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Horror of Dracula | 
 enlarge | Director: Terence Fisher
Actors: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $4.18
You Save: $5.80 (58%)
New (41) Used (23) from $3.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  130 reviews
Sales Rank: 17442
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 81
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 1000000224
ISBN: 0790768100
UPC: 085391149927
EAN: 9780790768106
ASIN: B00006G8K0
Theatrical Release Date: May 8, 1958
Release Date: October 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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Product Description
Jonathan Harker a student of vampires ventures to Dracula's castle and attacks him. The revengeful vampire leaves his dark abode to prey on the family of his attacker's fiancee. The only man able to protect Harker and his fiancee is Dr. Van Helsing a friend of Harker's. As a fellow-student of vampires he's determined to destroy Dracula.Running Time: 82 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR/VAMPIRES UPC: 085391149927 Manufacturer No: 1000000224
Amazon.com
After Hammer Studios' tremendous success with The Curse of Frankenstein, they struck a deal to adapt Universal's catalog of classics and set their sights first on Dracula. Christopher Lee removes the monstrous makeup from the earlier film and makes his entrance as an elegant, confident, altogether seductive Dracula, a frightening figure of flashing eyes and erotic allure. Peter Cushing, with his hawklike profile and piercing eyes, turns his rationalist intensity to Van Helsing: man of science as crusading vampire hunter. Director Terence Fisher and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster make a few changes to Bram Stoker's tale; gone are Renfield, Transylvania, howling wolves, and transformations into bats. The Count is an old-world aristocrat firmly ensconced in a castle in England and Van Helsing a crusading vampire hunter who plots his demise with an elaborate plan. This is the first film to really mine the erotic appeal of vampires: Dracula seduces Mina and Lucy like a devil tempting good to the dark side through sex--more suggestive than explicit, but daring for 1958. Lee is electric as the ferocious Count, despite his limited screen time, and Cushing turns Van Helsing into a virtual swashbuckler of a hero, leaping and diving through the climax like an aging action hero. Cushing reprises his role in The Brides of Dracula, while Lee absented himself from the series until 1966's Dracula: Prince of Darkness. --Sean Axmaker
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| Customer Reviews: Read 125 more reviews...
 'The Terrifying Lover Who Died Yet Lived !' June 22, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Along with 'the Wicker Man' this is the finest British thriller ever made.
A big accolade but one it deserves. It made me jump out of my seat as a child, the scene where Christopher Lee bursts in, and starts throwing luscious Valerie Gaunt around. Despite my mother having histrionics, and warning me not to tell my teachers that I'd been up late watching horror movies, it set me up for a lifetime of wonderful (and occasionally vile) film experiences. Whether you're a horror fan or not, this is a cracking, lightning-paced, sexy, gothic joy-ride.
The plot is bare-basic (and is detailed elsewhere) so 'Dracula' relies on atmosphere, beautiful visuals and superb acting, particularly Peter Cushing who, despite delayed entrance into the action, is completely believable as the single-minded vampire nemesis Van Helsing.
I read somewhere that Cushing had, in the writers opinion, 'an elegant, yet soulful screen presence'. I'm in agreement. He holds the attention totally when he's on screen, similar with Lee but for different reasons. While Cushing is a better actor, Lee makes an unforgettable impression, and looks genuinely other-worldly.
The music track is sensational. James Bernard. One of 'scores'(sorry!) he did for Hammer during a rewarding (for us!) 20 (another score! Sorry again.) year association with them, and there's not many better than this one. Surprisingly subtle at times, but lets rip with that familiar and startling theme when needs demand.
Quality scenes tumble over themselves, most memorable, and disturbing for me are the ones in the windy, leafy cemetery, where one of Count Lee's female victims, resurrected as an undead, attempts to seduce a child into the joys of vampirism. The tension is at breaking point until a timely intervention by Dr Van Cushing saves the day.
Director Terence Fisher was on dangerous ground here, albeit implicating rather than visualizing, and doesn't it tell you plenty about the mind set of Trevelyan and his minions down at the censors board, who apparently missed the suggestive nature of these scenes, preferring to concentrate on stakings and other such trivialities. Perhaps it was the fact that the child was a girl that foxed them. Same sex and all that(well it was the 50's!)
The ending too is spectacular. A literal reading of the Church's final funeral rites, set to a pounding music and acted out to perfection by two of dear old Blighty's finest. Awesome. Once seen, never forgotten.
Despite being reviled on release for it's sex and violence, nowadays, 'Dracula' is perfect family entertainment of the rainy, Sunday afternoon variety. (After you've been to church of course, can't be too careful!) And don't forget to look out for the comedy-actor colossus, Miles Malleson who sparkles as a bumbling undertaker.
They certainly don't (and have no interest in trying to..) make 'em like this anymore, so treasure this one.
 Classic Dracula March 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I saw this film when it first came out in 1958 and I was 14 years old. Then it was just called Dracula. To me it has to be one of the first British movies that was totally exciting while being terrifying at the same time. It's still a classic though obviously terror has reached new heights since then. I like how the women victims were full bodied and not skimpy skinny teenage things.
...the best vampire movie ever made! March 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the movie that redefined how vampires would be portrayed on the screen for all time. Christopher Lee makes the character his own. No one before or since has injected so sinister a villain with so much charisma and sex appeal. Peter Cushing is perfect cast as the vampire hunter Van Helsing. No collection is complete without this cinematic gem.
One of the very best March 5, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Hammer's groundbreaking 1958 version of Dracula (aka Horror of Dracula) is still one of the very best despite the many liberties Jimmy Sangster's concise and highly effective script takes with Bram Stoker's novel to whittle it down to an hour-and-a-half. It's not just the names that have been changed around and the cast of characters greatly reduced to Hammer's budget levels (admirably disguised here by Bernard Robinson's excellent production design). John Van Eyssen's Jonathan Harker is no longer a lawyer, but here is posing as a librarian to get into Dracula's castle with an ulterior motive - presumably on the grounds that the audience knows going in just what Dracula is so there's no point putting the hero through all that mystery when there's staking to be done. The budget doesn't stretch to the voyage and arrival of the ghost ship Demeter or even a Renfield for that matter, and this Dracula has no social interaction with his intended victims in Whitby or London - in fact, he never even leaves the continent. Nor is the vampire fascinated with Harker's intended - here he simply seeks her out as revenge. Yet the changes work surprisingly well, and even throws in a few good twists like the location of Dracula's hiding place.
Although he doesn't have much screen time, Christopher Lee is inspired casting, a feral, vicious creature rather than a Eurotrash smoothie while a very agile Peter Cushing makes a surprisingly physical Van Helsing, the final fight between the good doctor and the evil count surprisingly energetic and violent before the best of the studio's ashes to ashes, dust-to-dust finales. Although rather sedate by today's standards, this film still has a surprising degree of energy and it's easy to see why it made had such a profound impact on the horror genre for decades to come. The first colour version of the tale, it made a big selling point of being able to see the blood in all its vivid hues of red, although it also makes much play on the vampire's female victims being absolutely gagging for it (perhaps not so surprising with Peter Cushing and Michael Gough as the male leads), setting the groundwork for the tits'n'fangs formula that would become the studio's bread and butter over the next couple of decades. A surprisingly cheap picture, thanks to Bernard Robinson's elegant production design and fine direction from Terence Fisher before the drink got to him, it never looks cheap: if anything, it's rather seductively good looking. Unfortunately this is slightly compromised by Warners' widescreen DVD, which feels overcropped at 1.85:1 (the film was intended to be shown in 1.66:1) and there's also a slight wobble at the end of the closing credits.
Dracula February 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the quintessential Hammer Horror movie. And this is the greatest Dracula movie of the series, Christopher Lee is magnificent here and definitely Dracula's never looked so terrifying and gruesome! Recently hearing that Hammer Horror Productions have started up again i am exited to bits..but whether or not they could ever create something like this again is hard to imagine.Times have certainly changed and what you have here is a horror film from the golden age of British cinema.rarely does a film so much these days captivate a sheer undergoing of things that go bump in the night to such dramatic effect. As the steering protagonist and nemises of Christopher Lee's Dracula is 'Doctor Van Helsing' Played by none other than Peter Cushing. Who plays again in this role as a perfect counter part to Lee's shadowly stranger of the night.Peter embodies every bit into his role as the the opposition serving for the light in the darkness of this ungoing battle between good and evil. I picked this up recently, and thought to myself is this going to be as good as it was as a child? Had it lost it's lustre and worn with time? Not atall, surprisingly! The music and the two main leading men hold it togeather perfectly and still works in truly horrorfying effect. Thats why they call these classics.
Pros- Brilliant Acting, Scares, music on screen performances by counterparts.
Cons- ???! They should have been given oscars for this! Horror deserves more.
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