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Jess Franco's Count Dracula AKA El Conde Drácula (1970)
R1 - America - Dark Sky Films Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (25th July 2007). |
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The Film
 I have to make a confession. I probably haven´t fully read the 1897 novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, despite the fact that my interest in horror-films is quite limitless. I do remember though, that as a young boy I read excerpts from the book, being totally fascinated - and scared, by the dark count. So was the film industry, which finally made Dracula truly immortal in the endless movie adaptations. It all started with F.W. Murnau´s “Nosferatu AKA Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)” (where Dracula was called “Nosferatu”), continued probably with the most famous one in “Dracula (1931)” by “Universal Studios”, evolved to Technicolor “Dracula AKA Horror of Dracula (1958)” by the “Hammer Studios” and gaining the mainstream status with “Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)” by Francis Ford Coppola. This is still just the tip of the iceberg. The director/co-writer Jess Franco did his own version of the story in 1970 with “Count Dracula AKA El Conde Drácula” (IMDB list the main title as “Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht”, which is the German one). With the known exploitation auteur Franco, you could expect the worst, but his version is actually one of the most faithful ones to the original story (although not as faithful as Franco probably thinks). He even got Christopher Lee himself to play the Count, even when he had done already several Dracula-films for Hammer. Most of you probably know the story, but here´s the brief synopsis anyway. A young lawyer, Jonathan Harker (Fred Williams), is travelling to Transylvania to meet one certain Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). Dracula is looking for a new estate from London and Harker has just the right one for his needs. Already on the train and while he spends the night in Bistritz, the name of “Dracula” brings eerie vibes to all the people to whom Harker explains the purpose of his visit. Smiles turn into ice and light chat into silence. After experiencing the gloomy carriage ride to the remote castle of Dracula, the two finally meet. One of the first strange clues comes from the mirror, since it doesn´t show the reflection of the Count at all. Soon Harker finds himself locked in his room and is dreaming about the three female vampires. After finding Dracula himself from the basement - sleeping in his coffin, Harker panics and escapes by the window. He wakes up from the private clinic of Professor Van Helsing (Herbert Lom). Dr. Seward (Paul Muller) hears Harker´s almost delirious rambling about bats, blood and Dracula. He´s having a shock. In the cell close by, the hopelessly insane Renfield (Klaus Kinski) - who ironically later did the main role in “Nosferatu the Vampyre AKA Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979)”) is again screaming in his agony and eating insects. He´s watching the big mansion across the clinic, since someone has recently bought the place. Recovering Harker is getting welcome company, when his fiancée Mina (Maria Rohm) - with her friend Lucy (Soledad Miranda) - arrive at the clinic. This starts the chain of events that will alert everyone. Mina is witnessing the attack towards Lucy, who´s walking in a trance. Afterwards they´ll learn that she has lost plenty of blood and bite marks are found from her neck. Her fiancée Quincey Morris (Jack Taylor - also serving as “set decoration” by the name of George O´Brown) also storms onto the scene. It´s soon evident, that the profound evil is among them, living at night and feeding through his victims. When they´re bitten, they´ll become like him - a vampire. With Van Helsing at unofficial command, the men will start their battle against the Count. They have to deal with him for once and for all. Turning such a classic story like “Dracula” to celluloid provides instant images that just have to be on the screen in one way or another; charismatic and mysterious leading Count, gothic atmosphere with the gloomy castle and its dungeons and the rest of the typical elements with bats, howling wolfs, storm, mist and the carriage rides. And shrieking vampires, of course. Essentially the story is very much the classical “good vs evil”, so it gives a fruitful opportunity for any filmmaker. Jess Franco´s simplistic approach works surprisingly well, since the basic ingredients are all well chosen and executed. Even when Dracula-films from “Hammer” are not all classics, Christopher Lee will be always remembered for that role. In Franco´s “Count Dracula”, Lee portrays the character in a more traditional way, being more faithful to the original character. In the film (like in the original book), Dracula is older at first, but starting to get younger again in London (after some fresh blood) - grey hair turns to black. The change could´ve been more subtle, but it´s still different from what you´ve seen from Lee previously. The other actors are also in good form and many familiar faces can be seen by the “Euro cult”-fans. Lee, Lom and Kinski are all cult figures, while Rohm and Miranda are bringing the beauty. Franco makes a cameo by playing Van Helsing's servant. Not bad, I would say. The sets are often quite stripped in terms of props, but many still convincing and gloomy. The lighting is a bit of a mixed bag, since while many scenes have good atmosphere, some scenes are rather bluntly lit (e.g. in the introduction scenes of Renfield, you´ll see the shadow of the cameraman). Franco uses a more traditional approach rather than his frequent zooming and focusing, but there are still some more “restless” scenes included. The music by composer Bruno Nicolai is really good, almost majestic in some scenes (e.g. the opening credits). While “Count Dracula” holds a pretty firm ground, the low budget-side of the production sadly raises its ugly head from time to time. While the story is quite simple at the end, it´s a delicate one. You have to maintain the certain atmosphere throughout the film and not let the audience off the hook - even when most are familiar with the basic settings. And yes, you have to make the film look good; this is a visual ride to the darkness. For me, something was missing particularly from the part that happens in London and the scenes with Dracula feel rushed. His presence is not what I, at least, have been used to. Dracula doesn´t feel menacing and threatening enough, since Franco just doesn´t “build” the tension enough. You don´t feel scared by him, since it feels that he´s “not around” enough. I have a feeling that a quick schedule and tight budget is partly to blame. Also the confrontation between Van Helsing and Dracula is a bit lame, partly because the two actors didn´t share the scene together. The character of Van Helsing generally should´ve been in a more prominent role, since he´s the “leader of the good coalition” in the film. There are of course a few scenes that look just “cheap” - mainly the “stuffed animals”-scene that is not in the original novel and the very phony scene involving big rocks (made using some kind of foam, I might add). In the rock-scene you just start to wonder why they didn´t just shoot it from another angle or at least again (perhaps the other shots were even worse?). Again - rushed. The ending is still quite excellent - in all its simplicity. “Count Dracula” can be an atmospheric, worthy film adaptation and is should definitely be placed in the “A”-category among Franco´s own filmography. It has fine actors and it can offer something also visually. It´s still a bit shame, that with a little (plenty?) more work and money, “Count Dracula” could´ve been the film from Franco that´s remembered also by the horror-fans generally - not just his fans. It even could´ve been his masterpiece. Now it´s not quite there yet, looking just too “low budget”, even sloppy.
Video
“Dark Sky Films” presents the film in 4:3. Don´t worry, since based on the Franco-experts, IMDB and the compositions of many shots, this should be the OAR. In many shots, there is no apparent “head room” or other indication that this would work in widescreen (in fact, some scenes are almost too tightly framed even in 4:3). After the unnatural and partly dark looking Spanish “Divisa”-release, this new Special Edition is pretty much a revelation (at least if you can compare the two, like I did). It has bold colours, solid black levels and it´s quite a clean print also. Sure, some grain, softness and even minor murkiness are visible in some scenes, but this is most likely partly because of the low budget nature of the film. Some scenes tend to be a bit “shaky” (probably the thing that is sometimes called “telecine wobbling”), though. I assume that due to the original lighting, skin tones don´t always strike as fully natural and some scenes look “tinted” (more about that later). “Dual layer” disc is coded “R1” and runs 96:57 minutes (NTSC). There are 11 chapters. Since we´re dealing with a low budget, international production from the 1970s, it often means that different versions or variations were produced to the different co-producing countries. This seems to be the case with “Count Dracula” also (Franco has stated that he supervised only English and Spanish “versions” of this film). After first reading about this mainly from the informative “Latarnia Forums”, I took my copy of the Spanish-release by “Divisa” (in Spanish only, no subtitles) and checked some of those mentioned scenes: 1 - Opening credits. Apparently “Dark Sky Films” used an Italian print from Rome, so the opening credits are mainly Italian (title is in French, though - “Les Nuits de Dracula”). Compared to the “Divisa”-release, the “Dark Sky Films”-release is missing approx. 17 seconds from the start of the film, mainly an establishment panning shot from the forest with the birds singing in the background. It´s also missing the introduction-text card, as well as the text “Transylvania 1897”. “Dark Sky Films”-transfer starts from the “Alexander Ha Cohen Presenta”-credit in the black background and then cuts roughly to the middle of the first zoom (to the one towers of the castle). “Divisa”-release is using the Spanish title “El Conde Drácula”. 2 - Gypsy woman. This is the scene that can make the difference for some people and it´s included in the “Divisa”-release (but missing from the “Dark Sky Films”-release). The missing bit in question happens after the scene when Jonathan Harker notices that he´s being locked up in his room and is harassed by the bat. After he falls asleep (or similar), there´s a close-up of the candle and the following missing scene last approx. 53 seconds (in the “Dark Sky Films”-release it should start from the timecode 00:22:54 minute); a gypsy woman arrives to the castle walls, crying and begging to return her baby. This definitely is a bit of a strange omission in the “Dark Sky Films”-release, since the scene involving the baby is included later (granted, it´s a short sequence). I can only guess why it´s not included and now I don´t feel like guessing. 3 - End credits. “Dark Sky Films”-release includes approx. 39 seconds longer Italian end credits. They start after the final wide shot of the film and the “FINE”-credit, fades to black and just includes additional text in the black background (no additional filmed material). In “Divisa”-release, the end credits are shorter and start earlier (last of the remaining shots run still on the background during credits). Other noticeable differences include selected scenes that look very different between these two releases. There´s a shot before the “Gypsy woman”-scene, where Jonathan Harker first look out of the window and sees some gypsies on the ground level. In “Divisa”-release the scene is so dark that you basically can´t see what is going on, but with “Dark Sky Films”-release the 4 second-shot is very clear. Also the Harker´s carriage ride to the castle of Dracula (and some other night scenes) has a certain more prominent “blue tint” in the “Dark Sky Films”-release than in the one from “Divisa”. There are also some minor music cue-differences.
Audio
The only audio track is the English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and optional English HoH subtitles are included. Since this is a European production from a certain era, all languages are dubbed. What makes the English track better than the Spanish one is the fact that important actors like Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom have their own voices in the English version. Imagine the very distinctive voice from Christopher Lee - that IS Dracula. Now imagine the same character dubbed in Spanish by some other voice-actor? Yes, you´re beginning to see the point. Sure, alternate Spanish-track would´ve been nice to have and it´s definitely not bad (some actors probably also speak Spanish in the film, since the film was mainly shot there), but in this case the English is the one to go for. From a technical point of view, the track has some hiss (sometimes more, sometimes less) and it can be a bit hollow, but the dialogue is clear and the audio is quite satisfying for its age.
Extras
-“Beloved Count” -featurette runs 26:36 minutes and is essentially an interview with director/co-writer Jess Franco. He speaks English, but optional English subtitles are still included. The idea of the film came from the producer Harry Alan Towers (he produced many films for Franco) and apparently also Christopher Lee himself. Franco tells that Lee was a bit worried whether they could make the character from old to young. Like some other directors have sometimes stated, Lee could be a bit remote on the set (Franco says that he wanted to be more like a “Shakespearean actor”), but was always professional. Klaus Kinski had a certain “reputation”, but he was not difficult on the set based on Franco (a bit “mad”, though). A funny bit is when Towers (taken from the other interview-session) claims that he lured Kinski in the movie by saying that he would be playing some other part than Renfield, but Franco says that it´s not true. He also speaks about Soledad Miranda (who died tragically in a car crash) and that the role of Herbert Lom was first offered to Vincent Price. Franco also speaks about the other films of Dracula and while he liked the 1931-version by Universal, he wasn´t that keen on the Hammer-versions (they didn´t take the subject matter seriously enough). 1992-version by Coppola also gets a lukewarm response by Franco, since he didn´t like the aspect that Dracula could feel love toward some of his victims. “Count Dracula” was mainly shot in Barcelona (some scenes in France) still in the period of General Franco (they still didn´t have any problems). Based on Franco, he had to put some own money to finish the film, but got the money back eventually. -“Christopher Lee Reads Bram Stoker’s Dracula” -featurette (no subtitles) runs a hefty 84:08 minutes. In this nice piece, Christopher Lee reads the original novel of “Dracula”, while the montage posters, photos, lobby cards and other artwork fills the screen. -“Soledad Miranda” -text essay is written by Amy Brown (she runs the www.soledadmiranda.com web site). Interesting news is that there´s actually some eccentric documentary “Cuadecuc, vampir (1970)” available of the making of “Count Dracula”, but sadly it´s not included on this disc. -Photo gallery rounds up the extras, including 25 screens of posters, press material and lobby cards.
Overall
Two things are pretty clear with “Count Dracula”; Jess Franco can do films outside the exploitation-genres, but the story of Dracula was just too ambitious a task for him to direct. It´s a good film, but still eventually flawed. The DVD-presentation of “Dark Sky Films” comes very recommended, offering the transfer taken from the vault-source and some nice extras. While this DVD is probably not the definitive version of the film (the “Gypsy woman”-scene is missing), it´s a very good effort. For more info, please visit the homepage of Dark Sky Films.
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