Dracula

MORD39 RATING: *** out of ****

At first glance, Jack Palance would seem to be the wrong type for the lead in this television version of DRACULA; but once the movie is well under way, he is purely magnificent in the role. He admittedly truly got "into" the character, so much so that he sometimes feared he might never be able to get out again!

In the disastrous 1990's we were fed Coppola's BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, which was a huge disappointment. It stole elements from this 1973 version, most notably the idea of Dracula as a more sympathetic character searching for the reincarnation of his old lover (here she's played by the stunning Fiona Lewis). But the 1992 version failed miserably because we grew to really like Dracula, and that should NEVER happen. But with this Dan Curtis production, we can feel sad for the Count's dilemma, yet still fear and despise him as the villain despite his tragedy. Palance's vampire comes off as a monster, but with just a hint of his past life of humanity which even he seems to miss.

The direction is sound, and the scenery is simple but atmospheric.

To this date, not one version of Stoker's novel has been adapted exactly as he intended it, including this one. There are liberties taken here, but it still remains a better choice than the Coppola film. This is a relatively unseen item that should be re-discovered.

Other fans of DARK SHADOWS will recognize the lost-love element as having come from Barnabas Collins' tragic situation in that series. It adds a magnificent new element to the Dracula story without diluting the original. Bob Cobert's music, also familiar to DARK SHADOWS fans, is the perfect accompaniment to the tale of the vampire count. I have watched this numerous times since it became available on tape.

The various film adaptations of DRACULA have covered probably most of the ways this can be interpreted, from implied sexual perversion (1931), raw sexuality (HORROR OF DRACULA), flagrant, swept-off-one's-feet romance (1979), to historical retrospective (1992), to modern revisionism (2000). This film takes elements of most of these in a neat TV package with an appropriately British supporting cast.

Watch every version anyway; Dracula is a unique addiction!

Leave it to a film class student to come up with a ridiculous, negative review (see below)! The Dan Curtis _Dracula_ was the first version to add the variation of the long-lost love angle to the traditional vampire story. Curtis's variation seems to have worked; it's showed up in several other later versions. What's more, the adaptation of Stoker's novel "feels" right and is very faithful to the original. Jack Palance, far from looking constipated (see review below), brings an eerie ambiguity to the film with his odd expressions--is he in pain? Is he sad about what he does? We don't know, and that makes the film worth seeing again and again. As in Curtis's well-known series _Dark Shadows_, the suspenseful music (by the marvelous Robert Cobert) is made to tell a great deal of the story. And as always, the music fits the images like a glove. The supporting actors are _all_ fabulous--I'm a big fan of Nigel Davenport. And now that the film is available on DVD, one has a greater sense for Curtis's grand visual style. In short, this _Dracula_'s a keeper, one of the really great versions of Bram Stoker's wonderful novel.

Jack Palance is not the sexiest nor the spookiest Dracula, but he's a marvelous choice for many reasons--and he definitely stands out from the other (often memorable) performances. Only a couple of years before doing this movie, Palance starred in the film THE HORSEMAN, playing a legendary bukashi rider; it was only one of several such horseman-warrior roles Palance specialized in (including the part of Revak in an Italian film titled THE BARBARIANS). In fact, Palance is an actor who can claim to have played both Dracula AND Attila the Hun.

Some might wonder what that has do with the bloodsucking count, but at one point in the Stoker novel, Dracula says, "the blood of Attila flows through these veins." Though they didn't retain that particular line, the film-makers emphasize from beginning to end this particular Dracula is an ex-warrior--and Palance suggests a former, Magyar beserker brilliantly.

This is also the first version of the novel to have the motivation of Dracula travelling to England for the purpose of reclaiming his lost love--an idea that adds a touch of pathos. Perhaps Dan Curtis did simply re-use it from his DARK SHADOWS series, but I can't help but wonder, however, if the idea might also have sprung from this movie's adapter, Richard Matheson. A talented novelist in his own right, Matheson wrote the book (and the screenplay) of SOMEWHERE IN TIME, which also has a central character searching for his true love across the ages. In any case, it's an approach that adds a layer to Dracula's character and would be used again in the Coppola version. I think it will be used in future adaptations as well. In any case, for the record, this was the version that did it first.

All in all, this version isn't as stylish or as atmospheric as some others, but it's well worthwhile and is a must in any Dracula fan's library.

This seldom-seen, seldom-discussed Dracula film is all in all pretty entertaining. It is a fairly faithful adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel, although it integrates the Vlad Tepes myth into the storyline as well. One definitely can see this film being an inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's trashy film of the 90's. Jack Palance may not have been the best choice for the role of the toothsome lead. He does overact with his somewhat ludicrous sneers and temper tantrums, but that not withstanding the rest of the cast is quite good(all of them British coincidentally) with Nigel Davenport standing out in a Van Helsing role which I wish had been bigger and Fiona Lewis just being scrumptuous! Dan Curtis does a very competent job directing and the sets, costumes, props, etc... are lavish and beautiful. This is certainly an interesting film to see in the long line of Dracula films made.