In One Million B.C.[Hal Roach, Hal Roach Jr,. 1940], and Hammer’s One Million Years B.C.[Don Chaffey, 1966] humans are shown living during the same time as the dinosaurs. The fossil record tells us that this cannot be true. But some believe that there is a dinosaur alive now in Scotland—the Loch Ness Monster. People are convinced there are Lake Monsters living in Africa and China. We desperately want to coexist with dinosaurs—a desire exploited by Michael Crichton, who wrote the novel and then the screenplay Jurassic Park[Steven Spielberg, 1993], in which scientists clone living dinosaurs from DNA samples of dinosaur blood taken from mosquitoes trapped in amber millions of years ago! In much the same way as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger made the treacherous journey to The Lost Worldto prove that dinosaurs still lived on a plateau in the Amazon, we all seem to be prepared to go to great lengths to be with dinosaurs.
Three ways to make dinosaurs in the movies.
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One Million B.C. [Hal Roach, Hal Roach, Jr., 1940]
Tumak (Victor Mature) protects Loana (Carole Landis) from a superimposed iguana.
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One Million Years B.C. [Don Chaffey, 1966]
In the remake, Tumak (John Richardson) protects a little cave-girl from Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion allosaurus.
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Jurassic Park [Steven Spielberg, 1993]
Effects artist Stan Winston’s full size audio-animatronic T. Rex in Jurassic Park. Jurassic Parkalso made extensive use of CG dinosaurs. (CGI or CG is the abbreviation used for Computer Generated Images, or computer animation.)
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Man is not meant to know
The fear of science is behind many of our greatest monsters. “There are some things man is not meant to know,” is a line from many movies in which someone pays the price for tampering with “God’s work.” The classic “mad scientist” is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Her revolutionary novel is titled Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus[1818].
In Greek mythology, Prometheus the Titan stole fire from the Gods of Mount Olympus and gave it to us mortals. To punish Prometheus, Zeus had him chained to a rock where a giant eagle would come every day, rip out his liver, and eat it in front of him. According to Zeus’s curse, Prometheus’s liver grew back every night so that the eagle could tear it out again the next day, and the next, for all eternity. With Prometheus’s gift, the human race could now cook their food and warm their homes and fend off wild beasts of prey. But ask Prometheus; was it worth it? Ask Dr. Frankenstein, or Dr. Jekyll, or Dr. Moreau, or Dr. Morbius and all the other doctors, professors, and scientists who have dared to explore the unknown in the movies.
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Vampires
Vampires have never gone out of style. Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Draculacreated one of the most popular monsters in literary and film history. There are more movies in which the character Dracula appears than any other real or fictional person. Actors diverse as Béla Lugosi, Carlos Villarías, Christopher Lee, John Carradine, Louis Jourdan, Frank Langella, Leslie Nielsen, George Hamilton, Udo Kier, Jack Palance, John Forbes-Robertson, Francis Lederer, Charles Macaulay, Klaus Kinski, and Gary Oldman have all portrayed Dracula. And Dracula’s bitter foe Dr. Van Helsing has been played by actors as varied as Edward Van Sloan, Laurence Olivier, Peter Cushing, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Jackman, and Mel Brooks!
Vampires drink human blood. They sleep in their coffins during the day. Like so much of what we believe is ancient folklore, authors and screenwriters invented most of what is now accepted to be vampire behavior. The rules change from book to book, movie to movie. Stake through the heart? Check. Afraid of a crucifix? Sure. Can’t stand garlic? Okay. Cannot enter a room unless invited in? Really? Cannot be in direct sunlight? Have no reflection in a mirror? Well, the rules all depend on which movie you’re watching.
What is well known is that male vampires are often sexy. From Lugosi’s matinée-idol Dracula, to Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise’s bloodsucking heartthrobs in Interview With the Vampire[Neil Jordan, 1994] to Robert Pattinson’s pale teenage idol in Twilight[Catherine Hardwicke, 2008], male vampires continue to make the hearts of women beat faster.
The movies have shown us that female vampires can also be very sexy. Actress Theda Bara was one of Hollywood’s first sex symbols and the femme fataleroles she played earned her the nickname of “The Vamp.” Elsa Martinelli and Annette Vadim were the gorgeous vampires of Blood and Roses[Roger Vadim,1960], which was based on the scandalous “lesbian novel” Carmillaby J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Carmillawas also the inspiration for The Vampire Lovers[Roy Ward Baker, 1970] with the voluptuous Ingrid Pitt. Beautiful actresses continue to portray vampires—Sadie Frost in Bram Stoker’s Dracula[Francis Ford Coppola, 1992], Anne Parillaud in Innocent Blood[John Landis, 1992], and no doubt will continue to do so far into the future. We all know the effect beautiful women have on men that also involves blood flow.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of vampires in film is their bisexuality. When Christopher Lee bites down on the neck of his female victims, they always “swoon.” What happens when he sinks his fangs into a man? In The Fearless Vampire Killers[Roman Polanski, 1967] a very camp, blond, gay vampire has his eyes on Professor Abronsius’ assistant Alfred (Roman Polanski). Lesbian vampires are a genre unto themselves. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, when Mina says, “Come kiss me, Lucy,” she is not just being affectionate. Since the early 1980s, the AIDS crisis has helped bring about a vampire revival in the movies, there being an obvious parallel between vampirism and an illness spread by the exchange of bodily fluids.
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A Fool There Was [Frank Powell, 1915]
Theda Bara poses as a “vamp” in a publicity shot for A Fool There Was.
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Blood and Roses [Roger Vadim, 1960]
One more movie based on Le Fanu’s Carmilla. Vadim’s film features the gorgeous Annette Vadim as Carmilla and the equally gorgeous Elsa Martinelli as her victim.
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The Fearless Vampire Killers [aka Dance of the Vampires, Roman Polanski, 1967]
Count von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne) abducts Sarah Shagal (Sharon Tate) from her bath in Polanski’s vampire romp.
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Werewolves
The rules of werewolf movies are just as elastic as those of vampire films and often change movie to movie. In Stoker’s book, Dracula can change himself into a wolf at will, but Larry Talbot in Universal’s The Wolf Man[George Waggner, 1941] cannot control his transformation and unwillingly turns into a werewolf on the night of a full moon. Lon Chaney, Jr. played the unfortunate Mr. Talbot in five movies for Universal and always walks upright on two legs as the Wolf Man. In An American Werewolf in London[John Landis,1981] David Naughton’s werewolf rampages through Piccadilly Circus on all fours. In I Was a Teenage Werewolf[Gene Fowler Jr., 1957] troubled teen Tony Rivers (Michael Landon) is given “hypnotherapy” and “Scopolamine” injections by mad Dr. Alfred Brandon (Whit Bissell) to bring him back to a “pre-evolution state.” How this would be helpful, or why a “pre-evolution state” would be a werewolf is never explained. Anyway, Rivers becomes a werewolf at the sound of a bell! Wait a minute; Rivers turns into a werewolf when he hears a bell? Once again, how one becomes a werewolf depends on which picture you happen to be watching. A gypsy’s curse, a werewolf’s bite, being born on a certain date, or being the offspring of a rape may make you a werewolf. For all these reasons, the ancient poem rings true: