Dracula (1958), released in the United States as Horror of Dracula, is a British Gothic horror film from Hammer Film Productions. It was directed by Terence Fisher and written by Jimmy Sangster, based on Bram Stoker‘s 1897 novel. Christopher Lee plays Count Dracula for the first time, opposite Peter Cushing as Doctor Van Helsing. Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh and John Van Eyssen co-star. Made a year after Hammer’s hit The Curse of Frankenstein, it gave the Count fangs, color, blood and an openly erotic menace, and fixed Lee’s image of the vampire in popular culture. It began Hammer’s long Dracula series and the screen partnership of Lee and Cushing. It has been ranked among the best British films ever made.
At a glance
| Release date | May 8, 1958 (Milwaukee premiere); June 1958 (London) |
| Director | Terence Fisher |
| Writer | Jimmy Sangster |
| Based on | Dracula by Bram Stoker |
| Starring | Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Christopher Lee |
| Runtime | 82 minutes |
| Rating | UK: X, with cuts, on first release; the uncut 2007 re-release was rated 12A |
| Budget | £81,412 |
| Box office | About $3.5 million in worldwide theatrical rentals |
| Franchise | Dracula and Hammer Films: first of Hammer’s Dracula films, followed by eight sequels |
Plot summary
In 1885 Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) arrives at Count Dracula’s castle near Klausenburg, posing as a librarian. A frightened young woman begs him for help, and then Dracula greets him courteously. Alone, Harker writes in his diary that he is really a vampire hunter, there to destroy the Count. The woman turns out to be a vampire too and bites him. Knowing he will turn, Harker hides his journal, stakes the woman in the crypt, and finds Dracula’s coffin empty just as the Count traps him.
Doctor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) comes looking for his colleague. He finds Harker undead in Dracula’s coffin and stakes him. In Karlstadt, he brings the news to Arthur Holmwood (Michael Gough) and his wife Mina (Melissa Stribling). Arthur’s sister Lucy (Carol Marsh), Harker’s fiancée, is mysteriously ill. Arthur distrusts Van Helsing until Lucy dies and Harker’s journal convinces him. The undead Lucy lures a little girl, Tania, to the graveyard, and Van Helsing explains that Dracula chose her to replace the vampire woman Harker killed.
Spoiler section: the ending
Van Helsing stakes Lucy. While he and Arthur search for Dracula’s coffin, the Count lures Mina into an ambush. A crucifix burns her hand, and Dracula, invited in, keeps visiting her. He has been hiding his coffin in the Holmwoods’ own cellar. Dracula flees with Mina and tries to bury her before sunrise. Arthur digs her out while Van Helsing pursues the Count into his castle. Outmatched in strength, Van Helsing tears down a curtain to let in the morning light and forces Dracula into it with two candlesticks held as a cross. Dracula crumbles to dust, leaving only his clothes and ring, and the scar on Mina’s hand fades.
Production and behind the scenes
Sangster had to fit Stoker’s novel into less than ninety minutes and a low budget shot at Bray Studios and its grounds. He made Harker a hunter who travels to the castle to kill Dracula, not an estate agent. Arthur becomes Mina’s husband, and Lucy becomes Arthur’s sister and Harker’s fiancée. Renfield and Quincey Morris were dropped, and the voyage to England disappeared. All the action stays in a small area of Central Europe, with a hearse ride standing in for the sea crossing. Cushing’s Van Helsing was also changed from the novel, and his more athletic take, including the physical fight in the climax, became one of his signature roles.
Lee said he had never seen anyone else’s Dracula and had to hurry to read the book, so he “played it fresh.” He disliked the “white tie and tails” tradition and said the Count needed an erotic element, calling the victim “a sexual blood donor.” Filming began at Bray in November 1957, with principal photography ending on Christmas Eve. Effects work wrapped the film on January 3, 1958. Bernard Robinson designed it, Jack Asher shot it in color, and Roy Ashton and Phil Leakey did the makeup. James Bernard‘s score built its main three-note motif around the syllables of Dracula’s name. The BFI calls it one of his finest scores and central to Hammer’s sound.
Release and reception
The film premiered in Milwaukee on May 8, 1958, where it set a record ten-day run. In the US it was retitled Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion with Universal’s Dracula (1931), and played on a double bill with The Thing That Couldn’t Die. It opened at London’s Gaumont Haymarket in June 1958 and was one of the twelve most popular films at the British box office that year. It earned about $1 million in North American rentals and about $3.5 million worldwide.
Trade reviews were strong. Harrison’s Reports said that of all the Dracula pictures, “this one… tops them all.” Variety praised Cushing and the film’s “serious approach to the macabre theme.” Film Bulletin called Bernard’s score “monumentally sinister.” Today it holds 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and 67 on Metacritic. Barry Norman included it among the 49 best British films, and a 2017 Time Out poll ranked it the 65th best British film ever.
Legacy and influence
Hammer’s Dracula became a landmark of British horror and set the template for the studio’s vampire cycle. Christopher Frayling writes that it “introduced fangs, red contact lenses, décolletage, ready-prepared wooden stakes” and blood spattered over the Count’s coffin in the credits. The BFI credits the role with truly making Lee a star. Empire ranked his Count the 7th greatest horror movie character of all time. Hammer made eight sequels. Lee returned in six of them, beginning with Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), and Cushing in four. For other major versions, see Universal’s 1931 film and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).
Trivia
- For years historians spoke of a longer, more explicit “Japanese version.” In 2011 Hammer announced that Simon Rowson had found the last four reels of the Japanese release in Tokyo’s National Film Center. The first five had been destroyed in a 1984 fire.
- The recovered reels include a fuller version of the disintegration scene. Hammer’s 2012 HD restoration with this footage came out on UK Blu-ray on March 18, 2013.
- Warner Bros. and the BFI restored the film again for a Warner Archive release in December 2018.
- Sources disagree on whether filming started on November 11 or November 17, 1957.
- The House of Hammer #1 (October 1976) adapted it as a comic.
Related links
- Count Dracula (character) and Abraham Van Helsing
- Dracula on film and Hammer Films
- The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
- Dracula (1931) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
- Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing