The film was prompted by a 1977 Broadway revival of Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston's 1927 play from Bram Stoker's novel, which had itself spawned the 1931 film with Bela Lugosi and launched Universal's "first cycle" of classic horror films. The revival was an unexpected hit, running 925 performances, and Frank Langella's romantic approach to the title character earned him a Tony nomination. Universal apparently retained the film rights to the play, though by all accounts it was the play's production design and Langella's matinee idol Dracula (his says in an interview that many a wife, after seeing the play, would make passionate love to their husbands) rather than its creaky, static book.

The film version jettisons the play for the most part, wisely opting for an aggressively cinematic approach which makes the most of its lavish budget, certainly the largest ever given a Dracula movie up to that point. The result is a film that is consistently great to look at and peppered with innovative ideas as well as a few foolish ones. Overall, it seems torn between what star Langella wanted, a lush, melancholy romantic fantasy -- Somewhere in Time with a black cape -- and what the studio had in mind -- a stately, scary horror film. Langella, for instance, insisted his Dracula never bare his fangs and that his bite be bloodless, yet other scenes without him reflect a more graphic gruesomeness in line with its R-rating. Langella plays him as a sad, tragic spirit, but W.D. Richter's (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai) script presents an arrogant, evil monster.

Both the documentary and the film itself suggest that everyone involved thought they were breaking new ground by making Dracula a romantic, explicitly sexual character, but that was already a major force behind the best Christopher Lee Dracula movies at Hammer, and is present to a lesser degree even in the 1927 stage version. Indeed, several scenes play as if they were directly lifted from Hammer films, notably a wall-climbing scene copied from Scars of Dracula (1970).

Conversely, Universal and producer Walter Mirisch were obviously trying to separate themselves from the Hammer Draculas, which by the mid-1970s played mainly in run-down, inner-city theaters, and casting Laurence Olivier as vampire hunter Van Helsing was an obvious attempt to give the picture a little class. But Olivier, in the "little old Jew" phase of his late career (at this time playing similar parts in The Boys from Brazil and The Jazz Singer, among others) is much too frail to be a believable threat to Dracula, especially during the film's action-filled climax. As much prestige as Olivier brought a more genre-connected actor like Peter Cushing would have been a far better choice.

The rest of the cast consists of good but generally uncharismatic stage actors. Kate Nelligan, in the role of Lucy, is fine, but charisma-free Trevor Eve is like a hole in the screen as Jonathan Harker. The one exception is character favorite Donald Pleasance, whose shameless scene-stealing at least provides some entertainment, watching the lengths he takes drawing attention to himself. In the documentary included with this DVD, Langella recalls actress Coral Browne warning him, "Be careful, dear. [Donald's] a handkerchief actor. He'll take out his handkerchief, he'll blow his nose, he'll eat a bag of candy." He does all that and more in Dracula, though in his defense the role is also grievously underwritten so one can hardly blame him.

The film also has a jerkiness in its telling, as if it was substantially cut from its present 109-minute running time. Almost every scene plays like its own little set piece disconnected from the scenes immediately before and after it, ultimately giving the film a lack of momentum and a mildly uninvolving air.

All this said, Dracula still comes to life now and then, and is wonderfully atmospheric throughout. The picture gets off to a great start with an exciting title design and great title theme by composer John Williams. The opening scene, aboard the ill-fated ship carrying Dracula's crated body (and native soil) to England, is a thrillingly edited mix of (effective) miniatures and atmospheric footage aboard the rat-infested ship. Julie Harris's costumes and Peter Murton's production design are very good, especially his wrought iron insane asylum, though his Carfax Abbey is extravagantly overdone, like Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. Albert Whitlock did the exceptionally fine matte work, while Maurice Binder contributed to the now very dated love scenes, which look like Binder's James Bond titles without the text.

Director John Badham, working with cinematographer Gil Taylor, brings more style to the film than one might expect. After a busy career in television, his early films at least maximize and make cinematic every scene, and Dracula, with its excellent blocking and compositions, is stately without ever getting dull.

Some of the horror elements are well done. One outstanding concept finds Van Helsing and Dr. Seward (Pleasance) digging up the coffin of one of Dracula's victims, Mina (here the daughter of Van Helsing). Not only is her coffin empty, but they discover she has clawed her way out through the side or the coffin, down into the earth to tunnels running under Seward's asylum. There, Van Helsing must confront her rotting, undead corpse. This is a wonderfully creepy sequence, effectively directed, and the film should have had more of this.

Video & Audio

With the look of Dracula its best feature, Universal's 16:9 widescreen anamorphic DVD finally does justice to the aforementioned Panavision photography and lush production design. The source elements appear to be in great shape and the transfer is free from dirt and other wear except some minor dirt and speckling in some of the opticals. Here one can appreciate Badham and Taylor's full use of the 'scope frame, and of the desaturated color which plays far more effectively in this home video format than it ever did on VHS or even laserdisc. The soundtrack, one of the first in Dolby stereo, is effective but not aggressively directional. Hard-of-hearing English subtitles are provided, along with optional ones in French and Spanish.

Extra Features

Surprisingly, Universal has given Dracula a nice set of extras, highlighted by The Revamping of Dracula, a 39-minute, full frame documentary produced by Laurent Bouzereau. (Menu screens confusingly call this Making of "The Revamping of Dracula". Huh?) Langella, Mirisch, Richter, and Williams are all interviewed, and while the picture's shortcomings and failures go unacknowledged (didn't anyone think that black Dracula kite at the end looked more than a little silly?), the show is quite entertaining and informative. Also included is a better-than-average photo gallery, and an audio commentary track with director John Badham. Curiously, there's no trailer.

Parting Thoughts

Timing is everything, and coming as it did the year after John Carpenter's Halloween changed the face of movie horror, Dracula was a production out of step with the times. In retrospect though it isn't bad at all, and far superior to Francis Coppola's overwrought, blood and thunder adaptation that was enthusiastically received a dozen years later.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. His new book, Cinema Nippon will be published by Taschen in 2005.