Dracula: Encyclopedia II - Dracula - Movie television and play adaptations

Dracula - Movie television and play adaptations

See also: Vampire fiction

The character of Count Dracula has remained popular over the years, and many films have used the character as a villain, while others have referenced him in movie titles such as Daughters of Dracula, Lady Dracula, and Zoltan, Hound of Dracula. An estimated 160 films (as of 2004) feature Dracula in a major role, a number second only to Sherlock Holmes. The total number of films that include a reference to Dracula may reach as high as 649 movies, according to the Internet Movie Database.

Most tellings of the Dracula story include not only the Count, but the rest of the "cast": Jonathan and Mina Harker, Van Helsing, and Renfield. (Notably, the novel roles of characters Jonathan Harker and Renfield are more than occasionally reversed or combined, as are the roles of Mina and Lucy. Quincy Morris is usually omitted entirely.)

One of the first film adaptations of Stoker's story actually caused Stoker's estate to sue for copyright infringement. In 1922, silent film director F.W. Murnau made a horror film called Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, which took the story of Dracula and set it in Germany. In the story, Dracula's role was changed to that of Count Orlok, one of the most hideous versions of the vampire ever to be created for a movie, played by Max Schreck.

The Stoker estate won its lawsuit and all existing prints of Nosferatu were ordered to be destroyed. However, a number of pirated copies of the movie survived to the present era, where they entered the public domain. Nosferatu was also remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog.

In 1927 the story was adapted for the Broadway stage by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston and starred Bela Lugosi and Edward Van Sloan as the Count and Van Helsing respectively. Lugosi initially learned his lines phonetically.

The 1931 film version of Dracula starred Bela Lugosi and was directed by Tod Browning. It is one of the more famous versions of the story and is commonly considered a horror classic. In 2000 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. It is an adaptation of the 1927 play and Van Sloan also transferred his role to the big screen. The films only had music during the opening and closing credits. In 1999 Philip Glass was commissioned to compose a musical score to accompany the film. The current DVD release allows access to this music.

At the same time as the Lugosi film a Spanish language version was filmed for release in Mexico. It was filmed at night using the same sets as the Tod Browning production with a different cast and crew. George Melford's was the director and it starred Carlos Villarías as the Count, Eduardo Arozamena as Van Helsing and Lupita Tovar as Eva.

Due to America's censorship laws, Medford's Dracula contains scenes that could not be put in the final cut of the more familiar English version. There is considerable debate among fans over which film is better. Fans of Medford's version say the acting of the Spanish version is crisper and the pace is much quicker -- and there's no hammy close-ups of Lugosi. It is also included on the available DVD.

During the era of the 1930s and 1940s, the Universal Studios horror films made Dracula a household name by starring him as a villain in a number of movies, including several where he met other monsters (the most famous of which is the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in which Lugosi played Dracula on film for only the second and final time.) In these films he somehow gained control over the Frankenstein monster, and in a number of movies the monster acted as Dracula's servant, usually referring to the vampire Count as "Master."

Dracula - Universal Studios productions of Dracula

The original Universal Studios films in which Dracula (or a relative) appeared (and the actor portraying the character) were:

1. Dracula (1931 - Bela Lugosi. A second version was filmed simultaneously in Spanish, with Carlos Villar as Dracula)
2. Dracula's Daughter (1936 - Gloria Holden)
3. Son of Dracula (1943 - Lon Chaney, Jr.)
4. House of Frankenstein (1944 - John Carradine)
5. House of Dracula (1945 - Carradine)
6. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948 - Lugosi. This film is usually known as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, however the title given here is the official on-screen title according to the Internet Movie Database.)

Dracula - Hammer Films productions of Dracula

In 1958, Hammer Films produced Dracula (1958), a newer, more Gothic version of the story, starring Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. It is widely considered to be one of the best versions of the story to be adapted to film, and in 2004 was named by the magazine Total Film as the 30th greatest British film of all time. Although it takes many liberties with the novel's plot, the creepy atmosphere and charismatic performance of Lee make it memorable and favored. It was released in the United States as Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion with the earlier Lugosi version. This was followed by a long series of Dracula films, usually featuring Lee as Dracula.

The Hammer films in which Dracula (or a relative) appeared (and the actor portraying the character) were:

1. Dracula (1958) - Christopher Lee. Released in the US as Horror of Dracula
2. The Brides of Dracula (1960 - David Peel as Dracula disciple Baron Meinster)
3. Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966 - Lee)
4. Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968 - Lee)
5. Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969 - Lee)
6. Scars of Dracula (1970 - Lee)
7. Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972 - Lee)
8. Dracula's Great Love (1972 - Paul Naschy) This was Hammer's 2nd attempt on a Spanish Dracula film.
9. The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973 - Lee). Released in the US as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride
10. The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974 - John Forbes-Robertson). Variously released as The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula and Dracula and the Seven Golden Vampires

Christopher Lee, the British actor who played in the Hammer Dracula films, reminisced in a 1999 inteview for NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1065958

Dracula - Other productions 1969 - 1979

Count Dracula (1969 film), directed by Jesus Franco starring Christopher Lee as Dracula. The most faithful adaptation of the novel.

In 1973, a major television movie version starring Jack Palance was produced by Dan Curtis, best known for producing the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Filmed in Yugoslavia and England, it was a fairly faithful and moody piece.

In 1974, Andy Warhol presented an outrageously campy Dracula (a.k.a. "Blood for Dracula"), directed by Paul Morrissey and starring cult icon Udo Kier.

Dracula Père et Fils 1976, Christopher Lee French movie starring Christopher Lee as Dracula

1977 saw a BBC version made for television starring Louis Jourdan. This version is one of the more faithful adaptations of the book. It includes scenes of Jonathon recording events in his diary and Dr. Seward speaking into his dictaphone.

1977 also saw a revival of the 1927 broadway version. The atmospheric sets and costumes were designed by Edward Gorey. The Count was portrayed by Frank Langella and, like Lugosi before him, he would go on to perform the role on the big screen. The same Gorey sets and costumes were used for a U.S. touring version of the play starring Jeremy Brett. The Deane-Balderston lines were altered somewhat and played for a more comedic effect.

In 1978, an independent film company produced the horror thriller Zoltan, Hound of Dracula starring Michael Pataki as the mild-mannered family psychiatrist destined to encounter the resurrected hound of Dracula.

In 1979, Frank Langella starred opposite Laurence Olivier as a sexually charged version of the Count in a new film version. It is considered of uneven quality, though the John Williams score is superb. That year also saw the release of Love at First Bite, a romantic comedy spoof set in contemporary New York City starring George Hamilton as the count.

Dracula - Dracula movies 1980 - 1999

In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola produced and directed a new version of the film, called Bram Stoker's Dracula starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Anthony Hopkins. Coppola's story includes a subplot in which Mina Harker was revealed to be the reincarnation of Dracula's greatest love. This story is not part of Stoker's original. The soundtrack includes 'Lovesong for a Vampire' by Annie Lennox.

In 1995, Mel Brooks did a comedic parody, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, which parodied all of the standard Dracula themes, but especially noteworthy was the scene where Dracula's reflection was noticeably absent in a mirror as he danced at a ball, to the horror of those watching. Mel Brooks played Van Helsing as an aged Professor.

Dracula - Dracula movies 2000 to present

Patrick Lussier took a stab at the legend with his modern day Dracula 2000, promoted as Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000. Wes Craven was an executive producer. It was released in the UK as Dracula 2001. To discover how to destroy Dracula, Van Helsing (portrayed by Christopher Plummer) keeps himself alive with injections of Dracula's blood. When thieves steal the vampire and crash near New Orleans, Van Helsing and his ward must track down the vampire and save Van Helsing's daughter Mary.

In 2002, Canadian cult film director Guy Maddin released his screen adaptation of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's version of the count's tale, a ballet set to the music of Gustav Mahler and titled Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary.

The character of Mina Harker appeared in the 2003 film adaptation of the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as a vampiric heroine played by Peta Wilson.

Van Helsing is a film based on the vampire-hunter Van Helsing from the book, only reinvented as an immortal action hero assigned by the Vatican to kill monsters. Richard Roxburgh portrays Dracula in this reinvigoration of the 1930s and 1940s Universal Horror monsters which also featured new versions of the Frankenstein Monster and The Wolf Man. In this movie, Dracula is somewhat of a super vampire and cannot be killed by the normal methods that can kill a vampire.

A character named Drake serves as the primary antagonist in Blade: Trinity, in which a group of vampires summon him in order to finally defeat Blade. While he is not confirmed directly to be Dracula, Drake is implied to have lived under several different aliases and personalities, one of which may have been the infamous vampire.

2005 saw the premiere of Dracula's most recent play incarnation, an adaptation by playwright P. Shane Mitchell. A French Canadian musical production ("Dracula: Entre l'amour et la mort"[3]) opens in Montreal in January 2006, starring Bruno Pelletier.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Movie television and play adaptations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki