VHS : Dracula [1957]

Rating: - The finest Hammer film ... ever
This is the greatest Hammer film ever made. Starring the two mainstays of British Horror Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
Terence Fisher (the best Hammer director) directs with style and James Bernard produced a score that would be used in variations by many Hammer films over the years. For any musicians out there the chord Bernard uses to signal Dracula's presence is an augmented chord...

Christopher Lee is magnificent as Count Dracula. Bela Lugosi may have starred in the role first but Lee is vastly superior in every respect: He has more screen presence (helped by being 6' 5"), is better looking and most crucially unlike Lugosi he can act.
As Van Helsing Peter Cushing is mesmerising. Whether he is carrying out a blood transfusion or dictating into an early phonograph recorder, the script is delivered with absolute conviction. I always end up believing vampires exist after watching this film!

The ending to this film is perhaps the single greatest moment in the entire history of Hammer films. While the special effects look dated now the realisation of the ending is just a great piece of film making.

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Rating: - in all its low budget glory.
this marks the first hammer horror film that i ever saw back in 1987. it was a late monday night on anglia t.v. those were the days.
the perfect example on how to make a successful film on a low budget. daring for the time; more sexual references, violence etc. all done quite tastefully though. peter cushing and christopher lee lead the way in a film full of atmosphere, great acting, a good script, some great highlights along the way but a simply outstanding climax.
for those who may not know, christopher lee's screen time is actually quite limited after the opening 20 minutes or so. he just pops up now and then without saying anything. the character of renfield is completely ignored as well, but these are mere quibbles.
peter cushing proves what a fantastic dramatic actor he is, and easily gives the best interpretion of van helsing. christopher lee's dracula is quite good, but not the best i have to say. in fairness, i haven't seen the perfect on- screen dracula yet.
this is hammer during its best period and would remain so until about the mid-60s.

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Rating: - Dracula and Van Helsing - psychopaths on different sides?
Iconic thriller builds on the preceding 'Curse of Frankenstein', making Hammer the undisputed successor to Universal and Lee and Cushing the new enfant terrible of the horror genre. Film rarely betrays its low budget and comes across as a sexy morality play, firmly rooted within the decaying Judeo-Christian world view so eloquently denounced by Nietzsche, of good ultimately prevailing over evil. Yet its morality is deliciously suspect. Sensuous English aristocrat Dracula (forget the cod mittel-Europa trappings - this is set in the Home Counties) explodes into a bourgeois world bringing the pleasures of sex, death and freedom from the dullness and hypocrisy of Victorian morality.
Lee has the right amount of charisma and presence and is superbly counter pointed by Cushing's Van Helsing, whose determination to destroy what he considers to be 'evil' marks him as a psychopath of the first order. He's basically Matthew Hopkins in a frock coat. Cushing developed the role superbly in subsequent vampire flicks, coming across as a ruthless bigot all too eager to murder feisty young women by decapitation and stabbings, all in the name of 'God' and 'good'.
Best bits are Jon Harker's evocative arrival at Castle Dracula 'where no birds sing'. And his initial meeting with Lee, whose menacing presence at the top of the stairs metamorphoses into a charming, if haughty, host. This, unfortunately, is Lee's only dialogue and there are no exchanges with Cushing, apart from the physical. Shame, as both actors have great vocal resonance. The female vampire (one, not three, indicating budgetary constraints but who cares when she's so voluptuous) is suitably ravishing. Harker's sublimated Victorian sexual repression means his penetration has to be by the cleansing power of holy water, the stake and the cross (all sexual metaphors for the Freudian pseuds amongst us). Dracula's vengeance is superbly unnerving - a masterpiece of understatement and suggestion.
The episode where Cushing and Michael Gough attempt to seal the house against vampiric intrusion is a hymn to Heath Robinson British ineptness and misguided zeal. Dracula's coffin is already secreted in the basement and he's ravishing the all-too-eager heroine! The finale is an absolute classic of cinema as Lee is reduced to dust by the morning sun and Cushing's improvised cross. SFX are excellent here. The script reduces the mystique of the vampire (he can't change into a bat or wolf etc.) and replaces it with a physical violence and intensity that suits Lee's epochal performance far better. Our sympathies are with the vampire - he's acting on his instincts and needs, not setting himself up as a moral judge - unlike his antagonists. If you only see one Hammer movie, make sure it's this one. If you can, complement it with 'Curse of Frankenstein', 'Kiss of the Vampire', 'The Mummy' and 'The Devil Rides Out'.

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Rating: - Bloody good fun
I first saw this in about 1970, on BBC2, on an old black and white TV which was about 10 inches square and made everybody look like short fat cubes. But even that didn't detract from the power of this film.

This Hammer horror version sticks fairly closely to Stoker's original novel, and as such is a purist's dream.

By now almost everybody knows the plot - Jonathan Harker goes to Transylvannia to cement a property deal for a landed gent looking to move to England, but ends up being held hostage in Dracula's high castle with some very buxom "ladies" of the night.

Meanwhile a boat comes ashore in a storm at Whitby, strangely devoid of life. And soon after that the women of the area begin to suffer a strange lassitude and a thinning of the blood. And over in the asylum, Renfield is eating flies and dreaming of the coming of his "Master"

Enter Van Helsing. In this version Peter Cushing plays the archetypal vampire hunter with a grace and elegance that Sir Anthony Hopkins singularly failed to match in Coppola's version. He knows the signs of vampirism and, when Dracula makes an appearance the stage is set for one of the great confrontations in horror movie history.

The chase leads an intrepid and determined band all the way back to the Count's castle, where the final climax around the gothic hall is surely one that every true horror fan will always cherish.

Lee plays the Count as no one before or since. His flat demonic stare sems to ooze pure evil. The count has become a cultural icon in the past forty years, and has even been parodied and made fun of (Count Duckula anybody?) but I challenge anybody to look Lee in the eye when he's on the hunt and not feel a frisson of cold terror.

Vampires have been humanised recently (and have even got a soul in Angel's case), but it shouldn't be forgotten that they are bloodsucking bas*ards - that's what they are, that's what they do. The high cheekbones, sex-appeal and good clothes sense are just nice-to-have after thoughts. And in Lee's case you can believe that the bloodsucking is the important part, judging by the relish he shows for the deed.

And just because Buffy can stake a dozen or so without breaking sweat, it shouldn't be forgotten that the vampire is traditionally a great evil force of destruction. Lee never lets you forget it.

Hammer's specialty was in a feel for the gothic, and they have been influential on many directors since (in particular, Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" and the recent Johnny Depp vehicle "From Hell") This was an early stab at the horror movie, and they got it so right that they spent a long time trying to repeat the trick. Over the next fifteen years they made some notable horror movies, and the blood got ever redder (and the bosoms got bigger)

But none of their later films matched this.....the one, the only, Count Dracula.

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Rating: - Horror Landmark
Though I am considerably new to Horror films, and in particular, Hammer ones, I already have a great fondness for them. This one has got to be one of the best. Well acted in glorious gothic settings and Victorian-like streets, this film is a masterpiece and worth every penny. Christopher Lee is the definitive Dracula - a seemingly charming and gracious man who turns out to be the most frightening of villains, and Peter Cushing is marvellous as Van Helsing.

It may not be totally loyal to the book, but films do not translate easily from novels, and I think this version was translated extremely well. The film isn't as scary as it was once considered, but that is a small downward factor. If you want to watch a good version of Dracula, I think you'd be hard pressed to beat this.