“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to “Dracula”
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) Based upon Robert Louis Stephensons story has been made into a movie many times perhaps too many times. Dont let that dissuade you from seeing this early talkie. The opening camera perspective was a new technique that brings you into the viewing world of the lead, Fredric March. The film is very close to the original story; it is not about drugs but the good and evil nature in all of us. (KWR)
Dr. No (1962) The film that launched the longest-running movie franchise of all time. Connery is brilliant and Ursula Andress coming out of the sea is one of cinema’s most iconic moments. If you didn’t want to carry a Walther PPK and drink vodka martinis after watching this there was, frankly, something wrong with you. (KT)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Oh, that Kubrick! He didn’t win ’em all but he nailed this black comedy fair and square. Peter Sellers in three separate-but-equally hilarious performances, George C. Scott raving about mineshaft gaps, Slim Pickens leading a bombing run over Soviet territory, Keenan Wynn guarding the interests of the Coca Cola Company and a still-attached hand that keeps trying to strangle its owner… It just never stops! And remember: There will be no fighting in the War Room. (KCL)
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1964) An endearingly brilliant time-capsule and a prototype for the next decade of Amicus’s contribution to the genre. Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors remains, not only the best title for just about any horror film ever made, but also the king of anthology movies. Not that it doesn’t have some weak elements within its arsenal of strengths. Undeniably, Milton Subostky’s script sometimes goes for belly-laughs when Freddie Francis was attempting to create a mood of minimalist suspense. But the most frequently criticized segment Voodoo is actually one of the best and not in an ironic or post-modern way, either. With its, truly, once-in-a-lifetime cast (Cushing, Lee plus Roy Castle, Fluff Freeman and Donald Sutherland!), and a tongue-in-cheek approach to many horror sacred cows, it is all the more surprisingly that the movie’s ending is so very downbeat. Have you not guessed? says Schreck when asked who he is. An occasionally a glib and whimsical piece but, overall, never-less-than wholly entertaining and as an example of a curiously British mixture of horror and wry humor, it’s an almost definitive text. (KT)
Dracula (1931) This is the movie that provided the world with the boilerplate image of what vampires were (are?) like: Bela Lugosi. Tall, piercing eyes, swept-back hair, regal manner, Hungarian accent, white tie, tails and cape. We can debate long and nastily over the merits and deficits of acting and direction, but there’s no getting around one simple fact this is where the vampire iconography was born. (KCL)
Originally published in Raspberry World – Volume 2, Issue 1 (June/July 2007)