Ebert's GREAT MOVIES, Part 1: "Nosferatu"

Ohmigosh! Nosferatu is just such a cool and bizarre film! Very spooky, very surreal.

I voted for Gary Oldman because I believe that "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is just the perfect vampire film. It follows the story more closely than pretty much anything else, and it's truly menacing but also - ahem - sexually charged. Which is as it should be - the connection between vampirism and repressed Victorian sexuality is well-known.

The women are pretty powerful and interesting in Dracula, unlike in a lot of other books from the time (Jane Austen notwithstanding). Mina Murray really drives the plot, as does Lucy Westenra. Jonathan Harker, on the other hand, just sort of seems to sit by and watch - it's no coincidence that the scene with him and the three vampire 'maidens' shows them dancing around and he's just lying there prone, as if they were doing whatever to each other and perhaps to him, sensually, but he's just passively taking it. Van Helsing is more active, of course, and is something of a hero, but it's Mina who you care about, as a reader or a viewer.

It's a powerful genre; no wonder it's seen it's way to film perhaps hundreds of times (here are a few off the top of my head):
* Love at first bite
* Rocky Horror Picture Show (Tim Curry, briefly, is in vampirish makeup)
* Blackula
* Plan Nine from Outer Space
* Dracula
* Abbott and Costello Meet Dracula
* Bram Stoker's Dracula
* Nosferatu
* Ed Wood
* John Carpenter's Vampires
etc. etc. etc.

I voted for Gary Oldman, too ~ he played the part very, very well.

My favorite 'vampire' authors are Brian Lumley (UK) and Anne Rice. Both have shown the historically violent and romantic sides of the vampire phenomenon in exquisite detail.

Shreck for me! Such style and the lovely cinematography! I also liked "Shadow of the Vampire" - not a great Dracula fan generally, though.

Deb

Dracula
Hi Mr. Wizard,

Didn't see this one, but I wanted to say something to once again test this new forum.

You have a scary Halloween, too

A full list of Dracula films is on IMDB -- it's astounding how many films there are. Many more than Frankenstein. I can't help remembering Andy Warhol's "Dracula" which was in wide screen 3D and is a funny spoof on all gory horror films. When it first came out I worked for an interior design firm in San Clemente, CA (yes, the Nixon Western White House locale!) We took the lady who had the flower shop concession in the upstairs design center and she ducked under the seat more than once, chiding all of us for fooling her into going to see it. When the decapitation scene occured in 3-D, she made a beeline for the lobby! The film is actually a laugh riot of crazy stunts but not for everyone's taste for sure.
Honorable mention should also go to the filming of Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" as a Vincent Price vehicle, "The Last Man on Earth" where everyone has become a vampire due to a virus transmitted in the blood. It's a great read, also. Matheson's "Hell House" was just on cable as "The Legend of Hell House." I recommend as a great Halloween movie, off the subject, as "The Haunting," but definitely the Robert Wise black-and-white original -- the remake is strictly funhouse special effects nonsense.

I've read the book twice but am not sure I ever saw a full-fledged dracula movie (not just a human vampire movie).

I didn't much like the book, Stoker's mother said that he outranked Poe with that book so I read it with a chip on my shoulder.

Lovecraft was the only writer to come close to Poe, especiall with his "Others" series. "The Rats in the Walls" is very Poe inspired. I don't know if the fascination with Dracula, especially the films, doesn't have something to do with an erotic fascination with receving hickies!!!

You have some DVD renting to do, C! Start out with the Lugosi "Dracula" and then "Nosferatu" (the Max Schreck version) than top it off with the Copolla "Bram Stoker's Dracula." You might appreciate the Copolla as it does have the best production values -- the costumes won an Oscar. The score is incredible, part Schoneburg and Mussoursky.

Nosforatu
I have never heard of a film by that name, but Dracula I've seen,the one with Lugosi.I thought he was the BEST.
I saw only one film.
Did you know Oldham played Sid, in Sid&Nancy?
That's what I recall, anyway.

Gary Oldman was the best in my opinion but I don't think I've seen them all.

How many are there BTW

It would take considerable research to enumerate how many actors have portrayed Dracula and whether you would include portrayals of well know vampire characters such as Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in "Interview with the
Vampire." There's a modern version based on the original "Nosferatu" and I can't remember the title and the actor who played in it. Surfing around the web by typing in "Nosferatu" and "Dracula" will bring you to all sorts of interesting and provocative sites. The newest DVD of the older film is a restored version.

Thanx but a rough figure would have done.?

An educated guess would be over thirty including one turn that I know of by Gloria Holden in "Dracular's Daughter." The idea to take Bram Stoker's story and extrapolate it was none other than David O. Selznick ("Gone With the Wind") She was a character actress who made a very sinister female "Dracula."

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0027545

Hi, all.

Rae, there is at least one more modern writer whose contribution to vampire lore is immesurable. Richard Mattheson's "I Am Legend" became "The Omega Man" on the screen, a futuristic vampire story in which the protagonist is the only one who is NOT a vampire. Mattheson has been an inspiration to horror and fantasy writers for decades. (He also wrote the story and -- I believe -- the screenplay for Spielberg's first major film "The Duel" about a phantom semi.

Best regards to all,

Good to see you here Andrew. if you'll pardon the digression

vampire movies
Nosferatu definitely, and I loved Shadow of the Vampire, although my impression was that the film was more about film-making, rather than vampires, although harnessed on that theme. Think the wife would vote for The Hunger, being a huge David Bowie fan. I liked Bram Stokers Dracula, mostly for Gary Oldman...thought both Winona Ryders and Keanu Reeves accents needed a lot of work. Keanu: "Bill, Dracula-dude stole my girlfriend, what am I gonna do?" (Forgive me if I got Bill and Ted mixed up).

Now here is an interesting one: Carl-Theodor Dreyer's 'Vampyr'....1932, a commercial flop, but still an incredibly disturbing psychological picture....may rent it for Halloween...

Oh, and now that I have digital cable, will not miss the double-bill of Blacula and Scream, Blacula, Scream...heh

Lightwizard<

I have not seen this film, but I am a fan of Gary Oldham. He was superb
in "The President's Plane is Missing."

Thanks for inviting me to this new site.

Welcome, WH!

This version of Dracula is available to rent at most outlets and it is a DVD that's worth owning -- the restoration is excellent. Gary Oldman's portrayal is, for me at least, satisfying and very provocative. The early scenes of the historical roots of the character is beautifully done -- I think some of Copolla's best imagery. I wasn't too put off by Winona Rider or Keanu Reeves as the cast was large and the ensemble acting deftly handled. (At least Winona didn't try to lift any of the props...okay, cheap shot.) Anthony Hopkins almost seemed to be doing homework for his portrayal of Hannibal but brought off the nemesis of Von Helsinck with his usual dramatic flair. This film was done with a normal frame ratio and then the top and bottom of the picture was cut off for the wide screen version! Curiously, this means if you see the film in standard ratio, you get more image instead of less. I'd easily recommend this version to anyone and the score for a soundtrack library (at least, it isn't the "new age" musings of Carmine Copolla which marred "Apocalypse Now?)