Tonight’s movie is Jesús Franco’s take on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” from 1970. This is reputed to be the truest adaptation to the novel and a version of the story I’ve never seen before. It is also in the unique position of being Christopher Lee’s single non-comedic appearance as Dracula outside of the many Hammer films. Indeed it was actually made in a year when he appeared twice for Hammer in the role and had a cameo as the character in a Spike Lee comedy. For someone concerned with being typecast it seems like probably a bad move. Lee’s interest in this particular movie though stems from one of his long standing issues with his Hammer appearances: He always wanted to play the character more like he was in the novel. So now he had his chance.
October Review Challenge – Day 21
The story starts with lawyer Jonathan Harker (played by Frederick Williams), travelling to Transylvania to secure property for Count Dracula. If you are reading this you probably know how this goes by now so I’ll keep it brief. Dracula is of course going to feed on him after doing the necessary paperwork for his new property in England. After the first feeding though Harker manages to escape and finds himself back in England (Apparently someone found his unconscious body in Transylvania and transported him asleep back to the UK. Handy).
Back in the UK, Harker finds himself at a psychiatric clinic owned by Dr. Van Helsing. Naturally no one believes him about Dracula, until Van Helsing spots the bite marks on his neck. Harker’s fiancée Mina and her friend Lucy arrive to take care of Harker, but unbeknownst to them Dracula has followed and begins to prey on the women. Lucy dies and returns as a vampire herself, at which point Van Helsing and company set out to rid themselves of Dracula and his cohorts. This eventually leads back to Transylvania where the Count is attempting to return.
Production Quality
Despite the expanded role for Lee (Who never talked much in the Hammer series) and the accuracy to the source the movie clearly lacks in a lot of the production values Hammer brought to the table. The sound designed is grating to say the least and a number of times the effects reminded me of those used in Bela Lugosi’s time (40 years earlier). On top of this a lot of the camera work is downright shoddy. I know this is low budget, but I wasn’t expecting it to look that low budget. While the music obviously couldn’t utilise Hammer’s themes for the character, what it does present doesn’t seem to quite fit.
The plot meanwhile, while relatively true to the source really seems to drag, despite the relatively short run time for the film. The conclusion of the film feels anti-climactic and I can’t help but find myself missing the more action orientated endings of the Hammer films. Those always seemed to deliver a dramatic finale, but here it’s a bit of a matter-of-fact ending; It just sort of happens.
Characters and Performances
Christopher Lee does an decent job, but by his standards it is below average and the truth is while he may talk more than in the Hammer films he still doesn’t get a lot of screen time. Like in the novel Dracula initially appears as an old man but gets younger every time he feeds, this doesn’t really factor in to much in the plot outside from a casual reference later on.
Klaus Kinski puts in a very good performance as the bug eating Renfield, though the characters role in the film is relatively short. Herbert Lom performs his part as Van Helsing with authority but the character itself seems largely wasted in this version, having a stroke about 2/3rds of the way through and then being relegated away from the action. In the novel while he doesn’t kill Dracula himself, he is still involved in the action, disposing of his minions. The rest of the cast are pretty average.
Conclusion
Overall, while a bit of a curiosity and perhaps of mild interest to fans of Christopher Lee or Bram Stoker’s novel, it is ultimately a poor vampire horror that compares badly to the original Hammer Dracula with Lee. The opening scenes with Harker at Castle Dracula are good, but it’s all downhill after that. This is a 4/10.
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