R-r-r-aving about things with "R" .. - attending a meme without a name..

Via DKoren and her fabulous blog SIDEWALK CROSSINGS I found this meme.. (Her post is linked - so you can read about her favourite things beginning with the letter "M".. - I also think this is part of the rules - though it isn't actually said there..) 

Here are the rules:

"How to Play: Comment to this entry and I'll give you a letter. List ten things that you love that begin with that letter and then post that list on your journal."

Now this sounds like fun - doesn't it?

The letter I got was "R" - hence the title of this post.. Though it's no part of the rules I am trying to name ten "things" I love beginning with "r" which are related to films..

~ picture source: muppet.wikia.com ~

So - let's see - here they are in a random order just the first ten "things" with "r" that I can think of:

• R like Raft, George - I am more than just fond of this gentleman.. He is one of my altime favourites..

• R like RAVEN, THE (1963) - well.. of course I LOVE that one!! It has Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Hazel Court and Boris Karloff!! I am looking forward for THE RAVEN (2012) - a film about Edgar Allan Poe (Love him!!) which will be here released in cinema this year in September - I guess everywhere else it's by now almost forgotten.. 
  
  
  Of course I love the poem of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe:

  - and that corvids are some of my favourite animals you know by now anyway..

• R like Roscoe Karns - I love that guy! An appearance of him in a movie can brighten my day..

• R like Renfield - this is one of my favourite fictitious characters ever - performed by my beloved Dwight Frye in the 1931 adaptation of my favourite novel DRACULA of course. His laughter and his whole interpretation of this part was just magnificent!

• R like Romy Schneider  - another one of my favourites..

• R like Russian composers.. I love a good score - also very much when it's got some classic music.. (Tchaikovsky was always one of my favourites..)

• R like Robinson, Edward G. - another one I simply adore..

• R like Ricky Ricardo - I ♥ LUCY - I really do.. And I adore Ricky.. Like him I have troubles with my "slight accent" - though my isn't as cute as his is.. I guess I sound like a Nazi spy from the old movies trying to sound like a cockney flower girl..

• R like "Rosebud" ... think what you want of Orson Welles and CITIZEN KANE (1941) - for me that was a stroke of genius..  - and it had Agnes Robertson Moorehead.. 

• R like Ryn, Nicholas van - one of my favourite Vincent Price film characters. It's from the amazing DRAGONWYCK (1946).. I love that maniac..

Not bad - hm?

If you like to get a letter please leave a comment and ask for one - you can of course also comment without getting a letter..

Hope you enjoyed this..

Have a lovely day - and thank you very much for listening!

And thanks to DKoren for letting me join the fun!

Irene

"I never drink... wine."

In 1897 a book was published by an Irish author that was not an immediate bestseller. That it should become in the following century. In the 1920s the novel was adapted as a play and became later a longtime hit on broadway. The actor who played the lead should star in the 1931 Universal Studios-adaptation of the play: Bela Lugosi. The author was Bram Stoker and the novel was DRACULA.

In a nutshell:

Renfield (Dwight Frye), a young British estate agent, travels to Transylvania to make a deal with Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi). Dracula, who is a vampire, takes possession of him and travels with Renfield to England. There Dracula meets Dr. Seward (Herbert Bunston), Mina Seward (Helen Chandler) -Dr. Sewards daughter -, Mina's fiancé John Harker (David Manners) and Lucy (Frances Dade), Mina's friend. Dracula turns Lucy into a vampire and tries the same to Mina, but is finally killed by famous Dr. Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan).

Watch out for:

The voice of the harbour master - it is director Tod Browning himself!

Schmooze:

• The melody played at the opening credits is from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" and was Universal Studio's signature tune for their horror movies as THE MUMMY or the like.
  
  
• Though he was the star Bela Lugosi earned only $500/week.
  
  
• It exists a memo saying: "Dracula is only to attack women." - apparently there shouldn't be any gay subtext.
  
  
• Bela Lugosi and Edward Van Sloan are the only actors out of this picture who appeared also in the original 1927 play on Broadway.
  
  
• The hungarian innkeeper is played by Michael Visaroff, who also appears in Tod Browning's FREAKS (1932).
  
  
• A spanish version was filmed silmutaniously (same time, same set, different actors.)
  
  
• You can see the set (Carfax Abbey & Dracula's castle) in other Universal movies.
  
  
• It is said, that Bela Lugosi doesn't blink once in this film - I have not checked that yet..
  
  
• Dracula never shows fangs in this film.
  
  
• Bette Davis was supposed to play Mina but producer Carl Laemmle, jr. wasn't positive about her sex appeal.
  
  
• Helen Chandler and Frances Dade were good friends.
  
  
• Conrad Veidt, Paul Muni and Lon Chaney (who died before this film was realised) were considered to play Dracula.
  
  
• In Dracula's castle you can see some opossums - there are no opossums in mid/east europe. That applies too for other animals like the armadillo.
  
  
• Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi appeared together with Frederic March in a broadway comedy play THE DEVIL AND THE CHEESE in 1926. Neither Lugosi nor Frye should play many comedies on screen after DRACULA.
  
  
• Geraldine Dvorak, who plays one of Dracula's wifes was Greta Garbo's stand-in.
  
  
• The first lines in this movie are spoken by Carla Laemmle - Carl Laemmle's niece - she plays a young tourist, who drives in the carriage together with Renfield and other people.

Sight-read:

• You can hear Franz Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" and the prelude to Richard Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg".

Murphy's Law:

• Renfields briefcase appears magically on the table whilst it was seconds before in Draculas hands.
  
  
• Dr. Seward's asylum is considered to be near London and in Whitby - must be a really colossal estate for Whitby is on the Yorkshire coast in nothern England..

My favourite feature:

Dracula's castle.

Favourite character:

Renfield - I am a fan of Dwight Frye..

Scene to see:

Renfield arrives and Dracula welcomes him to his castle.


Quotes corner:

One of the most famous film lines ever is delivered by Dracula himself:

"Children of the night, what music they make."

This film differs for the most part from the novel, which I am a great fan of. If you want to see a more authentic adaptation I recommend the 1992 version with Gary Oldman as Dracula to you - I really love that film, but won't make a revision because it is way to young for this blog.. *sigh* - maybe I should make a parallel blog with newer films.. naah.. - The 1931 version was planned to be more authentic to the novel, but after the Great Depression to adapt the play was less expensive.

I like the fact that music is used very sparingly - which is normal for the beginning talkies: Music was only used when actually music was played in a scene and in the credits of course. The nontalking sequences are more intensive that way.

I love Bela Lugosi because he resembles my late grandfather and there for it's a great delight for me to watch DRACULA.

Goodbye I'll go and watch another movie - or this one again? -

"Isn't this a strange conversation for men who AREN'T crazy?"