That’s Why The Landlord Was Familiar--For Me, Anyway

[calliopes_pen]

Don’t worry, there won’t be any spoilers for yesterday’s episode of Doctor Who. Well, today’s for me, since I had a severe migraine (and accompanying nausea related extras*) at the time it was streaming yesterday, and onwards through when it would have aired on BBC America.

I kept thinking that David Suchet looked very familiar, and that it wasn’t just due to the role as Hercule Poirot (which I’ve never seen, aside from the occasional promo on either KET or PBS). It turns out he played Van Helsing in Dracula (2006).

While it isn't a particularly good adaptation, it had one of the better castings I've seen for Lucy Westenra in Sophia Myles. I watched it for the first time a couple months ago.

*I would have posted a 'this community is open' for hidden_passages yesterday, if not for the migraine. I'll get on that now. I'm torn between three layouts for it, but I'm currently going with Amaranth in Librarian's Dream (the other two are Touch in Dusty Foot, and Pigeon Blue in Librarian's Dream).

Comments

[sovay]

I kept thinking that David Suchet looked very familiar, and that it wasn’t just due to the role as Hercule Poirot (which I’ve never seen, aside from the occasional promo on either KET or PBS). It turns out he played Van Helsing in Dracula (2006).

Nice! I saw him onstage almost twenty years ago and have been fond of him ever since.

[thisbluespirit]

It turns out he played Van Helsing in Dracula (2006).

Poirot is pretty much inescapable here so everyone knows him from it, but David Suchet is a lovely actor. I'm amused about the above because it's good to see the old-school casting of mentality of "they look a bit foreign/have played one character with an accent so can totally play any other foreigner/person with an accent" is not yet dead, because obv. Poirot's Belgian accent is the same as a Dutch one. Albeit I would imagine he probably bettered Bernard Archard's frequently Welsh one.

[calliopes_pen]

In that adaptation, unfortunately Van Helsing didn't get that much to do. He's seen in bed at the start, wakes up, and shrieks because a vampire is in his bedroom. It cuts to something else, and you don't see him again for the rest of the film. At least not until he's discovered locked in someone's basement.

In the extremely limited amount of time he had on screen, Suchet did the best he could as Van Helsing. He probably had less than 20 minutes.

[thisbluespirit]

unfortunately Van Helsing didn't get that much to do. He's seen in bed at the start, wakes up, and shrieks because a vampire is in his bedroom. It cuts to something else, and you don't see him again for the rest of the film. At least not until he's discovered locked in someone's basement.

LOL, so it was Van Helsing's turn to be the Special Snowflake of vampire hunters? Is there always at least one? :-D That does sound like rather a waste of the casting though! (He's also very good as Melmotte in the BBC adaptation of Trollope's The Way We Live Now.)

Oh, and...
I have two questions about hidden_passages, one is a general, maybe useful one, so I shall ask that at the post; the other is just a comment/quibble/suggestion about the rules, which I thought better to say here, which is in the rules, this bit:

Icon posts are allowed, for areas that relate to gothic horror or gothic romance.
-The same goes for fanfic; it is allowed, so long as it relates.

Comes across rather as if you don't really want fanworks at all on your discussion comm, but will grudgingly accept links/posts of icons and fic. Which is fine if that's what you meant, of course! I suspect it wasn't, so my comment is this sounds rather as if you don't really want fic or icons; also do you want to exclude all other fanwork types (vids, particularly, but any graphics, rec sets, podfic, or fanmixes?) My suggestion would be (if the answer is, yes, you would want fanworks, including all/various of those things), maybe something vaguely along the lines of: "All fanworks are welcome as long as they relate to Gothic Horror/Romance fandoms. Please put NSFW/large graphics/gifs/icons beyond teasers/embeds/spoilers under a cut." (I would also suggest adding to that: No RPF allowed to the end of that, with no explanation. (Sometimes explanations seem to make things worse and annoy people, when a rule doesn't.) Do you also meant to exclude Historical RPF (like, say, things set around that time Shelly, Byron et al were in Switzerland together telling ghost stories? Because if not, you may need to clarify.)

I hope you don't mind my comments! It just jumped out at me, as someone whose most likely contribution is going to be various fanworks.

[calliopes_pen]

I had to go back and check again, since it's on Youtube in its entirety. Seward unlocks the basement door in someone's mansion and there he is, makeshift crosses made of twigs surrounding him. He's just glad to see sunlight at long last again once things are concluded. He even insists Seward and Mina walk away towards sunlight so he can just watch them before he departs by carriage.

Oh, and this is the version with Arthur discovering he was born with syphilis after his father dies (messily) from it when Arthur is 20. Which...isn't really how that should work, since symptoms would appear prior, I believe. And Marc Warren is Dracula (Elton from Doctor Who's Love And Monsters).

Comes across rather as if you don't really want fanworks at all on your discussion comm, but will grudgingly accept links/posts of icons and fic. Which is fine if that's what you meant, of course! I suspect it wasn't, so my comment is this sounds rather as if you don't really want fic or icons; also do you want to exclude all other fanwork types

No, I'm quite pleased to accept icons and fanfic. I'll have to reword it in just a bit, most likely with exactly what you suggested. I'll blame a briefly dead post-migraine brain on the bad wording. I thought of fan vids a few minutes ago, and was planning to edit a note on that in. Good idea for rec sets, fanmixes and podfics. Since I don't really tend to gravitate towards the latter I didn't even think of it.

I hope you don't mind my comments! It just jumped out at me, as someone whose most likely contribution is going to be various fanworks.

I don't mind at all, so thank you! Given an uncertainty in regards to Historical RPF, not allowing it at all and not going onward from there sounds good.

(And I'll add Mary Shelley and Lord Byron to the interests section, while I'm thinking of it.)

[thisbluespirit]

Seward unlocks the basement door in someone's mansion and there he is, makeshift crosses made of twigs surrounding him. He's just glad to see sunlight at long last again once things are concluded. He even insists Seward and Mina walk away towards sunlight so he can just watch them before he departs by carriage.

Aww. I was almost wanting to watch it just for that and then you said the magic turn off words, Marc Warren. (I mean, it's unfair, Marc Warren is a good actor, but he was in everything at one time, and it was too much!)

As to Syphilis, I think it is possible you wouldn't automatically know you have congenital syphilis - you might have symptoms, you might not, you might have them but not necessarily know what the cause was (or be in denial about it). And it might depend exactly how long after it was contracted he was born as to how noticeable or not symptoms were. (I read up on it once, but it was a while ago.) That sounds kind of melodramatic in a v 21st C look-at-us-being-grim-and-historical kind of way, though!

I'll have to reword it in just a bit, most likely with exactly what you suggested. I'll blame a briefly dead post-migraine brain on the bad wording.

I'm pedantic and nitpicky, but it was worth mentioning because so is a good half of fandom! Heh. I'm glad you didn't mind, and I think that all looks pretty straightforward and clear and welcoming to me now!

ETA: Except for one bit of my own bad/hasty wording - I think "other than teasers" in the icon bit under cut for... rather than "beyond teasers" but I also have little brain today!!

[calliopes_pen]

The Marc Warren bit is a big part of why I didn't track it down for a while. While he can be creepy in this version, he doesn’t feel right for the role.

I think Arthur was supposedly asymptomatic and then upon being told, suddenly he had sores on his arms, and elsewhere, and looked pale and a bit clammy before he was murdered. He also decided that he wouldn't consummate his marriage with Lucy. In this version, they are married. They made it that far.

Arthur knows what happened with Lucy since he brought Dracula to England. He refuses to allow Seward to treat her for blood loss, even holding Seward at gunpoint. Seward then suspects she was poisoned. And that's why Seward became nosy and checked around basements.

Actually, if you skip to almost the very end, you get a hint of Seward/Mina making plans to go eat together for a split second prior to Dracula in old age make-up trying to leave the door open for a sequel. (Which happily never came to be.)

Van Helsing actually asks, right after Seward saves them all (well, whoever's left) by thrusting a stake through Dracula's back, and he's basically a pile of clothing and mist: "...Did you get his heart?"

Seward actually had to check around the remains, but the answer was yes. Yes, he did.

There are three Youtube uploads for the film on Youtube, so far as I'm aware; two in their entirety, and one broken up into 9 parts. So if you want to just see those bits, Seward finds Van Helsing in a creepy basement in part 7, after finding a house with people Dracula killed/made kill themselves. Part 8 has Van Helsing out of the basement, and at least trying to help as Lucy attacks.

Go with part 9 for the staking of Dracula, brief flicker of Mina/Seward after seeing Van Helsing off, Arthur getting smacked around by Mina for what he's done, and a letter to the beyond as she says goodbye to Jonathan. Just ignore the subtitles.

(No problem, I’ll fix that in a moment.)

[thisbluespirit]

Aww, I loved the little bit of Mina/Seward! I'd been wondering if, among the many adapations, any went that way, and there's one - with bonus David Suchet! (I don't know quite how I progressed to multi-shipping any Mina/any Seward, but apparently it's a thing now.) Maybe I'll have to track it down and watch it despite Marc warren. As you say, so not Dracula!

and then upon being told, suddenly he had sores on his arms

lol, as you do!