MovieChat Forums > Dracula (1958) Discussion > With Gerda everything went down the drai...

With Gerda everything went down the drain


I mean, she killed Lucy by removing the garlic and opening the window and she kept the cellar a secret to Hellsing. Okay, both things were unintentionally and she only meant to do good, but she was the main problem.

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I know! She was so random anyways, crying all the time. I thought someone as agitated and uppy as Arthur would've fired her! Oh well.. maybe he liked banging her.

"Of course it's me, who were you expecting?"

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...maybe he just liked banging her.

One thing about these classy Hammer horror movies -- they really bring out the rifined types on the msg board!

He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45

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I was just making a joke. I hardly ever say things like that, but just the idea was so absurd....

I love the Hammer films, because they're really good, but I still like joking about them. I'm sorry I'm not refined enough for you, but not many teenagers are nowadays

"Of course it's me, who were you expecting?"

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rokrox:

Relax. I thought it was funny. At least you know how to put sensible sentences together with proper puntuation and capitalization. Which proably puts you way ahead of most teenagers. I'm in my late 60's now, but be assured I and most of my cohorts were most unrefined as teenagers.

He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45

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Thanks, I'm not really annoyed or anything. The only thing I am annoyed about it that they don't release Horror of Dracula in the UK properly. I had to get it from America and my dad had to get a region free player.

"Of course it's me, who were you expecting?"

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Rokrox:

Enlighten me on this point. I quit watching TV for about 10 years. Did not even have a TV, and now I'm new to DVDs, new to computer in fact. I don't understand this business about regions, etc. Are the kind of DVDs we have in the USA not compatible with the DVD players you have to buy in UK, or what????

The Warner DVD of Horror of Dracula was very good, but perhaps not quite as well-restored as other Hammer classics I have on their disks. By the way, to show you how old I am, I saw Horror of Dracula and most of the Hammer extravaganzas new in movie houses.

He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45

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It must've been way cooler to see them when they were first released!

About the regions: American DVD's are in NTSC/Region 1 coding, which doesn't work in the UK. We have region 2/PAL dvds, which don't work in America. There are also Region 3, 4 and 5 which I think are Asia, Australia and New Zealand, but I'm not sure.

With a region free/multiregional dvd player none of it matters. It's very helpful for me, but I like to put films on my computer, and the American ones don't work with it. Still, at least I get to watch them.

"Of course it's me, who were you expecting?"

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rokrox:

Thanks for clearing up the DVD regional differences for me.

Yes, the Hammer films were received with great excitement in America when they were first released in the late 1950's. Most of the American horror movies produced for more than a decade before this were low-budget programers. Frankenstein and Dracula were considered dead items (no pun intended). The Hammer films were quite different than any we had seen before with glossy, color, high-production values, more blood than we were accustomed to then, and frankly more female cleavage. Not to mention the first rate acting! The names of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee would never again be unfamilar to Americans.

If you haven't already, you should check out The Return of Dracula (1958). This was a very well made wide-screen black and white American production with its own unusual take on the vampire plot. Even though it was released a month before Horror of Dracula was in the USA, I believe it must have been inspired by the Hammer Horror of Dracula, which I can remember received a great deal of publicity in this county's press while it was still in the production stage.

He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45

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I actually feel a little sorry for Gerda.
She's a servant pretty much doing everything everyone tells her ... but she always gets it wrong!
She listens to the wrong Miss, Mrs, or Sir.

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I actually feel a little sorry for Gerda.
She's a servant pretty much doing everything everyone tells her ... but she always gets it wrong!


she should've had a spin-off 

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As an American Peter Cushing fan, titles like "Fury at Smugglers' Bay" are only available in Region 2 (British manufacture), but I was surprised to see one of my favorite comedies only available in Australia (Region 4), "Where Does It Hurt?" a 1971 Hollywood obscurity starring Peter Sellers. I purchased a Region free DVD player on Amazon for only 30 dollars. Then I was able to buy the few remaining SHERLOCK HOLMES BBC shows starring Cushing, never expecting to find them available. The Region 2 of "Vampire Circus" comes from Spain!

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[deleted]

I thought Gerda was a problem too. Why didn't she just go and get Lucy's brother or sister in law ... let them take the blame if they moved the flowers.

And she wasn't told to keep the cellar a secret she was told not to go down into the cellar under any circumstances. She was okay with that. But taking it upon herself to remove the flowers when she was told not to. That is a firing offense. But the bother was quite calm about her doing it.

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Arthur was probably too wrung out to get angry about it.

Maybe Gerda's seeming incompetence is why her daughter seemed to be raised by the Holmwoods. LOL

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Perhaps she'd been in the family so long ... she was like family ... like an old aunt some people hide in the attic because they don't have the heart to send them to a home.

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She moved the plot along .

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Yeah, but it made her character look stupid, and inconsiderate for taking it upon herself to disobey orders. It would have been more feasible it if had been a family member rather than a servant.

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Gerda wasn't very intelligent, but I agree that she did mean well. She was an adorable little character.

"Come, fly the teeth of the wind. Share my wings."

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Undercover Drac agent? :D

-----
Reason is a pursuit, not a conclusion.

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This is what I was going to say but you beat me to it.
Maybe we have all been fooled. No one checked Gerda's neck for marks. Although she made physical contact with the garlic flowers. Maybe she was just a tough enough old girl to withstand it.


.

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Gerda was a simple servant, and she had to listen foremost to her masters, that is, the family she lived with.

Now Dr A. van Helsing was an authority, but when given contradictory orders she had to follow her masters first (Miss Lucy, by taking the flowers away; Mrs Mina, by not going into the cellar). You could get jobless pretty easy in the old world where people were not equal.

But Gerda's masters seemed to be okay, they were even nice to her little daughter. So Gerda seems - in a way - part of the family, and she felt sorry for Lucy feeling so ill and having breathing problems because of the garlic flowers.



"I don't discriminate between entertainment
and arthouse. A film is a goddam film."

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At least with Gerda in Horror of Dracula she only did what people around her were telling her to do, and she's shown as feeling awful for what she inadvertently did. From what I remember in the book, Gerda was a total moron that I really hated. For example, Van Helsing and Lucy's mother put the garlic in Lucy's room and tell EVERYONE to leave it there, but Gerda puts it away THAT NIGHT. When Van Helsing asked why, Gerda said something like "they smelled awful so I took 'em all and tossed them out." Dipsh!t.

As for joking about Holmwood screwing Gerda, I'm pretty sure Hammer's version of Frankenstein featured Victor Frankenstein (also played by Peter Cushing) having an affair with his female assistant so who knows.

Can't be too careful with all those weirdos running around.

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Leave Gerda alone! That woman is a SAINT! When Mina was ill and getting a blood transfusion, Gerda nursed her. She had her own nurse outfit and everything...

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Gerda was the worst. I mean you had one job Gerda...

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