t1mpani

There are more than enough pro and con reviews posted here to give people an idea what to look at, so I won't bother with that. I writing to ask if we could please stop comparing Rob Roy to Braveheart. They are two different films, with two different stories, and share nothing except their locale, a hatred for the British, and Brian Cox. Spiderman and Arachnophobia have about as much in common. Rob Roy had nothing to do with Braveheart. If you can't see the difference, then you're not paying attention. As such, you probably shouldn't try to review it.

First off, I'd like to say that I very much like this movie, and that Lee IS the quintessential Dracula in my opinion. However, I keep seeing mention here of the "lush musical score" and want to put in my two cents. I will say that the score is memorable--only in that it is a two-note melody repeated up and down the scales ad nauseum, and is therefore difficult to forget, try though I may. The 'Approaching Dracula' theme (not it's actual name--I'm talking about when we know Dracula is coming and are pensively looking at an ominous open window) is a stolen from the 'Hunter's Theme' in "Bambi." I don't mean that the two are similar, I mean they are note-for-note the same--though orchestrated differently. Once again, it is a theme that does nothing but move up and down the scales. The only time we hear anything even approaching harmonics is during the end credits, but it's not really harmony, it's just that a whole orchestra is playing the theme so that it sounds more flushed out. This score couldn't have taken more than three relaxed hours to write, and I think that calling it "lush, exotic, enchanting, etc." is...well...goofy. James Bernard wrote some interesting stuff, but this isn't part of it.

All right, I'm not going to bother with the movie's strengths, as they are covered by every other reviewer here. What I want to talk about is the one area where I think director Rene Clair missed the boat: mood.

The book is absolutely chilling, and manages to have you jumping at noises in the night far better than most any of today's attempts at horror writing. The movie, however, has a campy, needlessly humorous feel which detracted strongly from my enjoyment. An example? Casting Harry Thurston as the boatman. His is one of the first faces we see, and it is twisted into the best version of a Bud Abbott facial expression that he could muster. Mischa Auer's performance was ridiculous to the extreme, and made his character neither believable nor endearing. There are a few other gripes I have, but they're of the same ilk, so I'll just say that this reasonably faithful portrayal could have been one of the greatest mystery thrillers ever if it had been taken a little more seriously.