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Count Dracula (1971)

Dir: Jess Franco

Franco's "Dracula" adaptation, is a film full of good stuff but let down by some silly changes and ideas and some glaring story jumps.
The story is well known of course and I will not break it down here….let's just compare and review this version of Stoker's classic novel.

First off though I have to say how effective Christopher Lee was as The Count.
He maybe best known as 'Hammer's Dracula', but he was ill served by a lame, gutted character in those films. Here Franco shows just how vital Dracula's dialogue is to his early build up.
The scene where he emotes about his family name and their past is a genuinely effective sequence that gives that vital insight into why he risks all to travel to the 'New World' and really shows the decay that his Centuries of life have inflicted upon his being if not his body.
This is a major part of The Counts character and something that was so sorely missing in the cardboard mime that 'Hammer' gave us.
And of course as it was Lee, the more feral aspect of the Vampire were well portrayed.

The look of the Vampire Brides was also excellent, their grave shrouds and gray hue giving them just the right look. It was a shame the "You never love" conversation with The Count was not included in this scene though, as the use of Stoker's dialogue in other parts of the film was highly effective.

Dracula's castle was also perfect, giving off that grand atmosphere yet also the feel of greatness gone to seed, of the decay of The Dracula's. Nice lighting as well, with none of the 'candles as floodlights' look that marred 'Hammer's' representation of the Castle.
Franco also wisely keeps any model bats out of sight and simply has it as a (still clunky looking at times) shadow. Sadly the German Shepherd 'wolves' were less effective.

And that brings us to the faults. It was a major flaw to have the seduction and death of Lucy set right under Van Helsing's nose (a rather stodgy turn by Herbert Lom) in the Hospital.
To have Van Helsing running the Asylum certainly brought him into the story quicker and forged instant links...but that Dracula would be able, on 3 separate occasions no less, to attack Lucy and have Van Helsing do absolutely nothing to stop it was ridiculous.
In the book he is at first not there, then later his instruction to protect Lucy are foiled by Lucy's Mother...here he simply takes no steps at all to save her! So much for his ever stated 'study of the black arts'!

Renfield, (a character I have always had trouble with, as he never seems to serve any real function) is a waste of that famous loon Klaus Kinski, given little to do here but stare wide eyed and hug himself.

The destruction of Lucy is also a wasted opportunity as she is never given a final attempted 'seduction' before being dispatched.
The changing of the Texan Quincey Morris to an Englishman is a strange change and somehow Jack Taylor is not Jack Taylor without that 70's porn moustache!

Other faults are the big story jumps at the end where suddenly Van Helsing is in a wheel chair due to a stroke! The inclusion here of the British Home Secretary in the Vampire plot is also a bizarre change. The Government goes after a Vampire!!??
It was also obvious that this was set nowhere near London, with the classic Gothic atmosphere of Victorian London, looking more like another European city. No way the architecture on show here was anywhere near the UK.

It's a shame that Franco wasted the scene where Dracula and Van Helsing meet as well...this could have been a dramatic scene yet was reduced to a few words. The lack of a staking finale was also a shame.

Did my ears notice that Franco's cameo role was dubbed by the same voice as dubbed Jack Taylor?? Certainly Franco's dub artist is the same man who dubbed over the Police Surgeon ("can't say I approve of yer methods Sergeant") in "The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue".

Biggest (and saddest) fault was the laughable 'sinister stuffed animals' sequence. Where a horde of rats would have been terrific, we instead have cobweb encrusted stuffed badgers, lambs, weasels and a moth eaten boar jerking around to face the camera as Franco zooms in on their 'scary' glass eyes! Dreadful!

So, after the impressive start, this sadly falls apart, but at least it's pretty close to the novel in many ways, unlike 'Hammer's' in name only effort.