floppy bat on a string.

1285
01:12:47,840 --> 01:12:50,599
Speaker 1: Right, it almost always looks silly. I'm trying to think

1286
01:12:50,600 --> 01:12:53,200
Speaker 1: of a movie where the transformation into a bat does

1287
01:12:53,240 --> 01:12:54,800
Speaker 1: not look silly.

1288
01:12:55,960 --> 01:12:58,800
Speaker 3: And you know, maybe I'm being super generous here because

1289
01:12:58,800 --> 01:13:00,479
Speaker 3: I like so many other things about the picture, but

1290
01:13:00,720 --> 01:13:03,600
Speaker 3: I thought this one looked reasonably good considering what the

1291
01:13:03,640 --> 01:13:04,200
Speaker 3: effect is.

1292
01:13:04,439 --> 01:13:06,200
Speaker 1: This is one of the better ones. I like it.

1293
01:13:06,640 --> 01:13:09,240
Speaker 1: But anyway, this all leads up to a big final

1294
01:13:09,320 --> 01:13:13,320
Speaker 1: showdown a set piece at a chemical factory, which is

1295
01:13:13,400 --> 01:13:18,280
Speaker 1: where Mamaelde's coffin is stored now, so he Mamaelde takes

1296
01:13:18,320 --> 01:13:23,120
Speaker 1: Tina there and the police give chase. And then tragically,

1297
01:13:23,200 --> 01:13:26,559
Speaker 1: while the police are running around in this place looking

1298
01:13:26,560 --> 01:13:30,000
Speaker 1: through them through these like mazes of pipes and you know,

1299
01:13:30,080 --> 01:13:33,120
Speaker 1: chemical tanks and things, they see the two of them,

1300
01:13:33,320 --> 01:13:37,200
Speaker 1: and then a cop shoots at them and Tina is killed.

1301
01:13:38,360 --> 01:13:42,400
Speaker 1: Horrible tragedy Tina. And then of course Mama Weelde turns

1302
01:13:42,439 --> 01:13:45,280
Speaker 1: Tina into a vampire because at that point it's the

1303
01:13:45,320 --> 01:13:48,000
Speaker 1: only way to save her. But he is now of

1304
01:13:48,040 --> 01:13:52,240
Speaker 1: course furious, and he he yells at the at all

1305
01:13:52,280 --> 01:13:54,960
Speaker 1: of their pursuers through and it like sort of echoes

1306
01:13:55,040 --> 01:13:59,519
Speaker 1: throughout the entire building. Is sort of a curse of vengeance.

1307
01:13:59,560 --> 01:14:02,800
Speaker 1: He says, this will be your inglorious tomb.

1308
01:14:03,000 --> 01:14:06,439
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then follows it up with your tomb, your tomb,

1309
01:14:06,800 --> 01:14:10,240
Speaker 3: your tomb. And I have to say this bit just

1310
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:13,200
Speaker 3: keeps playing through my mind because on one hand, just

1311
01:14:13,200 --> 01:14:15,519
Speaker 3: an absolutely great moment in the film that drives home

1312
01:14:15,600 --> 01:14:19,120
Speaker 3: just the vengeful power of vampire Prince Mama Walde. You know,

1313
01:14:19,360 --> 01:14:22,840
Speaker 3: his enemies here are clearly doomed. They have crossed the line.

1314
01:14:23,320 --> 01:14:25,559
Speaker 3: But it's also one of those bits of dialogue that

1315
01:14:25,680 --> 01:14:29,040
Speaker 3: on paper or coming from a lesser actor, it might

1316
01:14:29,040 --> 01:14:31,080
Speaker 3: have come off a bit silly, a bit fake, but

1317
01:14:31,640 --> 01:14:35,120
Speaker 3: Marshall absolutely imbues it here with Shakespearean power.

1318
01:14:35,479 --> 01:14:38,960
Speaker 1: It's strong. You can feel his rage. And then it

1319
01:14:39,080 --> 01:14:44,760
Speaker 1: becomes even worse because so he turns Tina into a

1320
01:14:44,840 --> 01:14:47,400
Speaker 1: vampire because it's the only way to save her at

1321
01:14:47,400 --> 01:14:52,280
Speaker 1: this point. And then Gordon and Peters come across the

1322
01:14:52,360 --> 01:14:55,400
Speaker 1: vampire's coffin. They think they've discovered his coffin and they're

1323
01:14:55,439 --> 01:14:58,439
Speaker 1: going to stake him to end this. They rip the

1324
01:14:58,439 --> 01:15:02,400
Speaker 1: lid off, throw the stake down and then they realize

1325
01:15:02,439 --> 01:15:06,920
Speaker 1: they have staked Tina by accident. I guess they would

1326
01:15:06,960 --> 01:15:08,960
Speaker 1: have had to stake her either way because she is

1327
01:15:09,000 --> 01:15:12,400
Speaker 1: a vampire now. But yeah, it wasn't what they were

1328
01:15:12,439 --> 01:15:13,280
Speaker 1: intending to do.

1329
01:15:13,800 --> 01:15:17,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, but at this point, Mamalalde shows up. He sees this,

1330
01:15:17,680 --> 01:15:20,519
Speaker 3: and this takes the fight out of him, you know,

1331
01:15:20,520 --> 01:15:22,680
Speaker 3: because this was his whole reason for being, and he

1332
01:15:23,000 --> 01:15:26,080
Speaker 3: says as much. There's this great moment where Gordon reaches

1333
01:15:26,120 --> 01:15:29,240
Speaker 3: in to get that big chunky cross out of his jacket,

1334
01:15:30,000 --> 01:15:32,599
Speaker 3: you know, like he's pulling a gun or something, and

1335
01:15:32,680 --> 01:15:34,920
Speaker 3: Mamalde says that won't be necessary.

1336
01:15:35,600 --> 01:15:38,519
Speaker 1: Right. It's an incredibly sad turn. You could see he's

1337
01:15:38,560 --> 01:15:42,800
Speaker 1: just given up now and with his love gone, he

1338
01:15:42,920 --> 01:15:48,280
Speaker 1: surrenders himself to his ultimate fate and decides that he's

1339
01:15:48,360 --> 01:15:51,160
Speaker 1: going to walk out into the daylight, which he does.

1340
01:15:51,240 --> 01:15:53,679
Speaker 1: He like struggles, you can see the pain in him,

1341
01:15:54,080 --> 01:15:56,240
Speaker 1: but he walks up the staircase under the roof of

1342
01:15:56,280 --> 01:15:59,919
Speaker 1: the building and bathes himself in sunlight, and then Collapse

1343
01:16:00,160 --> 01:16:03,519
Speaker 1: is dead. And then we see like his skin rots

1344
01:16:03,560 --> 01:16:07,639
Speaker 1: away and turns to worms, and it's a very bleak

1345
01:16:07,680 --> 01:16:10,840
Speaker 1: and tragic ending. There's not really anything. There's not really

1346
01:16:10,880 --> 01:16:13,920
Speaker 1: anything happy to redeem it that comes back. You just

1347
01:16:14,200 --> 01:16:19,680
Speaker 1: end on this moment of absolute loss, and yeah, I

1348
01:16:19,680 --> 01:16:21,439
Speaker 1: don't know what to say about that. It's one of

1349
01:16:21,479 --> 01:16:23,080
Speaker 1: the bleakest endings I can think of.

1350
01:16:23,640 --> 01:16:25,679
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want it any other way.

1351
01:16:25,800 --> 01:16:28,360
Speaker 3: You could imagine cuts of the film where you could

1352
01:16:28,400 --> 01:16:30,240
Speaker 3: have had something different, like, you know, the sort of

1353
01:16:30,280 --> 01:16:34,280
Speaker 3: like police chummy chummy having that moment where they're like, hey, well,

1354
01:16:34,280 --> 01:16:36,280
Speaker 3: well at least we stop the vampires. It's sad, but

1355
01:16:37,160 --> 01:16:39,720
Speaker 3: the good guy's won. Or you could have gone in an

1356
01:16:39,840 --> 01:16:42,240
Speaker 3: entirely different direction. It also wouldn't be out of keeping

1357
01:16:42,280 --> 01:16:43,880
Speaker 3: with other films and just just cut back to the

1358
01:16:43,960 --> 01:16:47,080
Speaker 3: Hughes Corporation doing another number, you know, and just sort

1359
01:16:47,080 --> 01:16:50,600
Speaker 3: of almost like insisting on a change of pace. But

1360
01:16:51,040 --> 01:16:53,080
Speaker 3: they stick to the ending here, and the last thing

1361
01:16:53,120 --> 01:16:56,320
Speaker 3: we see is the skull of Mamma Walde. Now a

1362
01:16:56,400 --> 01:16:58,800
Speaker 3: quick note about the fate of Mama Walde. Here in

1363
01:16:58,840 --> 01:17:02,519
Speaker 3: the film, the main hoster for Blacula features an image

1364
01:17:02,560 --> 01:17:06,200
Speaker 3: of him being staked, an image that appears to be

1365
01:17:06,439 --> 01:17:09,200
Speaker 3: very manipulated, like it's not I don't think it's a

1366
01:17:09,200 --> 01:17:12,960
Speaker 3: shot from the film, And this, of course is dumb,

1367
01:17:13,000 --> 01:17:15,200
Speaker 3: but in line with plenty of other vampire movies and

1368
01:17:15,240 --> 01:17:18,759
Speaker 3: trailers that show the movie's main vampire being staked.

1369
01:17:20,680 --> 01:17:23,080
Speaker 1: If that were true, it would seem to be a spoiler.

1370
01:17:23,560 --> 01:17:25,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, but again, it wouldn't be out of line with

1371
01:17:26,000 --> 01:17:27,960
Speaker 3: marketing for other vampire films.

1372
01:17:28,360 --> 01:17:30,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's not even true. In this case. He

1373
01:17:30,640 --> 01:17:33,920
Speaker 1: does not get staked. He just surrenders himself to death

1374
01:17:33,960 --> 01:17:34,519
Speaker 1: by the sun.

1375
01:17:35,200 --> 01:17:37,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it makes me wonder, Like was just like,

1376
01:17:37,720 --> 01:17:40,519
Speaker 3: I'm wonder of what stage in production the poster was

1377
01:17:40,560 --> 01:17:43,400
Speaker 3: made and maybe at one point he was the character

1378
01:17:43,520 --> 01:17:47,120
Speaker 3: was going to be staked, and William Marshall was like, no,

1379
01:17:47,240 --> 01:17:49,680
Speaker 3: that's not going to work for me. And if that's

1380
01:17:49,680 --> 01:17:51,800
Speaker 3: the case, I applaud him for sticking to his guns

1381
01:17:51,800 --> 01:17:53,639
Speaker 3: and going and pushing for this ending.

1382
01:17:54,160 --> 01:17:58,280
Speaker 1: So I guess that's Blacula. A really good tragic romance

1383
01:17:58,320 --> 01:17:59,760
Speaker 1: and a really good horror movie too.

1384
01:18:00,200 --> 01:18:03,920
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, I was really impressed with it on the whole. So,

1385
01:18:04,720 --> 01:18:06,720
Speaker 3: as always, we'd love to hear from folks out there

1386
01:18:06,720 --> 01:18:10,160
Speaker 3: if y'all have any thoughts on the film, any memories

1387
01:18:10,200 --> 01:18:14,000
Speaker 3: of seeing it originally for the first time, or revisiting it,

1388
01:18:14,080 --> 01:18:18,240
Speaker 3: and so forth. Everything is fair game. Just want to

1389
01:18:18,240 --> 01:18:20,880
Speaker 3: remind everybody that's stuff to blow your mind. Is primarily

1390
01:18:20,960 --> 01:18:24,720
Speaker 3: a science podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

1391
01:18:24,920 --> 01:18:26,800
Speaker 3: We do a listener mail episode. On Mondays, we do

1392
01:18:26,840 --> 01:18:29,280
Speaker 3: a short form episode on Wednesdays, and on Fridays we

1393
01:18:29,320 --> 01:18:31,400
Speaker 3: set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a

1394
01:18:31,400 --> 01:18:34,040
Speaker 3: weird movie on weird House Cinema. If you want to

1395
01:18:34,040 --> 01:18:37,280
Speaker 3: see a complete list with thumbnails or posters of all

1396
01:18:37,280 --> 01:18:40,280
Speaker 3: the movies we've considered so far on weird House Cinema, well,

1397
01:18:40,280 --> 01:18:42,120
Speaker 3: you can go over to letterbox dot com. It's l

1398
01:18:42,120 --> 01:18:44,720
Speaker 3: E T T e r box d dot com. Our

1399
01:18:44,800 --> 01:18:47,320
Speaker 3: username is weird house. We have a fabulous list there.

1400
01:18:47,320 --> 01:18:49,160
Speaker 3: You can see everything we've done. Sometimes there's a peak

1401
01:18:49,160 --> 01:18:52,559
Speaker 3: ahead at what's coming next, and you can sort by genre. Now,

1402
01:18:52,600 --> 01:18:54,439
Speaker 3: I don't think you can go so specific as to

1403
01:18:54,520 --> 01:18:58,080
Speaker 3: just say, show me only the vampire movies, but you

1404
01:18:58,120 --> 01:19:00,519
Speaker 3: know you could. You can set it to are and

1405
01:19:00,560 --> 01:19:03,080
Speaker 3: then figure it out on your own. I don't know

1406
01:19:03,120 --> 01:19:05,160
Speaker 3: how many vampire movies we've done at this point, but

1407
01:19:06,040 --> 01:19:08,439
Speaker 3: we've done a few and we'll do a few more.

1408
01:19:08,479 --> 01:19:08,920
Speaker 3: I'm sure.

1409
01:19:09,200 --> 01:19:13,200
Speaker 1: Here's thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

1410
01:19:13,360 --> 01:19:14,920
Speaker 1: If you would like to get in touch with us

1411
01:19:15,000 --> 01:19:17,759
Speaker 1: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1412
01:19:17,760 --> 01:19:19,840
Speaker 1: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1413
01:19:19,960 --> 01:19:22,559
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1414
01:19:22,600 --> 01:19:30,599
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com.

1415
01:19:30,760 --> 01:19:33,680
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1416
01:19:33,760 --> 01:19:36,559
Speaker 2: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1417
01:19:36,720 --> 01:19:40,080
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.