DRACULA
UK, 1973, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jack Palance, Simon Ward, Nigel Davenport, Pamela Brown, Fiona Lewis, Penelope Horner, Sarah Douglas.
Directed by Dan Curtis.
This Dracula is a variation on a very popular story by the 1970s. Bram Stoker wrote his original novel in the 1890s. It was filmed by Todd Browning with Bela Lugosi in the 1930s. With Hammer Films reviving Dracula in the 1950s, with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as Dracula and Van Helsing, there was a spate of remakes. Some were for television like this film. Others were for cinema like Dracula (1979) with Frank Langella and Laurence Olivier. There was a long Hammer series of Dracula films from the 50s to the 70s.
The screenplay for this film was written by Richard Matheson, distinguished writer of horror screenplays as well as such novels as The Shrinking Man, Hell House and I Am Legend – the basis for The Last Man on Earth as well as The Omega Man.
Jack Palance, who originated from a Mongolian family, is a good choice for Dracula. Nigel Davenport is Van Helsing. The film was directed by American Dan Curtis, best known for his horror films, including the Dark Shadows series. One of his final films, for television, was a drama about the church sex scandals in Boston, Our Fathers.
1. The tradition of the legends of Dracula: history, literature, English literature, cinema? This film within this context?
2. Comparisons with the original film, the Hammer horror films of Dracula, this film designed for a television audience, home viewing, a more elegant style? The screenplay by Richard Matheson and his skill in horror writing? Fidelity to the original text?
3. Why the interest in the Dracula legend? The vampire as a symbol of evil, pallor, blood, lust? The struggle of good and evil? Sin and the incarnation of evil in the living dead?
4. Jack Palance's portrayal of Dracula in this film: appearance, character, in Hungary, his suave style, courtesy, externals? The gradual revelation of his being a vampire, his wives, victimizing people? His victimizing Harker? The transition to England (and the style of the ship arriving), his pursuit of Lucy? His becoming more and more evil for the audience? Pursuit and death?
5. Lucy as heroine and victim? Her relationship with Arthur, ordinary English girl of the nineteenth century? The film's attention to her and her character? Dracula and her photo, infatuated, vampirizing her? Her becoming evil, seducing Arthur, victim of Dracula?
6. Harker and Mina as supporting characters, English, relationship with Arthur and Lucy? Being terrorized by Dracula, being transformed by him? The suspense with Mina's transformation at the end?
7. Arthur and Van Helsing as the hero, Van Helsing traditional foe of Dracula? The way that he was portrayed here? Sherlock Holmes style, appropriate for the confrontation with Dracula? Arthur as the conventional noble English hero? The mystery, their tracking of Dracula, research? Pursuit to Hungary? Involvement in the final struggle? Good against evil?
8. The importance of the landscapes, Hungary, England, the beach and the arrival of the ship, the English town, travel through Europe?
The importance of the European atmosphere?
9. The build-up to the climax, blood, struggles, violence? Appropriate symbol for this kind of struggle?
10. Why the popularity of Dracula in the nineteenth century, in England? The legend and the myths coming into the literary tradition? The continual popularity in cinema? What do audiences see? what do they want?
