Count Dracula (1970)

- Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht
Lee's best performance as Dracula?, 9 March 2007

In the past, I've accused Jess Franco of losing focus about 10 minutes into his films. It's not unusual to see him stray from his subject for a few unnecessary close-ups of any random object or to include several minutes of what appears to be vacation footage he shot out of the window of a car. That's certainly not the case with Franco's Count Dracula. By Franco's standards, it's a very straight forward story. There are a number of other things to like about the movie. Excusing the Spain for England locations, the sets are wonderfully Spartan and very atmospheric. Bruno Nicolai's score is about as good as you'll find in any of Franco's efforts. But the highlight is the acting. Franco assembled one of the most acclaimed casts he ever worked with. Klaus Kinski, Herbert Lom, and Christopher Lee give the film immediate credibility. Lee's performance is the real standout. Of the numerous times he played Dracula, his work in Count Dracula just might be the best of his career. The supporting players, featuring the usual group of Franco regulars, give some of their best performances.

But it's this straight forward approach used by Franco that contributes to the films downfall. Franco was attempting to film a fairly faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel (it was the only way he could get Lee to agree to play Dracula). And while he may have actually been more successful along that line than some of the other, better known Dracula films, unfortunately the end result is incredibly dull and lifeless. While the film gets off to a good start with Jonathan Harker's visit to Dracula's castle, things grind to a halt once Dracula reaches England. So even though Count Dracula may represent one of Franco's most competently directed films, the boredom factor is too high to rate the movie anything better than average.

5/10