Dracula (1979) dir. John Badham, the Mirisch Company
Moving into the Universal adjacent category, we have the first Dracula film that Universal dealt with in some years. And from the same guy that did Saturday Night Fever too! I'm sure the experiences were the same.
Off the coast of Whitby, England in 1913 a ship crashes into the shore. The Demeter breaks up on the rocks, its crew seemingly dead at the hands of a massive animal. At the sanitarium of Dr. Jack Seward (Donald Pleasence), the inmates seem to be aware of some evil force, driving them further into madness...
Mina Van Helsing (Jan Francis) is resting at Seward's home when she is struck by the idea to go to the beach as the ship wrecks. She barely dodges a massive wolf, but upon following the animal she finds only a man, Count Dracula (Frank Langella).
All told he is darn lucky. Not only is he the sole survivor of the wreck, his belongings were spared, plus he landed roughly a mile from Carfax Abby, the property he just bought. Yeah, lucky, isn't he?
The lawyer who oversaw the purchase of the property arrives the next day. Jonathan Harker (Trevor Eve) bullies the workmen, singling out Renfield (Tony Haygarth) for a proper tongue lashing. He finally orders the workman to take the count's property to his new house. Renfield grumpily does it, but he'll soon regret his choice of employer...
That night, the count is invited to dinner at Dr. Seward's home. The count is charming and romantic, even if he does refuse to eat or drink anything. He charms the life out of Mina and her friend, Lucy (Kate Nelligan). She's Dr. Seward's daughter and Harker's fiancé. Dracula puts the moves on her too, something that sends Harker into a fit.
Mina ends up dying that night, with two strange wounds on her neck. Her father, Professor Van Helsing (Laurence Olivier) arrives soon. He's a bit distraught but he and Seward pay a visit to Mina's grave that night. They don't find her, but they do find a hole from her coffin leading into the mines under town. They manage to put Mina down, although Van Helsing is grieved to do so.
They find Lucy is much the same shape as Mina was before she died. A blood transfusion stays off the infection, but can they stop Dracula in time?
Pretentious yet gorgeous. It's shot better than the Universal films and even better than the Hammer ones, actually on location and not limited to soundstages. Would that the script was as sweeping as the scenery. This isn't the first film to make Dracula a romantic figure but it also doesn't seem to sure what it wants to be. Horror or romance? Is Dracula a killer or a tragic hero?
Langella has the chops, no doubt, and charms the scenery with Olivier and Plesence easily enough but the problem they don't leave enough for the rest of the cast. Harker at best comes across as a stuffed shirt, and at worse an utter jackass. Langella also lacks the ferocity of Lee.
The vampires are also a bit inconsistent. Dracula looks perfectly fine while Mina looks like a zombie after about a day. Not the worse film or even the worse Dracula but disappointing all the same.
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