- Director: Dan Curtis
- Writer: Richard Matheson
- Stars: Jack Palance, Simon Ward, Nigel Davenport
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3haZVGU
Synopsis
Hungary, 1897.
Dracula gets in his carriage as the dogs prowl around the castle as the credits roll.
Next morning, another carriage arrives, and this one carries Jonathan Harker. He gets a letter from Count Dracula with instructions for getting to the castle.
Harker follows the instructions and arrives at the castle. Dracula invites him in. Dracula offers him dinner, but doesn’t join him for the meal; he’s eaten already. Harker is a real estate agent who has properties to show to Dracula. Dracula spots a photo of Harker’s fiancé, Mina, and her friend, Lucy.
He’s very interested in the land near where they all live, a place called Carfax. Dracula is very soft-spoken and polite. He says he will buy Carfax. Dracula bores Harker with old Hungarian war stories from hundreds of years ago. The clock chimes, and Dracula says he has to go, but that Harker should write home saying that he plans to stay for a month.
Harker sleeps through the whole day. Dracula insists that he write the letter, and it looks like he plans to keep him locked up until he does. He finds a coffin marked “Vlad Tepes” from 1475. The painting looks just like Dracula, and the woman next to him looks like his friend Lucy. Harker finds himself surrounded by three vampire women. Dracula pulls them off just in time and forces Harker to write the letter.
Harker is locked in. As he tries to escape, he finds coffins and boxes of dirt in the cellar. He finds Dracula sleeping in the coffin and tries to kill him, but the minions stop him. The three women get him…
Meanwhile, five weeks later in England, a ship has wrecked, and we see Dracula and his boxes of dirt. Things went badly for the sailors. Mina arrives in town, and learns that Lucy is suffering from a strange sleepwalking illness. They’re bringing in a man named Dr. Van Helsing to help with her care.
Van Helsing looks her over, and he immediately has his suspicions. He insists that she wear a garlic wreath which seems to really annoy her. Of course, Arthur and Van Helsing go to sleep on watch, and Dracula lures Lucy outside. They kiss a lot, and then he bites her. They wake up and find her, and then it’s time for a transfusion of blood.
Van Helsing finally explains about vampires. They take precautions, and Lucy starts to recover. Van Helsing leaves for a while, off to parts unknown. We see Dracula break a wolf out of the zoo. That night, Arthur hears a wolf howling outside. It breaks through the window and attacks him. He shoots the wolf, but during the attack, Dracula comes in and gets Lucy once again, this time, killing her.
That night, Arthur sees Lucy tapping at his window from the outside. He lets her in, and she almost bites him, but just then Van Helsing rushes in and shoves a cross in her face. They go to her crypt in the morning and stake her. Dracula is unhappy and flashes back to soldiers dragging him away from his first dead wife. He trashes the entire family crypt.
Lucy and Mrs. Westenra go to town and stay in a hotel. Dracula follows them while Van Helsing tracks down the owner of the boxes of dirt recovered from the Demeter. They find nine of the ten boxes at Carfax, but one is hidden. They rush home to find Dracula has taken Mina and turned her into a vampire. Once she dies, she’ll become like him.
Dracula then returns home to find nine of his boxes of dirt burned. This “scorched Earth” isn’t useful to him, so he has to go to his tenth box. Van Helsing hypnotizes Mina, and she tells them where to find Dracula.
They take a train to Transylvania, while Dracula takes a ship back they way he came. It’s a race to get to the castle first! Arthur and Van Helsing get there and find the three vampire women, whom they easily stake. Dracula attacks, but Van Helsing pulls down the curtain and blasts him with sunlight. While he’s disoriented, they stake him.
Commentary
It’s Dark Shadows meets Hammer. Flashbacks, music boxes, paintings, and the love story are straight out of Barnabas Collins’ story. The detailed sets and all the visuals look like they came straight from a Hammer set.
Lucy Western resembled Dracula’s long-dead wife from far in the past. It’s completely understandable why he was upset at her death, but it’s not clear why he later so obsessed with Mina.
The acting is fine, the visuals are fine, but the problem here is the story. It’s pretty much exactly the original Dracula story, only with a few of the characters removed. There’s absolutely nothing interesting or innovative about it. It’s all done well, but it’s just….fine.