It began with a dream. A nightmare. Of three vampire women coming to eat him and a man coming in chasing them away and stating "He belongs to me". The dream that Bram Stoker had that sent him on a six year journey to write his novel Dracula that came out in 1897. This 60-minute documentary from Mark Gatiss covers a lot of the Dracula territory from Stoker to Dracula's evolution over the years and the audience's fascination with him. It is nicely done. Stoker was basically a servant to a well-known theater actor at the time who from accounts treated Stoker rather badly but Stoker was star struck by this man to the point of hero worship. But after the dream he began researching the various myths of vampires, the land of the Carpathians, Were-wolves and made a great deal of notes that have survived. He came across the name of Dracula in one of his readings and chose it for his hero. Or villain if you prefer. Stoker describes Dracula as such "a tall old man, clean shaven, save for a long white mustache and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of color about him anywhere." Contrary to popular understanding, Stoker has his Dracula sporting a large, bushy Victorian mustache and having a profuse head of dense, curly hair, massive eyebrows, and peculiarly sharp white teeth, especially the canine teeth."



After Stoker's death Dracula was taken to the stage but given a make-over that has become the Dracula that we know. In the same way really that theater gave Sherlock Holmes characteristics that the stories did not and that have stayed with us. Dracula was now a handsome fellow with good manners, fascinating to women and well-dressed to fit into society. Not so much admittedly in the first official film adaptation of the book - the German expressionistic film Nosferatu in which Dracula was this horrifying figure like a spidery man. The Stoker estate sued the film makers for their representation of Dracula and nearly all the prints were destroyed after they won. Thankfully not all. In some ways he is still the scariest Dracula to me.


On Broadway in the 1920s Dracula was revived and an unknown to American audiences was chosen for the role. From Hungary with an accent that at times was difficult to discern. Bela Lugosi. Hollywood picked up the rights but initially didn't want Lugosi but a known actor such as Paul Muni or Conrad Nagel but Lugosi fought for it and won. I have not seen this in years and love it though I know it now comes under a lot of criticism for his performance and the slow pace. Gatiss takes the view that the Spanish version made at the same time is much the superior film. I need to watch both again some day. But it was a hit and considered a terrifying film at the time and launched Lugosi on a career in horror films that made him famous but that he often regretted.


I think most people's favorite Dracula is Christopher Lee in his seven Hammer films as the character. He took the role absolutely seriously, did not want them camped up and studied the character. The role made him famous as well of course though he had previously been in many films and had been the Creature in The Curse of Frankenstein but is was his suave romantic sexual interpretation of the Count that made him a star. Gatiss interviews six woman who were all victims of Lee's Dracula and they all say wonderful things about him.


This documentary also covers the post-Hammer Dracula's - Oldman, Langella and Louis Jourdan. An enjoyable quick documentary - better I thought than Gatiss's docs on European Horror and general Horror. I notice in his filmography that he has done loads of docs, some that look to be interesting. This can be found on YouTube.

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