Dracula (1958 film)

Plot

A librarian named Jonathan Harker travels to Count Dracula's castle near Klausenburg in 1885. Inside, a young woman startles him, begging for assistance. The Count appears, welcomes Harker, checks his papers, and shows him to a room. Alone, Harker writes in his diary that he is actually a vampire hunter planning to destroy Dracula, a centuries-old vampire.

He tries to save the woman but discovers she is a vampire too, and she bites him. Dracula arrives, pulls her away, and Harker faints. When he wakes, a full day has passed, and he finds bite marks on his neck. Knowing he will become a vampire, Harker writes one last diary entry and hides it.

He goes to the crypt, where Dracula and the woman rest in coffins. He stakes the woman, who withers and dies. Turning to Dracula's coffin, he finds it empty. The Count, now awake and furious, locks Harker in the crypt.

Days later, Doctor Van Helsing arrives in Klausenburg searching for his apprentice, Harker. At an inn, he tries to recruit help, but the frightened locals refuse. The innkeeper's daughter gives him Harker's journal.

Van Helsing goes to the castle, finds it empty, but discovers a miniature portrait of Harker's fiancée, Lucy Holmwood, with its photos missing. He digs up the crypt and finds Harker, now a vampire sleeping in Dracula's coffin. Without hesitation, Van Helsing drives a stake through him.

The doctor returns to Karlstadt to tell Arthur Holmwood and his wife Mina about Harker's death. Arthur is Lucy's brother; Mina is his sister-in-law.

Lucy is ill. Arthur distrusts Van Helsing and will not let him examine or treat her. That night, Lucy opens her terrace doors and bares her neck, which already shows a vampire bite mark. Dracula arrives silently and bites her again.

Production

Christopher Lee remarked in an interview that he was always against the whole tie and tails rendition, finding it ridiculous for a vampire to step out of the shadows wearing white tie, tails, patent leather shoes and a full cloak. Lee said that he never watched any other performances of Dracula until well after making his films, and that when he got the first role with little time to prepare he had to hurry off to read the book and played it fresh, with no knowledge of previous performances. In the same interview, Lee said Dracula had to have an erotic element about him, not because he sank his teeth into women, but because it is a mysterious matter related to the physical appeal of the person draining your life, like being a sexual blood donor. He believed he had discovered something in the character that hadn't been done before: that the character is heroic, erotic and romantic.

Lee also saw a certain tragedy in Dracula and tried to inject it into playing him, putting an element of sadness, which he termed the loneliness of evil, into his character; he felt Dracula doesn't want to live but has to, and doesn't want to go on existing as the undead but has no choice. Lee felt it was important to stay faithful to Stoker's novel and was frustrated with his Hammer Dracula films, complaining that the stories as given to him had almost no relation to the book. His one great regret was never being able to present the Count exactly as Bram Stoker described him in every way, which he attributed to poor scripts and a lack of imagination on the part of people who never seemed to understand the full potential of the story.

Release

The world premiere of this film took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 8, 1958. To prevent confusion with Universal Pictures' 1931 original, American distributors changed the title to Horror of Dracula. In the United States, it was shown as part of a double bill alongside The Thing That Couldn't Die. Its London debut occurred at the Gaumont Haymarket on June 15, 1958.

Critical reception

Critics and fans of Bram Stoker's novel gave the film a warm reception. Trade publications in 1958 were especially complimentary. Film Bulletin praised Anthony Hinds' production for its somber mid-Victorian settings and director Terence Fisher's skill with blood-curdling imagery, calling the Technicolor effort a genuine treat. The review highlighted James Bernard's monumentally sinister score and Jack Asher's photography, which was full of foreboding atmosphere.

Variety found Peter Cushing's performance impressive and noted that the serious treatment of the macabre subject generated considerable tension and suspense. Harrison's Reports was particularly effusive, declaring that this British production surpassed all previous Dracula films and possessed such immense shock value that it might rank among the finest horror movies ever made. Vincent Canby in Motion Picture Daily observed that Hammer Films, which had previously revived Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, had now even more successfully resurrected the original vampire, Count Dracula. He described the film as chillingly realistic and, at times, as gory as regulations permitted, with first-rate physical elements including settings, costumes, Eastman Color photography, and special effects.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 89% approval rating from 44 reviews, with an average score of 7.7 out of 10. The site's critical consensus remarks that the film trades gore for grandeur, showcases Christopher Lee impressively as the vampire, and embodies the typical Hammer mood that makes aristocracy quite sexy.

Box office

Worldwide theatrical rentals amounted to roughly $3.5 million. Its premiere engagement in Milwaukee set a record with a ten-day run. In 1958, it ranked among the twelve most popular films at the British box office, and it generated $1 million in North American rentals.