Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Horror of Dracula Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson January 27, 2022

With the success of Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), it was only a matter of time before Hammer Films went back to the well of iconic Universal monsters to produce its own version. Sure enough, while the Frankenstein picture was playing in cinemas, Hammer announced it would begin work on Dracula. (This was the original UK title but was was changed to Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion with Tod Browning's 1931 sound film, Dracula.) Jimmy Sangster, who also was writing The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), came on board along with Fisher. Headlining the cast were Hammer stalwarts Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Sangster sets the story in the countryside of Eastern Europe in 1885. The screenwriter uses Bram Stoker's "diary form" to narrate this film's telling. Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) is on an excursion to Count Dracula's castle where he hopes to vanquish the vampire. When Harker arrives and calls for someone, there's no one home but only a prepared meal on the table and a note from the Count. Harker begins eating but is interrupted by a sexy and mysterious woman (Valerie Gaunt) who begs him to protect her from Dracula. After she flees for the time being, Dracula descends the long staircase and welcomes Harker, who's posing as the castle's new librarian. While he has a chilly and icy presence, Dracula is cordial and inviting. He escorts Harker to his room and explains how much he needs his employ to organize the books and manuscripts. Harker hopes he has the right recipe in order to defeat Dracula but things unravel when the same woman reappears downstairs. She bites Harker on the neck and Dracula closes in from behind, thirsty for more of her blood. Not too far away, Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) stops at an inn he believes was frequented by Harker, who's his friend. When he fears that something bad may have happened to Harker, Van Helsing goes to the home of his fiancée, Lucy (Carol Marsh). Also there are Lucy's older brother, Arthur Holmwood (Michael Gough), and his wife, Mina (Melissa Stribling). Lucy hasn't been feeling well, relegating her mostly to the bed. Van Helsing fears that she also may have received Dracula's bite. Luckily, Van Helsing has Harker's journal containing vampire-defeating formulas. Arthur is initially skeptical of just about everything Van Helsing speaks on but the two will need to work together to save Mina from Dracula.

Welcome to Count Dracula's castle.

Universal-International put Dracula (1958) on a double bill with the far less distinguished The Thing That Couldn't Die. This double feature played in states across the US. Dracula was very well-received in the UK and America. In November 1958, either one of the editors of Daily Gazette and Mail (Morristown, TN) or a studio publicist wrote the headline, "New 'Horror of Dracula' Is Rated Tops Among All-Time Monster Movie Films." Critiques of the performances varied. Shockingly, a reviewer for the San Francisco Examiner disparaged Lee's take of Dracula as "nothing!" Time has been kind to Lee as he's been rightly proclaimed the definitive Dracula.

Horror of Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Warner Archive Collection has brought Horror of Dracula to US Blu-ray on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. This is a slightly shorter version than the BFI's 2012 restoration, which premiered at the Vault festival in London. The 2013 Lionsgate package, which contains one BD-25 and two DVDs, has the "Resurrecting Dracula" featurette and a PDF booklet on the Special Features' DVD-ROM that chart the movie's restoration. Liner notes writer Robert JE Simpson explains that the BFI made a restoration of Dracula in 2007, which is the basis for this WAC disc. Tokyo-based Hammer fan Simon Rowson located missing footage at Japan's National Film Center in March 2011. Rowson apparently knew that the Japanese theatrical print was longer since the Hammer archive contained an old index card pertaining to print masters, which delineated the US, UK and Japanese reel lengths side-by-side. (The Japanese reels totaled the longest.) A projection print of the full version of the film, including material censored by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), was stored in this Japanese archive. Most unfortunately, the first five reels caught fire in 1984 and water damage made a complete restoration impracticable. However, the BFI were able to restore the remaining four reels, which were in poor condition. Only a few seconds of the Vampire Woman biting Harker are believed to be lost.

The 2013 LG Blu-ray uses seamless branching to present the compilation print of the '07 and '12 restorations. That and the WAC disc present the movie in 1.66:1, which is believed to be the original theatrical aspect ratio. The WAC boasts a mean video bitrate of 34990 kbps while the LG averages 29958 kbps. I've assembled a graphical comparison between the two transfers so you can see the disparities in color temperature of each. While the Warner has deeper blacks, the LG is brighter. I deem the latter closer to the intended appearance.

The Evansville (IN) Courier's arts and entertainment writer Jeanne Suhrheinrich described a 1958 theatrical print as containing "somber hues of malignant blues, greens and purples." Charles Stinson of the Los Angeles Times did not much care for the Technicolor: "[A]s for the lush color photography, it dissipates 95% of the shadow-swathed eeriness vital to such prena­tural proceedings. Where once the cape-shrouded Count was gaunt and bleak of cheek, he now steps out for the evening armed with little more than a 5 o'clock shadow."

Screenshots 1-5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, & 35 = Warner Archive Collection 2017 BD-25
Screenshots 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, & 34 = Lionsgate Films UK 2013 BD-25

The WAC presents twenty-six chapters while the LG has twelve.

Horror of Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1994 kbps, 24-bit). By comparison, the LG only has an LPCM Dual Mono track (1536 kbps, 16-bit). The WAC monaural track sounds above average but fluctuates in pitch, which illustrates its limited range. That can at least be partially attributed to budget limitations. Fred W. Fox of LA-based Mirror News observed of a cinema print in 1958: "Dialogue ranges in volume from sibilances to foghorn." That same year, a reviewer for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote that Christopher Lee's voice is "soft." Composer James Bernard wrote a classic score that closely mimics the action and superbly establishes the mood of every scene.

Warner has provided optional English SDH, which also appear on the Lionsgate for the main feature only.

Horror of Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Warner disc only includes a British trailer. By stark contrast, the Lionsgate set includes several bonus materials: an audio commentary with Hammer historian Marcus Hearn and film critic Jonathan Rigby, "Dracula Reborn - The Making of a Hammer Classic," the aforesaid restoration featurette, "The Demon Lover - Christopher Frayling on Dracula" featurette, "Censoring Dracula" featurette, thirty-five minutes of unrestored "Japanese Film Reels 6-9," "The World of Hammer: Dracula and the Undead" TV episode, a twelve-minute reading of Stoker by Janina Faye, and an image gallery.

• Original UK Theatrical Trailer (2:11, 1080p) - an unrestored trailer of Dracula that sports various blotches and artifacts.

Horror of Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are several reasons why Terence Fisher's Horror of Dracula is considered the most important movie ever produced at Hammer studios. Fisher and scribe Jimmy Sangster essentially made it their own interpretation of Stoker's novel. While it has now-classic tropes, it resists bringing in vampire film clichés. For example, there are no bats or werewolves. Additionally, film historian Christopher Frayling brings up an important historical fact on the UK package that this Hammer film was the first work in popular culture to introduce (and treat seriously) Dracula's sexuality. All subsequent cinematic treatments of Dracula are indebted to this one. The Warner Archive Blu-ray presents the 2007 BFI restoration that is unfortunately missing some shots that are included on the 2013 Lionsgate UK Blu-ray. The latter is out of print so one hopes for a re-release that will pull together the three transfers. I personally prefer the color schemes on the LG. The movie earns my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION but the no-frills Warner MOD comes RECOMMENDED WITH SOME QUALIFIERS.