sgfarrell_9

I enjoyed this movie. I am a keen reader of the Maigret stories, but it didn't dawn on me that Charles Laughton was Maigret until late in the movie. Perhaps the French pronunciation of the name threw me off.

The movie moved well, and I certainly enjoyed the shots of Paris right after the war. Maigret smoking his pipe and drinking his beer in the cafe gave me a good feeling. It's how I have always pictured Paris.

Tone, Meredith and Laughton were all worth watching.

I wish there were more movies made with Laughton playing the part of Maigret. However, Jean Garbin, the great French actor, later went on to make the role his own. He had time to refine his Maigret after many films. I saw the Garbin films over in Japan, but never here in the United states. States.

If my students would have presented this film to me in a film class, I would have given it a B minus. Then, again, I'd be a pushover as a professor. Some of the shooting was beautiful and some of the scenes were interesting.

However, considering the budget of this film, the flaws were really outstanding. It seemed like somebody had set-out to sabotage this production. Why did Dracula appear in the daylight twice with no explanation? He should have at least had on sunglasses or closed the shades.

Mortimer, Bram Stoker's friend, is hung by Dracula in the daylight. By that time the Count had already gone back to Romania! It's illogical even by the standards of vampire standards.

Bram and the Admiral (traveling separately) go from England to Romania in 3 days. Impossible in 1890. The scene with the coachman being attacked by the wolf was creepy.

Both Bram and the Admiral separately locate the secret cavern below the castle where Elizabeth was kept prisoner. I cringed when Elizabeth gave them both almost exactly the same speech. Elizabeth came across like a snotty and rich high school cheerleader with an attitude problem.

Dracula looked like a Slavic wrestler and Dracula's Castle looked like a bank after hours. I was looking for elevators. I did like the work of the actor who played Bram Stoker. His Irish accent stayed consistent throughout the movie. But it was never explained that Bram was a budding writer who would use his real encounters with Count Dracula for a novel in the future.

Still worth a look.

This is one of those old black and white films that are best seen on the late, late movie on a rainy autumn night. The funnest part is spotting all of the well-known faces like that of Bogie, Peter Lorre, Frank MacHugh, Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason and the ever cranky William Demarest.

This was a typical Hollywood propaganda movie of the time that stirred up patriotic feelings towards the Nazi. I enjoy Bogie as Gloves Donahue, but I think William Warren (the Lone Wolf) or Chester Morris (Boston Blackie) would had been more suited for the role of the likable gambler.