View source for Bram Stoker's Dracula (1974 film)



{{Use British English|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox television
| alt_name             = Dracula
| image                = Dracula palance.jpg
| caption              = Release poster
| image_size           = 250
| genre                = Gothic horror
| based_on             = ''[[Dracula]]''<br>by [[Bram Stoker]]
| director             = [[Dan Curtis]]
| executive_producer   = 
| producer             = Dan Curtis
| writer               = [[Richard Matheson]]
| starring             = [[Jack Palance]]<br>[[Simon Ward]]<br>[[Nigel Davenport]]<br>[[Pamela Brown (actress)|Pamela Brown]]<br>[[Fiona Lewis]]<br>[[Penelope Horner]]<br>Murray Brown
| music                = [[Robert Cobert]]
| editor               = [[Richard A. Harris]]
| cinematography       = [[Oswald Morris]]
| location             = 
| company              = Latglen Ltd.
| network              = [[CBS]]
| released             = {{start date|df=yes|1974|2|8}}
| runtime              = 100 minutes
| country              = United Kingdom
| language             = English<br>Hungarian
}}
'''''Dracula''''', also known as '''''Bram Stoker's Dracula''''' and '''''Dan Curtis' Dracula''''', is a 1974 British [[television film|made-for-television]] [[gothic film|gothic]] [[vampire film]] and [[film adaptation|adaptation]] of [[Bram Stoker]]'s 1897 novel ''[[Dracula]]''. It was written by [[Richard Matheson]] and directed by ''[[Dark Shadows]]'' creator [[Dan Curtis]], with [[Jack Palance]] in the title role of [[Count Dracula]]. It was the second collaboration for Curtis and Palance after the 1968 TV film ''[[The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968 film)|The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture |last=Joshi |first=S.T. |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2011 |isbn=9780313378331 |pages=61}}</ref>

==Plot==
In [[Bistrița|Bistritz]], Hungary May 1897, natives in [[Transylvania]] seem afraid when they learn solicitor [[Jonathan Harker]] is going to [[Castle Dracula]]. Jonathan finds [[Count Dracula]] abrupt and impatient to get things done. Dracula reacts very strongly to a photograph of Harker's fiancée [[Mina Harker|Mina Murray]] and her best friend, [[Lucy Westenra]]. After preventing his [[Brides of Dracula|brides]] from devouring Harker, he forces the young solicitor to write a letter saying he will be staying in Transylvania for a month. Harker climbs down the castle wall and finds Dracula's coffin but is attacked and knocked out by one of Dracula's gypsy servants before he can stake Dracula. They later throw him in the lower levels of the crypt, where the brides attack him again.

The ship the ''Demeter'' runs aground carrying only Dracula and the dead captain lashed to the wheel. Soon after, Lucy begins to fall ill. Her fiancé, [[Arthur Holmwood]], is perplexed and calls in Dr. [[Abraham Van Helsing]]. Dracula arrives at the house in Hillingham and uses remote hypnosis to make the occupants fall asleep, he then turns his attention to Lucy. Entranced, Lucy awakes in a highly aroused state and, sensing Dracula’s presence, is drawn outside to him and completely spellbound. After a brief and passionate seduction she is fully pliant and completely under his will and consumed by bloodlust, Dracula bites on Lucy's neck and feeds on her blood as she is in a helpless state of bliss. Van Helsing starts to recognize what might be happening, after Lucy is found, drained of blood, under a tree the next morning. Dracula has flashbacks of his wife Maria – of whom Lucy is the spitting image – on her deathbed centuries earlier.

Lucy's mother Mrs. Westenra is in the room with Arthur when Dracula comes calling the last time, a wolf shattering the window and attacking Arthur. Lucy soon rises from the dead and comes to the window of Arthur's home, begging to be let in. Arthur does so, delighted and amazed that she's alive, unaware that she is now a vampire under Dracula's control. This very nearly gets him bitten, but Van Helsing interrupts with a cross causing her to flee. They go to Lucy's grave and drive a wooden stake into her heart. When Dracula comes to the tomb later and beckons to her, he goes berserk upon finding that she's truly dead.

Mina tells Van Helsing about the news story about the ''Demeter'', the boxes of earth, and Jonathan going to meet Dracula to sell him a house. From these clues, Van Helsing and Holmwood go about finding all but one of Dracula's "boxes of earth" (containing his native soil, in which a vampire must rest). But back at the hotel, the vampire hunters discover Dracula is there seeking revenge. He has bitten Mina and, before their eyes, forces her to drink blood from a self-inflicted gash in his chest.

The tracking of Dracula back to his home commences with Van Helsing [[Hypnosis|hypnotizing]] Mina. Via the bond of blood, she sees through Dracula's eyes and discovers where he is headed. At the castle, Van Helsing and Holmwood find and stake the brides. Jonathan, now a rabid and bloodthirsty vampire, attacks Arthur and Van Helsing, but in the struggle is knocked by Arthur into a pit of spikes and killed. The final confrontation with Dracula takes place in what looks like a grand ballroom. Arthur produces a cross, temporarily keeping Dracula at bay, but the vampire throws a table at them, knocking it away. As Dracula attacks Arthur, Van Helsing pulls down the window curtains, and sunlight pours in. Dracula is weakened, giving Van Helsing the opportunity to pierce his heart with a long spear.

They leave him there. Before the portrait of a living warrior Dracula, with Lucy's past self Maria in the background, a text scrolls across the screen about a warlord [[Vlad the Impaler]] who lived in the area of Romania known as Transylvania, and how it was said he had found a way to conquer death{{nbsp}}– a legend no one has ever disproven.

==Cast==
* [[Jack Palance]] as [[Count Dracula]] / [[Vlad the Impaler|Vlad III the Impaler]]
* [[Simon Ward]] as [[Arthur Holmwood]]
* [[Nigel Davenport]] as [[Abraham Van Helsing]]
* [[Pamela Brown (actress)|Pamela Brown]] as Mrs. Westenra
* [[Fiona Lewis]] as [[Lucy Westenra]] / Maria
* [[Penelope Horner]] as [[Mina Harker|Mina Murray]]
* Murray Brown as [[Jonathan Harker]]

[[Virginia Wetherell]], Barbara Lindley and [[Sarah Douglas (actress)|Sarah Douglas]] appear as [[Brides of Dracula|Dracula's wives]]. [[George Pravda]] plays an innkeeper in Transylvania and [[Hana Maria Pravda]] plays the innkeeper's wife. [[Reg Lye]] portrays the zookeeper killed by Dracula's wolf. The [[Stockton-on-Tees]] clerk is portrayed by [[John Challis]]. Stuntman [[Eddie Powell]] makes an uncredited appearance as the man killed by Dracula at the Whitby inn.

==Production==
[[Dan Curtis]] decided to film ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'' in two locations: [[Yugoslavia]], where there were old castles and quiet land, and England, where the remainder of the story is set.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Vampire Films of the 1970s: Dracula to Blacula and Every Fang Between |last=Smith |first=Gary A. |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |year=2017 |isbn=9780786497799 |pages=181}}</ref>

== Release ==
The initial [[CBS]] TV broadcast in October 1973 was pre-empted for an address by [[Richard Nixon]] on the resignation of [[Spiro Agnew]]. Instead it was broadcast in February 1974.<ref name="draculafaq"/>

== Legacy ==
The film was released on [[VHS]] and [[Laserdisc]]. In the 1990s [[Columbia Pictures]] and [[Francis Ford Coppola]], who wanted to emphasize that [[Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992 film)|his cinematic adaptation]] of ''[[Dracula]]'' would be unlike any that had come before,<ref name="http">{{cite news|title=A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : QUICK BITES : Bet You Thought Bela Lugosi's Neck Biter Was True to Bram Stoker|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=1992-01-26|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-01-26-ca-1125-story.html|access-date=2010-11-22|first=Andy|last=Marx|archive-date=15 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120715060304/http://articles.latimes.com/1992-01-26/entertainment/ca-1125_1_bram-stoker|url-status=live}}</ref> purchased the rights to the title ''Bram Stoker's Dracula''.{{cn|date=October 2025}}

In addition to the title of Curtis' movie, Coppola also utilized its two key elements which distinguish it from the novel and previous adaptations: the depiction of [[Count Dracula]] and [[Vlad the Impaler]]{{nbsp}}– the historical Dracula{{nbsp}}– as being the same person, and the relationship between [[Count Dracula]] (played by [[Jack Palance]] and [[Gary Oldman]] respectively) and his reincarnated wife: [[Lucy Westenra]] ([[Fiona Lewis]]) in the 1974 movie, and [[Mina Harker|Mina Murray]] ([[Winona Ryder]]) in the 1992 film.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Vampire Film |last1=Silver |first1=Alain |last2=Ursini | first2=James|publisher=Hal Leonard |year=2011 |isbn=978-0879103958 |pages=155}}</ref>

The [[Marvel Comics]] series ''[[The Tomb of Dracula]]'' features a Dracula whose appearance was based on Jack Palance.<ref name="draculafaq">{{Cite book |title=Dracula FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Count from Transylvania |last=Scivally |first=Bruce |publisher=Backbeat books |year=2015 |isbn=978-1617136009}}</ref> The series debuted in 1972, before Palance had actually played the role of Dracula. Artist [[Gene Colan]] was inspired by Palance's performance in ''[[The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968 film)|The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' (1968), Curtis and Palance's previous television movie.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Secrets in the Shadows: The Art & Life of Gene Colan |last=Field |first=Tom |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=9781893905450 |pages=99}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Vampire film]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0070003|Bram Stoker's Dracula}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|id=1006235-dracula|title=Bram Stoker's Dracula}}
* [http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/d/dracula-script-transcript-jack-palance.html Transcribed script online]

{{Adaptations of Dracula}}
{{Dan Curtis}}
{{Richard Matheson}}

[[Category:1974 television films]]
[[Category:1974 horror films]]
[[Category:1974 films]]
[[Category:British horror television films]]
[[Category:British vampire films]]
[[Category:Dracula films]]
[[Category:Dracula television shows]]
[[Category:Films about reincarnation]]
[[Category:Films set in Transylvania]]
[[Category:Films set in 1897]]
[[Category:CBS films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Dan Curtis]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Richard Matheson]]
[[Category:Fiction about polygamy]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Vlad the Impaler]]
[[Category:Films set in castles]]
[[Category:1974 English-language films]]
[[Category:1974 British films]]
[[Category:English-language horror films]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Bram Stoker's Dracula (1974 film)|access_date=2026-02-27}}