31 Days of Dracula- Day 21: Count Dracula

I mentioned the Louis Jourdan Count Dracula yesterday,  from the BBC starring Louis Jourdan as the Count, and it's refreshing to hear a Jonathan Harker that speaks with a British accent that's not annoyingly fake (yes, Keanu, I'm looking at you.) and a Dracula that isn't a metaphor for VD.

It's BBC from 1977, not the Doctor Who BBC from 1977 but the I, Claudius BBC in terms of production values, even with the occasional special effect.

As a miniseries, it's a little longer than a feature, clocking in at two and a half hours. But it's time well spent.

Top notch cast, led by Jourdan who's even more sauve than Duncan Regehr, but manages to radiate menace every second he's on the screen. The rest of the cast is very BBC, meaning they're probably classically trained stage actors. As such, there's a stage play feel to the piece, the sets giving each scene a chamber piece feel, each room decorated in period style but awarkwardly lit so the fall of the shadows give it a slightly off feel.

One scene they did go all out for was the churchyard and cemetery overlooking the sea, like in the book it was filmed in Whitby.

And the costumes- it was like a Merchant/Ivory movie.

Since it is so long, it moves at its own pace, slower than other productions, but they've been able to stick closer to the original novel than most productions. The BBC's Count Dracula is definitely required viewing from any vampire fan.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 20: BBC Dracula 2006

BBC. Dracula. I've seen the production from seventies starring Louis Jourdan that the BBC did, and it was good, especially considering how well it aged.
So when I heard there was a new, I was excited. David Suchet (Poirot) as Van Helsing? Marc Warren as Dracula? I'd seen Warren in the adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather as the assassin Mr Teatime and I was impressed. And as the new Doctor Who as the yardstick of what the BBC could do with special effects, well... Dracula should be just awesome.
Really.

It should be.

It wasn't.

I'll try and do this quick beause it hurts to think about it. First, the focus shifts from Mina and Jonathan to Lucy and Arthur Holmwood. Lucy want's to marry Arthur, but Arthur has syphilis, passed on from his mother at birth.

Arthur doesn't want to infect Lucy, so he... he contacts a cult that brings Dracula to London to help cure the VD.

Yes, really.

Things go wrong. I'd like to say "Things go wrong from there," but really, they go wrong from the moment the dvd starts playing.

Other than as something for Poirot fans to watch between seasons, I'd say avoid this version. It's well acted and the sets and costumes are nice, but the story is as dumb as a bowl of hair.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 17, 18, 19: In Search of Dracula 1972, 1975, 1977

Tonight's a catchup night, two posts, and this first one is a three-for-one.  In Search of Dracula was a popular title in the seventies. 
First, it was a book in 1972 by Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu.  My copy is from the 1994 re-release because hey!, Edward Gorey cover. 
This was an historical approach to the Dracula legend from an American acacdemic and, remarkably, a Roumanian scholar.  Remember, 1972 was still Cold War era, but Romania was beginning to be its own country in the shadow of Russia.  In a search for national identity, Romania chose their national hero, the defender of the country against the Turks during the fourteen hundreds, Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula.  This books examines the historical figure and considers him relative to the fictional character. 

The book inspired a movie in 1975, also called In Search of Dracula.
Brilliantly, the producers had a masterstroke of casting for their narrator/presenter:  Dracula himself, Christopher Lee.  Lee had played the Count in eight movies at that point, and with his magnetic presence and hypnotic, deep voice, he was the man.

Between the two pieces, ideas that we take of granted, Vlad the Impaler was Dracula, his war with the Turks, pieces that made their way into Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, became part of the legend.

Of course, the story eventually made it's way to television, in a 1977 episode of In Search Of... called, naturally enough In Search of Dracula.

It's almost as good as a truncated version of the movie, with a very special narrator of it own: Leonard Nimoy, the former Mister Spock.  Of course, at under half an hour, it's a pretty much watered down version, but hey, Mister Spock and Dracula!
Viewable here:

31 Days of Dracula - Day 16: The Dynamite Monster Hall of Fame

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This really is a a walk down memory lane, The Dynamite Monster Hall of Fame.  It's more of an overview of the classic movies of the genre, but it gets special attention because of the Lugosi Dracula on the cover, and he's give the first and longest chapter in the book..

There's the standard history and synopsis of the films, from Schreck to Lugosi to Lee, as well as an appreciation of Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and The Mummy among others.

Like the Crestwood House books, this is from 1977-78, which I'm wondering if it wasn't sort of a second wave of monster kids, not the ones who encountered the original Shock Theater and Famous Monsters, but  got to enjoy appreciations of the classic monsters from the first wave monster kids. 

There's an idea- I'll try and pursue it with future posts once October is over-and now, I'm done with Lugosi Dracula except for one more special post.  Next Week:  In Search of and Christopher Lee.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 15: Universal Monsters: Dracula- Return of Evil

Well, here's a fun one.  The premise seems hatched out of committee, but whether Larry Mike Garmon was given the premise or came up with it on his own, Dracula: Return of Evil is a fun little jaunt by someone with obviously a deep affectation for the Universal Monsters.

In a nutshell:  Florida.  Universal Studios Orlando.  Experimental super duper dvd player.  Freak accident.  The classic monsters come to life and have to be captured and returned to the projector across a series of six books.

It's a kids book so the protagonists are all in their early teens with the standard Breakfast Club archetypes.  The monsters are menacing, but really only REALLY dangerous off camera.

What was really clever was releasing this at the same time they repackaged and re-released the movies in 2001.  Even if the casual reader wasn't familiar with the stories past the names, Dracual, Frankenstein,  the videos would be readily available at the local Blockbuster. Ah, marketing.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 14: Universal Studios Monsters Presents Dracula

From the same people who brought us the tray puzzle, Golden Books, this Universal Monsters licensed adaptation of the 1931 movie is one of a series of adaptations from the company.  They had a huge push back in 1991, and two lines of books were part of this. 
One was a slightly post Berenstain Bears series of illustrated adaptations- I've got Frankenstein but Dracula as since eluded me- and the other was fourth grade level adaptation.
No illustrations, but they've got great fold out posters.

This was the not-quite-Lugosi look that Universal was running with at the time.  They'd have a look and market the heck out of it.
There was even a watch in this style.

This watch image below was snagged from ebay, but I had one back in the day- I used to wear a lot of black, read a lot of Anne Rice and smoke cloves, so a Dracula watch went pretty well with all that.

31 Days of Dracula- Day 13: Dracula Beanie From Stuffins

This nine inch tall Beanie Baby-ish figure of Dracula was originally available from CVS by Stuffins back in 1999.  I've been luck enough to pick up a collection of them over the last few years, the set including Frankenstein's Monster, the Bride, The Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Creature from The Black Lagoon, Quasimodo and The Phantom of the Opera.

They made these in three sizes, nine-, twelve-, and twenty-four inch tall- I have a nine-inch Mummy and twenty-four inch Creature, as well as a full set of the smaller ones.

Who would have imagined the King of the Vampires could be so adorable?