Hrabé Drakula

Wow. This review was posted only two hours ago, and that little punk bitch with multiple accounts, who votes down anything I post has already begun voting down this review. He/ she must have absolutely no life, and they've been doing this for years already.

Anyway,

Beautiful, snowbound Gothic castle, filmed in high contrast black-and- white with long, seemingly endlessly repeating hallways, and eerie, clever uses of light and focus are all major assets to this obscure Czechoslovakian retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The screenplay (by novice writers Oldrich Zelezny and Anna Prochakova) is well done, and followed its source material fairly closely.

But quote frankly, I found the acting of the entire cast to be rather weak. As the Count, Ilja Racek, looking more like Michael Lonsdale than Dracula, that didn't work for me, and the rest of the cast was just simply there.

At 76 minutes, this Czech-TV Dracula is a relatively brief and, rather surprisingly, a fairly faithful adaptation. If one only wanted the gist of Bram Stoker's novel and would rather watch a movie than read anything besides subtitles, than this "Count Dracula" might be the best option. Personally, I've been seeking out a bunch of Dracula movies since reading the book, and I'm not a fan of these TV versions. They're incapable of rendering visuals anywhere near what one's imagination could from reading the book. The 1977 BBC TV-movie "Count Dracula" is arguably the most faithful screen adaptation ever made, but it's likewise far from being one of the best. Better are those that focus on a few major themes and re-imagine them in novel ways (my favorite is the postmodern silent-film ballet "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary" (2002)) or to be one of those few that contain something that completely alters our imagination of Dracula, such as Bela Lugosi's iconic performance in the 1931 "Dracula."

Another big problem with this TV movie is its lack of blood and sex, especially given that this was made more than a decade after Hammer introduced their red blood and bosoms formula to the genre with its "Dracula" (1958). Really, it's a testament to people's desire to sit at home rather than do anything else that TV managed to thrive when so much superior work was being shown in cinema theatres. That said, this Czech version does have some things going for it. Condensing Stoker's long book into a coherent three acts at an hour and a quarter length is an accomplishment in itself. Many other movies have done worse in this regard with much more time. It even manages to retain some of the epistolary structure of Stoker's plot--mostly by using Jonathan Harker's diary journals, supplemented by his internal narration and one newspaper account of Lucy's vampiric deeds. Along with the title cards at the beginning of each act, this narration makes this an extremely accessible adaptation; everyone should be able to follow along.

Perhaps, more surprising, yet, is how much of the novel it manages to retain. The first act covers Jonathan's stay at Castle Dracula, beginning with his journey through the Borgo Pass. The suggestion that Dracula is also the horse-carriage driver is well rendered through a focus on his grip of Jonathan's hands, both as the driver and as the Count back at the castle. The use of German Shepherds for wolves is less impressive, but too many Dracula movies have done that, too. Dracula's scaling of walls is economically done, and simple special effects (superimpositions and substitution splices) occur throughout. The three fem vamps are actually dressed as ladies, as per the novel, but unusual in the movies. There's only one slow-motion shot of a flying bat, which I only mention because directors like Werner Herzog, of the 1979 "Nosferatu," employed such shots ad nauseam.

The second act covers Lucy's victimization at the hands of Dracula. The characters of Renfield and Lucy's Texan suitor are economically cut, and only Arthur offers his blood for a transfusion. The final act deals with the threat of Mina's life following that of Lucy's and with the gang pursuing the vampire with the help of Mina's psychic connection and the information of Jonathan's Diary. Unfortunately, but like most screen adaptations, Mina's role as a surrogate storyteller--with her own diary entries and by her role as the editor of everyone else's records--and the gang's leader is reduced. Instead, Jonathan is our narrator, and Van Helsing is the main hero here. The castle used is pretty good, with nice corridors, which allows for one of the TV movie's few major alterations to the book at the end. I think the movie could've used even more alterations, actually, besides its Dracula also having a full beard. One of my favorite Dracula movies and the only one I've seen that was made farther East than this one is "Drakula Istanbul'da" (1953), a Turkish film that largely re-imagined the narrative in creative ways for the locations it was made at and the audience it was made for. At least, then, we wouldn't have had actors speaking Czech as their characters discussed how they were speaking English.

(Mirror Note: Dracula has no reflection in Jonathan's mirror as the latter is shaving. This may be the most faithful version of this scene from the novel ever put on a screen, including Dracula dropping the mirror out the window. Plus, this Dracula's beard works well for the anti-shaving message.)