Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (1932)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Writers:

Sheridan Le Fanu (novel)
Christen Jul (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

6 May 1932 (Germany)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror

Plot:

Young traveller Allan Grey arrives in a remote castle and starts seeing weird, inexplicable sights (a man whose shadow has a life of its own...

Plot Keywords:

Castle | Dream | Shadow | Mansion | Blood

Cast

Julian West	...	Allan Grey
Maurice Schutz	...	Der Schlossherr (Lord of the Manor)
Rena Mandel	...	Gisèle
Sybille Schmitz	...	Léone
Jan Hieronimko	...	Der Dorfartz - Village Doctor
Henriette Gérard	...	Die alte Frau von Friedhof - The Woman from the Cemetery (as Henriette Gérard)
Albert Bras	...	Der alte Diener - Old Servant
N. Babanini	...	Seine Frau (His Wife)
Jane Mora	...	Die Krankenschwester / Nurse

Also Known As:

Adventures of David Gray
Castle of Doom (USA) (dubbed version)
L'étrange aventure de David Gray
Not Against the Flesh (USA)
The Strange Adventure of David Gray
The Vampire (USA) (copyright title)
Vampyr
Vampyr, ou l'étrange aventure de David Gray
O Vampiro (Brazil) [pt]
Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (Argentina) [es]
Vampyr - il vampiro (Italy) [it]
Wampir (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

Germany:65 min | USA:75 min | Argentina:75 min | Belgium:75 min | Spain:70 min (DVD edition)

Country:

France | Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1:19 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Tobis-Klangfilm)

Certification:

Canada:G (Quebec) | Hong Kong:IIA | USA:Unrated | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Abbaye de Braye, Braye, Aisne, Picardie, France

Company:

Tobis Filmkunst

Trivia:

In order to achieve the strange, dream-like photography, A thin gaze was put in front of the lens as a filter.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: At exactly 16 minutes (in the Criterion DVD) as the camera pans right, there is a reflection in a glass window of the camera operator cranking the camera.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fear in the Dark (1991) (TV)

Required Viewing!

Brilliant! Breathtaking! This film was worth the long wait I imposed on myself to see it. It is not the most cohesive narrative about, but it has images that linger with you....haunt you. The film is basically a silent with some speaking. It tells a story about Allan Grey and how he was introduced into a vampire's conspiracy to kill two sisters. Grey is brought in for aid by their father who dies while trying to fight the infection coursing through his daughter's veins. What then follows is pure cinematic magic as Grey...opening a book that the father wrote was to be opened upon his death...begins reading the book on vampires whilst it is going on right around him. The mixture of action and the text from the book create a wonderfully eerie atmosphere and convey a feeling of dread and despair. There are many scenes in Vampyr, directed with fluidity by Carl Dreyer, that are incredibly well-done. The dream sequence in particular explores various camera angles, hitherto not used. As I said before, it is not the tightest story and it has some gaping holes in the plot that are never explained, but that really is not very important because the film succeeds as a film of haunting imagery...fear based on illusion and shadows.