Count Dracula Scene (BBC Mini-Series) (1977)

Devotees of vampire cinema have long esteemed this heretofore hard-to-see adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, made for BBC-TV in 1977. Count Dracula puts Louis Jourdan in the fangs and cape, in a version subtitled--and played as--a Gothic romance. This is one of those 1970s TV productions that use film for exteriors and video for the interiors, a tactic that increases the general sense of cheapness about the whole thing (although the location stuff is good, including scenes on the cliffs of Whitby, the port town where Dracula comes to visit England). With 150 minutes to play with, the production has more of Stoker than many film versions include, although there's still some shuffling of the original. It's all a bit slow, and surprisingly cheesy at times, even with the occasional startling image: Dracula scooting bat-like down the side of his castle, or the vampire brides preparing to devour a baby (a scene cut from some subsequent showings of the series, but restored here). Frank Finlay makes a focused Van Helsing--a minimum of camping, thankfully--and Susan Penhaligon and Judi Bowker are respectively hot and cold as Lucy and Mina. Jourdan is effective, although he's off screen a lot and really gets his good bites in toward the end. You'll need some patience, but Jourdan drinks it dry. --Robert Horton

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• dracula
• louis jordan
• Gothic
• vampire
• vampiro

[Xenu]

Quite possibly the greatest Mina Harker ever.

[luckfinger]

@Xenu is quite possible!

[chris276100]

@luckfinger Vicky from Black Beauty. She is beautiful.

[luckfinger]

@chris276100 I agree with you!

[ilmitocruento]

The best movie on Dracula! :)

[darkangel15221]

Wasn't this dude the villian in Swamp Thing? LOL!!

[xjames118]

01:22 - Mina smiles like Godfrey from Dad's Army.

[REBS76]

Dracula surely knows how to choose his women. lol

[titin139]

coooooooooooooool

[ilmitocruento]

@thespiswolf Ehm, I like movies where Mina and Jonathan are a faithful pair like in the novel!

[thespiswolf]

@ilmitocruento Next to Frank Langella's Dracula.

[1a1a2s3d4f5g]

Alright. I admit it. Coppola did make many changes. But hey! It is art. In art, everything is possible and allowed. I don't care if a version is true or not true to the book. I only care if a film makes an impact (on me). I must add, that I don't particularly like romantic films, but BSD somehow managed not to be corny. OK, answer me this please: why almost everyone likes BSD? I have never met anyone who didn't like it.

[44excalibur]

@1a1a2s3d4f5g Coppola's version wasn't scary at all. He was too concerned with being stylish. And Coppola's version got the story all wrong. There was never any romantic story between Mina and Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel. This BBC version is the only one that gets Jonathan and Mina's relationship right, although they still didn't get Jonathan qute the way he is in the novel. He grows considerably stronger as the story progresses, and even vows to become a vampire himself if Mina becomes one.

[themovieguy364]

@1a1a2s3d4f5g

Well what I like about it is that while it's still stylish and surreal, it still feels authentic with it's sets and focuses more on doing the novel justice with only a few liberties which I can deal with. The actors are well casted (well Barnes is a bit bland and Jourdan isn't as good as Lugosi/Lee/Palance/Langella but still) and the characters are mostly well written in this one, particularly Mina. It's romance isn't with Dracula either making the her actually likeable and sane.

[1a1a2s3d4f5g]

Yeah, I know. All true. But what is so good about BBC Mini Series? It is also romantic isn't it?