Dance of the Vampires (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title dance of the Vampires
Original title The Fearless Vampire Killers
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1967
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Roman Polanski
script Roman Polański,
Gérard Brach
production Gene Gutowski ,
Martin Ransohoff
music Krzysztof Komeda
camera Douglas Slocombe
cut Alastair McIntyre
occupation
synchronization

Dance of the Vampires (original title: The Fearless Vampire Killers , alternatively also known as Dance of the Vampires ) is a horror comedy from 1967 by director Roman Polański , who also wrote the screenplay with Gérard Brach .

action

Professor Abronsius, who has lost his chair at the University of Königsberg (in the original: "Kurnigsburg") because of his too bold theories on vampirism , travels with his adept Alfred to the Southern Carpathians to research and fight vampirism there. In his quarters, a village inn, Abronsius discovers the first signs of vampires: garlic garlands . He suspects that there must be a lock, the nest of bloodsuckers, very close by. However, the guests and the host, Yoyneh Shagal, claim never to have heard of a castle.

Abronsius and Alfred move into the best room in the house, which is the only one with a bath room. Sarah, the landlord's beautiful daughter, takes her bath here regularly. She does this even when the room is already rented to the new guests. When Alfred sees her, he immediately falls for the girl's charms. When the following day an eerie, ugly overgrown hunchback - it's Koukol, Krolock's servant - limps into the inn to buy fresh candles, Abronsius is convinced that the vampires' nest must be very close. Alfred follows the hunchback, but is left behind and returns to the inn.

When Sarah takes her daily bath again that evening, a vampire - it's Count Krolock, Prince of Vampires - floats in through the skylight, bites the girl's carotid artery and disappears with her through the air. The desperate father storms out into the snowy landscape to save her, but the following morning, frozen to a lump of ice, is found by the villagers and brought back. Abronsius examines the body. He triumphantly points out the numerous bite wounds that corroborate his suspicions. Abronsius advises the widow to drill a wooden stake in the heart of the deceased in order to prevent his return as a vampire. She indignantly rejects this. That takes revenge: Yoyneh returns the following night. After a wild chase through the wine cellar, he escapes the two vampire hunters. His first victim is the beautiful maid Magda, whose bedroom he used to go to secretly at night while he was still alive. Then he flees to the Count's castle - pursued on skis by Abronsius and Alfred.

This is how the two vampire hunters find the castle, which lies as if dead in the snow-covered mountains. There the mute Koukol arrives in the carpentry shop and then takes her to his master: Count Krolock receives her with formal courtesy, inquires about Abronsius' Königsberg vampire studies and finally assigns them the guest rooms for the night. While they go to rest - Abronsius overjoyed, Alfred in panic - the morning is dawning. Krolock and his son Herbert go to the crypt and bed in their coffins for the day.

There they are searched for by the two vampire hunters the next morning. However, the servant who teaches coffins blocks their direct route into the crypt, which is why they balance breakneck over snow-covered battlements from the outside to the windows of the crypt. Alfred manages to get into the crypt hall through the narrow window, but Abronsius remains stuck in the window. From there he tries to instruct Alfred to inspect the coffins and to redeem the vampires with a wooden stake hammered through their hearts. But Alfred's nerves fail with fear. He flees and tries to free the professor from the outside of the window, but on his way through the castle he is distracted by a beguiling chant. He follows the voice and finds Sarah bathing in a room. He tries to persuade her to flee, but the girl is already raving about a ball that is to be celebrated in the castle in the evening. Looking out of the window, he sees the professor still stuck. He manages to free the already half-frozen Abronsius, but the case with all the instruments for fighting vampires falls off the roof, he falls down the mountainside and disappears into the snowy woods.

In an old book with the title "100 ways to flatter oneself into the heart of a virgin" (in the original: "A Hundred Goodlie ways of Avowing one's Sweet Love to a Comlie Damozel") Alfred searches for the arts of seduction to win the girl. He is surprised by Herbert, who hugs Alfred and wants to bite him in the neck. But before he can snap shut, the beleaguered victim manages to hold the book protectively in front of him, and the long vampire teeth land in the spine of the book instead of the artery. After a wild chase, Alfred escapes the lovable vampire by taking refuge with Abronsius in a remote room. From there, the two of them get to a Söller and watch how numerous vampires rise from the graves of the castle cemetery and get ready for the ball. The count surprises her. He paints them drastically what awaits them today, and describes their future fate as vampires: With the professor he will be edified at night in witty conversations - for many centuries. During this time, Alfred should befriend Herbert.

He abruptly ends the conversation and locks them up. However, you can break free, overwhelm two ball guests and dress up with their evening wear. Unrecognized, they mingle with the dancing guests. Their camouflage is blown, however, as they and Sarah are the only ones whose image is reflected by one of the large hall mirrors - vampires do not throw a reflection. Before the stunned vampires understand the situation, the vampire hunters storm the courtyard with Sarah and flee with Yoyneh's sleigh. Abronsius controls the sledge, behind him sit Sarah and the blessed Alfred, embraced tenderly. The love-drunk Alfred does not notice how two vampire teeth suddenly grow out of Sarah's seductive lips and dig into his throat. While the sleigh team glides on through the wintry full moon night, a voice from the off comments: “That night Professor Abronsius did not yet know that he was dragging with him the evil that he hoped to destroy forever. With his help it could finally spread over the whole world. "

synchronization

The German synchronization was commissioned by MGM synchronization studio in Berlin , after a dialogue book and the dialogue director of Michael Guenther .

role actor Dubbing voice
Prof. Abronsius Jack MacGowran Alfred Balthoff
Alfred Roman Polanski Horst Gentzen
Count of Krolock Ferdy Mayne Erich Fiedler
Herbert von Krolock Iain Quarrier Michael Chevalier
Sarah Shagal Sharon Tate Ingeborg Wellmann
Yoyneh Shagal Alfie Bass Hans W. Hamacher
Rebecca Shagal Jessie Robins Erna Haffner
teller Ferdy Mayne Rolf Schult

Changes in the German dubbed version were the subject of critical assessments. So the maid Magda tries to fend off Shagal, who has become a vampire, with a cross, who then only laughingly replies: "You got the wrong vampire!", Which refers to the fact that Shagal is Jewish. The German subtitles read at the point: “But you have the wrong vampire in front of you!” In the German dubbing, however, you can hear: “That only helps with the old vampires!”. Here the reference was apparently intentionally changed in order to leave out the reference to Judaism for the German audience . That Shagal Jew is, his is the name, sidelocks and his Sheitel -carrying wife Rebecca significantly. Alf Brustellin remarked ironically on this in Film 1 (1968): "With really friendly consideration for our sensitive (historical) passages, we are kept out of this absolutely logical punch line". In the musical version from 1997 this change was corrected by the German film version. In the original version, the narrator is spoken by Ferdy Mayne, who also portrays Graf von Krolock in the film; in the German version, the count and narrator are two different voices, making the narrator an unknown person to the viewer.

background

  • According to statements by actor Ferdy Mayne (in an interview with Gerd J. Pohl in Berlin on May 1, 1990), the film was shot exclusively in the studio. This may be true for the scenes with Ferdy Mayne, but how did director Polański in the show Wetten, dass ..? declared on February 28, 1998, the film was also shot in the Dolomites , at least the exterior shots come from there. Some of the recordings were shot in Val Gardena in South Tyrol: the Alpe di Siusi with the Sassolungo Group can be clearly seen . In the film, however, these recordings are only faded in as projections in the background while the main actors are in the foreground in the studio. Numerous backgrounds in the film are also painted backdrops. In the end credits of the film, only the MGM-British Studios and the Elstree-Studios (two at that time in Borehamwood near London located close together) are named as locations.
Painting "A Grotesque Old Woman" by Quentin Massys
  • One of the paintings in Count Krolock's ancestral gallery is based on the work “A grotesque old woman” (see picture on the right) by Quentin Massys . The painting in Alfred's bedroom in the castle depicts King Edward IV of England.
  • While Count von Krolock is talking to the rest of the assembled vampires in the ballroom, he conjures up Lucifer and forms the mano cornuta with his left hand .
  • The castle was inspired by Taufers Castle (some details were faithfully reproduced: for example the castle gate with the stone pointed arch and the smaller gate to the left of it).
  • In the United States, MGM released the film under the expanded title The Fearless Vampire Killers or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck in order to market the film more clearly as a parody and comedy.
  • In the opening credits you can read as a joke that the vampire teeth ( fangs ) had a “Dr. Ludwig Von Disease ”.
  • The production cost was estimated at two million US dollars.
  • Filming began in February 1966 and ended in July 1966.
  • It was released in Great Britain in June 1967, in Germany on December 1, 1967. It was first broadcast on German television on December 3, 1973 ( ZDF ) and on GDR television on March 1, 1986 ( DFF 2 ).

Reviews

“The clichés and behavior patterns of the vampire genre are used to create an amusing parody in which macabre shocks are balanced out by loving comic types. A homage to the old horror cinema and its effects, at the same time a satire on the tragicomic efforts of bourgeois-enlightening honest men in the fight with a literally bloodsucking aristocracy. An imaginative, intelligent pleasure that once again evokes Polanski's theme of humanity in a hostile environment. "

- Lexicon of international film

“The bat researcher Prof. Abronsius carries the evil of vampirism against his will all over the world. This character, which is not part of the film “ Vampyr ” by Carl Theodor Dreyer, and his assistant Alfred, played in a touching and funny way by Polanski himself, produces a firework of stunning situation comedy and midnight horror, which is skillfully assisted by the atmospheric music by Komeda; a film balancing between parody and horror. - (Rating: 3 stars → very good) "

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz - Lexicon "Films on TV"

“You only notice how serious and fatalistic this farce is when you watch Polanski's Hollywood debut in the original English version. As is so often the case in the German dubbing, not only have the political allusions been lost, all atmospheric and emotional nuances of the script have also been destroyed. "

- Susanne Westphal - Frankfurter Rundschau

“Roman Polanski relies on relatively subtle comedy. His "Dance of the Vampires" pays homage to the fact that early cinema in particular was very much afraid of the ruler of Transylvania. Polanski and his screenwriter Gérard Brach do not shy away from hearty ideas, but over long stretches an almost silent slapstick and musical montage prevail. This also results from the fact that the assistant Alfred (who Polanski plays himself) speaks little. He pats and hops with red cheeks after the many eerie events and constantly finds frozen or frozen human beings. "

- Bert Rebhandl - Berliner Zeitung

“Grusical by and with Roman Polanski, only partially ironically exaggerated and located near the rustic grotesque grotesque. This average film is the successful director's weakest so far. "

- Protestant film observer

Awards

The Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the film the rating “valuable”.

Soundtrack

Krzysztof Komeda : The Fearless Vampire Killers. Original motion picture soundtrack . On the front: Film Music: Rosemary's Baby The Fearless Vampire Killers. The Complete Recordings of Krzysztof Komeda Vol. 19 . Polonia Records, Warsawa (Warsaw) 1999, sound carrier no. Polonia CD 160

musical

In 1997 the musical Tanz der Vampire , directed by Roman Polański, premiered at the Raimund Theater in Vienna and has since been performed continuously at various theaters in German-speaking countries. While most of the international productions of the musical were successful, the new version of the musical created especially for Broadway was a disaster with only 117 performances (including 61 previews) and has since been considered the biggest flop in Broadway history. The music was penned by Jim Steinman , the German libretto by Michael Kunze . In the 1997 musical version, the name "Shagal" was changed to "Chagal". The focus of the plot moved away from the professor's absurd, chaotic hunt for the vampires with Alfred and, on the other hand, focused on the rather smaller and less profiled roles of Sarah and Count von Krolock: Sarah is portrayed as a young, innocent woman, who would like to escape from their upright parental home and get to know the unknown and their longings (which she hopes to find with the count), while the count, as a deeply unhappy being, seeks love, which he cannot feel due to his vampire existence and is portrayed as a tragic figure . The role of the professor in the plot is mainly responsible for slapstick humor and is much smaller than his role in the film, while Alfred's concern and search for Sarah are what drives the action.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ Dance of the Vampires. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Thomas Bräutigam : Stars and their German voices. Lexicon of voice actors . Schüren, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89472-627-0 , p. 393
  3. ↑ quoted from Thomas Bräutigam : Stars and their German voices. Lexicon of voice actors . Schüren, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89472-627-0 , p. 393
  4. ↑ Eerily beautiful: The Tauferer Ahrntal has a vampire castle Thomas Kunze in Berliner Zeitung of January 10, 2004
  5. Jump up ↑ Dance of the Vampires. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV". Extended new edition. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 801
  7. ^ Susanne Westphal in the Frankfurter Rundschau on January 29, 2005; quoted from Thomas Bräutigam: Stars and their German voices. Lexicon of voice actors . Schüren, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89472-627-0 , pp. 393-394
  8. ↑ Back in the cinema: Roman Polanski's classic "Tanz der Vampire" - tap, hop, chew garlic from July 26, 2007
  9. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 524/1967