Hammer Horror’s version of Dracula actually wasn’t as silly or camp as I expected it to be. It was actually very entertaining, although yes, it was both silly and camp. After an introductory talk by the screenwriter, who endeared himself to all by flourishing a letter sent to someone that was looking for him, informing them that he had passed away! The film started rolling, and despite its slow start (albeit not nearly as slow as the book’s), it proved thoroughly entertaining. It deviates a lot from the book, and while I think that removing Harker from centre-stage and making him know what he was up against rather than being a terrified innocent, while giving Van Helsing more prominence, perhaps lent the screenplay a more movie-friendly chase/duel format, but removed not only the early suspense and terror but also the human heart from the film, and Arthur was far too much of a fey drama queen to become sympathetic. There were some very funny moments, some intentional (the cute kid, the scatterbrained undertaker, the classic slapstick border guard) and some not (‘I am a doctor!’, Arthur’s overreactions), but the boisterous and dictatorial score has dated badly – rather than raising suspense, it destroys it utterly in a way that Bela Lugosi’s Count doesn’t have to work against, because of the lack of an original score.
So rather than the fear and paranoia that might have made this really scary, we get a villain and a hero on his trail. Thankfully, Peter Cushing has enough authority and gravitas to carry the role effectively, even if he was given some daft lines (‘Have some tea or coffee, or better yet, wine!’), and Christopher Lee’s physical presence alone makes him an excellent Count. He can be taken seriously, without a silly voice and looking genuinely capable of violence, and even in the extremely dated effects of the last scenes, he manages to retain his dignity.
Certainly worth watching, and I’ll have to remember the slapping-a-hysterical-woman-to-her-senses move!
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