Dracula (1979 film)
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| Dracula | |
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 Promotional movie poster for the film |
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| Directed by | John Badham |
| Produced by | Marvin Mirisch (executive) Walter Mirisch |
| Written by | Novel: Bram Stoker Stage play: Hamilton Deane John L. Balderston Screenplay: W.D. Richter |
| Starring | Frank Langella Sir Laurence Olivier Donald Pleasence Kate Nelligan |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Gilbert Taylor |
| Editing by | John Bloom |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 13, 1979 |
| Running time | 109 min. |
| Country | United States United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dracula is a 1979 horror/romance film starring Frank Langella as Count Dracula. The film was directed by John Badham. The original music score is composed by John Williams. The film's tagline is: "Throughout history, he has filled the hearts of men with pure terror and hearts of women with pure desire."
The film also starred Sir Laurence Olivier as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, Donald Pleasence as Dr. Jack Seward, Kate Nelligan as Lucy Seward, Trevor Eve as Jonathan Harker, Tony Haygarth as Milo Renfield, and Jan Francis as Mina Van Helsing. It won the 1979 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film.
Like Universal's earlier 1931 version starring Bela Lugosi, the screenplay for this adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula is based on the stage adaptation by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which ran on Broadway and also starred Langella in a Tony Award-nominated performance. Notable for its Edwardian setting, and strikingly designed by Edward Gorey, the play ran for over 900 performances between October 1977 and January 1980.
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[edit] Plot summary
Set in Whitby, England (circa 1920's) Dracula arrives via the Demeter one stormy night. A sickly Mina Van Helsing, who is visiting her friend Lucy Seward, discovers Dracula's body after his ship has run aground. Praised by the Count as his "Saviour", he then visits Mina and her friends at the household of Lucy's father, Dr. Seward, (whose clifftop mansion also serves as the local asylum). At dinner, he proves to be a charming guest and leaves a strong impression the hosts, Lucy especially. Less charmed by this handsome Romanian is Jonathan Harker, Lucy's fiancee.
Later that night, while Lucy and Jonathan are having a secret rendezvous, Dracula reveals his true nature as he descends upon Mina to drink her blood. The following morning, Lucy finds Mina awake in bed struggling for breath. Powerless, she watches her friend die right in front of her.
At a loss for the cause of death, Dr. Seward calls for Mina's father, Professor Van Helsing. Van Helsing soon begins to suspect what might have killed his daughter: a vampire. Moreover, Van Helsing now begins to worry about what fate his seemingly dead daughter may now have since her encounter with the murderous vampire. Seward and Van Helsing investigate their suspicions, to discover a makeshift tunnel within Mina's coffin (clawed by hand) which leads to the local mines. It is there, within the dark caverns, they encounter the ghastly form of an undead Mina and it is up to a distraught Van Helsing to destroy what remains of his own daughter.
Lucy meanwhile has been summoned to Carfax Abbey, Dracula's new home, and soon she reveals herself to be in love with this foreign prince and openly offers herself to him as his bride. After a surreal "Wedding Night" sequence, Lucy, like Mina before her, is now infected by Dracula's blood. However, the two doctors manage to give Lucy a blood transfusion to help prevent her vampirism, but nothing can stop the inevitable now.
Now aided by Jonathan, the elderly doctors realise that the only way to defeat Dracula (and save Lucy) is by destroying him. They manage to locate his coffin within the grounds of Carfax Abbey, but the vampire is waiting for them (despite it being daylight Dracula is still a very powerful adversary to his enemies). Dracula escapes their feeble attempt to kill him and bursts into the asylum to free a captive Lucy, and to take her to to his home, Transylvania.
In a race against time, Harker and Van Helsing just manage to get onboard a ship carrying the vampire cargo bound for Transylvania. Below decks, Harker and Van Helsing find The Count's coffin; upon opening it they see Lucy sleeping beside her new "Husband", Dracula. Again they try to destroy him, but The Count awakens and once more fights with his assassins. In the struggle Van Helsing is fatally wounded by Dracula as he is impaled by the stake intended for the vampire. As the enraged Count now turns his attention to Harker, the dying doctor uses his remaining strength to throw a hook (attached to a rope, from the ships rigging), into Dracula's back. Harker seizes his only chance and hoists the Count's body up through the cargo hold and into the sunlight above. Dracula then suffers a slow and painful death as the solar rays burn his body to ashes.
Lucy, now apparently herself once more, reaches out to Harker for support, but is coldly rejected by her one time suitor. It is at that moment that she looks up to see Dracula's cape flying away in the wind, where she smiles enigmatically, hopeful that her true love is not quite so dead after all.
[edit] Deviations from the novel
This list is not exhaustive, but intended to convey a sense of the differences between the film and the novel:
- The setting is shifted to circa 1920.
- The entire storyline about what happens in Transylvania is omitted (as, consequently, are the Brides of Dracula).
- Renfield is a laborer who goes to work at Carfax Abbey, encounters Dracula and goes insane.
- Dracula does not "youthen."
- Mina is Van Helsing's daughter, and becomes a vampire instead of Lucy.
- Van Helsing kills the undead Mina.
- Lucy wants to be a lawyer, and has a sexual relationship with Harker before marriage.
- The characters of Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris are omitted.
- Dr. Seward is Lucy's father, not her suitor.
- Dracula does not have multiple coffins.
- Dracula apparently kills Van Helsing, (although whether Van Helsing lives or dies is not shown)
- Harker kills Dracula on board ship, by forcing him into the sunlight.
[edit] Critical response
In 1979, no less than three major Dracula movies were released simultaneously around the world: Werner Herzog's arthouse re-telling Nosferatu the Vampyre, and released just prior to John Badham's romantic update, the comedy Love At First Bite. The success of the jokey George Hamilton starring film may have had something to do with the muted response Badham's film would subsequently experience. The film performed modestly at the box office and was met with mixed reviews, some feeling the film was too light on actual horror, especially in the wake of two bloody decades of Hammer Horror interpretations; while others found the movie to be an atmospheric take on the legend, praising the impressive sets and John Williams lush classical score. The film also boasts some stand out moments such as:-
- Dracula's seduction of Lucy (Kate Nelligan) in his newly acquired gothic ruin, Carfax Abbey
- the chilling mine shaft sequence as Van Helsing (Sir Laurence Olivier) is forced to stake his vampirized daughter Mina (Jan Francis) (not your usual voluptuous bride of Dracula, but a hideous rotting corpse with red, red, eyes).
Although John Badham's Dracula wasn't quite the hit the studio were expecting, eventually falling into relative cinematic anonymity in more recent years (partly due to it having a limited VHS and DVD release outside of the USA), one thing critics and audiences did agree on however was Frank Langella's commanding and erotic interpretation of the Count, some regarding Langella as the best Dracula since Bela Lugosi.
[edit] Main cast
- Frank Langella - Count Dracula
- Laurence Olivier - Professor Abraham Van Helsing
- Donald Pleasence - Dr. Jack Seward
- Kate Nelligan - Lucy Seward
- Trevor Eve - Jonathan Harker
- Jan Francis - Mina Van Helsing
- Tony Haygarth - Milo Renfield
[edit] DVD and video re-coloring
The theatrical version of the movie is noticeably different from the DVD release as John Badham re-visited the movie in the 1990's and altered the color balance (initially for laserdisc release). Badham had originally wanted to shoot the film in black and white, but Universal blankly refused. While the 1979 version is full of warm 'golden' colors, which help show off the stunning production design, the newer prints are virtually colorless, prompting many arguments on internet DVD forums.
[edit] Trivia
- The so-called "Wedding Night" scene, when Dracula finally sinks his fangs into Lucy, and making her his bride, was in fact directed by famed James Bond title sequence designer, Maurice Binder. Binder employed lasers, which were borrowed from rock band The Who whilst they were on tour in the UK, to achieve the distinctive look. Incidentally the same laser equipment was also used by Ridley Scott for Alien (1979).
- Controversially, Langella’s Dracula is never seen with either fangs or wolf eyes (though the female vampires in the film do sport this classic attire). This was due to the insistence of Langella, who argued the case for a more believable monster, against strong opposition from the studio and the director.
- During the shoot Sir Laurence Olivier had been suffering from a long term degenerative muscle disorder (for certain scenes a stand-in had to be used) however, this didn't mean the Academy Award winning veteran and legendary screen and stage actor would let an illness compromise his art; during the scene when Abraham Van Helsing performs an exorcism on Dracula's coffin, Olivier ad libbed the scene in Latin.
- Sylvester McCoy, the seventh Doctor Who appears in a minor role (Walter). He is billed as Sylveste McCoy.
- Oddly, and never explained why, Mina Van Helsing is actually destroyed twice in the film, once by impalement, the other by having her heart surgically removed.
- Another odd moment - just before Van Helsing sees the undead Mina in the mine shaft, he sees her reflection in a pool of water. (According to long established lore, vampires don't cast shadows or reflections).
[edit] See also
- Dracula (1931 film) which is based on the same Deane/Balderston play
- Universal Monsters
- Universal horror
[edit] External links
- Dracula at the Internet Movie Database
- Dracula at The Internet Broadway Database
- Dracula at All Movie Guide
- Dracula at Rotten Tomatoes
