Review of Dracula (1958) by Tero H — 30 Nov 2008

I have seen many vampire-movies before I had seen this classic by the Hammer-studios. It was a minor let-down for me. The cool things about the movie were that the acting was great and the story was kept interesting by both the actors and the story went on without stops or slowdowns.

However, the storyline was rather simplistic. Bram Stoker's epic novel was simplified so much that the story suffered greatly. Had I not seen many vampire movies, nor read mr. Stoker's book, I might have rated this movie better.

There are several things I found rather strange, especially the Count's character. He's a charming fellow, and in the oddly changed plot the Count comes to visit England, not to live in the middle of people to eat them, but to find a new woman to his castle.. Not to dismiss the importance of a spouse, but hey, this was The vampire.

The description, or Plot Synopsis, displayed in Flixter has a detail that isn't correct - Dracula's castle was not in England.

There was a small, but unintentionally funny moment, which was obviously 1950' style dramatic effect- the count attacked Van Helsing, not by jumping down the stairs twenty feet in the air wielding a bloody two-handed sword or something, but by throwing a _candle_ at him.. He could have burned his castle down, nor did it really impose a threat to the professor. Since he had strenght of ten men, it was rather unnecessary as well. Not a big deal but I noticed that it seemed a bit of a silly idea. I think Lee was the only person they could have probably found who actually made it look threatening.. Cushing playing Van Helsing and Lucy's actor were excellent and believable.

So, in effect, I found the storyline of the movie too short and simple, and deviating too much from the original story. Perhaps it was because the movie had to be different than the story shown to the world in Stoker's book, and because it had to be watchable by 'the average joe' in the 50's.

Other than those things mentioned by me, the movie was well acted and entertaining.