Top Ten… Draculas!
The character of Count Dracula is second only to Sherlock Holmes (and, one supposes Dr. Watson) when it comes to apperances in movies. Played by more actors that you can shake a stake at, today we’re going to jump into the coach waiting for us at the Borgo Pass and creep through the crypts of Castle Dracula to hunt down the top ten movie Draculas. Onward!
10. Gary Oldman; or, the Goth Dracula
From the movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) directed by Francis Ford Coppla
Right off the bat (bat, geddit?) let me say that I do not care for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It’s a breathtaking film to look at, but almost every perfomance in the film is uniformly terrible and Gary Oldman as Dracula is inexplicably popular with people who don’t really like Dracula movies. Playing up the “he’s really Vlad the Impaler” angle, Oldman’s Dracula starts the film as a old white-skinned guy with boobs on his head and ends the film as a distinctly Ann Riceian proto-goth with long hair and a grey stovepipe hat. There’s very little menace in his performance and he seems to be more concerned with taking Winnona Ryder to dinner than drinking her blood.
9. John Carradine; or, the Elegant Dracula
From the movie House of Frankenstein (1944) directed by Erle Kenton
With his white moustache and jauntily askew top hat, Carradine looked more like a Missisippi riverboat gambler than a vampire Count. Unfortunatley written as a bit of a milqetoast wuss, Dracula isn’t given much to do in House of Frankenstein or its sequel House of Dracula. However Carradine played Dracula several more times in his career, most notably in the woeful Billy the Kid versus Dracula.
8. Udo Kier; or, the Warhol Dracula
From the movie Blood For Dracula (1974) directed by Paul Morrissey
I’ve written before about Udo Kier on this site and I’m afraid I’m going to have to repeat myself. The fact that Udo Keir isn’t in every movie ever made is tragic. One of the most underrated actors alive, Kier is nothing short of brilliant in everything he’s in and Blood For Dracula is no exception. Sounding suspiciously German for a Transylvanian Count (but we can’t hold that against him given Langella’s American accent, Lee’s English accent and Olman’s ludicrous accent) Keir’s Dracula is only able to drink virgin blood and so moves to Italy in search of virgins. Suffice to say he does not find them and becomes ill after drinking tainted blood. Undoubtedly one of the creepiest screen Draculas.
7. Max Schreck; or, the Anti Dracula
From the movie Nosferatu (1922) directed by F.W. Murnau
The odd one out on this list since Schreck isn’t strictly speaking playing Dracula, but Graf Orlock. Depending on the print of the movie you watch, Schreck’s character is named either Orlock or Dracula (the Dracula print is more common these days than the Orlock print) but it’s clear to anyone with even a basic understanding of the novel or the story behind the making of Nosferatu that Orlock = Dracula. The only actor on today’s list to play the Count as a horrific monster rather than an urbane sophisicate, Shreck’s version of Dracula is every bit as iconic as Lugosi or Lee, but the fact that it is *so* far removed from the classic image of Dracula explains its low place on the list.
6. Jack Palance; or, the Animalistic Dracula
From the TV movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1973) directed by Dan Curtis
Like Gary Oldman’s Dracula, Jack Palance’s version of the Count is presented as being one and the same with Vlad Tepes. The first film to introduce the now standard “long lost love” angle, Palance’s Dracula doesn’t beat you over the head with this angle like Oldman, preferring to remain somewhat ambigulous about the whole affair. Presenting an intense and at times animalistic Dracula, Palance’s Count is as scary as he is tragic.
5. Orson Welles; or, the Radio Dracula
From the Mercury Theatre’s radio production Dracula (1938) directed by Orson Welles
Regal, magisterial and capturing the very essence of Dracula, Orson Welles’ performance as the Count on his Mercury Theatre On The Air program is to this day spellbinding and breathtaking. Welles, a personal hero of mine and perhaps the greatest genius of the 20th Century, was reciting Shakespeare at the age of two, giving lectures at college at the age of ten, wrote a book on Shakespeare that is still used to this day at eighteen, changed the face of broadway (twice!) in his twenties, made a fortune in radio at the age of twenty two and directed the greatest movie of all time before his twenty fifth birthday. Is it any wonder, therefore, that his perfomance as Dracula (at the age of 23!) is one of the greatest of all time?
4. Louis Jourdan; or the Urbane Dracula
From the BBC miniseries Count Dracula (1977) directed by Phillip Saville
Louis Jourdan (of Gigi and Octopussy fame) might seem like a strange choice to play Count Dracula, but play him he did in a 1977 BBC miniseries and his performance is one of the very best. Playing Dracula as an urbane sophisticate but with novel-mandated sharp nails and hairy palms, Jourdan gives us a calculated and seductive evil. Despite a few dodgy special effects, the miniseries is a minor masterpeice that not enough people have seen. If you’re one of these people and if you’re a genre fan, I strongly recommend it to you, if not for Jourdan’s chilling Dracula then for Frank Finlay’s Van Helsing: for my money the best Van Helsing ever.
3. Frank Langella; or, the Romantic Dracula
From the movie Dracula (1979) directed by John Badham
Stephanie Meyer, Ann Rice and Gary Oldman take note: *this* is how you do a romantic vampire. Like Bela Lugosi before him, Frank Langella played Dracula on Broadway before commiting his performance to film. A victim of his era, Langella’s bouffant disco hair and Tom Jones open necked shirts might put some people off, but once you get past the glorious Seventies-ness of his look you’ll find a brilliant performance by one of the most underrated actors ever. Playing the Count as a romantic lover rather than an evil bastard, Langella’s Dracula is the kind of guy that men want to be and women want to be with. Acting rings round Lord Lawrence Olivier, Langella seduces his way through the movie, but isn’t afraid to turn up the heat when nessecary, swooping down on Renfield like a giant badass bat and breaking his neck without a second thought. Sadly the only version of the movie available on DVD has, for some reason, had all the colour stripped out of it leaving it looking almost like a black and white move. But worry not, some fiddling with the colour and contrast settings on your TV soon restore it to its full glory.
BONUS DRACULA!
Frank Langella was replaced in the role of Dracula by the great Jeremy Brett who made such an awesome Dracula that I couldn’t leave him out. So here is is, in all his vampiric awesomness.
Elementary, my dear Dr. Van Helsing!
2. Bela Lugosi; or, the Archetypal Dracula
From the movie Dracula (1931) directed by Todd Browning
Whenever the name Dracula is mentioned the first thing that comes to most people’s minds is the image of Bela Lugosi, his velvet lined cape draped over his shoulders, his eyes blazing, his mouth twisted into a sadistic smile and his hand beckoning you towards him. The definitive image of Dracula, Lugosi not only gave us the classic image of Dracula but also forever defined what Dracula is supposed to sound like, his velvet smooth Hungarian accent making potentially cheeseball lines like “I never drink… wine” and “the blood is the life” seem genuinley unsettling and eerie. Trapped forever in the Dracula role, Lugosi played similar characters in such films as Mark of the Vampire, Return of the Vampire and Plan Nine From Outer Space, but 80 years on he is still the most famous Dracula ever.
1. Christopher Lee; or, the Ultimate Dracula
From the movie Horror of Dracula (1958) directed by Terrance Fisher
This is the third time Christopher Lee’s Count has made the number one spot on a list (top ten movie vampires and top ten Hammer horror movies) so regular readers might have predicted who was going to be in the top spot. Lee’s Dracula is a combination of the best parts of every other Dracula on this list: the sauveness of Carradine, the animalistic intensity of Palance, the allure of Langella and the iconicness (it’s a word now, dammit) of Lugosi combined to make the perfect Dracula. Dispensing with any lost love rubbish, Lee’s Dracula isn’t a charmer who seduced women, his biting scenes often have an uncomfortable overtone of rape to them, with him forcing himself upon his victims who, until the realised he was going to bite them and not fuck them, were more than willing to let him into their bedrooms. Energetic and deeply primal, Lee represents not only an undead aristocrat but a force of nature that will stop at nothing to get his way.
So there you go. The Top Ten (movie or otherwise) Draculas. But there’s one very important version of the Count that I missed? Any ideas? No? Well, have a look at…
Count Dracula
From the novel “Dracula” (1897) by Bram Stoker
Dracula may have more screen apperances under his belt than any other monster, but in the countless adaptations of Stoker’s original novel not one has presented us with Dracula as he was originally written. I’ll hand it over to Stoker for a description:
“His face was a strong-a very strong-aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.”
It was this Dracula that appeared on a stamp in 1997 (along with the Frankenstein Monster – labelled as per bloody usual as just “Frankenstein” – Jekyll and Hyde and the Hound of the Baskervilles.)
The closest anyone has come is Christopher Lee in the Jess Franco movie Count Dracula, but sadly, after a strong opening, that movie kinda falls apart. Still worth tracking down if you’re a genre fan.
On the radio Orson Welles, had the advantage of not having to show his face, but his use of a strong accent differs from Stoker’s vampire Count who spoke with no trace of an accent. Perhaps one day Hollywood will give us Dracula as Stoker intended, but sadly, no interpretatin of the Count has come close.
Dracula is perhaps the most famous villain in all of fiction and he is endlessly fascinating. Whether Gary Oldman, Frank Langella, Gerard Butler, Bela Lugosi or even Leslie Nielsen is in the part, the character of Count Dracula is guaranteed to bring in an audience. Did I overlook your favorite Dracula? Let me know below. End transmission.
