Friday, May 29, 2015

Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (Freddie Francis, 1968)



How do you set about fighting vampires if you happen to be an atheist? That's the central dilemma of this fourth film in Hammer's Dracula franchise. It's an oddly gentle movie for standard vampiric fright fare. Oh, you get your bloodlettings and wanton cruelty (it does star Christopher lee, after all), yet when it's all over the lingering impression is of an idealistic good nature, almost a gee-whizness concerning the good will between rival systems of belief. The world could use more of that.

The dilemma above is faced by Paul, a forthright young man in love with the niece of a disapproving Monsignor. Paul is an atheist, and when the Monsignor tells him he admires honesty Paul makes the mistake of telling the truth about his convictions. It causes a schism between everyone at just the wrong moment, as the Monsignor has unwittingly gotten on the bad side of the newly resurrected Dracula. For revenge Dracula targets the Monsignor's niece, Maria., as his next conquest.



There are a few of things that are slightly off about Dracula Has Risen, and Paul is one of them. He's a nice guy, sure enough, highly personable and no character flaws. He's an earnest and forthright fellow, wishing offense to no one but eager for “Truth”, which he seeks in books. It's his upbeat persona and interactions that give the movie a G-rated feel in spite of the violence involved (bizarrely, the movie has even been granted a G rating by the MPAA). Paul seems displaced in tone and also in time. He and his drinking buddies come of as anachronistic in their manners and ideals (and their hairstyles...) DHRFtG was made to appeal directly to the youth audience at a time of spreading protest among college students - 1967 had seen protests against the Vietnam War, and within months of Risen's release in February '68 those youth protests would spread worldwide to become the “Year of Barricades”. It was a generational conflict, youth shaking up and shaking off the institutions of their elders.

Yet Dracula Has Risen is not an angry film, far from it. The generational conflict is represented here as that of atheist Paul and the film's most learned man, the Monsignor – who rejects Paul the moment he learns of Paul's convictions. To this point in the film the Monsignor has been shown to be a somewhat affable man but one who will bully and coerce to enforce his views. A visit to the discussion boards on IMDb brings up conversations in which people see his hostility to Paul as a sour surprise. Actually, though, it isn't nearly negative enough to be accurate to the period – another anachronism, the entire community shows the film's Paul far more tolerance than a real-life counterpart would have met. In reality Paul would have been a scandal regardless what a swell guy he was.

Even so, Paul really is presented as scrubbed so clean he's nearly glowing pink. Don't alienate the core audience! His character never hints of anger or rebellion, not even at odds with society at large. Paul's boss loves the boy, Maria's mother asks him to leave only our of deference to the Monsignor who cares for the family but is clearly pained to do so. Paul's friends are as inoffensive as he is, with the possible exception of the barmaid who chafes a little resentfully at romantic boundaries. Essentially: what conflict? The world's a happy get-along place! If DHRFtG is taking pains to be a part of the movement and not just being opportunistic, then it's the voice urging calm and understanding amidst passions. We can work together. 



So how does Dracula fit into this? Erm – well, yeah. Exactly. I mean, the movie isn't thematically deep, the subtexts are there but they float on the surface like oil, never quite convincing that they are organic to the whole. Dracula is the catalyst for reconciliations. Furthering both the faith angle and the message of cooperation, Dracula has taken as his servant a fallen priest suffering a crisis of faith and conscience. Contrast this with his direct opponent, the Monsignor who must rely upon a disbeliever to defeat evil. If the movie is ultimately a little unsatisfying in resolving these themes, it's still full of tantalizing little provocations.

Not the film is all hope and joy: Christopher Lee is back as wild as ever. I don't recall seeing look quite so cadaverous before – not Lee himself but the makeup, which has taken a more sallow hue. Nothing dead about his performance, though, he's even vicious to the horses that take his carriage. The only thing that can stop him flat is the flavorless dialog he's given. Honestly, the actor is a lot happier when his vampire is snarling.

Freddie Francis replaces Terence Fisher as director, and he does a fine job of keeping things lively if tonally awkward (e.g. there's a bit of business with a porcelain doll pushed off a bed by one of Dracula's victims – succinct but unsubtle). Early in the movie I was concerned that the look of the picture would be a bit dull, as the natural lighting threatened to undo any atmospherics with the Count's castle, or it's surroundings, or with a profaned church where a bit of grue is discovered, but Francis has a new trick up his sleeve. Whenever Dracula appears on screen he's shot with a filter that goes deep amber in a halo around the center of the screen. The effect is that of a miasma of sickness or evil surrounding the count. Or even more, perhaps, late in the movie I was struck by the way the yellow seen in a fireplace matched the filtered shots, and how it reflects the religious bent of the movie – perhaps the yellow filter suggests the suffocating nearness of hell itself. Not inapt, as Dracula has already been conflated with the Prince of Darkness if only by title. As the movie progresses its lighting becomes more and more dreamlike with colors intensifying, mostly by an increasing use of gels.





Adding to the sense of surreality are some anomalies. In the city of Kleinenberg, where Dracula tracks down the Monsignor, our principle characters have a habit of getting around by rooftop rather than by street. By the end of the movie all of the characters are traversing the roofs. It's absurd, but it has an endearing dream logic to it. Similarly the cellar of the inn where Dracula secretly takes up residence is ridiculously extensive for a meager establishment with a cramped bar and closetlike rooms. The guests and servants can hardly get around upstairs but down below are more spacious work and storage areas that include a spooky Gothic structure that must be well out from under the building. It could have no possible function except as an invitation to furtive evil monsters. Personally, I find the dreamlike aspects of Dracula has Risen are ultimately the most endearing thing about it.



No comments:

Post a Comment