Editing Tod Browning (section)

=== ''Mark of the Vampire'' (1935) ===
Browning returned to a vampire-themed picture with his 1935 ''[[Mark of the Vampire]]''.<ref>Eaker, 2016: "In 1935, Browning requested to remake Midnight as Mark of the Vampire... even though he was still under Thalberg's protection... neither Mayer nor the studio had forgiven Browning for ''Freaks'' (1932) and his salary for Mark was cut to half of its former amount...."</ref> Rather than risk a legal battle with Universal Studios who held the rights to Browning's 1931 ''[[Dracula (1931 English-language film)|Dracula]]'', he opted for a reprise of his successful silent era ''[[London After Midnight (film)|London After Midnight]]'' (1927), made for MGM and starring [[Lon Chaney]] in a dual role.<ref>Eaker, 2016: "...Thalberg did give Browning the green light to proceed with the inferior Mark of the Vampire (1935) three years [after completing ''Freaks (1932)].}<br />Rosenthal, 1975 p. 15: Browning's ''Mark of the Vampire'' a "remake" of his London After Midnight (1927).<br />Sobchack, 2006 p. 31: "Mark of the Vampire is essentially a remake of London After Midnight…"<br />Wood, 2006 TCM: "After the enormous success of Dracula (1931), director Tod Browning was inclined to return to the vampire film...Universal Studios owned the rights to the Dracula franchise...He maneuvered around this obstacle by remaking a vampire chiller he had shot in 1927: London After Midnight."</ref>

With ''Mark of the Vampire'', Browning follows the plot conceit employed in ''London After Midnight'': An investigator and hypnotist seeks to expose a murderer by means of a "vampire masquerade" so as to elicit his confession.<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 63: See synopsis for ''London After Midnight'' in Filmography</ref> Browning deviates from his 1927 silent film in that here the sleuth, Professor Zelen ([[Lionel Barrymore]]),<ref>Sobchack, 2006 p. 31:"Barrymore "resembles...Dr. Van Helsing ([[Edward Van Sloan]]) in Dracula (1931)</ref> rather than posing as a vampire himself in a dual role, hires a troupe of talented thespians to stage an elaborate hoax to deceive the murder suspect Baron Otto von Zinden ([[Jean Hersholt]]).<ref>Evans and Banks, 2020: "It would definitely be London After Midnight, a 1927 film with Lon Chaney and directed by Tod Browning. That was really the template for Mark of the Vampire…"<br />Conterio, 2018: "1935's Mark of the Vampire, an atmospheric remake of London after Midnight, re-teamed Browning with Bela Lugosi.</ref> Bela Lugosi was enlisted to play the lead vampire in the troupe, Count Moro.<ref>Charles, 2006 p. 83: "...Count Moro is not vampire at all but an actor hired to scare a murder suspect…"<br />Eaker, 2013: "Browning ended his collaboration with Lugosi with this film. Their work together started with The Thirteenth Chair (1929) ."</ref>
As a direct descendant of Browning's carnival-themed films, Browning offers the movie audience a generous dose of Gothic iconography: "hypnotic trances, flapping bats, spooky graveyards, moaning organs, cobwebs thick as curtains – and bound it all together with bits of obscure Eastern European folklore..."<ref>Wood, 2006 TCM: "Intending to one-up his own definitive vampire film, Browning loaded Mark of the Vampire with horror movie iconography…"<br />Eaker, 2016: "...Mark of the Vampire is saturated with sensational Gothic texture (which includes opossums inhabiting the castle).<br />Sweney, 2006 p. 203-204: "Mark of the Vampire is not a typical vampire film. The opening sequence signals of world of different traditions, one with a different language and beliefs we may not share nor understand...the villagers and servants in the film speak Czech...the world is split between what is 'real' and what is 'modern'."</ref>

As such, ''Mark of the Vampire'' leads the audience to suspend disbelief in their skepticism regarding vampires through a series of staged illusions, only to sharply disabuse them of their credulity in the final minutes of the movie.<ref>Herzogenrath, 2006 p. 16-17: "The exposition of the vampires as faked by a theatre company puts the film into Browning's pictures about the carnival…"</ref><ref>Sweney, 2006 p. 206: The picture is "in the realm of Browning's carnival films...showing the audience how easy it is to dupe them…In the last five minutes of the film, the vampires are revealed to be actors" hired by Professor Zelen.</ref> Browning reportedly composed the conventional plot scenes as he would a stage production, but softened the static impression through the editing process. In scenes that depicted the supernatural, Browning freely used a moving camera. Film historian Matthew Sweney observes "the [special] effects shots...overpower the static shots in which the film's plot and denouement take place...creating a visual tension in the film."

Cinematographer [[James Wong Howe]]'s lighting methods endowed the film with a spectral quality that complimented Browning's "sense of the unreal".<ref>Sweney, 2006 p. 204: See here for cinematographer [[James Wong Howe]]'s comments on Browning film direction. Quotation are Sweney's, not Howe's.<br />Sweney, 2006 p. 204-205: Though Howe was "credited as the film's sole cinematographer" though he was removed by production manager [[JJ Cohn]] because of Howe's handling of the lighting effects . See p. 205 for complaint registered by star [[Elizabeth Allan]] re: Howe.<br />Conterio, 2018: " James Wong Howe's spectral use of light bathes gothic sets in an eerie glow."<br />Eaker, 2016: "For Mark of the Vampire, Browning worked with cinematographer James Wong Howe. Howe's work in the film was praised, but Howe did not care for working with Browning, who he said 'did not know one end of the camera from the other'"</ref>
Critic Stuart Rosenthal writes:

{{blockquote|"The delicate, silkily evil texture [that characterizes the imagery] is as much a triumph for James Wong Howe's lighting as it is for Browning's sense of the unreal. Howe has bathed his sets in the luminous glow which is free of the harsh shadows and contrasts that mark [[Karl Freund|Freund]]'s work in [[Dracula (1931 English-language film)|Dracula]]."<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 54</ref>}}

''Mark of the Vampire'' is widely cited for its famous "tracking shot on the stairwell" in which Count Mora ([[Bela Lugosi]]) and his daughter Luna ([[Carol Borland]]) descend in a stately promenade. Browning inter-cuts their progress with images of vermin and venomous insects, visual equivalents for the vampires as they emerge from their own crypts in search of sustenance.<ref>Sweney, 2006 p. 205-206: "By far the most interesting part of the film is its famous tracking shot which occurs approximately 17 minutes into the film...This one-minute sequence is one of the greatest visual feasts in the cinema of the macabre..."</ref> Rosenthal describes the one-minute sequence:

{{blockquote|"...Bela Lugosi and the bat-girl [Carol Borland] descend the cobweb-covered staircase of the abandoned mansion, their progress broken into a series of shots, each of which involves continuous movement of either the camera, the players, or both.  This creates the impression of a steady, unearthly gliding motion...the glimpses of bats, rats and insects accent the steady, deliberate progress of the horrific pair…the effect is disorienting and the viewer becomes ill-at-ease because he is entirely outside his realm of natural experience."<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 54-55<br />Sweney, 2006 p. 206: "The motion of the two nightwalkers, the motion of the bats and the motion of the camera all combine in a fluid journey that takes the viewer down into the castle cellar and through its walls...conducted without dialogue, their silence lends a further tension to the film."</ref>}}

In another notable and "exquisitely edited" scene Browning presents a lesbian-inspired seduction. Count Mora, in the form of a bat, summons Luna to the cemetery where Irene Borotyn ([[Elizabeth Allan]]) (daughter of murder victim Sir Karell, awaits in a trance.) When vampire Luna avidly embraces her victim, Count Moro voyeuristically looks on approvingly. Borland's Luna would inspire the character Morticia in the TV series ''[[The Addams Family (1964 TV series)|The Addams Family]]''.<ref>Sweney, 2006 p. 206: "The sexual aspect, here a lesbian scene with a male voyeur, in undeniable...inherent in vampirism itself. Sweney praises Ben Lewis for the "exquisite" editing.<br />Eaker, 2016: "The visceral editing somehow adds to the film's appeal...adding up to an outrageous, hallucinatory film with genuinely perverse personality and a surreal, ominous style…" And: "...Borland is equally impressive. Her Luna...inspired [[Charles Addams]]' Morticia in [[The Addams Family (1964 TV series)]]</ref>

The soundtrack for ''Mark of the Vampire'' is notable in that it employs no orchestral music aside from accompanying the opening and closing credits. Melodic passages, when heard, are provided only by the players. The sound effects provided by recording director [[Douglas Shearer]]  contribute significantly to the film's ambiance.<ref>Sweney, 2006 p. 204: "...there is no orchestral music in the film at all, except for the opening and closing credits (it is an MGM film)..." And: "The soundtrack of Mark of the Vampire contributes in no small part to the overall atmosphere…[[Douglas Shearer]], 12-time Oscar winner and brother to [[Norma Shearer]], is credited as Recording Director."</ref>
<ref>Sweney, 2006 p. 204: "...the only melodic music within the film is made by the performers: the singing and violin playing of the villagers, and the melodramatic organ (played by a dead man…)"</ref>
Film historian Matthew Sweney writes:

{{blockquote|"The only incidental music...consisting as it does with groans and nocturnal animal sounds is perhaps minimalistic, but it is not used minimally, occurring throughout film expressly to score the vampire scenes...frightning scenes are not punctuated with orchestral crescendos, but by babies crying, women screaming, horses neighing, bells striking."<ref>Sweney, 2006 p. 204:</ref>}}

The climatic ''coup-de-grace'' occurs when the murderer's incredulity regarding the existence of vampires is reversed when Browning cinematically creates an astonishing illusion of the winged Luna in flight transforming into a human. The rationalist Baron Otto, a witness to this legerdemain, is converted into a believer in the supernatural and ultimately confesses, under hypnosis, to the murder of his brother Sir Karell.<ref>Sweney, 2006 p. 206-207: "...a great piece of cinematography" with Luna's "extraordinarily convincing transformation form monster to human...it makes [murderer] Baron Otto a believer" in vampires.</ref>

In the final five minutes of ''Mark of the Vampire'', the theatre audience is confronted with the "theatrical trap" that Browning has laid throughout the picture: none of the supernatural elements of film are genuine—the "vampires" are merely actors engaged in a deception. This is made explicit when Bela Lugosi, no longer in character as Count Moro, declares to a fellow actor: "Did you see me? I was greater than any real vampire!"<ref>Diekmann and Knörer, 2006 p. 74: "...only in the last five minutes of Mark of the Vampire (1935), the audience will learn that everything it has witnessed over the last 50 or 60 minutes was nothing but a setup – a theatrical trap designed to lure a suspect into a reenactment of a crime."<br />Wood, 2006 TCM: "But the film's crowning achievement is the elaborately twisted ending that Browning springs on the viewer like a diabolical jack-in-the-box."<br />Sweney, 2006 p. 201: "...its melodramatic plot only enhances the surprise ending; its surprise ending, so patently false, does not negate what has come before it, but rather asserts the dream logic of the film itself." And p. 207: Lugosi quote.</ref>