Director: Terence Fisher
Writers: Jimmy Sangster
Stars: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough
1 Hour, 22 Minutes
Jonathan Harker arrives at Dracula’s castle. No one is there to meet him, but he gets a letter saying to make himself at home. A girl comes into the room and asks for his help; Dracula is holding her prisoner there. She runs away when Dracula shows up.
Dracula’s a fast talker, and he seems very friendly (compared to Lugosi). He gives Harker a key to the library, but then locks him in his room. Harker writes in his book that he intends “to end this man’s reign of terror.” Apparently, he knows more than we thought.
The woman reappears, and Harker promises to help her. She tries to bite him, but Dracula storms into the room and fights her. Harker passes out.
In the morning, he’s locked in again, and he’s got bite marks on his neck. He writes in his journal that he expects to become one of them now. He still wants to find Dracula’s daytime resting place and kill him. He finds him easily (a little too easily; you’d think Dracula would at least lock his door).
He pulls out the stake and kills the girl first. Just then, it gets dark and Dracula gets up and the screen fades to black. This may be the worst case of bad timing in cinema history.
—
Dr. Van Helsing arrives in town. He notices all the garlic hanging there in the inn. The innkeeper warns him not to stir things up, as it’s a dangerous place to live. The serving girl gives him Harker’s journal. He rushes to the castle and finds Harker asleep with fangs. He pulls out a stake and finishes the job.
Van Helsing returns to England and explains what happened to Lord Holmwood. Lucy is already under Dracula’s spell. She already knows Jonathan is dead, but no one told her. Van Helsing notices the bite marks on her neck, and he gives instructions to keep her doors and windows locked, and they need to buy a bunch of garlic too…
Lucy orders the servants to take away the garlic and open the windows, which they do. The next morning, she’s dead. Holmwood blames Van Helsing for both Lucy and Jonathan’s deaths. The little girl, Tania, sees Lucy that night, and when Holmwood checks out her grave, she’s gone.
Van Helsing wants to use Lucy to lead them to Dracula, but Holmwood can’t bear it. Instead, they stake her. Van Helsing and Holmwood do a little detective work, and they track down Dracula to the undertaker’s place. A message arrives for Mina to go to the very same address that night.
Mina comes home happy, but the undertaker’s office is abandoned when the men get there. Holmwood gives her a cross, and it burns her hand. While the two men are patrolling outside, Dracula’s inside with Mina. Later, they give Mina a blood transfusion.
They hear from the servant that she was told, by Mina, to never go in the cellar. The two men rush down there, but Dracula flees past them, grabs Mina, and heads back to his castle– he needs his native soil, and that’s the only place he can get it.
Dracula digs a grave and tries to bury Mina. Van Helsing chases him into the castle. They fight. Van Helsing pulls down the curtains, flooding the room with sunlight. Dracula crumbles to ash.
Commentary
Maybe it was a conversion thing, but Dracula’s voice didn’t sound anything like the distinctive Christopher Lee voice. I wondered at first if it was overdubbed for some reason. The lore given here says that vampires cannot change shape, but Dracula may very well be five or six hundred years old. The vampire must rest in his native soil.
It’s got good production values and suspense, but the music is a little overbearing and loud at times. The story takes a lot of major liberties with the Stoker story, but most of the main characters are there. It’s by far not the worst version of Dracula I’ve seen, but it is starting to look a little dated in style.