Michael Visaroff

Born December 18, 1892, in Moscow, Russia
Died February 27, 1951 in Hollywood, California

See Internet Movie Database Filmography

A Few Favorite Memories of Michael Visaroff

• As the genial, mustachioed Innkeeper in the opening scenes of Tod Browning's Dracula (1931), attempting to warn Renfield (Dwight Frye) about the perils of a midnight rendezvous with Bela Lugosi (possibly the first lines about the supernatural ever spoken in the talkies):

  Castle Dracula!?...To de Castle! Nooo — you musn't go dere! We people of the mountains believe at the Castle there are vampires! Dracula and his wives they take the form of wolves! And bats! They leave their coffins at night and they feed on the blood of the living!.... Look — the sun! When it is gone they leave their coffins! Come — we must go indoors!

• As Jean the caretaker, raving to his master about trespassing human oddities in Tod Browning's Freaks (1932):

  At first I could not believe my own eyes — a lot of horrible twisted things, you know — crawling, whining, laughing! Oh M'sieu there must be a law in France to smother such things at birth...or lock 'em up! ....Children!? They're monsters!

• As the Parisian carnival barker ballyhooing Bela Lugosi's monkey show in Robert Florey's Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932):

  Attention! Attention, ladies and gentlemen! Step closer! Closer! Behind this curtain is the strangest creature your eyes will ever behold — Erik, the Ape Man! The monster who walks upright and speaks a language even as you and I! The ruler of the jungle whose giant hands can tear a man in half! Erik — the Ape Man! The beast with a human soul! More cunning than a man and stronger than a lion! Step up, ladies and gentlemen — step right in! Soldiers and children half price! Step up, ladies and gentlemen — don't miss this opportunity!

• As another ethnic Innkeeper spelling it out for more disbelieving outlanders in Tod Browning's Mark of the Vampire (1935):

  I'm sorry, gentleman and lady, but it will be best for you to stay here tonight....Please, you do not understand — it is not the roads, it is the darkness! Here our doors are protected with bat thurns (thorns).... It keeps 'em out! They're afraid of it — the Demons of the Castle!

Last revised May 9 2021 by George "E-gor" Chastain.

Maintained by George "E-gor" Chastain (e-mail: egorschamber@gmail.com)