Count Dracula (1969 film)
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| Count Dracula | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jesus Franco |
| Produced by | Harry Alan Towers Arturo Marcos |
| Written by | Jesus Franco Harry Alan Towers Bram Stoker |
| Starring | Christopher Lee Herbert Lom Klaus Kinski Soledad Miranda Maria Rohm Fred Williams Paul Müller |
| Music by | Bruno Nicolai |
| Release date(s) | 1970 |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Count Dracula was a film adaptation of the novel Dracula. It was directed by Jesus Franco in 1969, starring Christopher Lee as the Count, Klaus Kinski as Renfield, Herbert Lom as Van Helsing and Soledad Miranda as Lucy.
Although Count Dracula stars Christopher Lee in the title role, it is not a Hammer production like his other Dracula films, but was produced by Harry Alan Towers. It is sometimes considered the most faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel.
It was released also in Italy as Il conte Dracula, in Spain as El Conde Dracula and in Germany as Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht.
[edit] Plot summary
The film starts with a shot of Count Dracula's castle and the following text: "Over fifty years ago, Bram Stoker wrote the greatest of all horror stories. Now, for the first time, we retell exactly as he wrote, one of the first--and still the best--tales of the macabre".
Jonathan Harker, a lawyer from London travelling to transylvania to secure property for Count Dracula, arrives at Bistritz to stay for the night where he's warned by a concerned lady against going to Count Dracula's the following day. Harker, being an English lawyer, thinks little of her outburst but starts to feel increasingly unnerved by the way everyone looks at him. Harker sets off for the rest of his journey and arrives at the borgo pass where he's picked up by The Count, though Harker doesn't realise it's him till later on.
Harker arrives at Castle Dracula and the coach rushes off. Somewhat hesitantly, Harker approaches the door whereupon a thin, tall, gaunt old man opens it. "Count Dracula?" "I am Dracula, enter freely and of your own will" dialogue straight from Bram Stoker's book. Anothert another reference from the book that most film adaptions of Dracula ignore is Dracula himself as an old man with a moustache, and clad from head to toe in black. Dracula takes Harker to his bed chamber where he notices that Dracula casts no reflection. In the following scene, Harker dines and tells the Count of London and such, more dialogue from the book.
Later, Harker goes to sleep in his bedroom then for some undisclosed (or bad continuity) reason Harker is seduced by three beautiful vampresses in a basement room not his own bedroom that he fell asleep in, the Count rushes into the room in a rage and orders them to leave him as "this man belongs to me" the Count then gives them a baby to feed on.
Harker realises he's now a prisoner and climbs out of his bedroom window and finds Count Dracula and his three brides in coffins. Harker runs out of a window screaming.
The film moves to England and Abraham Van Helsing's private lunatic asylum where Harker is lying on a bed being treated by Dr. John Seward. Harker has a fit screaming about giant bats.
Harker's fiancée, Mina, is called to the lunatic asylum to see Harker for the first time since his visit to Transylvania. She arrives bringing along with her her best friend, Lucy Westenra. When they get to the lunatic asylum, Mina speaks to Harker but can't get any sense out of him. Suddenly, Lucy faints. Lucy and Mina stay at the lunatic asylum to keep an eye on Harker. Soon thereafter, Lucy becomes ill. Dracula has been visiting her while she's been staying at the asylum.
Quincey Morris, Lucy's fiancée, joins Drs. Seward and Helsing and the men fret over Lucy's condition. They give her a blood transfusion from Quincey but it doesn't seem that Van Helsing makes any effort other than the blood transfusion to save Lucy. Dracula gets younger while feeding off Lucy.
Of growing interest to the men, though, is one of the patients at the lunatic asylum, R.M Renfield, who is classed as a zoophagus. He eats flies and insects in order to consume their life, believing that with each life he consumes he gains that life. He seems to act violently whenever Dracula is around.
Lucy eventually dies while her men look on. Lucy, thanks to Van Helsing's sudden knowledge of vampires, is diagnosed as one. Lucy feeds off the blood of little children and the men destroy her in her tomb. Harker comes around and joins the group who then ascertain that Count Dracula is their vampire.
Dracula then turns his attention to Mina and Van Helsing (somewhat bizzarely) has a stroke and remains in a wheel chair for a short time.
Count Dracula returns to Transylvania and is trailed by Harker and Quincey who then set him on fire he turns back into an old man and burns to death.
[edit] External links
| Characters of Dracula |
|---|
| Dracula | Jonathan Harker | Mina Harker | Abraham Van Helsing | Lucy Westenra | Renfield |
| Film Adaptations of Dracula |
| Nosferatu | Dracula (1931) | House of Dracula | Dracula (1958) | Count Dracula (1969) | Dracula (1979) | Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht | Love At First Bite | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Dracula: Dead and Loving It | Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary |
