"Mark Of The Vampire" has a great cast (even with a few too many comic relief supporting characters), some striking scenes and lots of creepy-crawlies, but the big surprise in the story is also a let-down, as it turns the supernatural into the mundane. Ultimately, this doesn't quite qualify as one of the classics of the genre. But it does make you wonder why Carroll Borland didn't have more roles like this - she is perfect. **1/2 out of 4.

Top billed in this horror fest is Lionel Barrymore who plays a Van Helsing like expert in the occult, specialty being vampires. Lionel is well versed in all the folklore on the undead. But he's only one of many character players in this MGM production. Mark Of The Vampire is a great film for those of us who love those familiar character faces of studio era Hollywood.Holmes Herbert a local nobleman is murdered, some say by vampires who are rumored to reside in an ancient castle. A year after that his daughter Elizabeth Allan is similarly attacked with those two telltale neck punctures and behaving real strangely.It's then that Barrymore is called in and he does solve the mystery of the local vampires. The solution almost at the last second is quite a surprise.Lionel Atwill is almost in dress rehearsal for his famous role as the police inspector in Son Of Frankenstein. But Bela Lugosi is the real surprise. That familiar voice of Count Dracula is absent up to the last minute of the film though he looks as menacing as Dracula ever did as Count Yorga. But his voice closes out Mark Of The Vampire and it's on the order of what Joe E. Brown did in Some Like It Hot.Definitely worth the wait.

1935, a good year for this movie. Lionel Barrymore is the expert on vampires and is called in when Lionel Atwill, the inspector from Prague, finally believes that vampires do exist. Bela Lugosi plays the boss vampire and has his clutch, coven,(?) of lesser vampires. So they get together and go looking for their lair. They find it but don't do much. In this version the vampires can only be killed by cutting off their heads and putting a special plant in the neck cavity. Using a ploy to find out what happened in Irena's fathers murder it is found out that Baron Otto was the culprit. He put something in the wine leading to daddy passing out and the Baron then made it look like a vampire did it. So the Baron is caught and it turns out Bela and his brood are just a traveling troop. Now I will confess from the way they presented everything that part took me by surprise.

The film deserves some points for mood setting and general creepiness. But the twist ending is a joke, akin to a Scooby Doo episode but without the buildup or humor that you expect when watching Scooby Doo.SPOILERS The plot is so full of holes that it's hardly a shame to give anything away. But here's the big one: the Baron kills the Sir Karill, apparently with an eye on eventually getting to the daughter's inheritance. He makes it look like vampires did it (with an extremely hokey scissors pinpricks and a heated glass to completely drain the body of blood???). Separate nit: You never see any neck wounds on anyone so are never sure what the heck is really happening. So to trap him, Zeler enlists actors and an exact duplicate of the dead Sir Karill to act like vampires??? Huh? To create a fear factor that will render the baron susceptible to hypnosis? WTH?? The Baron knows he – not vampires – killed the count. Vampires showing up now MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. The jarring revelation of this (plus the creepy old castle suddenly becoming clean and modern) will leave you wondering what the heck is going on.Separate nit: In re-enacting the killing, the duplicate count decides to go ahead and drink whatever the baron prepared for him knowing it's tainted. WTH? That could be poison! With the blood drained, who could tell later what killed him?] BTW, just how did Luna transform into a bat (or even have a bat flying around) if they weren't real vampires? See the Trivia that it took 3 days to shoot this shot. If you like old films for old films sake, maybe you'll enjoy this. But as far as a story, the ending will make you feel cheated and confused.