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Dracula

USA 1974, Colour, 100 min
Director	Dan Curtis
Screenplay	Richard Matheson
Based upon the Novel by	Bram Stoker
Photography	Oswald Morris
Music	Robert Cobert
Jack Palance	Count Dracula
Nigel Davenport	Van Helsing
Simon Ward	Arthur Holmwood
Fiona Lewis	Lucy Westenra
Penelope Horner	Mina Murray
Murray Brown	Jonathan Harker

By now, the story should be known to everybody and doesn't need to be repeated over and over again. In principle, Dan Curtis and his author Richard Matheson stick to the novel by Bram Stoker, leaving out some scenes and adding others. As in Murnau's Nosferatu the passage to England makes part of the movie, Draculas change into a wolf and the rapid pursuits are all shown according to the novel. Dan Curtis was the first one to bring in the historical model Vlad Tepes and 19 years later, Francis Ford Coppola was to follow his example when shooting "Bram Stokers Dracula".

Being a TV-production, this movie adaptation by Dan Curtis is still the least known of all Dracula movies. It was meant to be shown on TV and therefore there's no explicit violence shown, making the movie suitable for the whole family. Nevertheless: Curtis movie is worth seeing: the careful and detailed setting, together with Oswald Morris's great camera movements give the movie it's special look.

Jack Palance's Dracula-interpretation is quite expertly done, even if he is not as demonic and charismatic as Christopher Lee. It was impossible though to surpass Lee, who was, for most fans of that time the personification of the blood sucker par excellence. This and the fact that to many fans of the genre this movie seemed to be too old-fashioned and not bloody enough made Dan Curtis "Dracula" sink into oblivion.