What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #144

For any of you that read my latest Paused post you already know I watched Ed Wood and I watched it for two reasons, the second I’ll explain below, but the first was simply because I wanted to be reminded of the kind of film Tim Burton and Johnny Depp could come together and make. Where the imagination went and why everything now has to be so tame is beyond me, but back in the mid-’90s Burton was on top of his game as this and Mars Attacks! are easily my favorite two movies from the man.

I was going to post an article showing a screen capture from Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Ed Wood and Dark Shadows, exhibiting the similarities between Lugosi’s Dracula, Landau’s Lugosi and Depp’s Barnabus Collins, but then I felt I couldn’t really do the comparison without including Christopher Lee’s turn as Dracula so I just stopped short. However, it’s always fun to return to this flick along with the other classic monster movies from Universal’s archives.

I am expecting to interview William Friedkin next month when he arrives for a tribute at the Seattle Film Festival so I started revisiting his work with one of his best known features. One thing I’ll throw out there just to see if it sticks is I got the impression both Father Karras and Father Dyer may actually be gay, which presented an interesting twist on the story. Of course, watching “The Version You’ve Never Seen” does add a few more bits to the story that help in coming to this conclusion. Any of you think the same thing or disagree?