Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (1932)

Director:

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Writers:

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

Release Date:

6 May 1932 (Germany)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror

Plot:

A traveler obsessed with the supernatural visits an old inn and finds evidence of vampires.

Plot Keywords:

Castle | Vampire | Shadow | Dream | Traveler

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Georges Boidin	...	Limping Man

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]
Vampyyri (Finland) (TV title) [fi]
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:

The dank doctor's surgery and its abandoned, dirty look covered in cobwebs was said to be achieved by the director breaking jam jars on the floor then leaving the room shut off for a little over a month to attract various bugs and insects.

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 Ti piace Hitchcock? (2005) (TV)

Beautiful

Simply: it's beautiful work of art. No action. No slasher scenes. There is almost less speaking then in Aki Kaurismäki's films. Master of silent movie, Carl Th. Dreyer, uses more silent film magic than any spoken voices. Movie's style is from another world. Living shadows, ghosts, vampire in the foggy wood and (of course) the famous scene where man watch himself to be buried alive. There is no way you can say what this film is true and what dream. It's like Dreyer would have put he's own dream in to the screen. Nobody have done anything like this later, perhaps because the gray light that is all the time in the film came by an accident. There is no movie like this and no way there is another horror movie like this! Vampire- movie fan can watch this with F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu. They are different film's, but strange way spooky at same way.