Friday, March 30, 2012

Horror of Dracula (1958), Terence Fisher.

John Van Eyssen as Jonathan Harker.

Horror of Dracula is a gorgeous little movie.  Jimmy Sangster took the very familiar Bram Stoker tale, swapped a few relationships and timelines, and made a neatly trimmed, spiritually faithful adaptation.  The Stoker novel is weighted down by the narrative of Jonathan Harker's diary.  In Horror of Dracula, the diary is still there:  boiled down to a gleaming red gem on the screen.  The characteristic Hammer technicolor is visually reminiscent of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, which had occurred only five years prior to the making of the film.  

Queen Elizabeth's coronation, Westminster Abbey (1953).  A red palette and capes galore.

In Horror of Dracula, Jonathan Harker is already up on his vampire lore and out to get Dracula.  This injects some vigor into the character, who is typically depicted as an emasculated victim.  Unfortunately, Harker only succeeds in upsetting Dracula when he drives a stake through the heart of his longtime girlfriend. In retaliation, Dracula tears a photograph of Lucy, Harker's fiancee, out of its frame and hunts her down.  Cushing as Van Helsing (minus the tedious German accent) looks as though he drank a quart of vinegar before his entrances but solidly holds the story together.  And Christopher Lee was kind of a hunky dude back in the day.  I had no idea!

Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Janina Faye.

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