Vampyr (1932): Theodor Carl Dreyer’s Horror Masterpiece, Starring Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel

Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer made Vampyr (German: Vampyr – Der Traum des Allan Gray, lit. ’Vampyr: The Dream of Allan Gray’) .

The horror film was written by Dreyer and Christen Jul based on J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 collection of supernatural stories “In a Glass Darkly.”

Nicolas de Gunzburg funded and starred in the film under the name of Julian West. He plays Allan Gray, a student of the occult who enters Courtempierre, a village under the curse of vampire.

Vampyr was Dreyer’s first sound film, recorded in three languages. Thus, very little dialogue was used, with much of the story told with title cards.

To enhance the atmosphere, Dreyer opted for a washed-out, soft-focus camera. The soundtrack, created in Berlin, consists of the characters’ voices, sound effects, and score.

World-premiering in Germany, Vampyr opened to a negative reception from audiences and critics. Dreyer then edited the film and it opened to more mixed opinions in France.

However, modern critical reception has been more favorable with critics praising the disorienting visual effects and eerie atmosphere.

Narrative structure:
Allan Gray arrives at an inn close to the village of Courtempierre. He is awakened suddenly by an old man, who leaves a square packet on his table; “To be opened upon my death” is written on the paper.

Shadows guide Gray to an old castle, where they begin dancing and wandering.  Gray meets an elderly woman (later identified as Marguerite Chopin) and another old man (later identified as the village doctor).

Gray meets the lord of the manor, the same man who gave him the package earlier, who is suddenly murdered. Gisèle, the younger daughter of the deceased lord of the manor, tells Gray that her sister Léone, is ill. Soon after, they find her unconscious with fresh bite wounds.

Gray opens the parcel to find a book about horrific demons called vampyrs, and reading it, Gray he that Léone is a victim of a vampyr.

Many villagers, including the village doctor, are the Vampyr’s minions.

After his murder, the Lord returns briefly as a spirit and takes revenge on the village doctor and soldier who had helped Marguerite Chopin.

After the death of his master, the Old Servant finds Gray’s book on vampirism and, aided by Gray, ends the vampire’s reign of terror.

Cast

Nicolas de Gunzburg (credited as Julian West as Allan Gray), a wanderer whose studies of the occult have made him a dreamer.

Rena Mandel as Giséle, Léone’s younger sister and daughter of the Lord of the Manor.

Sybille Schmitz as Léone, Giséle’s older sister in thrall to the vampire

Jan Hieronimko as the Village Doctor, a pawn of the vampire, Marguerite Chopin.

Henriette Gérard as Marguerite Chopin, the vampire, elderly woman whose hold extends beyond her immediate victims.

Maurice Schutz as the Lord of the Manor, Giséle and Léone’s father who offers Gray a book about vampirism.

Albert Bras as an Old Servant, a servant at the manor house.

N. Babanini as his Wife

Jane Mora as a Nurse

Georges Boidin as the Limping Soldier

Vampyr is singled out for its dynamic camerawork from cinematographer Rudolph Maté (who later would become a director on his own right),

The movie is also notable for depicting Gray’s view of the world as a blur of the real and unreal.