Re: World Dracula Day

Arthur Lipscomb wrote:

On 5/28/2024 2:13 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

moviePig <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

On 5/27/2024 3:22 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

moviePig <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

On 5/26/2024 6:04 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

May 26, in honor of the publication of the original
novel.
>
What will you watch to celebrate?
>
I?ve got the Dan Curtis/Jack Palance version going
right now with music from dark shadows. It?s a pretty
good and a pretty faithful adaptation.
>
Available on the Peacock, it?s a good copy in 16:9
with the ads front loaded so it runs uninterrupted.
>
Next up, I found the excellent 1977 Louis Jourdon
version on the gray.

>
The key scene in any telling of the original story is
the first vision
of transformed Lucy.  Notably, Coppola rather blew it
(along with the
ending).  My vote for that one scene (and I've seen
them all multiple times) goes to John Badham's 1979
version...

>
One of the (many) problems with the 1979 version is
that it?s based on the play where they randomly switch
characters names for God knows why. So I assume you?re
actually talking about Mina? Kate Nelligan as Lucy
makes it all the way through to the end.
>
I have no idea what advancing the storyline to 1913
accomplished except that they got to rent some old
cars.
>
I first saw it in the theater in the wrong aspect
ratio. The moon comes up and it?s twice as tall as it
is wide! I went back and complained to the guy selling
popcorn and got an explanation I hadn?t heard before.
They were 12 screens in the theater and only one
projectionist and he would fix it (and eventually did)
when he got back to this screen in his rotation.
>
My date bailed early when they clawed the guys throat
on the Demeter but insisted her roommate and I stay
while she sat in the lobby smoking for the next 90
minutes.
>
Langella was great.  I hate the newer desaturated
transfers.
>
In the Louis Jourdan version, both girls start growing
fangs from the minute they are first bit. They do very
little in the way of makeup on them to turn them into
vampires, but Lucy in particular is wonderfully
animalistic. And it has some of the best fog effects
I?ve ever seen.

>
(Mina... Lucy...  Moosey?)
>
Yeah, Langella is always great, though his take on the
Dracula character (which earned him raves on Broadway)
was that "He's just a man..." While that has much to
recommend it in a drama, I want something a tad
more feral.  (I pick Christopher Lee in 1958.)

 
Palance is pretty feral, as you?d expect.
 
I saw Martin Landau on stage in the title role in the
roadshow Gorey production. He was great. :-)
 
 

The Louis Jourdan version blew me away at first.  But
when I saw it again a few years ago, I was put off by
the really crappy (today) "surreal" electronic dreamy
sequences, or do I misremember...
>

 
Unfortunately, you remember correctly. It?s very much a
product of its time with cheesy solarized video insert
effects that weren?t needed now or then.
 
But there?s a lot of good stuff in it. It?s the only time
I?ve ever seen Dracula climbing down the castle walls,
face down, and it was the only version I watched
yesterday, that had most of the memorable quotes like
listen to them the children of the night what music they
make.
 
It?s long enough to be leisurely when it needs to be.
Hey, one of the three brides is Sarah Douglas from
Superman!

 
Now that got my attention!  I checked but Xfinity doesn't
have it
available to stream anywhere.  It doesn't even acknowledge
this movie
exists.  :-/
 
Amazon doesn't have it to stream either.
 
 
 

It was a made-for-TV production by the BBC. It showed
in the US originally on PBS.

I've got the DVD. :)

Nyssa, who is glad she has her personal DVD library
as a backup