Dracula
- Episode aired Nov 18, 1968
- 1h 15m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
113
YOUR RATING
A vampire count from Transylvania arrives in Victorian England.A vampire count from Transylvania arrives in Victorian England.A vampire count from Transylvania arrives in Victorian England.
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Margaret Nolan
- Vampire
- (as Marie Legrand)
Nina Baden-Semper
- Vampire
- (as Nina Baden Semper)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDracula's fangs were modeled after the actual dentition of the vampire bat.
- ConnectionsFeatured in In Search of Dracula with Mark Gatiss (2020)
Featured review
Well worth a look if the opportunity arises
I don't want to oversell it. It looks like it was made for about the same budget as one of the Patrick Troughton DR WHO serials of that era. (In 1 scene you can clearly see a 'wall' vibrating.) And Denholm Elliott is certainly no Chris Lee. Then again who is. But he does a credible job and the production still has a lot to recommend it. And this is 1968. So remember the terrain. Hammer isn't exactly cranking out new classics at this point. Chris Lee's Dracula "HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE". On this side of the Atlantic, we had Barnabas Collins and that was about it as far as vampires go. And despite very severe limitations, this TV adaptation gets a lot right. Its clearly the template for the BBC's more ambitious Dracula with Louis Jourdan almost 10 years later, even tho guided by a different director. Lucy Westenra in 1977 is virtually a clone of Lucy Weston here. Dr. Seward also foreshadows Jonathan Harker in Langella's 1979 version, both coming off as jealous, ineffectual, limp dishrag suitors. The forced condensation of characters and locales in 1968 also leads to a few imaginative and effective surprises I wont spoil here, that aren't from Stoker yet keep to the spirit of the piece. In particular, the Brides and vampire Lucy are right on the mark. Neither the Max Factor femme fatales of HAMMER or the zombies of COUNT YORGA, they practically drip with infection, yet remain compelling creatures. Susan George as a seriously conflicted Lucy does a great job, vividly conjuring the world of Dracula, where passion and desire are boundless but compassion is dead. This rarely seen Dracula is preserved on the MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION DVD set of surviving episodes from this BBC series of the 60s and early 70s. Black and white. Not preserved quite as well as some of the later color stories in the set but quite watchable.
- shadorealm
- Nov 27, 2009
- Permalink
Details
- Runtime1 hour 15 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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