on Carradine’s Dracula

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(Recording this now because I've had the thought in my head for at least a year and a half and probably longer than that and kept telling myself that I'd write something more in depth about it or use it as a follow-up interview question but that probably won't happen so):

John Carradine is my favorite of the Universal Draculas (and the closest to Bram Stoker's original) and I wish he'd had a chance to play the role in better films than HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN / HOUSE OF DRACULA – not that those entries aren't lots of fun, the MCU before Marvel as we know it ever existed – but I'm talking about a DRACULA '31 (though my opinion of that film – with the exception of Dwight Frye's Renfield – and of Lugosi's Dracula degrades with each rewatch; I FAR prefer the Spanish version) or level of import.

John Carradine entrances Martha O'Driscoll in HOUSE OF DRACULA

There's a coldness to Carradine's portrayal matched only by Christopher Lee's first appearances in HORROR OF DRACULA (before he unleashed the feral sex-bomb Hammer Dracula that we all know and love): can't help but wonder what Carradine would have done with the role had he played Alucard / Dracula in Robert Siodmak's SON OF DRACULA instead of the woefully miscast (and clearly aware of it) Lon Jr. – can't think of a film Carradine's incarnation would have been more suited for than the Southern Gothic / noir curiosity that is SON OF – or in the announced-but-never-made follow-up to HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, WOLF MAN VS. DRACULA that was, purportedly, to feature Lon Jr. in both roles before it became a Lugosi return before morphing entirely into its final form as HOUSE OF DRACULA.

Anyhow, thought duly recorded; if nothing else, I got to write the phrase “feral sex-bomb” so I’ve got that going for me.

ELECTION (To, 2005)

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(Directed by Johnnie To from a script by Yau Nai-hoi and Yip Tin-shing; starring Simon Yam, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Louis Koo, and Nick Cheung. Released 20 October 2005; watched 2023w09 via Criterion Channel)

Took awhile for me to find ELECTION's narrative rhythm but once I did, it had me. Phenomenal performances all around, especially Yam as Lok and Leung as Big D. While proclaimed as Hong Kong's answer to THE GODFATHER (and there are similarities, certainly – Big D is nothing if not a hybrid of Sonny Corleone, The Joker, and 45 after the 2020 election, while Lok relishes in the post-ascension Michael role – even getting his own baptism sequence, though far more willing to get his own hands dirty), I never quite felt the suffocating binds of the familial, mythological or real - but it's unfair to compare the two: ELECTION stands on its own and should be judged on its own merits, of which there are legion. Queuing up the sequel for later this week or early next.

crown jewel, part two

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The second of the crown jewels (read: who needs both kidneys, I mean come on) of my Dick Tracy collection (the first being the first Big Little Book ever) to arrive in as many weeks, this 1930s Dick Tracy ventriloquist doll (left), is in his place of honor:

At left, my new, 1930s Dick Tracy ventriloquist doll takes his place of honor among the other Tracy bits and bobs, comics, and dolls and BLBs and etc etc.

While I've yet to find an exact date, I know that he was made in the early ‘30s out of composition (the precursor to plastic) and is, potentially, the first Dick Tracy toy ever released. His mouth moves, with string and pull still attached and, if his coat has been repainted, whoever did it did an incredibly good job: chip reveals no other paint beneath. Display case inbound: he's come a long way to find his forever home and I’m going to make it a good one.