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entau
Apr-07-2007, 5:54pm
1913 - silent swedish film " vampyren" or "the vampyre"

near the end - the evil vampire's henchman ( a sort of hunchback "Igor" type)is playing a very ornate bowlback mandolin , quite well actually.

a repsectable means of passing the time between abducting voluptuous victims for his master -

I caught this on Turner Classic movies -

it is a very strange film , and probably not availible on DVD.
but given the era - not sure if mandolin's were as popular in Scandinavia as they were in the states -
I'm guessing the actor was a mandolinist and the director let him have his 15 minutes of fame.
JeffD
Apr-07-2007, 6:40pm
Interesting that the director of that movie felt the bowlback mandolin was appropriatel "exotic" for his movie.
Bob DeVellis
Apr-08-2007, 8:03am
near the end - the evil vampire's henchman ( a sort of hunchback "Igor" type)is playing a very ornate bowlback mandolin , quite well actually.

Wait, silent film, right? I guess you mean he "had the moves."
MikeEdgerton
Apr-08-2007, 8:16am
I'm sure Turner has added a musical sound track. The silent movies generally had a musical score.

When that movie was made the bowlback was probably the common mandolin style in the area that the movie was supposed to depict and in the country where the film was made.
entau
Apr-09-2007, 12:17am
yeah - it "looked' like he was really playing and the "sound" seemed to match -
I don't know how the score was edited in - but it had other "orchestral" music behind the scenes.

wierd movie anyhow -

but you know mandolin players - always hangin around with the riffraff - pickin old tunes in lonly stone towers

you'd think with the sweedish fiddle tradition they might have gone with taht - but maybe the director ( mittzer? ) -
felt fiddling was for respectable upstanding citizens - while pickin a mando was for the nare do wellls
MikeEdgerton
Apr-09-2007, 7:28am
pickin old tunes in lonly stone towers

Hey, that sounds like my life.... either that or Jim Garber's life...

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
GTG
Apr-09-2007, 12:51pm
playing mandolin

a repsectable means of passing the time between abducting voluptuous victims
Yes, sounds like my typical weekend...
Timbofood
Apr-09-2007, 12:55pm
I believe it's "Ne'er do wells" as in poor slob can't catch a break