Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (1932)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Writers:

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

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

Directed by
Carl Theodor Dreyer		(as Carl Th. Dreyer)

Writing credits
Sheridan Le Fanu		(novel "In a Glass Darkly") (as J. Sheridan Le Fanu)
Christen Jul		(screenplay) and
Carl Theodor Dreyer		(screenplay) (as Carl Th. Dreyer)

Produced by
Carl Theodor Dreyer	....	producer (uncredited)
Julian West	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Wolfgang Zeller

Cinematography by
Rudolph Maté
Louis Née		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Tonka Taldy		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Hermann Warm

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ralph Holm	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Eliane Tayar	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
César Silvagni	....	set designer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Hans Bittman	....	sound recordist (as Dr. Hans Bittman)
Paul Falkenberg	....	sound editor

Special Effects by
Henri Armand	....	special effects (uncredited)

Other crew
Paul Falkenberg	....	dialogue director
Jorgen S. Jorgensen	....	presenter (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Tobis Filmkunst

Distributors

• General Foreign Sales Corp. (1934) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (199?) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• MK2 Diffusion (2007) (France) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Eureka Entertainment (2009) (UK) (DVD)
• Versus Entertainment (2009) (Spain) (DVD)
• Continental Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Continental Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Gloria Film A/S (????) (Denmark) (theatrical)
• Image Entertainment (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Kino Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Video Yesteryear (????) (USA) (VHS)

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)

Dreyer's spectral masterwork

"Vampyr" is unlike any other movie ever made, and certainly unlike any other "horror" movie ever made. It's a spectral masterwork in which poetic audiovisual allusions create suggestions of events, as in the scene where the shadows get up and dance, or the ghostly scene when the vampire strikes her victim. It is a film of atmosphere, of light and shadow, played out on themes of death and rebirth.