Count Dracula (1977 film)
Count Dracula | |
---|---|
Directed by | Philip Saville |
Written by | Gerald Savory |
Produced by | Morris Barry |
Starring | Louis Jourdan Frank Finlay Susan Penhaligon Judi Bowker Jack Shepherd |
Edited by | Richard Bedford (film inserts) Rod Waldron (videotape) |
Music by | Kenyon Emrys-Roberts |
Distributed by | BBC |
Release date |
|
Running time | 155 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Count Dracula is a British television adaptation of the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Produced by the BBC (in the then standard video/film hybrid format), it first aired on BBC 2 on 22 December 1977. It is among the more faithful of the many adaptations of the original book.[1][2][3][4] Directed by Philip Saville from a screenplay by Gerald Savory, it stars Louis Jourdan as Count Dracula and Frank Finlay as Professor Van Helsing.
Plot
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (October 2022) |
Lucy Westenra's sister Mina bids farewell to her fiancé Jonathan Harker, who is leaving for a business trip. Harker, a solicitor, is travelling to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania to expedite his purchase of Carfax Abbey and other properties in England.
On the penultimate leg of Harker's trip, in a horse-drawn coach with three locals, one warns him not to attend Dracula's castle. Harker tells the woman not to worry, but she gives him her
In England, Mina and Lucy go to the seaside town of Whitby. Among their friends are Quincey Holmwood (Lucy's American fiancé), and Dr. John Seward, who operates a local asylum. Among Seward's patients is the madman Renfield, who worships and fears Dracula. Mina and Lucy witness a storm in which the foreign ship Demeter goes aground, and is carrying Dracula (in the form of a wolf) and many wooden boxes filled with earth from his home. That same night, a local seaman is found dead, a victim of Dracula. Mina follows a sleepwalking Lucy to the local graveyard and glimpses Dracula holding her in his arms. Lucy thereafter grows pale and weak; at night in her bedroom, Dracula drinks her blood on several occasions. Jonathan, meanwhile, turns up delirious and weak in a convent in Budapest.
Seward calls on his friend
Seward accompanies Van Helsing to Lucy's grave, but find her coffin empty, and afterwards a child who is lost and alone, but who has been bitten by the now-vampiric Lucy. After reporting their findings to an incredulous Holmwood, he, Van Helsing and Seward return to Lucy's family crypt, finding her perched atop. Lucy soon approaches, now a vampire and feral, and attempts to entice Holmwood, but is forced to flee from Van Helsing's crucifix. Later in the tomb, Holmwood drives a wooden stake into Lucy's heart. Van Helsing fills her mouth with garlic and cuts off her head.
Harker, Van Helsing, Seward, and Holmwood all go to Carfax Abbey to sterilize Dracula's refuges – boxes of soil from his native Transylvania – with parts of the
The Count flees back to his castle after losing all his other resting places; the others follow. Van Helsing and Mina go to the castle, while the others follow the Gypsies transporting Dracula's coffin. In the Transylvanian wilderness, Dracula's brides attempt to attack Van Helsing and Mina, but Van Helsing thwarts them with the
Cast
- Louis Jourdan as Count Dracula
- Frank Finlay as Professor Van Helsing
- Susan Penhaligon as Lucy Westenra
- Judi Bowker as Mina Westenra
- Jack Shepherd as Renfield
- Mark Burns as Dr. John Seward
- Bosco Hogan as Jonathan Harker
- Richard Barnes as Quincey P. Holmwood
- Ann Queensberry as Mrs. Westenra
- Sue Vanner, Susie Hickford and Belinda Meuldijk as Dracula's Brides.
- Adam Diamant as the baby that gets eaten in an early scene.
Production
Louis Jourdan said of playing Dracula in interview, "What is so interesting in playing Dracula is that I try to make monstrosity, or, if you prefer, villainy, attractive, very attractive. If we succeed in that, we have won our day. If the audience can be troubled enough to say that maybe Dracula is right in what he says, then we have won... He is an angel, a fallen angel. I think Dracula should be played as an extremely kind person, who truly believes he is doing good. He gives eternal life. He takes blood and he gives blood. Therefore, he gives an exchange which is symbolic of love and the sexual act, such as in the scene we were just doing [in which Dracula gives his blood to Mina Harker]."[5]
Transmission history
Count Dracula was originally shown on
In the United States, Count Dracula was shown as part of PBS's Great Performances anthology series in three parts starting March 1, 1978 and later on Halloween, October 31, 1979.[6]
Reception
Critical reaction to Count Dracula has been mostly positive. Writing in The Guardian, TV critic Nancy Banks-Smith stated it was "A nice plushy production with much galloping off in all directions and sulphurous smoke effects, a pleasant sensation of space and time and money. Something of a hole in the middle though, like a vampire after remedial treatment." She was less positive about the casting and performance of Louis Jourdan, however, which she felt "emphasised the lover at the expense of the demon. It makes a change. Though, I would say, for the worst."[8]
Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV said that "Count Dracula remains one of the best-ever adaptations of Bram Stoker's novel" despite a "couple of missteps", remarking that "the cast is excellent", in particular praising the performances of Frank Finlay and Louis Jourdan, whom he calls "especially good."[9] Critic Steve Calvert agreed that Count Dracula was "one of the better versions" of Stoker's novel, calling it "perhaps even the best." He felt that "few actors have ever played the role [of Van Helsing as] convincingly" as Frank Finlay, that "without doubt, [Jack Shepherd is] the best on-screen embodiment there has ever been of the fly-munching Renfield", and remarked of Jourdan's performance, "[His] Dracula ... exudes a quieter kind of evil. A calculating, educated evil with a confidence and purpose all of its own."[10]
In his book Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen, David J. Skal calls Count Dracula "the most careful adaptation of the novel to date, and the most successful."[1] Brett Cullum of DVD Verdict said the special effects were this version's "biggest downfall" and that it was "perhaps the least visually interesting" Dracula adaptation, though he offered a mostly positive review, remarking that there is "plenty to admire in the production", in particular the "sublime acting".[11] MaryAnn Johanson of FlickFilosopher.com was less positive, writing: "Maybe it had more of an impact in the 70s ... but today, while it remains a stylishly surreal reinterpretation of Bram Stoker’s novel, there’s something a bit dated and stodgy about it".[12]
Home video
In 2002, BBC Learning released Count Dracula on DVD, for sale by direct mail order in the UK only. It was released commercially by BBC Video in 2007.[11]
See also
- Vampire films
References
- ^ ISBN 0-571-21158-5- page 275
- ^ Cinemassacre (20 March 2019), Which Dracula Film is Most Faithful to the Book?, archived from the original on 13 December 2021, retrieved 27 March 2019
- ^ Chris (16 April 2011). "DRACULA 1977". OUT ON YE!. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
- ^ "Count Dracula (1977)". Moria. 29 November 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
- ^ Photoplay magazine, December 1977.
- ^ a b "BFI | Film & TV Database | COUNT DRACULA (1977)". 7 February 2009. Archived from the original on 7 February 2009.
- ^ "BBC Two - Count Dracula - Episode guide". BBC.
- ^ Nancy Banks-Smith (23 December 1977). "Television: Dracula". The Guardian.
- ^ "DVD Talk". www.dvdtalk.com.
- ^ Calvert, Steve (24 May 2019). "Count Dracula (BBC - 1977) - DVD Review".
- ^ a b DVD Verdict Review - Count Dracula: BBC Mini-Series
- ^ Johanson, MaryAnn (24 September 2007). "Count Dracula (review)".