Second day heading toward Halloween and this is Part 2 of my monster movie greats. Today's serving is Dracula. Hypnotic, erotic, alluring...and likes to bite. Plenty of actors have from time to time taken on the role of the great Count...but my all time favorite is Frank Langella (in a reprise of his Tony-nominated role from Broadway). From the moment you see Miss Mina slip into a cave seeking what she believes is a lost dog from a shipwreck (where, by the way, the captain's throat is ....well..missing) and those long fingers wrap spider-like around hers...you're hooked. Is it just me...or do Frank's (the Count's) eyes have an unnerving way of vibrating back and forth when he spots his prey. I'd definitely be ripping my bodice open for this guy, but I'd demand he clean up Carfax Abbey. Place is a mess. Sir Laurence Olivier chews up the scenery as Dr. Van Helsing with Donald Pleasance as the bumbling but well meaning Dr. Seward.
The second entry but by no means less noteworthy, is of course the great Bela Lugosi. As with Frank Langella, Bela Lugosi had also played Dracula on Broadway to very good reviews. Mr. Lugosi went on to act in many other of Universal's horror classics...but is most often imitated for his speech pattern in Dracula. "Good.......EvEninnnng, I am Dracula."
Honorable mention in my Dracula roundup goes to Christopher Lee in The Horror of Dracula, one of my all time favorite horror film actors..ever. Lee's Dracula takes on a much more sinister turn...you never like him..not ever. By the end of the film, Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing does an excellent job of ridding the world of such evil..or does he?
Frank Langella's Dracula was released in 1979, directed by John Badham with a fabulous film score by John Williams. Christopher Lee in The Horror of Dracula was directed by Terrence Fischer and produced by Hammer Films and released in 1958. The Lugosi Dracula came out in 1931 directed by Todd Browing.
Stay tuned...tomorrow The Wolfman.
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