Saw DARK SHADOWS this week. Fun flick. Steve Bissette compared it to MARS ATTACKS, so I figured, what the hell, gotta see that!
Meanwhile, I uncovered a missing piece of my collection I've been looking for for YEARS. That is, I was sure I'd taped this damned thing... but for quite a few years now, have not been able to find it. Tonight I watched it!
DRACULA (1972)
Yep-- DAN CURTIS's adaptation of the novel. That's 3 different adaptations of the same book, all done with in 7-year period...
1 - Jess Franco w/ Christopher Lee & Herbert Lom (Spain)
2 - Dan Curtis w/ Jack Palance & Nigel Davenport (USA)
3 - ?? (BBC) w/ Louis Jourdan & Frank Finlay (England)
Franco's was the 1st time anyone actually attempted to "do the book". But low budget & the world's worst cameraman really hurt. Mind you, HIS film had the ONE actor in the entire world who actually brought the book's version of Count Dracula accurately to life.
Dan Curtis's version, I have not seen in more than 25 years!!! You'd think I'd be thrilled out my mind to finally sit down and see it again. Well... not really. The most amazing thing is how Curtis' directorial style is so RECOGNIZABLE, between this, the 2 NIGHT STALKER movies, and the 2 DARK SHADOWS movies. (Even though he didn't actually direct "THE NIGHT STALKER", somehow, the style is near-identical.) There's too many deviations from the book here, including, oddly enough, 2 that stand out as coming straight from the HAMMER version by Terrence Fisher. That is, Jonathan GETS KILLED at the castle and is turned into a vampire, and is killed by his friend. And, Van Helsing YANKS curtains open to let sunlight into the room. (Then, he runs him thru, and I mean all the way thru, with a PIKE.)
THIS is the first "Dracula" to feature the idea of reincarnation, or at least, a hint of it. In this one, Lucy is the dead ringer for his late wife. So when she's destroyed, he goes mad, then goes after Mina. The Fernando Fernandez painted comic-book version was similar to this, except without the reincarnation angle. In that one, Dracula simply fell in love with Lucy, so when she was killed, he went after Mina in REVENGE. In the book, Lucy just happened to be his 1st victim. He went after Mina when the group of vampire-hunters began hunting him, but made the mistake of leaving Mina alone ("for her own protection"-- boy did they F*** up there).
For a Dan Curtis film, there's a lot of dead air. Robert Cobert did a new score (apparently) but only seems to have written music for about half the film. As a result, there are some long sequences that just feel flat.
Strangely enough, Castle Dracula's interior seems too "new", more like a mansion than a stone castle. This is another thing it shares with the Hammer version.
Simon Ward plays Arthur Holmwood, a character who is another element in common with the Hammer version. I kept thinking, between him and the actor who played Jonathan, it seemed they got the roles reversed, except Arthur is in almost the entire film, while Jonathan is the victim. Nigel Davenport is NOT my favorite Van Helsing, not even close (after Van Sloan, Cushing & Finlay-- and Finlay is actually THE BEST, hell, Herbert Lom still comes in at least 4th). Truthfully, I kept thinking of the TERRORIST-hunter Davenport played in NIGHTHAWKS (which would make Rutger Hauer that film's counterpart of Dracula!).
To sum up... it's "nice", and I guess, for Americans at the time who had not had the chance to see Franco's "masterpiece" (compared to all his other films, it really is) it must have seemed the "most faithful" version ever made.
UNTIL 1977, when the BBC totally blew this and EVERY OTHER VERSION ever made before OR SINCE right out of the water.
Louis Jourdan, ironically enough, is the least-faithful element in that film to the book. Instead of the cold-hearted monster Bram Stoker wrote, Jourdan is a smooth-talking, stylish, sarcastic SON OF A BITCH. He's got 10 times more personality than the real thing, and his best scene is probably the one where he confronts Van Helsing (damn near every adaptation has one of those, and there never was one in the book). Van Helsing says some kind of prayer to ward off Dracula, who waves his hand dismissingly and says, "Yes, yes, it ALWAYS sounds more impressive in LATIN."
If you haven't seen this yet, I give the Jourdan film my HIGHEST reccomendation. It really is the BEST adaptation of DRACULA ever, ever made. (Mind you, I still love the LUGOSI film, and the Terrence Fisher-Hammer film with Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing. That one's just so damn much fun, you just don't care if they almost threw the book away when they did it.) Frank Finlay IS the Van Helsing in the novel, except for a slight modification, which actually makes him MORE likable. (And I'm convinced Mel Brooks' Van Helsing was based on Finlay's.)
Never would have thought that I'd rate Jess Franco's version ABOVE Dan Curtis. Curtis' may be better made, from a technical standpoint, but Franco's is just better to WATCH. Gee, who saw that coming?
