Greetings, everyone,
Here is a good question for Halloween:
Who gave the best performance as Dracula?
My nominee:
**Jack Palance ** in the TV movie *Dracula * (1973).
This film has solid credentials. It was written by the great horror/fantasy author Richard Matheson and directed by Dan Curtis of “Dark Shadows” fame. The film even uses (effectively) the eerie theme music from “Dark Shadows.”
Palance turns in a splendid performance as the legendary Count. His Dracula is feral and frightening, but also noble and sympathetic (and sexy, too). He portrays the monster as a victim of cruel fate. His death scene is particularly touching.
So, in your opinion, who gave the best performance as Dracula?
God knows there are plenty of Dracs to choose from.
Well, most people haven’t seen it, but back in the 1970’s, there was a very good version of “Dracula” that I saw on PBS. I think it was probably made by the BBC- it starred French actor Louis Jourdain as Dracula. And of all the Draculas I’ve seen on stage, screen and television, I think Louis did the best job of combining menace, evil AND charm.
Disclaimer: I am not a big fan of the Horror genre (where I would say most Dracula films would be classified). However I thought Gary Oldman did a great job with the role in the Coppola version. A complex, charismatic and ultimately tragic figure. Not at all the stereotypical “I vant to bite your neck!” portrayal.
There’ve been so many good interpretations, it’s hard to pick just one.
My favorite is Frank Langella. So far, he’s the only Dracula I’ve seen who brings any eroticism to the role. Wasn’t the original story really about sexual repression?
I’m sorry but though it has been lampooned and over done, the only actor to leave an indelable stamp on Dracula is Bela Lugosi. Mention Dracula and he is the first person to come to mind. That is a very powerful impression considering in films he played the role twice.
The idea of the “I vant to drink your blood” accent comes from Lugosi. The cape the evening tux Lugosi. His piercing stair, the menace all Lugosi.
It may no longer have the same impact as it did on audiences in the 30s and there may be better performances and better productions but Bela is forever the first image when we say Dracula.
I just want to concur heartily with astorian here - Louis Jourdain was Dracula in this definitive version, produced by Gerald Savory for the BBC.
Christopher Lee would have been the definitive version, if the Hammer films had ever given him any lines … all he does, practically, is snarl or look hypnotic. (I mean, OK, he’s Christopher Lee, he can do both of those pretty damn well - but he can do a damn sight more than that, so why didn’t they let him?) Palance and Langella were both perfectly competent … Gary Oldman, though, in my opinion, was one of the worst things about Coppola’s overblown and overrated B-movie. Bela Lugosi, I’ll accept, is the definitive Hollywood Dracula … but that’s not the same as the real thing.
Jourdan was good. Palance was good. And, of course, Lugosi created the role and pretty much set the entire structure that later actors would follow; the only major Dracula who deviated largely from the Lugosi mold was Oldman, in the badly misnamed Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
But Christopher Lee did an amazing job.
Christopher Lee’s Dracula is not a human being; Lee’s Dracula is a… thing, a monster, a bloodsucking horror. He can be charming, sexy, seductive… very good at seeming to be a human being…
…until he feels like letting the act drop and being what he is.
Christopher Lee scared the living hell out of me. I still find his interpretation scarier than the “evil genius Dracula,” the “misunderstood Dracula,” the “romantic vampire Dracula,” or the “pathetic blood-addict Dracula.”
Lee’s Dracula wasn’t smart enough to question what he was, and wasn’t human enough to consider romance. For all his attractive nattiness, Lee’s Dracula was no more human than a spider is.
I think Klaus Kinski in the 1979 version of Nosferatu may have been the creepiest Dracula characterization. Of course Kinski would have seemed creepy even if he were wearing pink bunny slippers and bottle-feeding a litter of newborn kittens.
I guess my favorite Dracula would be Christopher Lee in the 1958 Horror of Dracula, with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.
