Dracula : The Vampire Legend on Film
Review by Baron Gideon Redoak, submitted on 1-Jan-1992

_Dracula : the Vampire Legend on Film_ (cover title: Dracula : The Vampire Legend, 70 years on Film)

Key West, Florida : Fantasma Books, [c1992], ISBN: 0-9634982-0-7 $12.95. Paperback, but oversized.

An ambitious, entertaining, somewhat flawed project -- Marrero (whose name only appears on the verso of the title page, not on the cover or t.p. itself) has undertaken to list every vampire film ever made, in chronological order, up to 1992, just before the release of Coppola's version of _Bram Stoker's Dracula_. While there are some gaps, such as the production starring Louis Jordan, for one example, he succeeds rather well and includes some incredibly obscure titles. He wrote a lengthy introduction about the history of vampire cinema and the trends it has followed, and an afterword speculating on future films and the direction they will take. There is an alphabetical index in the back as well, for those searching for a movie they cannot recall the release date of.

Obviously produced on a budget about equal to the book's cover price, _Dracula : The Vampire Legend_ has the eccentric charm of something turned out on someone's desktop. But it is the desktop of someone who truly loves his subject--Marrero's descriptions of the old Hammer films are almost lyrical. His editorial comments are highly unprofessional but extremely amusing! (A couple of examples: "The film did poorly at the box office--are you surprised?"; "Good God. Who writes these movies?"; "A sequel was planned but never made. Thank God.")

There's a fairly large section of flim stills at the end, including two rare movie posters, but all are black and white and printed on cheap bond paper, as is the entire book. Marrero could also have done with a good proof-reader--the book is filled with horrendous spelling mistakes. "Subttle", "Handesome", "Menasing".. and the consistent use of "weather" when he means "whether".

(All together now... "Now THAT is a bad spell of 'whether'!")

Still, it was well worth the investment, due to his mentioning so many obscure and foreign films (Mexico made a lot more vampire movies than just the ones with the wrestler Santos, for example...), and for the money, it gives great entertainment value. Marrero promises a sequel in '97, let's hope it comes out!