Dracula (1979).

Review #1293: Dracula.

Cast: 

Frank Langella (Count Dracula), Laurence Olivier (Professor Abraham Van Helsing), Donald Pleasence (Dr. Jack Seward), Kate Nelligan (Lucy Seward), Trevor Eve (Jonathan Harker), Jan Francis (Mina Van Helsing), Sylvester McCoy (Walter Myrtle), Janine Duvitski (Annie), Tony Haygarth (Milo Renfield), and Teddy Turner (Swales) Directed by John Badham (#086 - Short Circuit)

Review: 

1979 was an interesting time for films with Dracula. There were at least three major releases involving a variation of the character released that year: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Love at First Bite, with two minor films also being released that year named Nocturna and Dracula Blows His Cool. It shouldn't prove surprising, considering that the 1970s had already had numerous Dracula films, with a good deal of featuring Christopher Lee - who was featured in eight films as the title role, which ranged from the Hammer films to comedies. Dracula even had its own blaxpoitation film (another time, another year), so why not another Univeral Dracula film? Much like the 1931 film, it is based on both the 1924 play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston and the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker. The screenplay was done by W. D. Richter, who you may remember as the writer of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), so there does seem to have a bit of promise. Langella, like Lugosi before him, had starred in the Broadway production of Dracula, with macabre illustrator Edward Gorey behind the sets and costumes that mostly consisted of black-and-white with red accents. The original book had a title character that is animalistic, while the play revised it to being more suave and polite that doesn't loom in the background as much. In that sense, one wonders how a stylish and slightly more polished Dracula proves to be. For me, I find myself in the middle, where I can applaud the attempt at trying to make something interesting with this character, but it can't quite work as a love story nor as a horror film, managing to be as average as the Hammer films that did less with the character before it. It definitely ranks below the aforementioned Nosferatu film in trying to depict a lonesome Dracula, this much is for sure. One can only feel underwhelmed when it comes to the excitement levels of this movie, where disappointment and quiet acceptance run the same street with this film, and it starts with Dracula himself. Langella does fine with the suave nature of such an alluring one to follow, particularly with the way he stares at others on screen. But I feel that he doesn't really come off as a threat in the scenes where the film needs it the most, right down to the lack of fangs (same with Lugosi, but with a different result) and a bizzare love sequence involving a blood red tunnel. Everything else seems so dry in comparison, where camp really sometimes does need to be king. Olivier seems ready to be in some other production for a different time while being a bit too quiet in comparison to the smaller featured Pleasence (who accepted the role of Seward over Van Helsing due to it seeming similar to his role that he played in Halloween the previous year), who also is just okay. Nelligan can't quite make this a riveting quartet for her side as well, where I never really seem to care all too much in this romantic angle. This is a film that needs panache for flavor, and instead one gets expired refreshments. The Hammer films may have varied in quality when it came to the title character (especially in their escalation of ways to kill him), but at least I felt that there was some sort of terror that lurked beyond that cape, where I actually want to see what could happen to the disposable- I mean the supporting characters. The climax is swift, but it's attempt to bait with its last shot is a bit too silly to make it really matter - at least try to be definitive if you only have one shot. The film has certainly an interesting history on how to be found. The original version of the film had warm colors, differing from Badham's desire to film in black-and-white. For future releases, the color timing was altered to de-saturate the look of the film, and a release of the original print has only just begun to be released onto markets. Honestly, one can hope their brightness level is where they want, or be curious over how it looked back in 1979, a time for Dracula like no other. Ultimately, this is an average film, just not having enough in its blood besides style to really deliver passion or scares meaningfully to win out. It could prove a curiosity if one wants to see another rendition of the most famous fictional vampire, for better or worse.

Next Review: The Blair Witch Project.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.