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Dracula
— Prince of Darkness
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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6
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Hammer
Studios followed up the successful Horror
of Dracula (1958) with Brides
of Dracula in 1960. Although Peter
Cushing again played vampire hunter Prof. Van
Helsing in the latter film (whose villain was
"Baron Meinster", not Drac), Christopher Lee did
not return as the undead Transylvanian nobleman
until Dracula — Prince of
Darkness in 1966. Displeased with the dialog
given to the vampire king in John Sansom's script,
Lee plays the role — apart from the occasional
hiss or growl — completely silent.
It is ten years after Dracula was spectacularly
slain by Van Helsing during the climax of the
'58 film (which is shown here as a pre-titles
sequence). Two English couples are vacationing
in the Carpathians: the Kent brothers, Alan (Charles
Tingwell) and Charles (Revenge
of Frankenstein's Francis Matthews), along
with their wives Helen (Barbara Shelley) and Diana
(Suzan Farmer). At an inn they encounter Father
Sandor (Quatermass
and the Pit's Andrew Keir), the burly, rifle-toting
abbot of a monastery. He advises them not to dismiss
offhand some of the local superstitions, pointedly
warning them to stay away from a nearby castle.
The monk's council only adds to the sense of uneasiness
that has gripped Helen ever since arriving in
the region.
Naturally, the foursome end up going to the
very castle they were warned about. Abandoned
on the road by their superstitious coachman, they're
surprised when a driverless carriage appears in
the road — a godsend. They embark on this new
transport with Charles at the reigns, who quickly
discovers that the horses will not respond to
his control. At a brisk clip the horses takes
them directly to the courtyard of the seemingly
deserted castle. Determined to make the best of
it, the party decides to spend the night over
the protests of an increasingly nervous Helen.
Another surprise awaits them when they find
a full course dinner for four laid out in the
great hall, in what seems anticipation of their
arrival. This mystery is resolved with the appearance
of Klove, creepy servant to the castle's "late"
owner. Klove explains that the will of his deceased
master, Count Dracula, stipulated that the house
was to remain open after his demise, always prepared
to receive guests. Alan, Charles, and Diana think
the late count must've been a swell guy, drinking
a toast to him in appreciation of his posthumous
hospitality. Helen, to whom this strange turn
of events seems too good to be true, is on the
verge of losing it (her nerves, not her lunch).
She's also on the verge of losing her husband.
During the night, Helen asks Alan to investigate
a strange noise. Grumpily he agrees, but when
exploring the corridor his own interest is piqued
when he spies Klove disappearing into a hidden
aperture behind a tapestry. Alan's curiosity is
rewarded with Klove driving a dagger into his
back. Dragging the corpse down into the crypt,
Klove strings the freshly murdered Alan up by
the feet over an open sarcophagus. The servant
then scatters ashes into it and slashes Alan's
throat. In a surprisingly sanguinary scene, blood
from the corpse pours in a torrent onto the ashes.
A smoky mist begins to swirl within the sarcophagus.
A hand appears within the mist, flexing with new
life to the rising strains of James Bernard's
score. Count Dracula lives again. And he's thirsty.
Lee, as a silent Dracula, uses his tall (6'
5"), dark physicality to good effect in the film,
continuing his theme of the Count as regal but
cruel, composed yet capable of savage bursts of
violence. I've always preferred this interpretation
of the character over Lugosi's Continental charmer.
Perhaps that's why I cut the film some slack in
regards to the somewhat sluggish narrative and
that really phony-looking trap door in the climax.
(It's supposed to be a break in the ice of the
castle's frozen moat.) More likely it's due to
nostalgia.
Like most Hammer films, Prince
takes its time setting up the story and characters.
Dracula's 'rebirth' doesn't come until almost
halfway through the picture. The under thirty
crowd of horror fans — those born after the advent
of cable TV — are unlikely to have the patience
for it, fine performances and well-staged gothic
trappings be damned. But before Jason and Freddy,
before VCRs and HBO and MTV (and The
Lost Boys who came with them), it was these
old Hammer chestnuts that really got us "monster
kids" enthused... sneaking out of bed on a school
night to watch them, volume cranked low, on the
CBS Late Movie.
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| Anchor
Bay's DVD presents a letterboxed version of the
film, the first time I've been able to see it that
way. Picture quality is good — the transfer was
apparently struck from an undamaged print — though
some of the colors seem a tad muted at times. Ditto
the Dolby Mono track, which is clean and clear though
flat. Two trailers are included: one for the film
and another featuring it as part of a gimmicky double
bill with Hammer's Plague
of the Zombies. The 30-minute documentary
World of Hammer: Dracula and the Undead is
exactly the same (not very informative) featurette,
narrated by Oliver Reed, that's packaged with the
Satanic Rites of Dracula
disc. Home movie footage, shot on the set during
filming by Matthews' brother, should prove interesting
to Hammer fans. The best treat is the audio commentary
with the surviving principal cast (including Lee
and Shelley); it can get a bit boisterous at times
with three and four people all talking at once.
And were those teacups I heard clanking? 4/04/01 |
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UPDATE
This DVD went OOP in 2004 and is now going for
$30 and up.
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