Dracula (1979) on Netflix
R19791h 49mDramaFantasyHorrorRomance
Count Dracula comes from Transylvania to Whitby, where Mina Van Helsing rescues him from the Demeter. He visits the Seward house and charms Lucy, whose fiancé Jonathan Harker is unmoved.
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- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.5/1012,678 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes58%
Trailer
Plot summary
On a stormy night in 1913, the ship Demeter runs aground near Whitby, and Mina Van Helsing, visiting her friend Lucy Seward, finds Count Dracula in the wreck and brings him ashore. The count calls at the cliff top house of Lucy's father, Dr. Jack Seward, which also shelters the asylum for the area. As a dinner guest he is charming, and he makes a strong impression on the household, especially Lucy, while her fiancé, Jonathan Harker, is less pleased. That night, while Lucy and Jonathan meet in secret, Dracula comes to Mina in her bed. The next morning Lucy finds her friend awake and struggling for breath, with wounds on her throat, and Dr. Seward sends for Mina's father, Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dracula (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Badham wanted to shoot Dracula in black and white to echo the 1931 film and Edward Gorey's stage production, but Universal executives objected, so cinematographer Gilbert Taylor shot it in warm "golden" colors.
- Like the earlier stage adaptation, the film switches the names of Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra; asked why, John Badham said he could not quite remember, but that he and W. D. Richter maybe "felt like Mina was a dopey name and that Lucy was kind of a nice name".
- A 2018 fan edit restored the film's original theatrical color timing using the laserdisc and VHS releases along with set photography and reference materials, prompting an official release the following year.
- Frank Langella recalled that the beginning of shooting was very disorganized, with the cinematographer changed and continual changes of plans, though he said the process "turned out well" in the end.
- John Williams scored the film after stepping back from Ronald Neame's sci-fi disaster Meteor, when numerous production delays freed him to work with John Badham.
