Dracula (1958 film)

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 international copyright infringement) with the Tod Browning-directed Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi.

Production began at Bray Studios on the 17 November, 1957 with an investment of £81,000.

Plot

Jonathan Harker arrives at the castle of Count Dracula, posing as a librarian. He is startled inside the castle by a young woman begging for help, claiming to be 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 woman first. 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 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.

Arthur is quick to dismiss 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.

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 bribery. 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 Van Helsing and Dracula battle it out, with Dracula quickly gaining the upper hand. 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.

Production

Screenplay and its Differences from the Novel

This film adaptation made several deviations from the original novel and 1931 film, and 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 in Germany. The sea voyage from Transylvania to England does not appear in the film and consequently Dracula never takes up residence in his English home, Carfax Abbey neighbouring an 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 Jonathan's fiancée.
• The characters of R. M. Renfield and Quincey Morris are omitted.
• Doctor John 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, there are three in the novel, 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 grow younger, nor can he shapeshift.
• Count Dracula is destroyed by sunlight, wheras in Bram Stoker's novel he is able to go outside during the day.

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.

UK Re-Release Controversy

When the film was originally released in the UK, the BBFC gave it an X rating, being cut, but the Halloween 2007 uncut re-release was given a 12A, sparking controversy among critics, and tabloid newspapers.

Notes and references

External links

• BFI Screenonline article
• Britmovie article