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DVD Dracula
Chalk this one up as something that seemed like a good idea at the time. Frank Langella had just taken Broadway by storm in a revival of the play based on Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel. He was tall, elegant, and almost painfully romantic--all qualities that failed to translate to this garish, tarted-up film version. The story remains the same, if told in greater length than in Bela Lugosi's version. The film even offered Laurence Olivier as vampire-hunter Van Helsing (in one of several roles he played during the period that required a middle-European accent) and a young Kate Nelligan as the woman whose love (and blood) Dracula most wants. But director John Badham, working from W.D. Richter's clunky script, makes a hash of most of it, relying on special effects to do the heavy lifting. --Marshall Fine
This is a wonderful film which I love immennsely and consider one of the best Dracula films made with Frank Langella supurb performance,is,however coded by the company to play badly on multi region DVD players.Of the three DVD players I own it will only play properly on one,on another it will only play in black and white and on the third not at all.This is extremely unfair on foreign customers as many of these films will never be released in our countries.I give the film itself five stars but the dirty tactics of the distributor disgust me they are only depriving themselves of custom they won't get otherwise
BITE ME KING OF THE NIGHT!
I saw this film when it first came out and I never wanted to see another Dracula again. The reason -- Frank Langella as the Prince of Darkness! The 1979 version of the film was translated from Broadway but was first done on the London stage back in the 20s with guess who playing the title role. Langella reprises the role for Broadway with brilliant and Gothic inspired sets by Edward Gory and the Tony awards flew at the production.
Most appealing and still the highlight of the film version is the seduction of Lucy (Kate Nelligan) and the visceral presentation of vampire lust in the not so Victorian sense. Langella nibbles ear lobes instead of chomping necks and his style is hotter than hot with Lucy, a dinner guest who chooses to stay rather than protect her maidenly virtue of the era.
Director John Badham shot on location in Cornwall near Penzance and the moody appearance of the English countryside is transferred to the film. The wonderful actors Sir Lawrence Olivier as Abraham Van Helsing and Donald Pleasence as the always hungry asylum doctor are scene stealers. Both the gruesome and grotesque is never shielded on screen as Mina turns from sickly to ghoulish with Dracula's help. Interior settings are technically right, the elements of the period setting perfect for the ensemble cast.
However, it is Langella's Dracula that changed the perception of the vile seducer of young women with his performance. Unlike the Lugosi and Christopher Lee performances, Langella's vampire is a lover, he waltzes to the "Blue Danube," and women will want to parade in a nightgown forever with him as did stunning Nelligan's Lucy, whose duo coffin snuggle is both erotic and protective of her "man."
Subtle costume touches include small bat-like winged caplets and dresses for Lucy, and dashing opera capes and cravats for Langella. If there is one element not sufficiently examined in Badham's film, it is the sense of impending doom that Dracula brings from his home via the coffins of earth from Transylvania to English soil, a xenophobia which Bram Stoker underscored in his novel. However, it is a minor point overlooked in a film which stands head and fangs above so many mediocre interpretations available today. It is simply THE bodice heaver adaptation from the late 70s.
Eternal Love or Vampirism ? The Most Sensual/Romantic Dracula Ever Made
This Dracula is far from the bloodfest that most modern vampire movies are today. It is also nothing like Bela Lugosi's classic but stereotypical/cardboard portrayal of the Transylvanian Count. Made in 1979, this film stars Frank Lagella as a handsome, sexy and romantic Count who belives he has found his true love and Bride in Kate Nelligan's character, who, seduced by the Count, is willing to give up her blood for him. The music is romantic and moody and the cinematography is brilliant. The use of fog, authentic turn of the century costumes (and automobiles/Model Ts)and the darkness, candles and crumbling castle full of cobwebs is a nice touch. Much of the movie seems surreal and symbolic. A lot of it is covertly sexual. This is probably the best Dracula version out there. He is even less frightening than Hammer's Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee. Fran Lagella is doing a terrific job. Laurence Olivier, in one of his later roles is doing a fine job as Van Helsing. This film strays from the original source of the story- Bram Stroker's novel. For one thing, there is no victimizing going on. Dracula seduces these women. He borders on a kind of spiritual romanticism when he tells Kate Nelligan's character "at last you will be flesh of my flesh and blood of my blood" which is an actual quote from the Bible - its what Adam said when he first saw Eve. The atmosphere of this film is a combination of Gothic romance and savage vampirism. There is absolutely no flaw in this film scriptwise or direction wise. A must have for fans of the many renditions of Dracula on film.
With dizzying cinematic tricks and astonishing performances, Francis Coppola's 1992 version of the oft-filmed Dracula story is one of the most exuberant, extravagant films of the 1990s. Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder, as the Count and Mina Murray, are quite a pair of star-crossed lovers. She's betrothed to another man; he can't kick the habit of feeding off the living. Anthony Hopkins plays Van Helsing, the vampire slayer, with tongue firmly in cheek. Tom Waits is great fun as Renfield, the hapless slave of Dracula who craves the blood of insects and cats. Sadie Frost is a sexy Lucy Westenra. And poor Keanu Reeves, as Jonathan Harker, has the misfortune to be seduced by Dracula's three half-naked wives. There's a little bit of everything in this version of Dracula: gore, high-speed... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gary Oldman - Winona Ryder - Anthony Hopkins Director(s): Francis Ford Coppola DVD Release Date: Released the 26 December 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The Night Stalker Wisecracking Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) is a rumpled news hound plucked from the fast-talking newspaper flicks of the 1940s and dropped into the swinging '70s. What makes the eccentric Kolchak even more unique, however, is his nose for the supernatural, a trait that leaves his editor (Simon Oakland) exasperated and the police less than amused. When he insists that a late-night Las Vegas serial killer (who leaves his victims drained of blood and sporting twin holes in the neck) is a modern-day vampire, he's practically run out of town by the local authorities. Naturally, he stalks the vampire himself, an unlikely Van Helsing armed with a silver cross, a wooden stake, and his ever-present tape recorder and flashbulb camera. Carol Lynley is his... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Darren McGavin - Carol Lynley Director(s): John Llewellyn Moxey DVD Release Date: Released the 24 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I love this movie! It came out when the 1979 Frank Langella Dracula movie came out. When Count Dracula is evicted from Castle Dracula,because it is becoming a training camp for Training Athletes. So,Count Dracula and Renfeild go to New York for Cindy Soundheim,a fashion Model. I love The Bat scene where a puerto rican family,"Why don't you go to work,old man,We have nothing to eat." The husband is reading the newspaper. He says We do now,and the bat flys in,A Chicken,A black chicken Look Dad, a Chicken. I also love the part where Cindy said she had a man in bed,Count Dracul,waves his hand and uncovers nothing in bed.I also like the Funeral scene,and The Courtroom scene.Say What, A Vampire. I loved seeing Count Dracula and renfield as the heroes. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): George Hamilton - Susan Saint James Director(s): Stan Dragoti DVD Release Date: Released the 12 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"Hammer Horror Series" presents some of the studios best films from the early sixties period, though they might not be the most familiar to Hammer fans. A few, in fact, might come with baggage attached, but this collection dispells some of that baggage. In particular, Hammer's "Phantom of the Opera" has suffered more abuse over the years than any other of its films. The hard truth is, it's pretty good. The reason it has such a bum reputation might be because most people first saw it on television, which seriously impaired it. In it's proper aspect ratio, and with the extra scenes filmed for American TV left out, it's really pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty good. The biggest liability with the film are the horrendous opera sequences. "Evil of Frankenstein" has similarly been... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Herbert Lom - Heather Sears Director(s): Terence Fisher DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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After Hammer Studios' tremendous success with The Curse of Frankenstein, they struck a deal to adapt Universal's catalog of classics and set their sights first on Dracula. Christopher Lee removes the monstrous makeup from the earlier film and makes his entrance as an elegant, confident, altogether seductive Dracula, a frightening figure of flashing eyes and erotic allure. Peter Cushing, with his hawklike profile and piercing eyes, turns his rationalist intensity to Van Helsing: man of science as crusading vampire hunter. Director Terence Fisher and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster make a few changes to Bram Stoker's tale; gone are Renfield, Transylvania, howling wolves, and transformations into bats. The Count is an old-world aristocrat firmly ensconced in a castle in England and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Terence Fisher DVD Release Date: Released the 01 October 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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