FAMOUS MONSTERS: September 2013

EVERYONE'S

FAVOURITE FEATURE

CREATURE :

THE ANTI-HERO

ENDURES

The menacing dark sardonic “fatal nobleman” that Mario Praz (in his The Romantic Agony) traced to Milton, found its perfect form in 1897 in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The potency of the character defies the passing of time. Theatre, film, television, novels, comic books, bubble gum cards, toys, games, trinkets and souvenirs, and even modern dance and music have guaranteed the longevity of this prince of the undead. Dracula as everyone knows, is the prince of all vampires, the Prince of Darkness, and as with 007 everyone has his or her favourite Dracula (invariably Christopher Lee).

It seems that the retelling of the Dracula ‘myth’ is a necessity in our modern age, that oh so familiar battle between good and evil. It is now firmly part of our culture. One small theatre company brings 'Dracula' to my local open-air theatre this very month (August 2013) adapted for Stage by David Kerby Kelly and directed by Peter Mimmack.

"Heartbreak Productions are
delighted to present a brand-new
adaptation of the legendary
Bram Stoker classic Dracula..."

"The story of Dracula has been the basis for
numerous films and plays. Stoker himself wrote the first theatrical adaptation, which was presented at the Lyceum Theatre under the title Dracula, or The Undead shortly before the novel's publication and performed only once. Popular films include Dracula (1931), Dracula (alternative title: The Horror of Dracula) (1958), and Dracula (also known as Bram Stoker's Dracula) (1992). Dracula was also adapted asNosferatu (1922), a film directed by the German director F. W. Murnau, without permission from Stoker's widow; the filmmakers attempted to avoid copyright problems by altering many of the details, including changing the name of the villain to "Count Orlok"...... As of 2009, an estimated 217 films feature Dracula in a major role." (Wikipedia)

Max Schreck
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, 1922

"Count Orlok is a far cry from the gorgeous vampires of our days, but his rodent teeth, bald head, pointy ears and long claws are unforgettable. And to think this amazing silent film nearly didn't make it to our day because of the law suit between Florence Stoker and the production house! Lucky for us that not all the prints were destroyed." (Night's Creatures Blog)

Dracula 1931 (Bela Lugosi)

Dracula is a 1931 vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosias the title character. The film was produced by Universal and is based on the 1924 stage play Dracula by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston

Drácula is a 1931 American Spanish-language horror film directed by George Melford. It is an adaptation of the 1897 novel of the same name by Bram Stoker and was filmed at night on the same sets that were being used during the day for the 1931 English-language film of the same name.

Above: Dracula is a fondly remembered British video-taped television play adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, part of the TV series Mystery and Imagination. Denholm Elliott played Count Dracula with Susan George as Lucy Weston. Mystery and Imagination was a British television anthology series of classic horror and supernatural dramas. Five series were broadcast from 1966 to 1970 by the ITV network

Count Dracula is a British television adaptation of the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It first aired 22 December 1977. It is among the more faithful of the many adaptations of the original book. Louis Jourdan played the title role.

Above: Count Dracula released in Italy as Il conte Dracula, in Spain as El Conde Drácula and in France as Les Nuits de Dracula, is a 1969 Spanish-Italian-German horror film (released in 1970), directed by Jesús Franco and starring Christopher Lee

Bram Stoker's Dracula is a 1992 American erotic horror film directed and produced byFrancis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula

"Gary Oldman in Francis Ford Coppola's amazing Oscar-winning adaptation has become the
face of our fin de siecle Count. Coppola's lavish sets and costumes and eye for detail make this one of the all-time Dracula favourites. One of the most romantic vampire movies of our time."
(Night's Creatures Blog)

"The second of the 1979 Dracula movies, Werner Herzog'sNosferatu takes us back
to the bald head and rodent teeth in this remake of Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu. This time, since the novel's copyright had expired, Herzog could use the original names of the characters, something that Murnau had been unable to do." (Night's Creatures Blog)

Vampire in Venice (Original title: Nosferatu a Venezia),is a 1988 Italian horror film directed by Augusto Caminito and starring Klaus Kinski

Dracula is a marvelous1979 British/American film version of Stoker
starring Frank Langella as Count Dracula directed by John Badham

Bram Stoker's Dracula, (1973) a TV adaptation with Jack Palance

(Francis Ford Coppola and Columbia Pictures purchased the rights to that title in the early 1990's)

Blood for Dracula, also known as Andy Warhol's Dracula, is a 1974 black comedy horror film written and directed by Paul Morrissey and produced by Andy Warhol, Andrew Braunsberg, and Jean Yanne. It stars Udo Kier.

Howard Vernon in Franco's Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972)

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) The role of Dracula is played by John Forbes-Robertson (though the actor's voice is dubbed by David de Keyser).

The unmistakable John Carradine played Count Dracula
multiple times in House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula and Billy the Kid vs. Dracula.

DANCE: Dracula Pages from a Virgin's Diary: a 2002 horror film directed
by Guy Maddin, with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet adapting Bram Stoker's novel

Ballet: David Nixon's Dracula had its European Première at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in September, 2005. The Northern Ballet's Philip Feeney scored Dracula (Ballet in 3 Acts - the first ever British dance version of Dracula) was conceived by Christopher Gable, NBT's late director, to mark the centenary of Bram Stoker's novel in 1996. The film-maker Ken Russell, a friend of Gable's, had advised him that "in 100 years, Dracula has never once failed the box office".

Above: ‘Dracula’s Curse’ is a two part TV adaptation of Stoker’s

classic novel set in modern day Budapest – well worth a look.

Van Helsing is a 2004 American action film directed by Stephen Sommers:
Richard Roxburgh features as Count Vladislaus Dracula

Fangs in 3D? - no thanks! Argento's Dracula (2012) (Thomas Kretschmann)

MUSIC: The Kronos Quartet perform Philip Glass's Dracula in front of the 1931 film

Why Does Dracula Wear a Tuxedo?
The Origins of Bram Stoker’s Timeless Vampire:
this is from Smithsonian.com

"A few weeks ago, I attended a panel on the origin and evolution of the famous blood sucker. Speakers included Dacre C. Stoker, the great-grandnephew and biographer of Bram; and John Edgar Browning, a professor at SUNY Buffalo with expertise in Dracula and gothic literature. Dacre Stoker presented a sort of deconstruction of Dracula, reverse-engineering the text to reveal what he called its “semi-autobiographical” origins, the product of a “perfect storm” of events that started when Stoker was just a sickly boy from a family of medical professionals who likely practiced bloodletting on the unfortunate youth. In this trauma, Dacre speculates, are the origins of Dracula. There are other parallels between Stoker’s life and the book. For instance, while the author was vacationing in Whitby, a wrecked ship, the Dmitri, washed ashore. In Dracula, the “Demeter” wrecks, its crew ravaged by Dracula. Of course, all authors draw from their life experience, but Stoker’s very biography seems infused into the text, which was published in 1897.

Dacre Stoker presented excerpts from his great-granduncle’s journal, showing page after page of notes on mysticism and mesmerism and many possible “rules” for Dracula, including his lack of reflection, his superhuman strength, and his ability to take different forms. One page even includes an alternate name for Count Dracula, “Count Wampyr.” The name Dracula only came later, suggesting that the links between Dracula and the historic Vlad Dracul (aka “Vlad the Impaler”) are superficial at best. Bram’s book notes were drawn from the mythologies of dozens of cultures, but his journal also featured ostensibly banal diary entries, as well as extensive train and ship schedules.

As both a lawyer and theatrical manager, Stoker travelled often, methodically documenting and scheduling everything. He used this information to make his book seem as real as possible; to ensure nothing would jar the reader out of the story. The journal includes thousands of “memos” that Stoker would write to himself –memos that closely resembled Jonathan Harker’s own missives– as well as extensive notes written by Stoker’s brother, an experimental surgeon. His brother was likely the influence for the character Abraham Van Helsing, which helped ensure that every medical procedure described in Dracula would be as technically accurate as possible.
But what of Dracula himself? In the text, the dreaded Count is described only vaguely, first as an old man:

Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silver lamp, in which the flame burned without a chimney or globe of any kind, throwing long quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught of the open door. The old man motioned me in with his right hand with a courtly gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a strange intonation.

And later, as he magically de-ages, a young man:

a tall, thin man, with a beaky nose and black moustache and pointed beard….His face was not a good face. It was hard, and cruel, and sensual, and big white teeth, that looked all the whiter because his lips were so red, were pointed like an animal’s.

Dacre Sucre believed it was possible that Bram’s portrayal of Dracula a charming devil was inspired by Irving’s portrayal of Mephistopheles in Faust. But little is said about Dracula’s attire. So where does the populist imaginary of Dracula come from? How do we explain the incredible consistency of Dracula Halloween costumes?

The tuxedo. The cape. The medallion. The aristocratic demeanor. These are the tropes we have come to associate with Count Dracula. However, according to John Browning’s NYCC crash course in the visual representation of Dracula, they are a far cry from the first appearance of Bram Stoker’s iconic vampire.
In the early 1920s, two cinematic versions of Dracula were released: the Hungarian film Dracula’s Death and the German Nosferatu. These were the first visual representations of Dracula in history and they presented a very different vampire from the one we know and fear today. Dracula’s Death has the honor of being the first adaptation –a very, very loose adaptation– of Stoker’s Dracula that has, unfortunately, been lost to history. Nosferatu, however, is a classic, thanks in part to a 1979 remake by Werner Herzog. The vampire in Nosferatu is a horrible monster dressed in drab Eastern European clothing – a far cry from the populist Dracula of Halloween costumes. Though not as celebrated as later interpretations of Dracula, the legacy of the pale, monstrous Nosferatu continues in contemporary popular culture, as evidenced by the super-vampire known as The Master in Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

In 1924, Dracula premiered on stage in London, adapted by Irish actor and playwright Hamilton Deane. This production introduced the world to the charming, well-coifed, tuxedo-clad Count Dracula, as portrayed by Raymond Huntley (who allegedly provided his own costume). Without the subtleties a novel provides, Count Dracula’s sophisticated demeanour and seductive nature was communicated more explicitly for the stage.
This is the origin of the Halloween Dracula. When the play was brought to America in the late 1920s, Bela Lugosi played the title role, a role he would make famous in the 1931 Universal film. If the stage show invented the image of Dracula, the Universal movie cemented it. Lugosi contributed his own flair to Dracula’s costume with the mysterious addition of an ornamental medal worn on his chest that, depending on who you ask, may or may not have been his own personal possession."

**Below: Playwright and early stage Dracula Hamilton Dean

from the extraordinary blog Vampire Over London, the Bela Lugosi Blog**

Hamilton Deane

1880–October 25, 1958

An Irish actor/manager, playwright and director, Deane created the popular image of Dracula clad in evening dress and flowing cloak with a stand-up collar when he wrote the first official adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel. From the play’s premiere in 1924, he played the role of Dr. Van Helsing both in the West End and in many touring productions. In 1939 he took on the role of the Count himself.

"Bela Lugosi’s 1951 British revival tour of Dracula was written-off as a complete disaster, supposedly closing after a few disastrous performances, by Lugosi “historians” for 50 years until my friend Andi Brooks published the true story in “Vampire Over England: Bela Lugosi in Britain.” The play toured for 24 weeks and received many rave reviews. I should know because I played Renfield opposite Bela Lugosi throughout the tour." Eric Lindsay

Dracula 1970s Stage Revival

Dracula is a 1924 stage play adapted by Hamilton Deane from the novel of the same name by Bram Stoker, and substantially revised by John L. Balderston in 1927. It was the first adaptation of the novel authorised by Stoker’s widow, and has influenced many subsequent adaptations.

The original production starred Raymond Huntley as Dracula; Deane had originally intended to play the title role himself, but in the event opted for the role of Van Helsing. This production toured England for three years before settling in London.

In 1927 the play was brought to Broadway by Horace Liveright, who hired John L. Balderston to revise the script for American audiences. The American production starred Bela Lugosi in his first major English-speaking role, with Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing; both actors reprised their roles in the 1931 film version, which drew on the Deane-Balderston play.

In addition to radically compressing the plot, the play reduced the number of significant characters, combining Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray into a single character, making John Seward this Lucy’s father, and disposing of Quincey Morris and Arthur Holmwood.

The play was revived in 1977, in a production featuring set and costume designs by Edward Gorey and starring Frank Langella as Dracula. The production won Tony Awards for Best Revival and Best Costume Design, and was nominated for Best Scenic Design and Best Leading Actor in a Play (Langella). Langella, like Lugosi, went on to reprise the role in the 1979 film version. Subsequent actors in the title role for the Broadway revival included David Dukes, Raul Julia and Jean LeClerc, while the London production starred Terence Stamp and American touring companies starred Martin Landau and Jeremy Brett.

Left: Jeremy Brett hams it up as Dracula & Above: Langella on stage

Shaftesbury Theatre, London, UK, 1978
Cast: TERENCE STAMP, Derek Godfrey, Nickolas Grace, Rosalind Ayres,
Rupert Frazer, Marilyn Galsworthy, Shaun Curry, Barrie Cookson
Sets designed by Edward Gorey

THE PASSION OF DRACULA

There must have been something in the air in 1978 (bats perhaps?), and in 1979, when no less than three new Dracula movies hit the big screen. Theatre-wise, not only did Terence Stamp grace the stage as Dracula at the Shaftesbury Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, from September 13th 1978 (performances nightly at 8.30 - tickets from £1 to £5 - based on the original Hamilton Deane/ John L. Balderston play) but a few weeks earlier (from 23 August) George Chakiris could be seen swirling the Count's black cape down the road at the Queen's Theatre in The Passion of Dracula. The Passion was directed by Clifford Williams from the pen of Bob Hall and David Richmond. It also starred Richard Vernon, Roy Dotrice, Geraldine James and James Villiers.

The London Evening Standard reported (Out For The Count), "Two Draculas within the space of a fortnight could give vampires a bloody name. There is a limit to the amount of blood transfusions an audience can take..." both productions were expected a short run, with Passion seen as parody and the Edward Gorey designed Dracula seen as "relatively straight" but lacking in enthusiasm. The Gorey sets claimed my vote! I remember them well.

The Passion of Dracula first appeared at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City on September 28, 1977 and continues to find new audiences around the world.