Mark of the Vampire (1935)

The father of a bride-to-be is found dead with his corpse drained of blood.

This leads to a story of superstitious hysteria, gaslighting, hypnotism, and ultimately murder, which is best not spoiled even when, by the end, a large component of it, (actually the reason we are watching the film, to begin with,) makes not one lick of sense.

The film showcases the struggle between superstitious remnants of the nineteenth century with the supposed rationalism of the twentieth.

By the 1930s weren't we already beyond that?

Apparently not.

Supposedly an update to the lost Tod Browning-directed, Lon Chaney film London After Midnight (1927), the subject and treatment were popular enough with audiences of the time to merit a revisit; but audiences today may not take kindly at being misdirected in this manner.

Bats (fake and real, for once,) spiders (fake,) possums (standing in for giant rats? I can never figure out the use of some species; this here, and armadillos and Jerusalem crickets in Dracula,) and Bela Lugosi but mostly Carol Borland help set the creepy mood.

The film's main gimmick does not date well, but nevertheless, the movie is able to generate and maintain an increasingly spooky vampiric ambiance, but to what end?

I knew what I was in for, but my wife (after commenting on the superficial similarities to Dracula, even before Lugosi appeared onscreen) simply responded with a big WTF.

Despite concluding disappointment there are still effective moments that might make it worthwhile for some.

With Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt, and directed by Tod Browning.