A round-up of the 70s' best Draculas
In preparation for the new Nosferatu, which is dull, overlong and overhyped, I reviewed the best 1970s' retellings of Stoker's story.
In preparation for the new Nosferatu, which I found dull, overlong and disappointingly overhyped on arrival, I went back to review 1970s' retellings of Stoker's story. They all have faults in terms of storytelling, production values and faithfulness to the original novel and vampire myths (e.g. they can walk around in daylight and sunlight doesn't kill them), but these five are overall better films and more entertaining than the dirge that is Robert Eggers' take.
The 1970 Count Dracula by cult director Jess Franco, which I only saw for the first time the day after Eggers' effort (I was nearly put off seeing it at all because of that experience), has a reputation for being boring, but it is anything but and it moves at a clipper pace. The Bruno Nicoli soundtrack scores too.
Christopher Lee plays the part as he couldn't in Hammer films, growing ever more youthful and with a full hussar-style moustache. He uses his Conrad Veidt stare and stillness to good effect. The short running time (97 mins) means that, despite the title, it is not "Bram Stoker's Count Dracula" as billed, but it was the closest made up to that point, and Lee and the script pay homage to Stoker's work in the scenes he is in and his physical transformations. The ending is more faithful too.
Klaus Kinski, who would later appear as Dracula in Wener Herzog’s Nosferatu of 1979, is Renfield, though he seems to underplay his part given his histrionics in other roles.
Herbert Lom is an interesting Van Helsing but because of scheduling he and Lee couldn't be on set at the same time, limiting their interaction. Lom was appearing in European and UK horrors at the time, but didn’t really make the mark on the genre he perhaps could have. His best work is perhaps in Hammer’s 1962 Phantom of the Opera, Roy Ward Baker’s 1972 Amicus anthology Asylum and Gordon Hessler’s Murders in the Rue Morgue of 1971 and another Amicus chiller, And Now The Screaming Starts of 1973, and he later appeared in a 1983 adaptation of Stephen King’s Dead Zone, but it’s a cruel shame no one thought to cast him as Dracula as he certainly had the chops for the part earlier in his career.
It's full of the faults of euro-trash movies of the era too, poor dubbing, weak supporting performances, bad effects and overhasty production, but it's a worthy addition to the canon and I'd happily rewatch it.
Jack Palance’s Bram Stoker's Dracula is similarly not a straight adaptation, but a take based on Palance's forceful interpretation of the role. Despite its origins as a movie of the week for Canadian/US TV, it had a European theatrical release and was worthy of such. It introduced the concept of Dracula seeking for his lost love, reborn as Lucy, a theme picked up by David Niven's Vampira and the dreadful Francis Ford Coppola film Bram Stoker's Dracula (or, as I call it, Nothing Like Bram Stoker's Dracula), the worst film I've never walked out of and one personally I never want to hear of again.
If the rest of the supporting actors (Nigel Davenport, Fiona Lewis, Simon Ward) in Dan Curtis’ film goes through the motions, it is saved by great locations (including Hammer favourites Black Park, Elstree Manor (used in The Devil Rides Out) and Oakley Court, as well as a burial scene in Bray church, literally around the corner from Hammer's old home at Bray Studios) and Palance's towering Dracula. A pity he couldn't have stepped into Lee's shoes for a couple of Hammer films.
The 1977 BBC Count Dracula is the most like the book and Louis Jourdan is almost the perfect Dracula, though perhaps a little too influenced by Hammer's. His dress is more inspired by Lee than Stoker. Nonetheless its faithfulness to the novel and a strong cast and production make it invaluable as a record both of the quality of BBC productions past and the actors and script. Probably my overall favourite of this bunch.
If I prefer Herzog's 1979 version of Nosferatu to the Eggers one (and the 1922 original even more so) it's because of a faster pace. I urge you to watch the German version, however, which, despite being a minute longer than the English language one, is not hampered by poor translation and clunky dialogue, and the cast are obviously more confident in German than English. It just feels more confident, though Kinski if anything is probably better in the English-language one.
Herzog's film also, like the 1922 original, has an epic scale during the mass funeral scenes that, despite the big budget and special effects available to Eggers, seems to be missing from his take.
Last but not least is the 1979 John Badham version. Like Lugosi's 1931 film, this is an adaptation of the Balderston-Deane play rather than Stoker's novel and, despite a miscast Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing, this is easily the second best overall on this list. Again, Hammer location Black Park adds to the vibe, while no Dracula has ever been smoother than Frank Langella, who is also icily terrifying, and John Williams' score is a belter.
Two films I have left out on purpose are Niven’s Vampira, directed by Clive Donner, who should have known better, and the awful Love at First Bite from 1979, with George Hamilton as the Count. Though I enjoyed the first back in 1974 it would now be as dated as a 1970s’ Carry On film, full of sexism and unfunny jokes, and is squirm worthy to think of. The second is perhaps the unfunniest comedy I have ever seen at the cinema and pales next to 1967’s The Fearless Vampire Killers, from Roman Polanski, and 1974’s Young Frankenstein. I’ve also left out other non-straight retellings of Stoker’s novel or the Deane-Balderstone play, such as 1976’s Hound of Dracula, which are derivative, and Hammer’s 1970s’ efforts on the Drac front (The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires will always be a guilty pleasure).
You may not agree with me on these choices, but the 1970s' Dracs are certainly worth another view and may be less annoying to some than the overhyped Eggers movie doing the rounds just now.
Copyright Adam Jezard January 2025