Dracula [Horror of Dracula] ***** (1958, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling) – Classic Movie Review 90

Hammer Films adds the final touches to its repertoire – blood and sex – with a bevvy of beauties being bitten to orgasmic screams after opening their windows to the Count, in the 1958 British horror film Dracula [Horror of Dracula].

‘I am Dracula and I welcome you to my house. I must apologise for not being here to greet you personally but I trust you’ve found everything you needed.’ – Count Dracula.

In 1958 Hammer Films adds the final touches to its repertoire – blood and sex – with a bevvy of beauties being bitten to orgasmic screams after opening their windows to the Count in the 1958 British horror film Dracula [Horror of Dracula]. Despite this, or perhaps partly because of this, Hammer comes up with a much-loved, greatly admired vampire and movie masterpiece.

Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) arrives to work as a librarian at Castle Dracula in Transylvania, though in fact he’s come to put an end to the vampire’s bloody reign. There he’s civilly greeted by his rather chilly new employer, Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). But later, after finding Dracula is indeed one of the undead, he is bitten on the neck by a vampire woman (Valerie Gaunt) and drained of blood by Dracula.

The Count travels to London to try to find Harker’s beautiful fiancée Lucy Holmwood (Carol Marsh) to do a bit more biting. And also back home in England, Harker’s colleague Dr Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), a vampirologist or vampire hunter, goes into action, trying to save Lucy and her family, Mina Holmwood (Melissa Stribling) and Arthur (Michael Gough), from an over-excited and eventually quite enraged Dracula.

Hammer’s powerful and commanding reworking of the Bram Stoker tale is one of its most brilliant, compelling and successful films. It is graced with perfect performances from the heroic Cushing as a thoughtful but surprisingly athletic Van Helsing and a magnetic Lee as his charming and weirdly sensual but deadly nemesis, the ice-cool Count.

Despite Lee having only 13 lines (all of them spoken to Harker), the role turned him into a star. He received only £750 for it. Cushing only appears 25 minutes into the film. The much in demand duo became a star double act in horror movies right up till The Satanic Rites of Dracula in 1973.

Terence Fisher directs with a tremendous sense of atmosphere, pace and storytelling, making full use of attractive sets (by Bernard Robinson) and gorgeous, quite unreal colour. Jimmy Sangster provides a fresh and intelligently written script, using mainly just the characters and odd situations from the original Bram Stoker novel Dracula to create his own unique thing, reviving the whole genre at the same time.

There is a still astonishingly well handled climax, with Cushing leaping about, and a still admirable special effects sequence where Drac meets his fate, at least for the time being. And there are also a pounding, exciting score by James Bernard and lovely, imaginative Eastmancolor (Technicolor) cinematography by Jack Asher to recommend it.

A huge worldwide hit, it cost only £80,000 and netted £4 million. It was preserved in a restored print by the British Film Institute in 2007, with the BBFC cuts restored. Extra footage was found in Japan in 2011.

It was known as Horror of Dracula in the US to stop confusion with the 1931 Bela Lugosi film of Dracula.

Eight sequels followed, six with Lee in the title role, and four with Cushing as Van Helsing: The Brides of Dracula (1960), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), Scars of Dracula (1970), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974).

You may notice that the vampire woman who attacks Harker is wearing 1950s high-heeled shoes.

Hammer were very creative in their advertising too: ‘The chill of the tomb won’t leave your blood for hours… after you come face-to-face with DRACULA!’

Lee complained about his contact lenses for the shock scenes: they were painful and he could not see anything, so he ran too far past the camera on a first take.

Lee’s black cape from the movie, presumed lost, was finally found in the London costumier’s Angels in 2007 and sold in auction in 2009 to some lucky collector for £26,400 with a letter signed by Lee confirming its authenticity and a still of him wearing the cape.

The cast are Peter Cushing as Doctor Van Helsing, Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, Michael Gough as Arthur Holmwood, Melissa Stribling as Mina Holmwood, Carol Marsh as Lucy Holmwood, John Van Eyssen as Jonathan Harker, Valerie Gaunt as Vampire Woman, Olga Dickie as Gerda, Janina Faye as Tania, Charles Lloyd-Pack as Doctor Seward, George Merritt as Policeman, George Woodbridge as Landlord, George Benson as Frontier Official, Miles Malleson as Undertaker, Geoffrey Bayldon as Porter, Barbara Archer as Inga, and Paul Cole as Lad.

Dracula [Horror of Dracula] runs 82 minutes, , is made by Hammer Film Productions, is distributed by Rank Film Distributors (UK) Universal-International (International), is written by Jimmy Sangster, is shot in Eastmancolor (Technicolor) by Jack Asher, is produced by Anthony Hinds, and is scored by James Bernard.

Release dates: 7 May 1958 (Milwaukee) 21 May 1958 (London).

Budget: £81,412, Box office: $3.5 million (worldwide rentals).

RIP Christopher Lee.

The great Christopher Lee died on June 7, 2015, age 93. He was a giant in an era of pygmies.

Melissa Stribling (7 November 1926 – 22 March 1992) was married to the film director Basil Dearden. Their sons are director James Dearden and Torquil Dearden. She is best known as Mina Holmwood in Dracula (1958).

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