Vampires on the Silent Screen: Cinema's First Age of Vampires 1897-1922

by David Annwn Jones

Overview

This book is the first study of the vampires in silent cinema, presenting a detailed academic yet accessible discussion of the films themselves and their sources. For the very first time, The Fire Elemental from the Wharton brothers’ The Mysteries of Myra (1916) is identified as cinema’s original vampire, his appearance initiating a rich and variegated period of film production that is currently missing from studies of horror cinema. Exciting and ground-breaking, Vampires on the Silent Screen also discusses Drakula Halála / Dracula’s death (1920), the first ever filmic female vampire in Erich Kober’s Lilith and Ly (1919), and the Dracula lookalike, Count Merlin in Alexander Korda’s Magic (1917) as well as many other productions. A socio-cultural framework with critical highlighting of eco-horror theory is used throughout to draw these unique discoveries together. This project is a must read for any horror enthusiasts out there.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031386428
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	09/16/2023
Series:	Palgrave Gothic
Edition description:	2023
Pages:	215
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

David Annwn Jones is author of Gothic Machine (2011), Sexuality and the Gothic Magic Lantern (2014), Gothic Effigy (2018), Re-Envisaging the First Age of Cinematic Horror (2018) and ‘Green Trends in Euro-Horror Films of the 1960s and 1970s’ in The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (2020) ‘The Art of Ghostly Projections’ (2021) in The Palgrave Handbook of Gothic Origins and ‘Cinematic Darkness’, in The Palgrave Handbook of Steam Age Gothic (2021).

Table of Contents

1 From Time’s Beginnings.- 2 The Cinematic Vampire 1896–1922: Vampire Bats and Vamps and Thieves.- 3 The Vampire as Spirit of Fire: Leopold and Theodore Wharton’s The Mysteries of Myra (1916).- 4 Count Merlin and the Alchemy of Blood Lust: Alexander Korda’s Mágia/Magic (1917).- 5 The Blood-Demon and the Scientist: Erich Kober’s Lilith und Ly / Lilith and Ly (1919).- 6 Dreaming in the Madhouse Károly Lajthay’s Drakula halála / Dracula’s Death (1921).- 7 Counterfeits and Genuine.- 8 F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"David Annwn Jones’s work has certainly opened my eyes to unexpected avenues in horror, and I am sure it will do so too for many readers." -David Punter

"Excellent, lucid, original and authoritative. A most welcome book. Jones contributes an informed, enthralling and genuinely groundbreaking study of the forgotten early apparitions of the undead in silent cinema. His landmark work drives a stake through the heart of many received ideas, unearthing fresh perspectives and stimulating insights from a previously unexplored realm of Gothic media. Jones skilfully reveals unknown dimensions of the vampire mystique's early hold on the cinematic imagination with an artist's eye and a poet's eloquence." -Nikolas Schreck (‘The Satanic Screen’)

"As this book reveals, David Annwn Jones’s original discoveries in the field of silent vampire cinema both stand alone and change the face of cinema horror scholarship as a whole. This is the first study of this this subject and it is a critical landmark : impeccably-researched, authoritative and well-argued throughout. Vampires on the Silent Screen, Cinema’s First Age of Vampires is a wonderful and fascinating achievement." -David Pinner (Ritual /The Wicker Man)

"This much needed and important study by Annwn Jones reclaims the lost silent vampire films of the early 20th century. Erudite and fascinating it is an invaluable aid to understanding the true occult and demonic nature of today’s vampires." -Simon Bacon (Vampires and Contagion (2023) and 1000 Vampires on Screen (2024))

Editorial Reviews

Both are well written and open up what I recognise as a frustrating subject in a way that casts a light on the films and enables the student to expand their knowledge. The difference in definitions, the distinctive lenses the two use, means the books enhance each other rather than detract from them, enabling critical examination. Both authors bring new things to the table, and both should be commended.” (Andrew M. Boylan, Journal of Vampire Studies, Vol. 4, 2024)

From the Publisher