My list of 12 best Dracula movies

Bram Stoker's novel DRACULA was published in 1897. Although it was adapted to stage, it's real potential was better realized in cinema, tho' it would take a couple of decades for the then new art form to be ready for dramatization. It tells the story, in epistolary style, of the vampire Count Dracula's move to England for fresh blood.

1. NOSFERATU, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
The second film version (the first being a long lost Hungarian film of 1921, which was never seen outside it's country of origin) was an unauthorized production adapted by Henrik Galeen, and directed by the great F.W. Murnau. It changes character names and settings, paring down the story to the most visual parts. Young solicitor Wilhelm Hutter (standing in for Jonathan Harker) is sent to the "Land Beyond the Forest" by his employer, Knock, who is later put in an asylum (a la Renfield). When Hutter enters the domain of Count Orlock (Dracula's stand-in - an iconic performance by Max Schreck, in his own makeup), it is as tho' we have entered a nightmare world.
When Orlock attempts to but the bite on Hutter a second time, Hutter's wife Ellen, back at home in Bremen, awakes to call out Wilhem's name, psychically thwarting the vampire. Orlock leaves his castle, travelling by water to the city where he has "new" property, along with a horde of plague-ridden rats; and Hutter, after escaping, in hot pursuit by horse. In the city the plague covers up the vampire's tracks (there were a lot of superstitions that surrounded outbreaks of plagues). The only citizen to realize the true danger is Ellen, after Wilhelm returns in terrible shape, with a book on vampires in his possession. The Van Helsing character, Prof. Bulwer, does not believe Ellen's assertions, so she must face the vampire alone. As per some of her reading, she entices Orlock to come to her, then keeps him at her throat till cock crow, at which he is dissolved in the sunlight (this film introduced destruction by the Sun).
Prana Films had not gotten the rights to the novel, and so were sued by the widow Stoker, and went bankrupt. All copies of the film were ordered destroyed. Fortunately, a number of copies were squirreled away for future generations.

2. DRACULA (1931)
After much negotiation with Mrs. Stoker Universal beat out other production companies for the rights to the novel, and set about adapting the story to a sound film. It was first announced a "super production" to be helmed by their horror maestro Paul Leni, with the great Conrad Veidt in the title role; but Leni died suddenly, and Veidt returned to Europe. As the script went through multiple re-writes, passing through various hands, Universal brought on Tod Browning to direct, hoping to draw mega-star Lon Chaney away from MGM to play the vampire. Then Chaney died. A final script from Garret Fort, who incorporated much of the play, as Universal felt compelled to buy the rights to that from producer Horace Liveright as well, the company searched about for their Count, finally settling on the stage Dracula Bela Lugosi (who got paid less than the bland hero David Manners). By this time there was also a major budget cut (not having a name star).
The film is rather dated at this point, nice and creepy in the beginning at Castle Dracula, but very stagy once the action moves to London. What it does still have going for it is Lugosi's ethereal, otherworldly performance, along with Edward Van Sloan stolid as Van Helsing, and Dwight Frye as the maniacal Renfield (the one who went to Castle Dracula, rather than Harker). The film made Lugosi a star, but also pigeon-holed him. And his image has become the iconic version of the undead Count, the one that usually gets parodied (as in LOVE AT FIRST BITE in 1979).
There was also a Spanish language version shot at the same time (a common practice during the early talkies for important films, as dubbing was technically difficult), and while it has a number of scenes with better atmosphere (and a better heroine), it lacks Lugosi.

3. DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (1936)
Universal's 1st sequel to their first supernatural horror hit had an equally rocky road to production, actually starting it's life at MGM, who had bought the rights to Stoker's excized chapter turned short story, "DRACULA'S GUEST", published posthumously in 1914, even having John L. Balderston (who had Americanized the DRACULA play), write a scenario (which would never have passed the censors). MGM sold the property (at a profit, of course) to Universal, who pressured James Whale to direct, but he was not interested, and he got R.C. Sheriff to write a script he knew would be rejected (also too extreme). Good old Garret Fort came back, turning in a pretty good piece, to be directed by A. Edward Sutherland (who helmed comedies). Under the direction of third choice Lambert Hillyer, whose career consisted mostly of B westerns, this is a well done film, starting at the end, sort of, of the previous film, with Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan again) being arrested for murder, and calling up one of his old students, Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), to help him out (why not Seward is not explained), as Scotland Yard, in the form of Sir Basil (Gilbert Emery) considers his story mad. Dracula's corpse (a dummy - Lugosi was originally to reprise his role, was even paid, but did not appear) is stolen from the morgue by his "daughter", Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden) and her servant Sandor (Irving Pichel in a role originally intended for Boris Karloff), after which she burns it on a pyre in the hopes of exorcising his curse on her. It doesn't work, and she still needs to feed; including an intended suicide, Lily (Nan Grey), whom Sandor entices back to the Countess's studio to supposedly pose for a painting.
Zaleska meets Garth at a party, and wants to seek his help, as he, being a determined rationalist, believes it's all in the mind. When he refuses to go back to Europe with her, she kidnaps his secretary/bantering love interest (Marguerite Churchill), and there's a chase back to the old castle. Though it is not iconic like it's predecessor, it actually holds up better; Holden conveys a dark, tortured existence, desirous of a normal life; the bantering between Kruger and Churchill have a certain charm (following a popular formula for couples at the time), Van Sloan is not given much to do but is still solid, Emery is humourously befuddled, but Pichel is rather bland.

4. (HORROR OF) DRACULA (1957)
After Hammer's great success with their first colour Frankenstein in 1957 they immediately went into production with reviving the undead Count, using much of the same crew - adapter Jimmy Sangster, who returned to the source and the 19th Century, paring it down a different way, directed by Terence Fisher, starring Peter Cushing, who had been Baron Frankenstein, and 6'5" Christopher Lee, who had played the Creature, in the title role. This time Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) goes to Castle Dracula under false pretenses, to be followed by Van Helsing, but once ensconced, having met the urbane Count, he meets a young woman (Valerie Gaunt, also from the Frankenstein) who claims to be a prisoner. As Harker comforts her, she bares her fangs for a bite, but is interrupted by Dracula, who bursts in the room with bloody fangs bared. There is a fight between the bloodsuckers over the "food", who gets knocked aside, until Dracula subdues her, and carries her out. One can only imagine how this dynamic scene played to audiences used to the suave stalker in B&W of old. Harker comes to, manages to stake the "lady", but not his main quarry; when Van Helsing finds him, he in turn stakes his colleague.
The action stays in Middle Europe, tho' the rest of the characters are English, that is Jonathan's fiancee Lucy (Carol Marsh), who has become "ill", her brother Arthur (Michael Gough), and his wife Mina (Melissa Stribling). Dracula makes his visit, Lucy dies, but rises again for another dramatic confrontation. The film is well paced, with outbursts of action, the final battle between Van Helsing and Dracula full on swashbuckling excitement.

5. BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960)
After the huge success of the above film Hammer immediately announced a sequel (as they were also making a second Frankenstein), but unable to get Christopher Lee to revise his role it took 2-3 years to come to fruition. What ended up on screen, scripted by Sangster and others, and again directed by Fisher, was Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing reprising) continuing his crusade against the Cult of the Undead, this time pitted against handsome, suave Baron Meinster (David Peel); there is the suggestion that he is one of Dracula's "offspring" (an early title was DISCIPLE OF DRACULA), who had been chained up in his castle by his mother (a wonderful performance by Martita Hunt), and crazy old nurse maid (Freda Jackson), the former procurring victims for him. One such intended, Marianne (Yvonne Monlaur), feels sorry for him, steals the keys to release him, and he's off into the night. She meets up with Van Helsing, who takes her into his protection. He goes to the castle, and in a wonderfully handled scene of him finding the now vampirised Baroness, who shyly reveals her fangs, and gladly accepts her fate at his hands. He then accompanies Marianne to the girls school where she is to teach; the Baron follows, turning one of the other teachers. The final battle takes place in a windmill: one excellent scene has Van Helsing, having been bitten, using a hot poker to cauterize/purify the wound, with Cushing conveying the painful agony. One complaint I have about this film is the re-introduction of the ability of vampires to turn into bats, which had been excised in the previous film; the vampire's death is also a bit far-fetched. Otherwise, this is another enjoyable Gothic horror from Hammer.

6. DRACULA, Prince of Darkness (1965)
Hammer finally managed to convince Christopher Lee to don the Count's cape again. Having been turned to dust in his previous outing it is up to his faithful servant Klove (Philip Latham) to bring him back after managing to waylay two English couples, the Kents (Francis Matthews & Suzan Farmer, and Barbara Shelley & Charles Tingwell), and feign hospitality. The scenes in which crafty Klove covertly leads Alan (Tingwell) down to Dracula's sarcophagus, where he knocks him out, hangs him upside down over the coffin in which he's placed the vampire's ashes, then slits the gentleman's throat is a very dramatic revival. Dracula now arisen, he vampirizes the wife Helen (Shelley), whose transformation from prim & proper Victorian to feral predator is well played, then goes after Charles & Diana (Matthews & Farmer), who manage to escape using the cross. They get help from robust monk Father Sandor (Andrew Keir), who takes them back to his monastery for safety. But Dracula gains entry (he has to be invited in) from a lunatic inmate Ludwig (Thorley Walters) for a dramatic entrance crashing through French doors to kidnap Diana. The final confrontation on the frozen moat back at the castle brings another unique end to the vampire. Terence Fisher again directs, an original story by Jimmy Sangster and producer Anthony Hinds (both using aliases), and a good cast make this a good sequel.

7. JONATHAN, Vampire Sterbin Nicht (1969)
Hans W. Geissendorfer only the bare-bones of Stoker's novel to create a political allegory, in which the aristocracy, headed by the Count (Paul Albert Krumm looking a bit like Hitler), is literally draining the life of the peasants. A secret band of revolutionaries, headed by the Professor (Oskar von Schab), send young Jonathan (Jurgen Jung), whose love Elisabeth (Christine Ratej) has been taken by the Count, to the castle to find a way for them to attack during a grand gathering of the vampires (shades of Polanski's DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES). Dispensing with much of the established movie lore (as the best vampire films of the coming decade did) this film manages some very striking scenes, such as the cripple who lives in a small hut, and his collection of crosses given him by the Count's henchmen after they attack anyone as foolhardy as Jonathan to come on the vampire aristocrats' lands. Shot in muted colours by Robert Muller, with evocative music by Roland Kovac, it is set in a gritty 19th Century Europe.

8. BLOOD FOR DRACULA (1973)
On the heels of his French/Italian co-production FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN American director Paul Morrissey (of Andy Warhol's Factory) tackles Stoker's infamous creation, this time as a sickly rural aristocrat (played by Udo Kier, who played the Baron in the previous film, replacing Srdjan Zelenovic, who had played the male creature) who is taken to Italy by his servant Anton (Arno Juering, also from the previous film) in search of virgin blood he needs to revive his race (having left his even sicklier sister behind). They shack up with a broke aristocratic family, headed by Vittoria de Sica and Maxime McKendry, who have four virgin daughters (Milena Vukotic, Dominique Darel, Stefania Casini, Silvia Dionisio), and the Count can't wait to get his fangs into one of them; only to find out with the first two that their professed virginity had already been taken by their communist-spouting hunky handyman (Joe Dallesandro and his Brooklyn accent). The latter figures out Dracula's plan, deflowers the youngest, but the unattractive eldest has willingly given herself, giving the Count much needed energy for the final confrontation with the wax wielding handyman, for a bloody ending.

9. NOSFERATU, Phantom der Nacht (1978)
Werner Herzog's remake of Murnau's classic version is more of an homage, or love poem, than just a standard remake. Giving back the characters proper names, with an outstanding cast in Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula, Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker, Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, with quirky support by novelist Roland Topor as Renfield, and Walter Ladengast as Van Helsing, it follows the same story, but in Herzog's distinctive style. An evocative, mesmerizing score from avant-garde band Popol Vuh.

10. NADJA (1994)
Michael Almereyda's B&W avant-garde take on the story, a sort of remake of DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, including a scene of Elina Lowensohn (who is Rumanian), in the title role, and her servant Renfield (Karl Geary) stealing her father's body, recently staked by Van Helsing (Peter Fonda), from the morgue (attended by executive producer David Lynch in a cameo); with no body the police release Van Helsing to his nephew Jim (Martin Donovan), which does not please the latter's wife, Lucy (Galaxy Craze - who looks a tad like Marguerite Churchill). Lucy goes to a bar where she meets Nadja, and they go back to the former's apt., where they play with Lucy's pet tarantula (MGM's code name for their DRACULA'S DAUGHTER was TARANTULA) before making love, which involves a little blood. The film is slow and poetic, understated and dreamy; the vampire's vision is shown via a PXL-2000 toy camcorder, which was first sold to children, later becoming popular among underground filmmakers; a close-up of Bela Lugosi from WHITE ZOMBIE, and PXL long shots of Fonda in cape & wig are used for rememberances of Dracula. As in the earlier film the vampire hunters, with help from Nadja's twin brother (i.e., son of Dracula) Edgar (Jared Harris) give chase back to Transylvania, Nadja having kidnapped Edgar's nurse and paramour Cassandra (Suzy Amis), who is also Van Helsing's estranged daughter.

11. LA FIANCEE DE DRACULA (2002)
Surrealist filmmaker of the fantastique Jean Rollin has a go at a tale of the infamous vampire (Thomas Desfosse), who is kept just off shore (at the beach location Rollin used numerous times) by a convent of nuns, his influence driving them crazy, and guarding Dracula's intended bride (Cyrille Gaudin). Things get shaken up when a Van Helsing wannabe (Jacques Orth) and his assistant (Thomas Smith) come a-huntin', and chase the bride on her trek to her intended, meeting up with various monsters along the way.

12. DRACULA Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2003)
Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin, an admitted fan of silent films from Germany and Russia took a ballet version of Stoker's novel by Mark Godden (music from Gustav Mahler), and shot it silent movie style, in black & white, complete with intertitles, on stylised sets, and cast from the Royal Winnepeg Ballet, for a very original take on an oft-told tale.


This is from my 10 best Dracula films, written for "Taste of Cinema", who were happy with it, but then did not use it.