Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cushing vs. Lee classic!, 23 Dec 2006
Far and away the best Dracula movie yet made, this is a classic piece of cinema that in my view ranks as the finest gothic horror film. If Hammer hadn't made any more Dracula movies after this one, these days it would be viewed alongside David Lean's Great Expectations as one of British cinema's great literary adaptations. Instead, it is simply remembered as the first in a series of exploitation movies that went downhill with every subsequent episode, ending with some real dreck in the early 1970s. But Terence Fisher's film, only his second gothic horror, did justice to the story in a way that no other filmmaker has been able to repeat. It's scary, sexy, action-packed, laced with atmosphere, and shows no signs at all of the low budget it was made under. The photography is gorgeous, the sets even better, and the music just perfect. The ending, a violent piece of hand-to-hand combat between Count Dracula and his nemesis Dr Van Helsing, was unlike anything else seen in British cinema up to that point, and the special effects still impress today. But what really makes the film work are the performances of Christopher Lee and (especially) Peter Cushing in the lead roles. Lee's star-making turn as Dracula ensured his status as one of the great cinematic villains, and has typecast him for the rest of his career. Cushing meanwhile, enjoys one of his two signature roles (the other of course being Baron Victor Frankenstein), and he provides us with by far the strongest and most impressive Van Helsing on film. His vampire hunter is a dangerous, Christian fanatic, and a celibate, lonely scientist who battles Dracula not for personal reward but because he knows he is the only man strong and wise enough to be able to do so and survive. This Van Helsing doesn't provide comfort and advice to violated women and their weak husbands; he simply gets on with the job of hunting down and destroying the vampire, and is utterly merciless in doing so.
Whilst this movie's classic status makes it a must have for Hammer fanatics, and for fans of British cinema in general, it must be said that Warner Bros' DVD of the film does not exactly go nuts in the extras department. Indeed, this is an almost bare bones release, with the original trailer as the only extra feature worth a mention. Considering this movie's status as possibly the best and most influential horror film of the 1950s, it would have been nice if Warner Bros had considered setting up the recording of a commentary from the likes of Lee, Michael Gough, Jimmy Sangster, and Anthony Hinds whilst, if you will pardon the remark, the gentlemen in question are still with us.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding British adaptation of Stokers Gothic masterpiece, 1 Aug 2006
In the mid seventies when I was thirteen or fourteen years old I saw Dracula, or Horror Of Dracula to give it it's American title , and to this day I still think it's the best cinematic ( or televisual ) interpretation of Bram Stokers novel I have seen.....and I've seen just about all of them. Not only that it remains one of the finest vampire movies ever made and by some distance the most pre-eminent movie that the Hammer studio put its name too.
Released the year after (1958) "The Curse Of Frankenstein "Dracula was the film that really put the Hammer studio on the map and establish its place in Anglo- horror history and achieve a measure of sacrosanct nobility in the process. Though it takes liberties with Stokers novel, missing out estimable chunks of the narrative due to pacing issues and more pertinently budgetary concerns (There is no Renfield or the asylum and no landing at Whitby alas) it ostensibly remains true to the source. It also undermines classical vampire mythology by limiting Dracula's supernatural powers. Van Helsing asserts at one point "it's a common fallacy that vampires can change into bats and wolves"
What made Dracula such a shock to fifties audiences, apart from the use of colour and more liberal use of gore, was directors Terence Fishers savy perception of the novels sexual undertones something he utilises in the film, portraying the Count as an irresistible sexual predator laviciously plundering virginal heroines who even though they are subconsciously repulsed by his advances are erotically charged by his ministrations. This was played more explicitly in the Francis Ford Coppola version of Dracula and was one of that films real successes, the image of Sadie Frost as Lucy glorying in her rampant libidinous femininity is one of the films most memorable along with its stylistic flourishes.
However that modern adaptation lacks one vital element - truly memorable performances - and in this film we have two. Most significantly 6 foot five Christopher Lee with a mesmerising performance as Dracula. From an austere nobleman demonstrating suppressed power and grace to a snarling feral monster with bared fangs and blood red eyes Lee is unsurpassed as a screen Dracula. To audiences used to Bela Lugosi, s hammy stiff turn as The Count Lee must have been a revelation and once again it's down to Fishers perspicacity, the director stripping the story of its unyielding theatricality and gothic romanticism and making a lean hard thriller, but vitally retaining the stories core and the elements of fear and portentous atmosphere. Its not subtle and who knows if the budget had been greater( The film nearly ran out of money ) Fisher may have made a more faithful version but what Fisher put on the screen belies the lack of money.
Peter Cushing portrays Van Helsing as a man of science as much as a man of superstition or religious persuasion and strips him of the eccentricities later depictions would rely on but his steely authority and resolute intelligence shine through and though Cushing is no action hero he proves himself adept enough for the films memorable climax, which Cushing himself suggested, using the term "doing a bit of a Douglas Fairbanks". Michael Gough later to play Batman's butler Alfred provides great support as the bewildered Arthur Holmwood. The film lacks a truly convincing Mina but Melissa Stribling is still superior to Winona Ryder from the 1992 version. And of course there is no Keanu Reeves as Jonathon Harker to drag the films credibility down.
A series of ever diminishing sequels followed with Lee, the films greatest asset, becoming an increasingly marginalized figure. Nothing however can diminish the fact that this is a landmark movie. Taking the horror genre on from the Universal films of the 1930,s and imbibing it with more contemporary gloss and velocity. The script by Jimmy Sangster is pared down but still lyrical and the lighting and sets are first rate. A truly great horror film, Horror Of Dracula will always be in my top ten of that particular genus. It revitalised the British film industry and breathed empowering fetid breath into the undead in more ways than one.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Hammer Horror, 15 Jul 2005
Often regarded as the highlight of Hammer horror's oeuvre, The Horror of Dracula stands up today as a fresh and inventive take on what is maybe the best story ever written. Hammer is a studio that has had many a fine hour, and although this is one indeed; I think that there are several other films from their ranks that just top it. Just, being the operative word as this is certainly up there with the best of them. As you might expect, the story follows that of Bram Stoker's original novel; with a young man travelling to Dracula's castle, and not returning. This attracts the attentions of Professor Abraham Van Helsing; an authority in the field of vampirism who then sets out to slay the malevolent fiend that is the source of all the foul play in the movie; Dracula himself.Although this is based on the classic story, Hammer very much makes it their own. Of course, the campy horror styling that that the studio has become famous for features strongly in the movie and serves in giving it that classic Hammer feel. Furthermore, this movie features both of Hammer's greatest stars; Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Christopher Lee may be no Bela Lugosi, but if there was anyone other than Bela Lugosi that I would want to play Dracula; Christopher Lee is that man. He isn't actually in it that much, but the moments when he is are the best in the movie. He has an incredible amount of screen presence, and all of that is transferred into the character of Dracula. In a similar way, Peter Cushing plays Van Helsing. Like Lee, Cushing has buckets of screen presence, but it's all in a very different style. While Lee is a defined evil, Cushing is more subdued, which allows him to adequately play the hero as well as well as he plays the villain. I've got to be honest, I prefer Cushing in the bad guy role; but he still makes an excellent hero. Terence Fisher, one of Hammer's premier directors, directs the film and does a great job with it. The atmosphere of the Gothic period setting is spot on, and a constantly foreboding, and intriguing atmosphere is created throughout. The way that the smoke drifts across the graveyard in the movie is among the most atmospheric things Hammer ever shot. Dracula is a great story, and this Hammer yarn more than does it justice.
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