DRACULA

The Dracula Legend in Film

Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula” is written in the “espistolary” style as a collection of journal entries, letters, and telegrams exchanged between the main characters; fictional newspaper clippings help to round out the story. This literary style was almost outdated by the time “Dracula” was published in 1897 but was familiar to most late-nineteenth century audiences who appreciated the sense of realism and urgency this provided.

No one is certain why Stoker chose a little-known fifteenth century Romanian prince as the model for his main character, but scholars have concluded that Stoker had at least a peripheral knowledge of his character as well as the subject matter. Stoker is also said to have maintained a close friendship with Hermann Vamberger, a Hungarian professor from the University of Budapest, and many suspect this to be the author’s true source of information about Dragwyla’s life and history. In fact, Vamberger, whose name in his native Hungarian is actually Arminius Vambery, appears in the novel as an absent friend of Dr. Abraham Van Helsing who mentions his “friend Arminius” as the source of his knowledge about Dracula; this seems to support the hypothesis.

Nevertheless, it should not be overlooked that Stoker’s novel is, in fact, the only real link between the historical Vlad “Dracul” (1431-1476) and the vampire as it appears in modern culture. In fact, Stoker’s creature is actually a composite drawn from several different folklore traditions as well as historic references and materials that were available to the author at the time the novel was written but which are unfortunately lost to us.

Stoker’s 1897 novel has been the basis for countless films, plays and theatrical treatments, and even for comedies, musicals and popular television characters such as Al Newman’s “Grandpa” on the late-sixties sitcom “The Munsters.”

Over the years seemingly numberless adaptations and retellings have been made of Stoker’s original novel – some good, some really bad with the occasional shot at excellence breaking from the rest. Three of the most famous film treatments of the 1897 work are “Nosferatu” (1922); the infamous Universal studios film “Dracula” (1931) which perhaps single-handedly shaped the image of the vampire for generations to come; and Francis Ford Coppola’s excellent, if flawed, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992).

“Nosferatu,” infamous for its silent, haunting atmosphere and the gaunt Max Schrek as the preying vampire, was almost never made because it was produced while Stoker’s widow was still alive. Awash in copyright controversy, the producers opted to change the location (what appears to be Transylvania is really Slovakia) and the character names (Count Dracula become Count Orlok) to avoid lawsuits. Notwithstanding all these challenges, “Nosferatu” stands at the forefront as one of the creepiest treatments the novel has ever received on film.

Unlike film adaptations to follow which would ultimately create a more romantic and tragic Dracula, the vampire of “Nosferatu” is nothing like his sensuous and erotic successors. This creature embodies and brings to life reviled memories from Europe’s collective horror memory and thus we see the Count as more of a walking corpse, bloodless, lifeless, with a rat-like face, elongated ears, and sharp teeth and nails. His halting gait and relentless lust for blood are more like a Dans Macabre come to life than the vampires we have come to know (and sometimes love) in more recent adaptations, having many of the hallmarks of traditional European vampires.

Though often camped and imitated over the years, as the vampire has made his way deep into the heart of modern American culture, this nosferatu stands apart as a very bad thing, indeed, to come across on a dark and moonless night.

To watch the full movie version of director F.W. Munarau’s fantastically eerie “Nosferatu” follow this link:

www.clickcaster.com

Perhaps no film treatment of Stoker’s work has done more to cement the image of the vampire in the world zeitgeist than 1931’s “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi.
Here the bloodsucking Transylvania Count becomes a larger-than-death caricature of the novel’s villain, ramped up to meet the expectations of Depression-era filmgoers. Responding to the public need for extraordinary escapism from the melancholy reality of American life in the early 1930’s, Universal introduces the aristocratic vampire complete with tuxedo and cumber bund, flowing cape, and slicked-back black hair; this Count reeks more of money than of the grave.

Despite the fact that at the time the film was made Lugosi could only barely speak English (he learned his lines phonetically, responding to cues) he nevertheless fit the bill as just what the public wanted in their anti-hero heroes. Mostly required to stand about looking menacing and austere, accompanied by the obligatory bats and fog, Lugosi’s treatment was immediately etched upon the public psyche. If there was such a thing as a vampire – not impossible in a world gone seemingly to hell – then THIS is surely how he must look and act.

Thanks to Lugosi’s hammy acting skills and Hollywood’s clout, this image – the aristocratic Transylvanian count – would be the most enduring film image of Stoker’s original Dracula. Generations the world over immediately recognized the flowing cape and black evening dress of the Lugosi vampire and over the years it has been redone and revamped by everyone from Christopher Lee to George Hamilton and by countless Halloween partygoers in between.
For more information on “Dracula” and other Universal monster classics, follow the link, below:

In 1992 Francis Ford Coppola, the brilliant director who brought us the Godfather films and who now puts fine dinner wines on our table, took a stab at Stoker’s novel. The result was his film adaptation “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”

Coppola chose the amazing Gary Oldman to portray Count Dracula as a more sympathetic and sadly romantic figure that was at once similar to but different from every previous interpretation. Coppola made the book’s count into a Prince and added to or expanded on many of the folkloric aspects of the book’s vampire, including his power to control animals and to affect the weather. Coppola’s version also gives Dracula a love interest in the form of Johnathan Harker’s wife, Mina, whom we discover to be the reincarnation of the princess who leapt to her death from the top of Poenari Castle. This plot addition makes Dracula immediately more tragic and his demise more poignant. In most other regards, Coppola adheres to the book as written by Stoker and the adaptation works surprisingly well, giving us ultimately a Count whose horrible acts can be judged against a backdrop of tragedy and loss.

Besides this, Coppola’s version gives us three of the most beautiful and seductive Vampire Brides ever put on screen; sexy, clad in stained, decaying shrouds, they appear to have stepped directly out of Eastern European folklore and into the film. Add to this Coppola’s attention to traditional details in creating a realistically creepy and foreign atmosphere and this 1992 adaptation far outranks anything that came before it.

As a footnote, this film single-handedly caused the clip-on spectacle and monocle markets to soar as hundreds of Gary Oldman wanna-be’s sought to recreate his vampire look. After this everything from broody Goths to failed, fire-eating magicians just HAD to have a pair of those “cool” glasses …

The Vampire Motif in Fiction

“The modern vampire of … fiction and the media has come to be seen as an appealing, seductive figure who offers eternal life in exchange for a voluptuous, quasi-sexual sharing of blood. It’s no wonder that people find the image an attractive one, even to the point of trying to adopt it for themselves.”
Greer

Films and plays may come and go, but in the literary world there is only one work of fiction that can stand in comparison to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” – and this work itself owes a lot to the 1897 classic. We are talking, of course, about “The Vampire Chronicles” of novelist Anne Rice.

 

MARK OF THE VAMPIRE trailer

Besides “Dracula” itself, no other work of fiction has had more of an impact on shapingthe concept of the vampire in modern culture.

From its beginning with the publication of “Interview with the Vampire,” Rice’s Vampire Chronicles have taken the reader on a fantastic roller-coaster ride over, under and sideways through the world of the Undead. With the preternatural anti-hero element embodied in the undead rebel Lestat, Rice has woven a tale so deep and vivid that it has quite literally spawned an entire subculture of would-be and wanna-be vampires that thrives across the world to this day.

The fact that Rice’s vampires are simply extrapolations on the Stoker theme apparently seems lost on her minions of followers who have adopted the look, dress, mannerisms and habits (good and bad) of Rice’s characters and who live out the fantasy of a dark and brooding pre-Victoriana aristocracy of the undead in their daily lives.
This vision of the Dracula mythos, although true to the characterizations of Stoker and Rice, is nonetheless entirely removed from the real vampires that actually lurk among us. It does prove, however, the power of literature to create cultural motifs and its ability to sustain those motifs so strongly that these actually become – despite all proof to the contrary – a widely accepted concept of reality for many people.

Other writers have tackled the realm of the undead with more or less success, but none have made such a lasting contribution to this, the Gothic literary genre, than Stoker and Rice. It would take generations of argument to undo the alternative vampire reality that they have created and unless the decision is based on an encounter or experience with a REAL vampire, very few who have adopted this lifestyle will readily give it up for what passes as our reality.

It is safe to say, therefore, that no matter how erroneous they may be, the Dracula and vampire myths will be with us for a long, long time.

“. . . reality is a good deal less pleasant. Actual vampires are about as appealing as bubonic plague and as seductive as bloodsucking leeches. A predatory ghost who murders people to prolong its own unnatural existence, the vampire is perhaps the least attractive and most destructive of all monsters. All the other [monstrous] entities … even those that are highly dangerous to human beings, can be dealt with in ways that stop short of annihilation – by means of magical protections and banishings, ordinary caution, or a simple willingness to live and let live. No t so the vampire: it must be destroyed or it will kill, over and over again.

In order to make sense of the vampire, then, the first and most crucial step is to forget everything you think you already know about vampires … ”
Greer



COMMENTARY
“The Shadow of Lugosi’s Cape Reaches Far”

Far from all the posing and play-acting, and far from the maddening whir of the everyday world, the fact remains that vampires DO exist. True, they do not appear in our reality as anything like the Hollywood or literary icons, but they are there.

So, if we don’t have the benefit of the long black cape and thick Eastern European accent to guide us, or the mysterious preternatural (a word entirely overused where vampires are concerned) gaze and beautiful, lanky frame of Lestat just isn’t the real thing, how do we know when we’ve encountered a real, bona fide vampire?

There are experts who agree that most vampires exist because they are “willed” into being. When dealing with a vampire, it is important to remember that you are dealing with the manifest will of a very powerful magician or witch who has made a magical grasp “aimed at personal immortality” and who will not be easily dismissed or destroyed.

These creatures are certainly not the vampiric clones that populate the literary and Hollywood mythology and as such they cannot be dealt with by anyone who is in the least enamored of the vampire state or who does not have a firm grasp on the reality or on the dangerous nature of the creature itself.

That vampires and vampiric spirits are the product of magical workings has long been known in the occult community, although the methods of constructing the vampiric etheric revenant are high up on most magicians’ list of “knowledge better off forgotten.” Still there persist in the magical community those who, for one reason or another, resist entirely the death process and opt instead to deliberately evade death in such a way that “their souls stay within reach of the world of the living.”

Ghosts, it is said, fall into this state by accident. With vampires, the condition is intentional and it has been found in many cases that would-be vampires begin the process of evading death even while still alive, using exercises to strengthen the etheric body, “helping it to resist the disintegrating processes of … death.” In other cases, certain types of magical practices strengthen the etheric body by default, and increase the possibility that one might become a vampire. Another example, widely expressed in the axiom “too mean to die,” becomes reality when a soul who is so mean and hateful and grasping in life refuses to let go in the death process; hanging onto the imitation of life found in the twilight state of death, these souls join the ranks of the true “undead.”
Once in a vampiric state, the soul, or etheric revenant, will continue to seek out energy to sustain it most notably from living human beings. Much like the bloodsucking vampires of fiction and movies, the true vampire will prey upon the energy of its victims and bring about the same state of malaise and general illness that is traditionally associated with vampire attacks.

As long as the actual body of the vampire is intact, and the etheric link is not otherwise broken, the creature will continue to prey and grow strong until its danger to humans matches its desperation to stay alive. This is why most authentic vampire traditions require that the corpse of the suspected vampire be subjected to such horrible methods of destruction – to assure that there is nothing left to form a link for the vampire’s spirit. The corpse of a suspected vampire is thus often beheaded, even dismembered, and then summarily burned. Often these acts follow numerous others that, though not as grisly, generally only serve to confuse but not destroy the creature.

In modern times, finding a vampire with an intact body and a strong etheric link is rare, especially owing to modern funeral and burial customs. However, this does not prevent the birth of vampires among us because, as stated above, if the will of the dying soul is strong enough it may cling to life long after the natural process of decay has passed. When this occurs, the vampire is technically more like a ghost, but a predatory ghost animated by an independent will that is so powerful and so intent on survival that it has found a way to transcend death itself.

Despite this, however, the vampire’s existence is a precarious one and one that is daily becoming less and less viable. In many instances nowadays what is thought to be a true vampire is identified as an angry ghost. Nevertheless, the existence of vampires should not be doubted because they are still among us, albeit in varied forms, and are still quite able to suck the very life from us.

Some experts have hypothesized that modern vampires are actually spirit larvae that have evolved into a more substantial form. Others believe that, as stated above, the firm, directed will of a powerful worker of magic can and often does avoid the death process entirely, only to find that it cannot maintain this state without making prey of the humans it finds peopling its twilight world.

Still others warn about a more real and deadly vampire than any thus far mentioned. This is the living “psychic vampire,” or living individuals who indulge in the same actions as true vampires – that is, feeding on the etheric energy of everyone around them. Though their “attacks” are not as drastic as those of an actual vampire, they nonetheless can produce states of ill-health and exhaustion in their victims.

Many people become psychic vampires by accident and don’t even realize they are feeding on the energy of healthy individuals around them. Others, especially individuals who have some knowledge of magic or the manipulation of the etheric realm, and yet have no actual intent of becoming a vampire in death, will prey on the energy of people around them simply because, by virtue of their higher understanding of the process, they can.

When such an individual dies, however, there is a good chance that he or she may become a vampire, the living etheric revenant who resists the death process intentionally and clings to a shadow of life by sucking the life force and etheric energy from everyone around them until something happens to break the link and total death finally occurs.

Viewed in this light, there are probably not many of us who need to go to the movies or rent a DVD to get our fill of really scary vampires. Most likely every one of us can think of just such a person in their daily life.
Is there such a vampire in your reality? Could very well be.

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Dracula

Bram Stoker (1847-1912) studied at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He earned a degree in science (with honors) in 1868 and a master's degree in mathematics in 1872. Stoker began work as a civil servant at Dublin Castle in 1868. He also worked as an unpaid drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail, and later, as a business manager of the Lyceum Theatre. Stoker's first book, The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, was published in 1879. His short story collection, Under the Sunset, was published in 1882. In 1892, Stoker began writing Dracula. Stoker's childhood illness, which had hysteria-like symptoms, may have led him to imagine the predicament he would later create for his vampire victims.

Online text of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
www.literature.org/authors/stoker-bram/dracula/

Between 1878 and 1898 Stoker managed the world-famous London Lyceum Theatre, where he supplemented his income by writing a large number of sensational novels, his most famous being the vampire tale Dracula published on May 18, 1897. Parts of it are set around the town of Whitby, where he was living at the time. While Dracula is famous today (due in large part to its 20th century life on film), it was not an important or famous work for Victorian readers, being just another pot-boiler adventure among many. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s authors such as H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, and H.G. Wells wrote many tales in which fantastic creatures threatened the British Empire. Invasion literature was at a peak, and Stoker's formula of an invasion of England by continental European influences was by 1897 very familiar to readers of fantastic adventure stories.

Shakespearian actor and friend of Stoker's, Sir Henry Irving was a real-life inspiration for the character of Dracula, tailor-made to his dramatic presence, gentlemanly mannerisms and speciality playing villain roles. Irving however never agreed to play the part on stage.
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Shakespearian actor and friend of Stoker's, Sir Henry Irving was a real-life inspiration for the character of Dracula, tailor-made to his dramatic presence, gentlemanly mannerisms and speciality playing villain roles. Irving however never agreed to play the part on stage.

Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent seven years researching European folklore and stories of vampires, being most influenced by Emily Gerard's 1885 essay "Transylvania Superstitions". Though it is the most famous vampire novel ever, Dracula was not the first. It was preceded and partially inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu's 1871 Carmilla, about a lesbian vampire who preys upon a lonely young woman. The image of a vampire portrayed as an aristocratic man, like the character of Dracula, was created by John Polidori in The Vampyre (1819), during the summer spent with Frankenstein creator Mary Shelley and other friends in 1816. Polidori is many times credited as the creator of the vampire genre in fiction, but his vampire story was inspired by elements of Lord Byron's vampire poem, The Giaour (1813).

The Lyceum Theatre where Stoker worked between 1878 and 1898 was headed by the tyrannical actor-manager Henry Irving, who was Stoker's real-life inspiration for the mannerisms of Dracula, and who Stoker hoped would play Dracula in a stage version. Although Irving never did agree to do a stage version, Dracula's dramatic sweeping gestures and gentlemanly mannerisms drew their living embodiment from Irving.

The Dead Un-Dead was one of Stoker's original titles for Dracula, and up until a few weeks before publication, the manuscript was titled simply The Un-Dead. The name of Stoker's count was originally going to be Count Vampyre, but while doing research Stoker ran across an intriguing word in the Romanian language: "Dracul", meaning "the Devil". There was also a historic figure known as Vlad the Impaler, but whether or not Stoker based his character on him remains debated (see "Historical connections" below).

Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as collection of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters, as well as fictional clippings from the Whitby and London newspapers. This literary style, made most famous by one of the most popular novels of the 19th century, The Woman in White (1860), was considered rather old-fashioned by the time of the publication of Dracula, but it adds a sense of realism and provides the reader with the perspective of most of the major characters.

Dracula has been the basis for countless films and plays. Three of the most famous are Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1931), and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Nosferatu was produced while Stoker's widow was still alive, and the filmmakers were forced to change the setting and the names of the characters for copyright reasons. The vampire in Nosferatu is called Count Orlok rather than Count Dracula. Bram Stoker's Dracula, while closer to the novel's plot than most movies produced earlier (or since), reimagines the Count as a tragic figure instead of a monster. It adds an opening sequence that focuses on the Count's Romanian background, and inserts a new romantic subplot into the story.

Stoker wrote several other novels dealing with horror and supernatural themes, but none achieved the lasting fame or success of Dracula. His other novels include The Snake's Pass (1890), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).

The story begins with Jonathan Harker, a newly-qualified English solicitor, being invited to the Count's crumbling, remote castle (situated in the Carpathian Mountains, on the border of Transylvania and Moldavia), to provide legal support for a real estate transaction on behalf of Harker's employer in London. At first seduced by the Count's gracious manner, he soon discovers he has become a prisoner and begins to see disquieting facets of the Count's daily life. Searching for a way out of the castle one night, he falls under the spell of three wanton female vampires, the Brides of Dracula, but is saved at the last minute by the Count who wants to retain Harker as a friend to teach him about London, where the Count plans to travel among the "teeming millions". Harker barely escapes from the castle with his life.

DRACULA THE FICTION

Not long afterward, a Russian ship runs aground during a fierce tempest, on the shores of Whitby, a coastal town in England. All passengers and crew are dead. A huge dog or wolf is seen running from the ship, which contains nothing but boxes of dirt from Transylvania: Count Dracula, in his animal form, has arrived in England.

Soon the Count is menacing Harker's devoted fiancée, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her vivacious friend, Lucy Westenra. Lucy receives three marriage proposals in one day, from Arthur Holmwood (Lord Godalming); an American cowboy, Quincey Morris; and an asylum psychiatrist, Dr. John Seward. There is a notable encounter between Dracula and Seward's patient Renfield, an insane man who means to consume insects, spiders, and birds, and other creatures — in ascending order of size — in order to absorb their "life force". Renfield acts as a kind of motion sensor, detecting the proximity of Dracula and releasing clues accordingly.

Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously. All of her suitors fret and Seward calls in his old teacher, Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Amsterdam. Van Helsing immediately determines the cause of Lucy's condition, but refuses to disclose it, knowing that Seward's faith in him will be shaken if he starts spouting off about vampires. Van Helsing tries multiple blood transfusions, but they are clearly losing ground. On a night when Van Helsing must return to Amsterdam (and his message to Seward asking him to watch the Westenra household is accidentally sent to the wrong address), Lucy and her mother are attacked in the night by a wolf. Mrs Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright, and Lucy herself apparently dies soon after.

Lucy is buried, but soon afterward the newspapers report a "bloofer lady" (sometimes explained as "beautiful lady") stalking children in the night. Van Helsing, knowing that this means Lucy has become a vampire, confides in Seward, Arthur, and Morris. The suitors and Van Helsing track her down, and after a disturbing confrontation between her vampiric self and Arthur, they stake her heart and behead her.

Around the same time, Jonathan Harker arrives home from Transylvania (where Mina joined and married him after his escape from the castle); he and Mina also join the coalition, who now turn their attentions to dealing with Dracula himself.

After Dracula learns of Van Helsing and the others' plot against him, he takes revenge by visiting -- and biting -- Mina at least three times. Dracula also feeds Mina his blood, creating a mind bond between them, aiming to control her. The only way to forestall this is to kill Dracula first. Mina slowly succumbs to the blood of the vampire that flows through her veins, switching back and forth from a state of consciousness to a state of semi-trance during which she is telepathically connected with Dracula. It is this connection which they start to use to track Dracula's movements.

Dracula flees back to his castle in Transylvania, followed by Van Helsing's gang, who manage to track him down just before sundown and kill him by "shearing through the kneck" and stabbing him in the heart with a bowie knife. Dracula crumbles to dust, his spell is lifted and Mina freed from the marks. Quincey Morris is killed in the final battle, stabbed by gypsies; the survivors return to England.

The book closes with a note about Mina's and Jonathan's married life and the birth of their first-born son, whom they name Quincey in remembrance of their American friend.

WATCH THE ENTIRE MOVIE 1922 ORIGINAL MOVIE NOSFERATU HERE FREE

 

Nosferatu (1922)

Originally released in 1922 as Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie Des Grauens, director F.W. Munarau's chilling and eerie ... all » adaption of Stoker's Dracula is a silent masterpiece of terror which to this day is the most striking and frightening portrayal of the legend.

Director: F.W. Murnau

vam·pire n. [French, from German Vampir, of Slavic origin.] A reanimated corpse that is believed to rise from the grave at night to suck the blood of sleeping people.

This was the first film of the production company Prana-Film GmbH; it was also the last as they declared bankruptcy after Bram Stoker's estate—acting for his widow, Florence Stoker—sued for copyright infringement (plagiarism) and won. The court ordered all existing prints of Nosferatu destroyed, but a number of copies of the film had already been distributed around the world. These prints were then copied over the years, resulting in Nosferatu gaining a reputation as one of the greatest movie adaptations of the vampire legend.

With the influence of producer and production designer, Albin Grau, the film established one of two main lines of vampire depiction in movies. The "Nosferatu-type" is a living corpse with rodent features (especially elongated fingernails and incisors), associated with rats and plague, and neither charming nor erotic but totally repugnant. The victims usually die and are not turned into vampires themselves. The more common other line is the "Dracula-type" (established by Bela Lugosi's version of Dracula and perpetuated by Christopher Lee), a charming aristocrat adept at seduction and turning his victims into new vampires.

Parts of the film allegedly showing Transylvania were filmed in Slovakia. Nosferatu's castle, for instance, is Orava Castle in northern Slovakia, and other locations are in the High Tatras and on the Váh River around Strecno Castle.

 

 

DRACULA ON THE INTERNET

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula

Dracula
Online text of Bram Stoker's Dracula. http://www.literature.org/authors/stoker-bram/dracula/

Vlad Dracula Biography
However, on the other hand, Vlad Tepes Dracula, the historical figure who inspired ... At 17 years old, Vlad Tepes Dracula, supported by a force of Turkish ...

http://members.aol.com/johnfranc/drac05.htm

Dracula's Homepage
In-depth information on Stoker and Dracula. Includes a discussion board.

http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/

Dracula - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1st edition cover, Archibald Constable and Company, ... Bram Stoker's Dracula, while closer to the novel's plot than most movies ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula

Dracula's Castle
Photographs and lively popular history of the stunning Bran Castle, Romania, once used by Vlad the...

http://www.draculascastle.com/

 

Jonathan Harker's Journal ...

We kept on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in the main always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the sky.

Dracula Bram Stoker Chapter 1

Castle Dracula

Dracula
HTML formatted text of Stoker's novel, with a link to a strictly text version.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/drac-table.html

Dracula Blogged
Credit: Clive Leatherdale, The Origins of Dracula. June 19, 2006 in Multimedia Dracula ... We noticed it last year, during the first blog-run of Dracula. ...

http://infocult.typepad.com/dracula/

Historical places connected to Vlad Tepes are publicised under a Dracula theme catering largely, but not entirely, to foreign markets. Bran Castle, which has only a very tangential connection with the historical Vlad Tepes, now exaggerates that connection and promotes itself as "Dracula's Castle". [3] A dungeon-themed disco, catering to a mostly Romanian crowd and located in the basement of a former inn immediately adjacent to the Curtea Veche ("Old Court") -- onetime site of Vlad Tepes' castle in Bucharest -- calls itself by the English-language name "Impaler". The well-preserved medieval town of Sighisoara, Vlad Tepes's birthplace, seriously considered building a Dracula theme park on the edge of town, but in the end it was decided that such a site would cheapen the beauty and history of the medieval city and the plan was blocked. The park was then to have been built close to Bucharest (the capital, which is nowhere near Transylvania) but plans have subsequently been scrapped.

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. Quincey 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: eine Symphonie des Grauens ('Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'), which took the story of Dracula and set it in Transylvania and 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 (whose name literally means 'fright').

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 (Hungarian-born actor) 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 most 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.

 

Bela Lugosi Interview - Ship's Reporter (1950)

 

At the same time as the 1931 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 (a common practice in the early days of sound films). 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, Melford'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 Melford's version say the acting of the Spanish version is crisper and the pace is much quicker -- and there aren't any 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.)

Universal Studios productions of Dracula

The 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 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.)
7. Van Helsing (2004 - Richard Roxburgh)

In 1938, Orson Welles and John Houseman chose Dracula to be the inaugural episode of the new radio show featuring their Broadway production company, The Mercury Theatre on the Air. The adaptation was faithful to the book, although condensed to fit in the show's hour-long format. Welles was the voice of 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. The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973 - Lee). Released in the US as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride
9. 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

Other productions 1967 - 1979

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) was directed by Roman Polanski and introduced him to Sharon Tate.

Count Dracula (1969 film), directed by Jesus Franco starring Christopher Lee as Dracula. While not a part of the Hammer series some fans feel that it is close to the spirit of the book.

In 1972, Paul Naschy starred in Dracula's Great Love, directed by Javier Aguirre for the Spanish production company Janus Films. This movie predated the vision of Dracula as a romantic character to Francis Ford Coppola's by 20 years.

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 and directed by Philip Saville. This version is one of the more faithful adaptations of the book. It includes all of the main characters from the book (only blending together Arthur and Quincey) and has 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 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', sung 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. A scene where Van Helsing has Harker pound a stake into a sleeping Lucy's chest with a seemingly impossible amount of blood spraying back on himself asks the question: just where does all the blood go? Mel Brooks played Van Helsing as an aged Professor. Dracula was played by Leslie Nielsen.

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. Mainly greyscale until Dracula is cut and bleeds gold colloured coins.

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, played in this case by Hugh Jackman, only reinvented as an immortal action hero assigned by the Vatican to hunt 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, impervious to the normal methods of killing 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. Dominic Purcell portrays Drake.

2005 saw the premiere of Dracula's most recent play incarnation, an adaptation by playwright P. Shane Mitchell. By the end of 2005, the opera Dracula, by the Colombian composer Héctor Fabio Torres Cardona opened in Manizales, Colombia. A French Canadian musical production ("Dracula: Entre l'amour et la mort" opened in Montreal in January 2006, starring Bruno Pelletier.

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