A fun, atmospheric guilty pleasure from 1979, DRACULA features Frank Langella bringing his portrayal of the count from Broadway to the big screen.
Langella is great as the legendary blood sucker, playing him more as a hypnotic seducer than a violent attacker. Kate Nelligan (Eye of the Needle) is very good as the strong willed Lucy, engaged to Jonathan Harker, but intrigued by Dracula.
Laurence Olivier continues his active streak of many seventies film roles as Professor Van Helsing. He occasionally seems to be channeling his portrayal of a rabbi in "The Jazz Singer" but other than those lapses is very good and believable in the role.
Donald Pleasance rounds out the cast as Dr. Seward, purveyor of the insane asylum in which a lot of the action seems to take place!
During Dracula's seduction of Lucy, I thought "this looks a lot like a James Bond title sequence!" and sure enough Maurice Binder is noted as "visual consultant".
There are enough classic vampire moments, Langella's performance, John WIlliams music and great shots of the English countryside to keep this moving along nicely.
The scenes in the passageways under Mina's grave are especially well done.
A fun, romantic spin on the Dracula legend that shows enough bite to earn a solid B.
Comments