6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Infamous Spanish horror director Jesus Franco created this surprisingly low key and faithful adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel. Christopher Lee, who played the same role in Britain's Hammer Films, does a first rate job as the undead Transylvanian count with a thirst for blood. Frederick Williams is Harker, the young lawyer who travels to the count's castle and winds up a prisoner, while Dracula goes off of to London to seduce his wife, Mina (Maria Rohm). Soledad Miranda plays Lucy, Dracula's first victim, and Klaus Kinski is an unusually underplayed Renfield...
Starring: Christopher Lee, Soledad Miranda, Herbert Lom, Maria Rohm, Klaus KinskiHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.36:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
For better or worse, Christopher Lee’s now legendary reputation rests at least in part on his many memorable portrayals of Dracula (Lee himself was evidently not all that happy to be so firmly associated with the character). Beginning with Hammer’s 1958 Horror of Dracula (also known simply as Dracula), Lee would play the fanged anti-hero for the studio six more times, though rather interestingly (and perhaps saliently in terms of the film currently under discussion), it took a few years for Lee to reprise the role. That was in 1966’s Dracula: Prince of Darkness, which was followed two years later by Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, which was itself followed another two years later (in 1970, for those who have lost count) by Taste the Blood of Dracula and also by Scars of Dracula (the fact that this Count Dracula was also also released in 1970 may suggest Lee could have understandably been suffering at least this particular year from overkill, so to speak). The biennial release tradition continued with Dracula A.D. 1972, which came out in its titular year and which perhaps mistakenly sought to “modernize” the character, something that continued with The Satanic Rites of Dracula in 1973, the last time Lee would essay the character for Hammer. While Lee had a cameo as Dracula in the little remembered Jerry Lewis helmed One More Time and also starred in an equally little remembered 1976 French comedy called Dracula and Son (a film that in at least some ways presages the better known Love at First Bite), this 1970 Count Dracula is the one non-Hammer horror outing where Lee plays the Count in a traditional historical setting in a context that is arguably at least as close if not closer to some of Bram Stoker’s original formulations than some of the Hammer outings.
Count Dracula is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.36:1. That aspect ratio may seem odd for a film of 1970 vintage, but the IMDb lists 1.37:1 as the original aspect ratio, and nothing looked off in the framing to me here. That said, the German trailer included on this disc looks closer to 1.66:1, and so I'm assuming it's quite possible this could have been exhibited in at least a slightly wider aspect ratio in some global markets. If the aspect ratio doesn't turn out to be a big deal, the soft, virtually grainless appearance of this presentation may well be. There's a kind of curious "video-esque" look here, and at certain moments, edges of things like fingers can almost look upscaled, with what look like just hints of stairstepping. The palette is generally pretty well suffused, but reds looked like they were drifting toward orange. The brief scene with a distraught mother trying to get her baby back from Dracula (yeah, right, you know how he is) which has been excised from some versions is here, but was obviously sourced from a smaller millimeter with considerable damage and a noticeable skewing toward blue (see screenshot 19, and that's actually one of the better looking moments from this sequence).
Count Dracula features an LPCM 2.0 mono track that supports dialogue reasonably well, but which has just some very slight distortion in some of the music cues, as in some supposed live music performances that show up at various points. It's obvious everything was post-looped, and so sync can be loose, as they say, but that said, it looked to me like most of the major players must have been speaking English during the actual shoot, since lip movements are at least reasonably close to what's being said much of the time.
Considering this was a Jess Franco film, I frankly was expecting something considerably more salacious than Count Dracula turned out to be, and in fact a lot of this film is kind of weirdly distant and emotionless. Production values are generally okay, but Franco's incessant use of zoom lenses may give some viewers motion sickness. Video is definitely on the soft, grainless side, and audio has a few passing issues with regard to some of the music, but the supplemental package is quite interesting, for those considering a purchase.
Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht / El Conde Drácula
1970
Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht
1970
1972
Includes "Drácula"
1931
Collector's Edition
1967
El jorobado de la Morgue
1973
Gritos en la noche / Screams in the Night
1962
1945
2018
2013
Dracula / Warner Archive Collection
1958
Danza macabra 4K
1964
1970
1963
1970
The Devil's Bride
1968
Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga
1972
Evil Heritage
1976
1970
1936
1976
1965