Director: John Badham
Cast: Frank Langella, Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasence, Kate Nelligan
Release Date: 13th July 1979
Worldwide Box Office: $31,200,000
Trailer:
Interview:
IMDb Rating: 6.5
What the critics said:
“The new “Dracula” is a dazzler, a classic retelling of a classic text. From opening wolf howls through ominous, ambiguous concluding images, it sustains an exciting, witty, erotically compelling illusion of supernatural mystery and terror.
Director John Badham, screenwriter W.D. Richter and a superlative Anglo American cast and crew must have been sky-high over this opportunity. They’ve achieved a “Dracula” of unprecedented pictorial richness and sensuality, compared to which previous film versions are strictly bag-lunch diversions.
Although the script displays a cunning sense of humor, “Dracula” is not the kind of vampire movie an audience can feel superior to or safe from. Richter’s ironic style tends to intensify the threat of corruption through seduction embodied so effectively by Frank Langella as the Count, who adapts his theatrical impersonation to the screen with admirable finesse and superbly devious sexual charm.
[…]
The result is a handsome production that beguiles the eye and excites the senses, while also churning up subconscious feelings, leaving a Freudian aftershock similar to the effect achieved by Brian De Palma in “Carrie.”
Badham and his crew have succeeded at a number of spectral illusions evidently beyond the means or ingenuity of earlier film versions. The most spectacular effect is the image Stoker conveyed of Dracula scaling walls. Badham has improved on Stoker’s original vision by having the camera pan up to the rooftop, from which Langella then descends on his initial attack against Mina.This fabulous vertiginous shot is then given a witty kicker by shifting to the interior of Mina’s bedroom and showing Langella peering at her through the French doors while still upside-down.
[…]
In fact, with the possible exception of Roger Vadim’s “Blood and Roses” – a movie version of the other great Victorian vampire story – there has never been a more beautifully visualized horror movie.” Gary Arnold, ‘Stunning, Stylish Cinematic Horror Is Not Dead – It’ undead; Chilling Cinema Isn’t Dead – It’s Undead’, The Washington Post, July 13, 1979, E1
“Frank Langella was the brilliant star of Edward Corey’s elegant, witty, and scary stage variation of “Dracula.” The play has rightfully enjoyed a Broadway success and was a total triumph for Langella himself. Unfortunately, he is also the star of the leaden, humorless and unscary movie, likewise called “Dracula.” The film is faithful to the Bram Stoker novel and the John Balderston-Hamllton Deane adaption of it, but it appears as if the new film had been made in 1931, with Langella pinchhitting at the last moment for Bela Lugosi. That version, in its time, at least frightened its audience, just as its many variations have amused them across the years.
[…]
It’s hard to believe as well that W.D. Richter, who wrote “Slither,” is responsible for the witless, pedestrian screenplay. It looks as if vampires drained their blood before they went to work on the movie. “Dracula” is now simply the literal retelling of how a hungry, thirsty Transylvanian count comes to England in a coffin in which he might sleep through the days while waiting for the nights. The nights bring him the sustenance he requires to live fresh blood, preferably from pretty women.
[…]
All of this should either make us shiver or giggle or both, but it doesn’t do anything. Something has been lost not only on the road from Transylvania, but on the road from Broadway to Hollywood.” Bernard Drew, ‘’Dracula’ won’t scare you half to death’, San Bernardino Sun, July 15, 1979, E5
IFG Ratings:
Donnie
Razvan
Dominik
Arpatilaos
4Porcelli
Debbie
Rob
Romcomloveaffair
IFG Average Rating: 6.94
REMINDERS:
By 31st July 2020 please send your rating for: The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum, 2014)
POSTPONED: The IFG Awards will now be later in the year, but please do send your nominations ASAP: Time to consider who you would have awarded the Oscars to for films in 2019. Coming Soon: IFG 2019 Awards
Please start thinking about any films you would like to nominate for selection. The poll to select the films for October, November and December will be published late July/early August.
Oasis of Fear 