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Count Dracula (BBC Mini-Series) | 
 enlarge | Actors: Louis Jourdan, Frank Finlay, Susan Penhaligon
Studio: BBC Warner
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $8.69
You Save: $6.29 (42%)
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Rating:  59 reviews
Sales Rank: 5383
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 150 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: WARDE4153D
UPC: 794051415325
EAN: 0794051415325
ASIN: B000R7I48G
Theatrical Release Date: 1977
Release Date: September 25, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/25/2007 Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
Devotees of vampire cinema have long esteemed this heretofore hard-to-see adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, made for BBC-TV in 1977. Count Dracula puts Louis Jourdan in the fangs and cape, in a version subtitled--and played as--a Gothic romance. This is one of those 1970s TV productions that use film for exteriors and video for the interiors, a tactic that increases the general sense of cheapness about the whole thing (although the location stuff is good, including scenes on the cliffs of Whitby, the port town where Dracula comes to visit England). With 150 minutes to play with, the production has more of Stoker than many film versions include, although there's still some shuffling of the original. It's all a bit slow, and surprisingly cheesy at times, even with the occasional startling image: Dracula scooting bat-like down the side of his castle, or the vampire brides preparing to devour a baby (a scene cut from some subsequent showings of the series, but restored here). Frank Finlay makes a focused Van Helsing--a minimum of camping, thankfully--and Susan Penhaligon and Judi Bowker are respectively hot and cold as Lucy and Mina. Jourdan is effective, although he's off screen a lot and really gets his good bites in toward the end. You'll need some patience, but Jourdan drinks it dry. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 54 more reviews...
 Louis Jourdan creates a romantic Dracula December 24, 2008
B. H. Smith (Chicago, IL United States)
I've seen this series back in the late 70's. It always had a lasting impression on me. The series somewhat sticks to Bram Stoker's novel. The few differences I see is that this Dracula doesn't start off as an old man. He rather has the same late 40ish apppearance throughout the series. I liked the ladies that played Mina and Lucy. The gentelman who played Van Helsing was very good and very believeable. One cannot top Dwight Fry as Reinfield, but this gentleman who played him does a great job. I thought of Jourdan's Dracula as a French latin lover more than a vampyre from Transylvania. Since this film is English, it is fitting that he is a "French" outsider looking in. The scenes with Dracula's 3 women were sexy, yet horrifying (baby scene). I believe the BBC at the time banned that scene. To sum it up, this films was well written, well acted, and well photographed. I give it 5 stars.
 Teacher's View December 13, 2008
Jill Jacobelli (Vermont)
My ELL English class just read Dracula, and I wanted to show the class the movie version. This version really holds true to the original novel, with splashes of dramatic license that I used to stimulate class discussion. Plus, it is a PG version, so I had no qualms about sharing it with my students. The only draw back is that it is LONG, but my students really liked it (even the creepy 70s music and effects), so it kept their attention.
One of the best! November 30, 2008
Guil Fisher (New York, NY)
This by far s the best Dracula film I've seen. And I've seen them all from Bela Logosi to Frank Langella. Both were good but Louis Jourdan goes the extra mile and creates an intelligent, charming, yet menacing vampire. Along with excellent supporting cast, photography and script, this one is scary. It comes from BBC.
 Worst Ever Made November 2, 2008
Chrissy K. (L.A., CA USA)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was sucked in by all the 5 star reviews. I wouldn't have given it 1 star but that is there are no negative stars. I love Dracula movies and thought I had seen them all. I was very excited to see a 5 star mini-series from BBC. This has to be the worst! Poor acting, bad filming and incredibly slow. Don't waste your money, there are so many more, much better. Try the one with Frank Langella if your looking for an older classic, even Bela Lugosi is better.
I have already dined October 31, 2008
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dracula has been reinterpreted, bastardized, glamourized and rewritten so many times that it's hard to even identify him as the charming, monstrous boyar bloodsucker.
But the closest thing to a faithful adaptation is the BBC's 1977 miniseries "Count Dracula", which changes only a few details from Bram Stoker's original novel. Louis Jourdan is a little too polished to be a truly faithful Dracula, but excellent acting and some wonderfully atmospheric direction elevate this above virtually every other movie made about dear ol' Vlad.
Real estate agent Jonathan Harker (Bosco Hogan) arrives in Transylvania, to arrange a London house sale to the charming, mysterious Count Dracula (Jourdan). But Harker is increasingly troubled by bizarre specters and Dracula's odd behavior, leading him to believe that Dracula is not actually human.
Meanwhile, his fiancee Mina Westenra (Judi Bowker) worries about Jonathan's absence, even as her sister Lucy (Susan Penhaligon) gets engaged to rising young Texan Quincey (Richard Barnes). But shortly after a ship piloted by a dead man crashes nearby, Lucy begins acting strangely -- and becomes ill from a mysterious loss of blood, and strange fang marks appear on her throat.
Lucy's ex-suitor John Seward (Mark Burns) calls in his old teacher Dr. Van Helsing (Frank Finlay). Despite their best efforts, Lucy dies -- but not before showing a savage sensual side. It's only then that Dr. Van Helsing reveals the true, ghastly identity of what killed Lucy, and has turned her into an undead seductress: the vampire Count Dracula, who has somehow made his way to England. And now that he's targeting Mina, Van Helsing and the three young men must stop him.
"Count Dracula" is probably the most faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, ever. It has a few minor changes (Arthur and Quincey are squished into one man), but but the rest of the story is lovingly faithful to the source. It even has little details that most movies overlook -- including the grotesque scene where Dracula hands over a baby as "lunch" for his brides.
At first the action alternates between cobwebbed stone passages of Castle Dracula and quaint Victorian seaside towns. But Dracula's shadow falls over them pretty quickly, and everything starts speeding up. Suddenly we have gory midnight stakings, crypts, dark forests, and across the Carpathian mountains. It all culminates in a wild chase across Transylvania, fighting gypsies and fending off the brides.
Director Philip Saville does a brilliant job here -- he's good at the staid drawing rooms you expect from the BBC period movies, but he's equally good at shadowed smokey forests. There are some horrifically erotic bloodsucking scenes (sort of a vampiric date-rape), as well as some cute romances between the human lovers. And he loves to linger on Jourdan's eerier moments, like when Dracula lazily smiles at a hysterical Harker.
Saville also slaps in reversed color and misty, dreamlike camerawork, giving any scenes with vampiric powers an eerie, hallucinatory feeling. It's a slightly dated technique -- as is the climbing-down-the-wall scene -- but it doesn't really detract from the creep factor.
Jourdan is not quite the passionate looming Dracula that, say, Christopher Lee was. He's a little too calm, polished and French. But his Dracula is still very good -- charismatic, intelligent, and gives the impression of great age and maturity. And he's freaking creepy -- those bloody eyes, hairy palms and chilly masklike expression are all wonderfully eerie.
Frank Finlay also makes a truly magnificent Van Helsing, who's as smart if not as lethal as Dracula; Hogan, Bowker and Barnes all do an excellent job, and Penhaligan does a great switcheroo between the sweet Lucy and her wanton vampire self. And Jack Shepherd is a truly brilliant Renfield -- wild-eyed, twitchy, erratic, and prone to biting the male nurses, except when falling in love with Mina.
"Count Dracula" is the single most faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic novel, and a solid horror movie in its own right. Definitely a must-see for those who appreciate Dracula as he should be.
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