Yes, today is the day we celebrate those blood-sucking, garlic-hatting, undead, fiends.
There are many good vampire stories and books, but Mark of the Vampire (1935) is not one of them. Of course, Bela Lugosi is wonderful in the few scenes in which he appears. But the movie plot is not wonderful and Lionel Barrymore drains the life out of every scene in which he appears more effectively than any vampire could. It’s rare that watching a movie actually makes me mad, but this one did. I guess I feel pretty strongly about my vampire movies!
But there are the redeeming scenes where vampires play…and this is one of the most memorable. One, it features a female vampire. Two, it features a vampire in flight. It is worth the price of admission for the entire movie, but thanks to YouTube, you can watch this clip by itself without suffering through the entire movie.
There, now. wasn’t that splendid? I just thought this little jewel of a scene should be celebrated, just like we are celebrating vampires today.
(By the way, Vampire Awareness Day (October 30) is a separate observance day that was promoted by Best Buy to raise awareness about eletricity-draining home electronics and has nothing to do with vampires at all).
Autumn in Virginia 