There's no way I could let my Dracula Month theme slip by without delving into at least a couple of the Hammer horror films. Depending on who you talk to, people's definitive Dracula on film could be Bela Lugosi, Gary Oldman or Hammer's Christopher Lee; Lee certainly played the role more times than anyone. The one which began it all was 1958's Horror of Dracula (the original UK title was simply Dracula).
This film is the most truncated film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel that I have seen. Considerable departures were made from the novel so as to amp up the action and violence, while at the same time keeping the cast trimmed down (no Renfield, no Quincey Morris) and the locations kept relatively few. It's interesting that like the 1931 film, Jonathan Harker & Renfield are somewhat merged, only this time instead of Renfield going to Castle Dracula the change is that Harker becomes Dracula's servant.
The film is very breezy and easy to watch - not particulary faithful if that troubles you, but the action holds one's interest. Christopher Lee has virtually no dialogue in this film but he has a commanding presence, while Peter Cushing's Van Helsing was reimagined into an action hero, leading to a particularly show-stopping finale where Van Helsing pins Dracula back with a makeshift cross while waiting for the sunlight to destroy the vampire. This is my pick as best of the Hammer Dracula flicks.
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