From 1979, this is the sensual Dracula…Frank Langella, repeating his hit stage performance in this John Badham directed version, plays the Count as seductive and irresistible…with his mild as honey sigh and flowing costumes. The first thing you recognize of him is his hand, slowly emerging from a fur conceal…it’s one of my very current moments on film.

Kate Nelligan is stunningly stunning as Lucy. She plays her as strong and liberated and a willing participant in the Count’s plans. Laurence Olivier is unbelievable as always, in a performance that’s about as “over the top” as he’d ever done. Also satisfactory are Donald Pleasence, marvelously insubtle as Dr. Seward, and Trevor Eve, as a more “macho” than usual Jonathan Harker.

John Williams’ lush secure adds a lot to this film, which though it departs radically from the novel book, has a lot of atmosphere, exotic sets, and sumptuous (though darkly hued) cinematography.

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I derive the Dracula fable inviting, and don’t mediate I’ve missed a single filmed version…this is one of the two I have watched the most, the other being the Coppola one, and both films net better with repeated viewings…so if you’re a Drac fan, don’t miss this voluptuous twist on the traditional chronicle.

Odd how this 1979 miniature gem of a “different retract” on “Dracula”, based on Frank Langella’s Broadway version, was fairly well-reviewed when it was first released, and considered a gorgeous and sumptuous updating of the former Bram Stoker chestnut, only this time with a mesmerizingly charismatic Count, with lush locations and costars like Laurence Olivier and Kate Nelligan.

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Perhaps it wasn’t perfect (they come by Mina and Lucy, for one thing, mixed up— but then, how many filmed “Dracula” versions are all THAT faithful to the book?!? ) but it had a discouraged mood and texture that was quite spirited and did quite well, justly, in ‘79.

Today, it’s reputation has fallen from ‘good’ to ‘mediocre’ to ‘huh? ‘

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It’s been said that Langella’s stage performance “gets lost” amongst “trendy special effects”, and I have to confess that I never saw Langella do the Count on stage [I understand he turned taking-off his cape into an artform], but anybody who can virtually wipe even Olivier off the cover as Langella does in the movie can’t have had ALL of his stage-presence removed in the film!

And as for “trendy special effects”? The “effects” are subject-appropriate; nothing excessive. Top-notch job of directing by John Badham, and music salvage by John Williams.

Of course, I’ve yet to glance the DVD quality– hope it’s obliging.

UPDATE 3 MONTHS LATER AFTER POSTING THE ABOVE REVIEW (8/04) …. Well, guess what? — it’s NOT genuine (the DVD) . I fair got mine and what should I pick up? It’s virtually now in black-and-white. And guess what else? Director John Badham did this DELIBERATELY for the DVD release. In the DVD commentary for the film, Badham states that they couldn’t “drain” the color out of the film to his satisfaction in 1979, for mood purposes, so now he can [and DID] for the DVD.

The quandary is: the movie didn’t NEED this “improvement”. The unique photography (now completely counteracted on the DVD) was rich and atmospheric and, as it was shot in England so artfully, it had been insensible and drab in all the true spots— but SOME scenes, expecially the low-lit interior moments [like the candlelight dinner between Langella and Kate Nelligan] had been wonderfully warm as an effective “counter”…. Well, not no more, Drac-fans… The skins tones are gone, anything once orange is now wearisome white…

The DVD has been ruined, and on Badham’s misguided orders…

There’s even that one scene by the cemetery between Langella, Lord Olivier and Miss Nelligan at sunset— and during the commentary, Badham talks about how the actors and crew had to wait all day in order to fetch impartial the legal natural light, and that “today” they’d objective place in the sunset with computers… But Badham’s stating this as you notice the scene with the sunset now REMOVED by computers, ’specially for DVD! The pink stripe across the sky they waited for hours to find is no more! It could be unprejudiced another foggy noon in England– in which case, the Count should be in bed… And after seeing this travesty, so should I.

I feel SOOO ripped-off… Why do directors go benefit, so many years later after they’ve lost all objectivity, and “fix” superior movies they got fair to inaugurate with (’cause aint nobody fixin’ the Dreadful ones!)?

One last knife-turn: during the closing credits, Badham states he now wishes he could re-edit the film and run it up “so it kicks ass”…. [long contemplate roll on my allotment here] Terrific. So then it’ll be yet another shrill, frenetic, off-paced part of incoherent tripe we’re getting in the theaters today, where you can’t even follow the space and the “mood” is non-existent because everything is screaming at you at mach-speed without relent.

Only Mr. Badham would apparently also do so in virtual black-and-white, which is now the approximate color-scheme the “Dracula” DVD.

Thanks, Mr. Badham… It’s yours to slay.
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