Dracula (1958 film)
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| Dracula | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Terence Fisher |
| Produced by | Anthony Hinds |
| Written by | Novel: Bram Stoker Screenplay: Jimmy Sangster |
| Starring | Peter Cushing Christopher Lee Michael Gough Melissa Stribling Carol Marsh |
| Distributed by |  Rank Organisation Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) | May 8, 1958 |
| Running time | 82 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £81,000 |
| Followed by | The Brides of Dracula |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dracula is a 1958 British horror film, and the first of a series of Hammer Horror films inspired by the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. It was directed by Terence Fisher, and stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. In the United States, the film was retitled Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion, and to avoid international copyright infringement, with the Tod Browning-directed Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi as the Count.
Production began at Bray Studios on the 17 November 1957 with an investment of £81,000.[1] It is remembered for its pioneering combination of fantasy, romance and sexuality, and its unprecedented gore.
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[edit] Plot
Jonathan Harker arrives at the Count's castle posing as a librarian. He is startled inside the castle by a young woman begging his aid and claiming she is a prisoner. The woman looks horrified at the sight of Dracula on the stairs and runs out. Dracula then greets Jonathan and guides him to his room where he locks him in. Jonathan starts to write in his diary and his true intentions are revealed — he is here to kill Dracula.
The woman begs Jonathan to help the next evening and clutches at him. She leans against him as if crying but then tries to bite him. Dracula arrives and yanks her off and fights with her. Jonathan tries to protect her but is overpowered by Dracula and bitten. The pair depart and Jonathan is worried he might become a vampire. Jonathan descends to the coffin room where he finds Dracula and the woman in their coffins for sunrise. Armed with a stake he impales the female first. Dracula awakes at her screams. When Jonathan turns to Dracula's coffin it is empty and Dracula is waiting by the door for him.
Dr. Van Helsing then arrives looking for his friend Jonathan. He is horrified when he discovers Jonathan lying in a coffin as a vampire. Staking his friend, he leaves to deliver the grim news in person to Jonathan's fiancée Lucy, her brother Arthur Holmwood and his wife Mina Holmwood.
Arthur is quick to dismiss Dr. Van Helsing but soon seeks his aid when Lucy falls ill. Van Helsing suggests that Dracula wishes to replace the woman Jonathan took from him with Lucy. Lucy becomes a vampire and tries to lure a young niece to her but the girl is saved by Van Helsing and Arthur. Van Helsing suggests using Lucy as a means to find Dracula but Arthur refuses and so Van Helsing stakes Lucy in her coffin.
Dr. Van Helsing and Arthur try to track down the destination of Dracula's coffin (which had left the castle just as Van Helsing was arriving there), resorting to bribes. Meanwhile, Mina is called away from home by a message telling her to meet Arthur at a certain address. The next morning, they find Mina in a strange state. Determined to find the coffin they plan to leave again but not before Arthur begs Mina to take a cross. Mina is very reluctant and when Arthur presses it into her hand she screams, jumps up and faints. A cross-shaped burn mark is found on her hand. Arthur and Van Helsing then leave for the location they found out (the very same address Mina was called to - not by Arthur but Dracula) but when they arrive there the coffin has vanished.
During the night, Van Helsing and Arthur guard both of Mina's windows against a return of Dracula, but he visits and bites her nonetheless. A remark by the maid leads Van Helsing to the coffin's location: the basement of the Holmwoods' house. He places a cross inside it, while Dracula locks him in the basement and takes Mina with him. Arthur frees Dr. Van Helsing. A chase then begins as Dracula rushes to return home before sunrise. He attempts to bury Mina in the soil and finds Dr. Van Helsing and Arthur close behind and dashes into his home.
Inside Dr. Van Helsing and Dracula battle it out, Dracula almost strangling Dr. Van Helsing. Dr. Van Helsing fakes a faint and escapes from Dracula's clutches. He tears open the curtain to let in the sunlight and, forming a cross of candlesticks, he forces Dracula into it.
Dracula crumbles into dust, as Van Helsing watches in horror. Mina regains her humanity, the cross-shaped scar fading from her hand as Dracula turns to ash and leaves only a ring behind.
[edit] Production
[edit] Screenplay
This film adaptation made several deviations from the original novel and 1931 film, and was drew inspiration from the stageplay. The location of the Count's castle at Klausenburg is only a short distance (and customs checkpoint) from the city inhabited by the Holmwood family, which appears to be German-speaking. The sea voyage from Transylvania to England does not appear in the film. Dracula's insane servant Renfield is omitted, as are the locations of Carfax Abbey and the insane asylum.
Jonathan Harker is a librarian and vampire hunter, having come to Dracula's castle to destroy him, rather than an unwitting solicitor. He also becomes a vampire and is dispatched by his friend Van Helsing.
- Mina is Arthur Holmwood's wife, while Lucy is his sister and the fiancée of Jonathan.
- The characters of R. M. Renfield and Quincey Morris are omitted.
- Doctor Seward only appears once, in a brief scene as the family doctor, and is completely unaware of the supernatural goings-on.
- Count Dracula has only one Bride and she is destroyed by Jonathan Harker, not Van Helsing. She ages upon her true "death".
- Only one coffin is transported to the city.
- Count Dracula does not "youthen", nor can he shapeshift.
- Count Dracula is destroyed by sunlight.
[edit] Special effects
The filming of Dracula's destruction included a shot in which Dracula appears to peel away his decaying skin. This was accomplished by putting a layer of red makeup on Christopher Lee's face, and then covering his entire face with a thin coating of mortician's wax, which was then made up to conform to his normal skin tone. When he raked his fingers across the wax, it revealed the "raw" marks underneath. Still photos of this startling shot exist, but it was cut out of the disintegration sequence in the film.
[edit] Miscellanea
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Prior to this film, the 1957 Mexican film El Vampiro starring German Robles and the Turkish version of the story Drakula Istanbula both featured fangs. However, neither Christopher Lee nor director Terence Fisher had seen these films and any influence was negligible. Neither El Vampiro nor Dracula Istanbula were widely seen at the time.
- In the scene in which Dracula is conversing with Harker in his room in the castle, you can see the breath of both John Van Eyssen and Chistopher Lee, indicating it was very cold that day on the set at Bray Studios. However, this is an inadvertent flub, since being undead, Dracula should not have a body temperature warm enough to produce visible breath in the cold.
[edit] UK Re-Release Controversy
When the film was originally released in the UK, the BBFC gave it an X rating, being cut, but the hallowe'en 2007 uncut re-release was given a 12A, sparking controversy among critics, and tabloid newspapers.[citation needed]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ *Rigby, Jonathan, (2000). English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1-903111-01-3.
[edit] External links
- Dracula (1958) at the Internet Movie Database
- Dracula (1958) at Allmovie
- Dracula (1958) at Rotten Tomatoes
- BFI Screenonline article
- Britmovie article
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