He tempts Harker with gold from his cellars and plays on his avarice by offering to throw these trinkets into his deal along with the deed for Carfax House. In fact, he literally does seem to have the Midas touch. His own brides look to have been painted with gold paint, like Venusian statues come to life from Roman mythology. He talks extensively and, like his vampire cousins in Abel Ferrara's grim The Addiction (1995), leaves his victims open to the choice of wanting to join him of their own free will. Whatever they decide will forever be on their conscience. He requires love, but not lovers, as he wastes no time in letting his conquests know that they will be used to recruit more soldiers for his ever-growing army of the undead.
He has a male chauvinism to his personality that hasn't been explored before, nit picking at Mina's ideas about morality and choice, until he leaves her seething with an inbuilt desire for revenge, long before he is unmasked as the villain.
With Lucy, he breaks down her healthy libido through steamy caresses beneath his cape, nibbling on her it seems, simply as a tasty appetizer to the main course. Keeping all of his shape-changing techniques from the novel and adding a reversal of the rat into man transformation from Coppola's movie, he literally does become unstoppable by these men of the modern age. Professor Valenti tells his followers that he has the best cover, in this age of B movies and comic books, and Bergin does seem to rejoice in this aspect of the character as well - toying with them for most of the film as separate characters with their own secret identities of the camp, chain-smoking Vladislav Tepesh and his uncle, the fiendishly lecherous Count Vladislav Tepesh; clues that any monster-savvy ten year old would crack almost immediately, but which go straight over the heads of the college seniors on his tail.
As the men wreck his coffins, Dracula sets his sights on Mina. She takes his blood communion, but spreading his cape wide proves to be his eventual undoing as Mina denies her love for him by ramming home the obligatory stake. But as the Count constantly refers to his belief in the prophecy of Genesis and rebirth, not to mention his love for Jonathan, we are left wondering at the film’s fade if he has transplanted his soul into the body of Mina herself.
Patrick Bergin came to prominence as Julia Robert's wife-beating husband Martin Burney in Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) and in the following year starred as Victor Frankenstein in an accurate UK/Polish version of Frankenstein (1992).
Van Helsing seems to have taken a day off, as he doesn't appear at all in this version. What we get is a second cousin in the form of Giancarlo Giannini as Professor Enrico Valenti. Valenti is an old friend of Dr Seward who is never asked to join in the fight against Dracula, but just simply turns up after finishing his researches into zombies in India.
Intrigued by Roenfield's collection of bugs, almost one of every type, he just seems to hang around until the real dangers begin to show themselves.
Spotting the marks on Lucy's neck his face registers the look of a man who has been through similar circumstances before. When the girl implores him on her deathbed to guard the over-zealous and jealous Arthur, he nods his immediate understanding of what he should do.
Reading of the kidnapped child, he brings his knowledge out into the open and brings the correct number of stakes, hammers and bottles of holy water to his reluctant comrades-in-arms; one for each of them. Unlike Van Helsing, Valenti also has an uncharacteristic lapse in faith, when the same comrades keep dying all around him, and he is left on the sidelines with the rest of the men as Mina seemingly outsmarts the vampire with a hidden stake.
Giancarlo Giannini would go on to portray Inspector Renaldo Pazzi in Anthony Hopkins' second film as serial murderer Hannibal (2001). More recently, he has taken up the mantle of FBI agent Rene Mathis in the James Bond actioners, Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008).
A lot of the early dialogue between Lucy and Mina concerns the latter's attempt to tame her betrothed, Jonathan Harker. Played by Hardy Kruger Jr, the script gives the initial impression of a young man enjoying living his life on the edge. However, on closer inspection, that couldn't be further from the truth. Like many twenty-somethings with good career options, Harker does tend to blot out the mundane aspects of life for his love of pretty girls, fast cars and the hope of hitting the big time. Securing the chance of a lifetime deal with the mysterious client, Vladislav Tepesh,
and his equally mysterious uncle, he finds very quickly, that good things always come at a price. The locals are far from friendly as they attack him with clubs and pickaxes, and a customs guard is prepared to shoot him because of the way that he flaunts his wealth in the poor country:
"How far to Bistriza?" asks Jonathan.
"About 400 years" snarls the guard in reply.
The young Tepesh promises him 10% commission and a glimpse at his future. Dear old uncle literally lays the young man's soul bare before him. He talks of his hidden side, his conscience and his natural human greed. He has just one book in the whole Castle, The Holy Bible, to punctuate his theories. Playing extensive mind-games and then openly destroying his masculinity by seducing him in front of the three brides, the Count breaks down the thin veneer of Jonathan's ego, leaving him crying shamefully in the background, unable to tell his ribbing schoolchums what has happened. He confides to Lucy, when he is sure that she is dying, so that she won't be able to inform anyone else.
Finally, as Professor Valenti is seen to be fighting a losing battle trying to convince the group of the very present danger, a tearful Harker spits out the story of his seduction at the hands of a disgusting old man. It is his confession that stirs the hunters onto battle and eventual victory. Already married to Mina, he proposes to marry her for real at the end of the film, once he is sure that his sexual taint has been lifted with his ‘cleansing of the soul’ speech for his dead friend, Quincy Morris.
As Dracula breaks down Harker's ego and makes him his unwilling toyboy, he takes a different approach with Lucy Westenra.
Muriel Baumeister gives perhaps the sexiest portrayal of Lucy in a straight version of the tale. First seen in a blood coloured dress amongst partygoers kitted out in drab black and whites, she dominates her scenes with an unbridled sexual energy. She has many male friends and it is made obvious that she has slept with most, if not all, of them. Purposefully shunning the confines of marriage, this is a girl who really believes that life is for living and refuses to spend her days tied to the kitchen sink. Beautiful, confident and brazen in her outlook, she is the perfect model for the Count to prove his prowess. This modern woman is quickly brought to book by the Counts olde world advances.
Insinuating himself into her mind, he restarts her childish trait for sleepwalking. Later, he utilises this nocturnal activity to bring her to him in the pouring rain. Changing from wolf to man, he plays with her senses as he floats towards her and administers that first deadly kiss. She starts to sense changes and begins to hide herself away in her dark bedroom beneath the covers, checking her body later with all the unnerved anxiety of a lady looking for breast cancer, or, tentatively reaching lower, something a lot worse. But as the Count arrives again, his penetrations become more severe. In hospital, she has to have two blood transfusions, but still she can't seem to keep away from this dark seducer.
A final kiss turns her into a stylised automaton who tempts Arthur on her deathbed. With her last train of thought, she pleads with Valenti to save her soul. As the 'bloofer' lady, her whole personality has turned around. She is a pure white virginal machine at the Count's beck and call for all eternity, fated to live on small animals and children. Preferring the damnation of suicide, she makes a last desperate lunge at Arthur, landing squarely on the sacrificial stake.
Mina (Stefania Rocca) is the heroine of the film. Tepesh makes her his enemy almost immediately, when he drags fiancé Jonathan away on a business deal, when Jonathan should be at home deciding on the place card settings for their forthcoming wedding. Even this news is given in a sly aside from the Count as he makes Mina's blood boil when arguing the n
eed of morality. When Jonathan leaves for Romania, jealousy takes hold of Mina as she constantly rings his mobile number. No luck there so she decides to visit Tepesh himself, taking Lucy along for moral support.
Securing an address from Jonathan's company office, she is again snubbed by the aristocrat, as the building exists in the sleaziest part of town, apparently under lease to someone named Roenfield.
Fate throws her a lifeline as Jonathan is reported ill in a Romanian convent. She drives out to meet him and uses the chance to put her ring on his finger, arriving back home in time to see Lucy eventually expire at the Count's hands. He turns his attentions on Mina: "Choose me" he croons, and offers her his own blood. After the communion, Mina uses the strength it brings as she apparently destroys the Count with a hidden stake.
The maniac, Roenfield, only has two brief scenes, but the script gives Brett Forrest the good fortune of being able to deliver a well-rounded characterisation. Looking suitably emaciated, he fashions a makeshift knife while promising allegiance to a mysterious Master and insists that he isn't crazy.
He welcomes Professor Valenti as a worthy friend and possible co-conspirator as he invites him to see his collection of bottled insects that he keeps for sustenance. One of every type marvels the Professor, of every species, in case each one might carry a different effect unique to the others. Roenfield rams his own head into the bars of his cell, lapping his own blood as an aperitif to the delights to come and then winsomely sits naked on his bunk awaiting the final glory of Armageddon.
Dr Johan Seward owns a believable psychiatric institution. Roenfield's outbursts are looked on as everyday occurrences and don't elicit more than a passing interest from the doctor played by Kay Wiesinger. Invited to the party and admitting to trading in minds, he gets to sleep with Lucy and administers to her as she falls down the stairs while sleepwalking.
He shows credible respect for his mentor and friend, Professor Valenti. Given more dynamism than most Sewards, he joins the fight to save Mina and is able to drive the Count back by repeatedly splashing him with holy water.
Arthur Holmwood (Conrad Hornby) and Quincy Morris (Alessio Boni) are two characters generally dropped in film interpretations or spliced together in one identity mainly because of their very sketchy appearances in the novel. Here they share more scenes than is usual, with Arthur appearing as the jealous doubting Thomas. He scolds Seward for manhandling Lucy as the doctor checks for broken bones and is the only Holmwood proposed to on screen.
Argentinean Quincy lives life to the fullest, an adventurer who spends his time clubbing all night long, working shady deals, smoking large cigars and sleeping bare-chested. He tells Harker to go for the deal that Tepesh offers regardless of the consequences and relates Stoker's story of the vampire bat attacking and bleeding dry the white stallion which becomes the first scene of the film.
His greed gets the better of him as he succumbs to a fatal head wound while in pursuit of the Count and immeasurable wealth. It is the eulogy delivered by Harker at his funeral that answers the questions that the Count poses to all of them. The final statement being that no-one can measure a life by their worldly success, but by choices that are made and the belief in oneself.
The story is left open as Mina tells Jonathan that he will be her husband, they drive away in the car, but not before Mina has thoughtfully caressed the two healing wounds on her throat.
Did the Count win after all?
The two part television dramatisation has extra scenes showing Jonathan's arrival at a Romanian hotel and the unease turning to hate from the superstitiously petrified locals as they smear the word Satana in blood on the windscreen of his car. The Count is seen to conjure the wolves to eat the peasant woman who cries for the return of her child whom he, in turn, has just fed to his brides. Also apparent are the scenes of Jonathan witnessing the Count's coffins being loaded for transportation and his attempt to get a letter to the outside world; Roenfield's escape from his cell and eating dirt from Dracula's coffins, and Lucy's attempt at seduction on Dr Seward. Collapsing, she has to be immersed in hot water to raise her body temperature as more time is given to Valenti's diagnosis of the case. Finally, we see Jonathan's shunning of Mina as she drives him back home after his ordeal.
The quick ending of the film and the clichéd, but well thought out, suppositions of the continuing evil are the only failings in an otherwise excellent production.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Marc Warren
DRACULA (2006: BBC Wales/WGBH Boston/Granada International, UK) aka: Bram Stoker's Dracula; Dracula vs Van Helsing
Director: Bill Eagles
Synopsis
We open on a Victorian study as an unidentified figure checks maps and travel documents. A nametag states that documents and books belong to Abraham Van Helsing. We see Van Helsing kissing a crucifix before retiring to bed. As he rests, there is unease as a subjective camera insinuates the presence of another; someone else is in the house. Van Helsing shrugs it off. Turns. Dracula attacks. Van Helsing screams.
Titles appear: Westenra house, London 1899. Lucy Westenra and Arthur Holmwood are introduced. Holmwood reads poetry to his intended and proposes marriage. Lucy agrees. At Castle Holmwood, Whitby, a man hidden by bed curtains is being given inoculations. At Harley Street, London, Holmwood tells John Seward of his proposal to Lucy and of her acceptance. Seward is ruffled and presses questions of Holmwood's father. At Whitby, Holmwood finds his father being fed while straitjacketed, his whole body covered with a vile contagion.
The nails are driven into Lord Holmwood's coffin and Arthur is informed that he died from syphilis, contracted through sexual immorality, as did his mother, and that he was infected from birth with no known cure. His mother drowned herself. Holmwood decides that his marriage to Lucy must not proceed. Seward talks with Lucy unable to hide his true feelings for her. We see Holmwood as he prays and, intercut with shots of his ailing father and scientific images of the spread of syphilis, shows that his chest bears evidence of the disease.
Titles tell us that we are in Chelsea, London, 1 month later. Holmwood meets with a man named Singleton. A dark figure studies a map of London and roars in triumph. At the Westenra home, Jonathon Harker brings Mina Murray the good news that he has passed his solicitor examinations; while Arthur Holmwood announces that his marriage is to be postponed until the following year.
The next scene shows Mr Hawkins offering his new solicitor, Jonathon Harker, the chance of a lifetime to travel to Transylvania at the behest of their client, Singleton, to secure a deal with the mysterious Count Dracula.
Harker says goodbye to Mina and through intercut scenes showing travel by ship, train and coach he sets off. Suddenly Harker is alone in the coach and pulling up outside the Castle. Finding no one around, he enters. Dracula shuffles forward down a long hallway - as Harker expresses a greeting in German - and introduces himself as Dracul. Harker mentions his association with Hawkins’ solicitors and a brief scene shows his employer dead in Bishopgate Mortuary from a gunshot to the head.
Dracula cautions Harker to stay in his rooms, as the Castle is not safe. To illustrate the point, the Count locks Jonathon's room as he leaves. Mina Murray is being questioned by the police who can find no evidence of a Transylvanian Count in Harker's business dealings. Harker shows the Count a picture of his fiancée, Mina. The Count smells the lock of her hair and pictures her in a flashback.
At Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, Holmwood berates Singleton for the murder of Hawkins and enquires as to the arrival of this 'magician', Dracula. Meanwhile, Dracula quizzes Jonathon on the subject of England. Mina sleeps fitfully. Harker discovers puncture wounds on his throat. We hear Mina's voice whispering Jonathon's name as he follows the sound.
Searching the Castle, he descends into a cellar, where he finds Dracula lying in a large wooden crate teeming with cockroaches. Another room and Harker sees himself being ravaged by the aged Count. He turns and Dracula attacks for real, sinking teeth into his neck.
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br /> Intercut scenes then show Dracula transforming, becoming younger. Leaving Harker's corpse abandoned, the Count closes the Castle door and leaves for England. At Lucy's wedding, Mina cries and tells of her fears for Jonathon. Seward sees Holmwood spending rather a lot of time with the new guest, Singleton. Holmwood tells his new wife that he must leave on urgent business and he and Singleton depart amid much consternation. Back in Chelsea and dressed in sacrificial robes, Singleton gives the news that Dracula is on his way and performs a blood rite on Arthur. Holmwood informs Singleton that once his cure is found, he will have no more dealings with Dracula or the Brotherhood.
On the Demeter, we see Dracula in profile, eye in close-up, lying in his crate waiting for his arrival in England. The weather is wet and the captain of the ship is draped over the wheel. Dead.
The Romance of Dracula; a personal Journey of the Count on celluloid Page 21
