DRACULA

DRACULA

(A.k.a. HORROR OF DRACULA)

1885: Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) narrates the latest entry into his personal diary as we first meet him. He's embarking on the final couple of kilometres of his journey to a mysterious Count's castle. He's having to complete the journey on foot because no coachman will venture there.

We learn from his narration that Harker has gained employment as the new librarian of Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). Upon arrival, he remarks how the setting is very scenic - but, oddly, there is an absence of birdsong within this pretty woodlands environment.

Letting himself into the ancient building, Harker discovers a note left for him by Dracula: he's to help himself to food and drink, pending the Count's return to the castle that evening. By the time Dracula makes his first appearance, Harker has already had a young woman (Valerie Gaunt) begging him to rescue her from the evil clutches of the Count.

Dracula seems charming at first: he's gracious and accommodating towards his new employee, and particularly complimentary about the photograph Harker keeps of his fiancée Lucy (Carol Marsh).

It's not long though before it's established that both the Count and his female slave are vampires. Also, we learn that Harker is there under false pretences: his true intention is to end Dracula's "reign of terror". Alas, his plans go awry upon location of the bloodsuckers' coffins...

Enter Dr Van Helsing (Peter Cushing). He's Harker's best friend and has travelled to meet with him. This follows a letter Van Helsing had received from Harker, detailing the evil if Dracula and his plans to destroy this monster. Discovering that his friend has sadly succumbed to his adversary's monstrous will, Van Helsing leaves the castle and makes his way to Lucy's home.

Before Van Helsing can inform Lucy that her beloved has perished, he learns that she has recently taken ill under unexplained circumstances. He also has the unhelpful attitude of her protective brother Arthur (Michael Gough) and his wife Mina (Melissa Stribling) to contend with.

However, upon learning that Lucy's symptoms - which recall those of anaemia - began 10 days earlier, just after Harker had died, Van Helsing begins to believe that she is being vampirised as punishment for Harker's earlier slaying of the Count's previous female slave.

Upon being shown the contents of Harker's diary and witnessing evidence of the undead for himself, Arthur agrees to help Van Helsing track down the now-missing Dracula and slay him. Fortunately for the pair of them, Van Helsing has devoted his life to learning about how to kill vampires - so he knows all the tricks.

Alas, with the boys so fixated on their vampire-hunting antics, Mina is left exposed and vulnerable to the wily charms of the red-eyed Count...

There's very little that can be said critically about DRACULA. Its history, and its place in history, should be well-known to horror fans. It is a defining moment in Hammer's horror history, more so even than THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTIEN. It's the film that cemented the coupling of Cushing and Lee as THE all-time great double-act of horror cinema, and gave the latter his first (and best) bite at the role that remains the most famous of his incredibly prolific career.

Revisiting it now, it holds up extraordinarily well. Its upfront theme of 'good versus evil' is a universal one that transcends time or trend: the film will always be relevant on this level. But it's testament to Jimmy Sangster's literate, streamlined screenplay that the film also manages to allude heavily to class divides (unlike the Bram Stoker novel it's based upon, Sangster's screenplay bases its villains and protagonists within a few miles of each other - a budgetary necessity, perhaps - which leads to the suggestion of the power the aristocratic likes of Count Dracula fundamentally hold over their lesser privileged victims) and famously portrays Dracula as a seducer of innocence. Indeed, it was the inferences of the latter that worried the censors upon the film's 1958 release, just as much as its then-gory violence did.

Away from such musings over theme and subtext, the film is quite simply a textbook exercise in how to tell a rich story while allowing no flab storywise whatsoever. Director Terence Fisher controls the pacing and look of the film perfectly, without a single hitch in fact, while his cast perform with such a conviction that you can't help but cheer, hiss and gasp in all the required places.

The sets are lovingly constructed, be it the ornate castle interiors or the painted landscape backdrops which vaguely recall THE WIZARD OF OZ. The score signposts every emotion in an exaggerated manner that was typical of the late 1950s, and it's impossible to begrudge it for doing so - such is the pleasure derived from it.

Tame by modern standards, naturally, but this Gothic horror is filled with romance, intrigue, drama and panache. It would take a particularly cold heart not to love this film to death.

Pardon me while I try to contain my excitement: DRACULA, the definitive one as far as I’m concerned, now comes in a whopping 3-disc extras-laden blu-ray/DVD combo pack!

Looking at the blu-ray disc first, it houses two versions of the film (via seamless branching) and a whole host of valuable bonus features.

The film itself is presented in the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Naturally, this is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The MPEG4-AVC file translates it at full 1080p HD resolution, and it looks mighty fine. As mentioned above, we get options of how to watch the film: the 2007 BFI restoration which enjoyed a limited theatrical run at the time, and an all-new Hammer restoration.

You know you’re in good hands when a film is restored in HD by the BFI. Their effort not only scrubs the film clean of much print damage and heightens colour schemes, but also reinstates a few seconds of additional blood during the staking of one character. It’s tough to tell whether additional noise reduction has taken place – possibly, as there is a clean softness at times – but overall I found this to be an impressive playback of a much-loved film. Colours are bolder than ever before, the compositions and set design at long last look great, and there is an unexpected depth to each scene. The film is 55 years old but looks very, very good here.

The more recent (2012) Hammer restoration takes the BFI’s achievements, remains faithful to their work and incorporates recently found Japanese reels which add footage to a couple of scenes that were originally censored for Western audiences (you can find details of these easily via Google; I don’t want to elaborate here as that would constitute spoilers). The Hammer version is 7 seconds longer than its BFI alternative. These scenes look good when compared against their source origins (see the extras section below) too. There is a noticeable dip in quality though, but I personally didn't find it to be jarring. There will inevitably be the usual mob who moan online about the contrasting qualities but ... do you want these scenes integrated into the film or not? If not, watch the 2007 BFI restoration. Simple.

In fact, comparing the blu-ray against the DVD versions contained within this set, and against the old UK DVD which bore the HORROR OF DRACULA title, the film looks bloody good in HD. Those who press their nose against their PC screens looking for flaws may decry me for saying that, and those with large projection screens may see something detrimental that I can't: watching with an eye to enjoying the film, on a 50-inch Plasma from a few feet away, I honestly thought the presentation was really pleasing.

Both versions open with the original British titles (DRACULA), as opposed to the aforementioned American HORROR OF DRACULA titles that have so far been most common on domestic releases of the film.

English audio comes in lossless PCM 2.0 and is impressively clean for the duration of playback. Optional English subtitles are well-written and easy to read.

The disc opens with an animated main menu page. From there, pop-up menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access

While there is an unfortunate lack of Lee in this set’s bonus features, what is here surely qualifies this release as a ‘deluxe’ edition.

It all begins with a commentary track from Hammer historian Marcus Hearn and film author Jonathan Rigby. This wasn’t as stuffy as I’d anticipated, despite a whiff of academia never feeling far away. It’s an interesting, insightful listen with trivia galore delivered in engaging, fluent (and very properly spoken!) style.

Hearn emphasises how this new restoration has been worth its wait in a new 30-minute featurette entitled "Dracula Reborn". This is presented in HD, and also features the likes of Sangster, Kim Newman and Mark Gattiss enthusiastically discussing the film’s enduring appeal and its importance in the pantheon of British horror. As Newman asserts, it may not necessarily be Hammer’s best film – but it could well be their most definitive. Newman’s observation that Gough acts as if he thinks he’s above the script is interesting: it adds a fresh dimension to watching his scenes.

"Resurrecting Dracula" is another new bonus feature. It runs for 17 minutes and looks at both the 2007 and 2012 restorations of the film. There are some good explanations of industry terms such as "grading" to be had, along with comparison clips which really enhance this illuminating insight into what essentially a black art.

A 9-minute featurette on the censorship of DRACULA largely relies on author Dennis Meikle with a few clips along the way, and makes for another valid watch.

If you’ve heard one of his audio commentaries or read any of his writing, you’ll know that Christopher Frayling is quite probably the most reliable and encyclopaedic film historian that we have in Britain. And he shines here in another new extra, speaking for a fixating 28 minutes about the film’s background, themes and its very Britishness.

35 minutes of the ‘lost’ Japanese reels in their entirety will delight fans by their appearance here. Despite them not benefitting from any restoration, their inclusion here as a standalone bonus feature is very welcome indeed. They come in widescreen, but wobble like crazy as if they were filmed underwater. Scratched to Hell and replete with Japanese subtitles for scenes with dialogue, they illustrate just how successful Hammer's efforts have been in restoring that sacred censored footage for us.

As is "Dracula and the Undead", a window-boxed episode of the excellent "World of Hammer" TV series with Oliver Reed providing his usual narration services. It runs for 25 minutes and is very entertaining, worthwhile slice of nostalgic fluff.

Janina Faye (she plays a servant's child in the film) has also been recorded for prosperity reading a chapter for Stoker's novel, at a screening of Hammer's restoration which took place at The Vault festival in February 2012. This makes for yet more engaging, well-produced footage.

A generous stills gallery is attractive and similarly well-presented, offering more than 100 "fully-restored and rare images". These run for almost 11 minutes and are accompanied by a mix of music and dialogue cues from the film. Very nice.

Discs 2 and 3 in this set are region 2 DVDs, which between them proffer all the content found on the blu-ray disc. The first DVD offers both versions of the film, along with their own scene-selection menus and the commentary track. The rest of the extras find their second home on the next DVD.

As if all that isn’t already enough, this set goes even further by offering a booklet by archivist Robert J E Simpson and even the film’s original shooting script as PDF extras.

DRACULA is a bona fide classic, not only of the horror genre but of British cinema itself. It’s the best screen adaptation of Stoker’s novel that there’s ever likely to be (even if it’s not one of the most faithful renditions) and is the film that gave Christopher Lee his most defining role.

This release does the film justice and is a must-have.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment UK
Region B
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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