FIRST AND FOREMOST, I WANT A MODEL OF THE ABOVE DIORAMA!
And now, back to our regularly scheduled program...
1935's "Mark of The Vampire" with Bela Lugosi is a widely available sound remake of the lost 1927 silent film "London After Midnight".
Although even "Mark of the Vampire" was rarely seen before the home video revolution, both films have developed a cult status
due to their mouth-watering promo stills and the fact that both were directed by the legendary wacko, Tod Browning.
"Mark of the Vampire" is available as part of a great Horror Classics DVD boxed set from MGM.
A very good reconstruction of the lost "London After Midnight" is available on the "Lon Chaney Collection" DVD from Turner Classics.
Disappointingly, neither movie is very good except for atmospheric photography and sets, since the vampires turn out to be fakes, part of a hair-brained scheme by the police to catch a killer.
Very silly movies, indeed. So why do I keep watching them?
First up is a diorama I did of an unknown casting of Bela Lugosi from "Mark of the Vampire" and a Jeff Yeager casting of Lon Chaney in "London After Midnight",
both leading you to the same crypt (scratch-built from styrofoam, plaster, balsa wood and fake greenery).
I bought the no-name Lugosi in a model shop north of Boston decades ago; now that I know more, I betcha it was a recast. It was wrapped in a plastic bag, and that was it.
If the sculptor is reading this, please forgive me - I knew not what I was doing.
I I've been dying to get a great Luna to go with these guys, but the best I could do was "Cindy The Vampire", a little tart from eBay.
She almost fits in, but not quite. I don't know whether or not to leave her in the diorama:
The above photo is a bit creepy; Chaney looks like he's offering her to you.
Here's some closeups:
Here's Cindy by herself. The flow of her dress is impressive. You can also see more of the dio in this shot:
Here's a black picture of the Yeager vampire:
Next up is Screamin's massive 1/4 scale vinyl model of Chaney in London After Midnight (I think the box just says "The Vampire"). It was sculpted by Thomas Kuntz of Artomic (whoa!).
The kit included lavender gossamer bat wings which were supposed to be attached with rubber cement, but the rubber cement got sticky and runny. I gave up on it.
This thing is massive and very difficult to move. You fill the bottom half - the section below the belt to the shoes - with plaster to give it weight and stability over the years.
Being so heavy, you need to pick it up by the crotch and barely touch the figure above the waist;
otherwise, the top half rips off and you have to go through all the puttying and painting again. Ask me how I know.
