Dracula (1979)

An adaptation of Dracula in 1979, starring Frank Langella as the Count, emphasized the Gothic romance nature of the book, and used the vampirism as a metaphor for sex. It worked, up to a point, although it took many liberties with the text.

Directed by John Badham, this Dracula excises great portions of the book. There is no trip to Transylvania for Jonathan Harker, in fact, the entire film is set in England. We also get that curious jumble of names. In this film, Harker's fiancee is Lucy Seward (she's the daughter of Dr. Seward, played by Donald Pleasance) and her friend is Mina Van Helsing, daughter of Dr. Van Helsing (Laurence Olivier).

It's Langella who is important here, though. He smolders and at times shows off his chest with his puffy shirt unbuttoned half way. Kate Nelligan is Lucy, and she can't help but be seduced by him (although he does have the power to easily hypnotize his subjects). He wants to take her away to be his queen, which ties in a bit with the Francis Coppola adaptation fifteen years later, in which Gary Oldman just wants to have Winona Ryder all to himself.

If one can get past the changes to the book, Dracula is a pretty good production, with appropriately murky photography and terrific music by John Williams. Stoker's novel is, among other things, a metaphor for the sexual awakening of women, so to make the entire movie about that is not wrong. The script also has the basics of the rules of vampires down--he can walk around during the day, just not in sunlight. Can turn into bats and wolves. Does not cast a reflection in a mirror. Repelled by garlic and crucifixes. The ending, though, in which he appears to be destroyed, is ambiguous.