The Romance of Dracula; a personal Journey of the Count on celluloid

by Butler, Charles E.

  In the marital bedroom, Arthur offers his new bride necklaces and brooches from his family heirlooms. Lucy eagerly states that all that she wants is him. Holmwood leaves, promising a normal union, 'In time.’

  Dracula whispers Mina's name while still on board the Demeter.

  In Whitby churchyard, Lucy and Mina discuss the empty graves, dug in tribute to sailors lost at sea. Lucy mentions one containing the body of a suicide who shot himself after murdering his wife. The sky darkens. At the Holmwood estate, Arthur is nervous and berates his butler for dropping the cutlery. Singleton arrives and informs Holmwood of the docking of the Demeter: He is coming. Preparations are put into practice to help the ship dock safely in the storm.

  Watching the storm through a rain-spattered window Mina hears Lucy's confession of her sham of a marriage. Mina confesses her own virginity to Lucy. The wind tears open the doors and the girls fall about laughing. Next day, the ship is found to hold the body of the dead captain, but no one else. Jonathon Harker's name is listed as the only passenger, but of him, or the Count, there is no sign. Finding just the one crate on board, Holmwood instructs Singleton to find Dracula. In the churchyard, Mina mistakes Dracula for Jonathon. Dracula tells her that everyone aboard the ship is dead. Lucy enters and invites the Count to dine with them at the house.

  At the Holmwood estate later, she speaks of wanting to die at the theatre. Arthur arrives with Singleton and, ushering the women out, begins to verbally assault Dracula. The Count shows incredible strength by taking Holmwood by the throat and explains how he can control everything in his life should he wish to. As Mina prays with a rosary, we see a bat scrabbling at her window. She looks. No bat. We see Dracula at the window eyeing the cross; a flashback shows him, in the guise of the old Dracula, in agony. She looks: no Dracula. Lucy lies on her bed next to a fully clothed Arthur. She becomes agitated in her sleep and we see a lengthy seduction by Dracula. He bites her neck and rips open his chest as she drinks his blood. Dracula vanishes and Lucy falls back on the bed.

  Discovering Lucy ill, Arthur brings Seward to look at her. The doctor wants to take her to hospital, but Arthur violently reacts by pulling a gun and ordering that Seward give her a blood transfusion. Holmwood says that he must use his own blood. Singleton enters and is recognised by Seward as the inhabitant of the Chelsea residence. He tells Holmwood that Dracula's crate has been released for London. Seward questions Mina concerning problems in Lucy's marriage.

  The next scene shows Arthur asleep while holding vigil over Lucy. Dracula enters as the scene fades. Mina brings in the breakfast tray and can't wake Lucy. Seward realises that she is dead. Holmwood goes into a crying fit. Lucy is interred in a tomb in Highgate Cemetery. On questioning Mina again, Holmwood states that he holds no religious convictions and deals in fact: he believes that Arthur killed his wife. At Chelsea, Dracula is made an offering of a servant, Cotford. He breaks his neck and on hearing that he has passage to enter London, orders Singleton, through hypnosis, to kill himself.

  Seward breaks into the Chelsea flat and is appalled by the sacrificial decorations. Finding the dead bodies, he ventures further into the cellars. A hand grabs him from nowhere. It is Abraham Van Helsing. He speaks of being a pawn in bringing Dracula to England. Dracula is seen feeding ravenously. Van Helsing implores Seward to get him out before the vampire returns. On seeing Mina back in Seward's home, Van Helsing says that she is a woman and must be protected. He talks of the Brotherhood of the Undead and the possibility of Old Gods rising. He says that he has seen spirits and witnessed the dead walk.

  Mina confesses Lucy's unconsummated marriage to Seward. She exits the house. Outside, Dracula sees her leave as the scene fades. Arthur is approached by a gun-wielding Seward who tells him that he knows he had the virginal Lucy offered up as sacrifice to Dracula. Arthur tells him of his disease and shows him the contagious evidence on his chest. Mina sits alone in a cafe as Dracula enters. He sits using his dirt-encrusted nails to split pomegranates as she talks of the deaths of Lucy and Jonathon. She drops her crucifix and Dracula moves.

  Meanwhile, Van Helsing talks of faith as he hands out crosses to Holmwood and Seward. He confirms his fears that Lucy is one of the Undead. Dracula accompanies Mina as she leaves the cafe. Offering his arm, he suggests cutting through a dark alley. At Lucy's tomb, the hunters find it empty. Lucy arrives. Mina realises that Dracula has vanished. Lucy tempts Seward. Dracula viciously grabs Mina. Lucy turns her attentions on Arthur. Mina struggles against Dracula. Arthur stakes Lucy as Dracula feels the death throes. Mina runs. Seward prays for strength.

  Visiting Mina at home, Seward explains the evils of Dracula. She accuses Holmwood, branding him a murderer. She tells Van Helsing that she must be present at the hunt. At Chelsea, they discover that Singleton's body has been moved. In the cellar, Singleton is found on an altar, but no Dracula.

  He sneaks up behind Mina as Seward insists that he take him instead. Dracula obliges by tearing his head off. Reappearing behind Mina again, he is staked by Dr Seward. The body dissolves as Van Helsing tries to ascertain if they got him in the heart. Visiting Jonathon's grave - b;1875, d;1899 - Mina confirms in voiceover that she won't spend her life grieving by holding vigils or wearing black, but that she will always carry his memory everywhere with her. With Seward, she says goodbye to Van Helsing, who ushers them both out into the sun. A beggar turns to watch their progress.

  It is the ancient Dracula.

  Review

  I love the Argentinean release title for this adaptation, Dracula vs Van Helsing, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Van Helsing is the man who presides over the battle to destroy the vampire, as in the novel, but the script, by Stewart Harcourt, refreshingly concentrates a tale on Stoker's more low-key characters, Dr John Seward and Arthur Holmwood.

  As Dracula, announcing himself "Dracul", Marc Warren - star of BBC TV's Hustle - is surprisingly effective. Shambling around his castle in an overdone make-up application, he comes across more leprous than romantic. He sleeps happily in a large wooden crate while cockroaches clamber over his body.

  He has a nasty habit of turning up unexpectedly behind an unwilling victim. He shows victims premonitions of their deaths in loving detail and his disregard for the human race is evident when he seduces Lucy whilst she sleeps next to her clinically frustrated husband. With Mina Murray, he is driven by lust alone, even to the extent of trying to rape her down a back alley.

  His sole purpose is to keep going in any way possible. He uses Holmwood's money to obtain illegal immigration into London, then, with a gratuitous shrug, casually separates his head from his body in the final confrontation.

  As Singleton and Hawkins discover, once their Master has no more use for them, his servants tend to succumb to a bullet through the brain at the Count's command. He wanders around the churchyard filled with the corpses of suicides and gains strength enough to project himself as another being entirely; Mina sees him and mistakes him for Jonathon Harker.

  He confesses to having to be invited into a home to enjoy the company of the women, idly listening to their morbid fantasies of death before taking their husbands by the throat in a snarling turnabout of unbridled ferocity.

  Even Van Helsing is housed in the Count's Chelsea home. Dracula understands the old man's threat and keeps him locked in the cellar. In London, he looks more Dickensian than Stoker, like the Artful Dodger on ecstasy, exuding a dangerous charisma. But his boyish-face hides years of cunning and deception.

  Holmwood describes him as a magician in a fitting throwaway growl, which holds resonance throughout as, in a 21st century turnabout, he survives the stake wielded by his persecutors and the final scene hints that he will rise again in the future.

  As the Count's nemesis, Abraham Van Helsing, David Suchet, has to don more unbelievable facial hair than his signature role Hercule Poirot, as well as a manic sensibility. Attacked and imprisoned by the Count in a frightening prologue, he is absent for the first half of the film. When found in D
racula's Chelsea hideaway, he begs Dr Seward to get him away before the Count returns. He has seen all manner of abominations, he states, and has been unwittingly instrumental in bringing the vampire to London.

  However, once freed of Dracula's spell, he becomes the scholarly Professor envisioned by Bram Stoker. In his medical bag, he carries oversized crosses and stakes and speaks fervently about the importance of faith. He is adamant when it comes to the preservation of the women and refuses Mina when she requests to enter the battle. His prayers of exorcism reverberate around Dracula's halls, with authority that far exceeds most movie Van Helsings, and it is a pity that this champion of the true faith is out-foxed by the Count at the end of the film.

  Arthur Holmwood (Dan Stevens) and John Seward (Tom Burke), are given more to do here than in any other adaptation of the story. The tale itself is woven around the concept that Holmwood has contacted syphilis through an hereditary illness. His father is locked in an attic bedroom, chained to the bed and gurgling into his bowl of gruel, a debauched family secret. When the man dies, Holmwood is informed that he himself has the sickness and that there is no known cure.

  Singleton (Donald Sumpter) persuades the over-excitable Holmwood that Dracula can stop the syphilis through his own unique blood transfusions. In desperation, he agrees to have the Count transported to London, evading immigration laws by channeling him through the coastal town of Whitby.

  Meanwhile, Arthur wants to put a halt to his forthcoming marriage because of his inability to satisfy his new bride. When the marriage proceeds, we see Holmwood turned into a sexually frustrated tyrant. He seeks solace in the company of 'the wrong crowd', causing all manner of problems as he plans to bring the Count to England. He is also a very heavy sleeper as, in a final rebuff, his surrogate employer makes steamy passes to his wife while he idly dozes in full dress beside her. On staking his bride, he makes a complete turnabout and becomes the hero that everyone knew him to be. “Take me," he cries to save Mina from the Count's lust. When his head is viciously torn from his body he has, at least, won the sympathy of the viewer.

  Tom Burke's John Seward is the real hero of the film. In love with Lucy, he concedes losing her to the better man, his friend Arthur Holmwood. Pragmatic and steadfast, he is the only one to mention real care for her when she is attacked by the invading Dracula, pumping his own blood into her veins at gunpoint and finally unmasking Holmwood for the vile, selfish creature that he is. He has no Renfield in this version, but the quirks of the characters in his own intimate circle keep him very busy indeed. He jealously questions Mina to throw light on any discrepancies in Lucy's marriage and investigates incidents and hearsay with all the enthusiasm of a Scotland Yard detective.

  Releasing Van Helsing from his imprisonment, he swallows the Professor's theories, as does his literary counterpart. But his practical nature and non-religious beliefs affect his aim and the final stake misses the Count's black heart.

  At the fade out, we are left feeling apprehensive concerning the possibility of a love affair with Mina.

  Jonathon Harker (Rafe Spall) is used as a background character but is clothed well. In love with Mina and eager to please his employers, he welcomes the challenge of his trip to the Carpathians to close the one great deal that the firm has yet inaugurated.

  Like Seward, he is a pragmatist, and puts off taking his wedding vows until he has made a name for himself. The sizeable prologue of the novel is whittled down to just a few short minutes as Spall’s convincing Harker goes the way of John Van Eyssen and Murray Abraham before him: bitten by the Count and left to rot in the bowels of Castle Dracula.

  The vulnerable Stephanie Leonidas is fated to stay as virginal Mina Murray, as her would be husband, Jonathon Harker, is murdered by Dracula before they can marry. She coaxes the truth from her friend, Lucy, about her sham of a marriage and confesses that she wishes that she herself had given in to Jonathon's lust before he set sail for Transylvania.

  She becomes withdrawn for most of the film and has to answer intense interrogation concerning her fiancé’s business dealings when his employer turns up dead. She confesses to sleeping in Jonathon's rooms to be near him and mistakes the Count for Harker in the Whitby churchyard.

  When she joins the fight against Dracula, it is simply a case of raw revenge for her as she over-rides Van Helsing's orders to lie low because she is a woman. As she settles herself to a life of happy memories and barrenness, Van Helsing senses a possible union with John Seward, and ushers them both out into the sunrise.

  Lucy Holmwood is played with an all-knowing glint in her eye by Sophia Myles, who had played a vampire in the hit film Underworld (2003). She eagerly embraces the prospect of marriage to the affluent Arthur Holmwood, shunning her childhood sweetheart John Seward into second place.

  Her happiness quickly turns to frustration when her husband decides to sleep in the spare room. When he becomes the fierce tyrant that all girls are warned about by their mothers, Lucy first turns to morbid fancies of death and disaster. She explains to the Count of her wish to die at the theatre and swaps stories of sexual frustration with her friend, Mina, before giving her caresses over to Dracula in the marital bed right next to her sleeping husband. Holmwood is given the chance for revenge, however, when Lucy continues her teasing of him as a vampire. Under Van Helsing's guidance, he is able to penetrate both her and the Count with one sure thrust of his wooden stake.

  If one can forgive the plot device concentrating on Holmwood's family taint, there is a lot of fresh enjoyment to be had in this brief tale - 88 minutes approximately - of illegal immigration and Satan worship of a different order.

  All the cast carry believability to the maximum degree. Some of the Count's prosthetic appliances lend a nod to Gary Oldman's interpretation, but Marc Warren prefers downplaying to overacting, and emerges as genuinely creepy throughout. Why Dracula doesn't order Van Helsing to kill himself and save himself later trouble is never explained or pursued. One tends to wonder if a sequel will surface in the future.

  The connection with a satanic Brotherhood is not a new concept. Hammer films had toyed with vampires and Satanists in The Kiss of the Vampire (1963), and also The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), while Hubert Noel as Count Sinistre had a bevy of red-robed lovelies hanging on his every word in Devils of Darkness (1965).

  Epilogue

  This listing is very brief and by no means complete as it is a run-down of the Count's further appearances on film.

  Count Dracula has stalked across the screen for almost ninety years, his first incarnation being in a lost film, Drakola/aka: Drakula halala/ Dracula's Death (1921), directed by Karole Lajthay and starring a prolific actor named Paul Askonas. A Hungarian production that, although it uses the name, Dracula, it isn't based on Bram Stoker's melodrama, but on fictional stories that were told in the region in the early part of the 20th century. Being the vampire fanatic that I am, I would love to see this film!

  The best Dracula movie to come from Universal is, in my opinion, Robert Siodmak's Son of Dracula (1943). Lon Chaney drops the ‘Jr’ tag and dons the cloak for the role his father never got to play in this pleasing wartime pot boiler dreamt up by Curt Siodmak with a Screenplay by Eric Taylor.

  While the second world war raged on in the real world, Dracula, hiding behind the alias Count Alucard for the first time, visited the quiet seclusion of Louisiana, to romance and marry a young girl (Louise Allbritton), who, like many cinematic Lucy Westenras, is obsessed with death and the more morbid side of life. Dracula is unmasked by the learned Professor Lazlo, a convincing performance by J. Edward Bromberg, a survivor of Transylvania.

  Dracula gets to perform most of the tricks that are reported in the novel. He has amazing strength, and, with the aid of John P. Fulton's cartoon animation, he is able to transform into a bat, but both he, and his new bride, seem to prefer wandering around as a floating mist for most of the time.

  The Siodmak brothers give the Count his best PR in this film. Never hitting the at
mospheric heights of their The Spiral Staircase (1945), the film does carry one or two unpleasant jolts and a couple of rather physical fist fights.

  As Dracula, with a thick American accent, powdered temples and pencil moustache, Chaney is serviceable. Obtaining the role through his success as the ill-fated Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man (1941). He would go on to portray the monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), and Kharis, in the studio's final three Mummy films.

  Apparently, his casting as Dracula would cause a rift between himself and the real studio Count, Bela Lugosi, that would boil over when they appeared together in Reginald LeBorg's, The Black Sleep (1956). LeBorg insisted that they had to be kept apart quite a bit.