Hammer of Dracula

Horror of Dracula (1958)
Directed by Terence Fisher
Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster

Horror of Dracula, also known as just plain Dracula, is one of the original recipe Hammer Horror films from the late 1950s.  As such it is a landmark in cinematic history.  While we're still waiting for a US release of the new restored edition on Blu Ray we'll take another quick look at this classic.

Fan Points
Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.  Done.  That should be enough.  This is the first of the Hammer Draculas, the first Dracula in color.  The Hammer supporting cast features some gem performances.

In this film Count Dracula seems to start out content to remain in his own neighborhood until Jonathan Harker shows up to catalog his library.  Harker, of course, is not just there to catalog a library.  Harker is already a vampire hunter and is there to hunt Count Dracula.  We don't know if Harker's ruse was successful because ultimately his mission is a failure.  He does take out Dracula's unnamed vampire ladyfriend, which may explain Dracula's decision to go after the women in Harker's life.  Why would Harker go after Count Dracula by himself?  It seems like the kind of mission that requires an actual team (as is eventually the case in both the novel and this film at the end.)  Clearly Van Helsing and Harker are already in the business of vampire hunting.  Why does Harker take such a big chance against Dracula?  Well, maybe the thing we have to consider is that in the fictional world we're talking about Dracula is not quite Dracula.  And by that I mean to say that in the fiction the character of Dracula does not come with the same obvious baggage that the name carries for any of us.  Harker is thus on a reconnaissance mission to find out if this Dracula fellow is the cause of the vampire stories coming out of the frightened townsfolk of Klausenberg.

As for Dracula, he must have a regular series of household job listings he puts out on the 19th century Craig's List in order to lure people to his castle and drink their blood.  Clearly Dracula and his lady friend get their regular supply from the locals, but ordering in every so often provides an occasional opportunity to avoid the hunting and just stay home.   Harker just happened to be a hunter in the bargain.  And that's why Dracula has to make an example of him and follow him to where he came from.  Dracula has decided to take the fight to his enemy and fight them there before he has to fight them back home on the defensive.

Like any offensive expedition Dracula's invasion is a risky proposition since he has to take his resting place with him.  Dracula's logistics are his point of vulnerability.  It's all about strategy and tactics.
While retaining the original names the film maintains a general Central European German milieu for the action.  In the novel and even in Nosferatu, the vampire arrives by sea.  Dracula's return to Transylvania is serious ordeal of timetables in the novel.  Here he as an internal line of communication back to his home base.  It's just a matter of a simple carriage race back and forth.  And once Dracula's opponent is as cunning as Van Helsing then suddenly Dracula is on the defensive.

Cushing's first Van Helsing outing represents the character as ultra-competent.  The fight is difficult and nobody quite wants to believe him at first, but ultimately he is a quite competent occult scientist.

Occult scientist?  How can we even use those terms in conjunction?  This is the central conceit of Dracula and it is central in this film as well.  Van Helsing is not a believer in superstition.  But he is aware of the existence of things that are considered supernatural.  It is his power of scientific observation that prevents him from dismissing the vampire stories the way his post-Enlightenment scientific peers dismiss the local superstitions.  Van Helsing does not dismiss superstition out of hand, but instead pursues it to greater knowledge.  In this case the knowledge is a series of specific quantifiable rules of vampirism.  And although the rules of vampirism are suspiciously based on objects and articles of faith/religion it is ultimately a quite rational irrationalism we're talking about.
The truly supernatural would be something that has no rules.  But these vampires are quite rationally designed/created.  They have to follow certain rules, sleep in a coffin filled with their local soil (bound by the accident of geologic specificity) and they can be killed in a myriad of ways.   The centrality of Christianity to vampire stories is something that is only being slightly addressed even after more than a century of these stories.   And there's more to say about that later.

As for sexuality, there is more of it on the cover for this film than in the film itself.  That's not to say that there is none, but just that it is almost as sublimated as it is in the novel.   Jonathan Harker is somewhat lured by the attractiveness of Dracula's ladyfriend (not knowing she was his vampire ladyfriend) but it seems to be equally based on believing her to be Dracula's prisoner.  (Would he have helped her out if she was a wart-faced hag?  Or an obese hirsute dude?  Would any of us deal with people with equanimity in that regard?)  Dracula goes after Lucy and turns her (in some way as the ultimate revenge on Harker and also as a means of replacing his lost minion) and it is clear that his visitations to her bedchamber are moments of ecstatic rapture for her (even if they do leave her utterly and fatally drained).  Curiously, when Lucy is turned she attempts to feed on children (hunting the ultimate symbols of innocence.)

Not content with Lucy, the Count goes after Mina as well.  Mina is married to Arthur and seems to be a quite respectable middle class housewife.  Thus, when Dracula goes after Mina it is a direct assault on the cornerstone of middle class morality.  Dracula is (metaphorically) sexually assaulting (but also even more dangerously, sexually awakening) the very heart of the family unit, and the bastion of contemporary (late 19th century) civilization.  Thus Arthur Holmwood is a metaphor for the cuckolded husband and the Count is the ultimate slick seducer.  (And it would take supernatural capabilities to make his wife cheat on him, right?)  And Dr. Van Helsing is that guy who'll help you kill the guy who slept with your wife.  Wait, what?

Yeah, the metaphor falls apart a little there because in that regard Van Helsing is a little bit of cheated upon partner wish fulfillment.

At any rate, Horror of Dracula delivers on the Gothic premise both visually and in terms of storytelling. The pace is slightly quicker and steadier than Curse of Frankenstein and like that film it is the closest that any of the Hammer films gets to the original version of the story and to the Universal films for that matter.

Cast
Jonathan Harker -- John Van Eyssen
Arthur Holmwood -- Michael Gough
Mina Holmwood -- Melissa Stribling
Lucy Holmwood -- Carol Marsh
Gerda -- Olga Dickie
Tania -- Janina Faye
Inga -- Barbara Archer
Dr. Seward -- Charles Lloyd Pack
Dr. Abraham Van Helsing -- Peter Cushing
Count Dracula -- Christopher Lee
Vampire Woman -- Valerie Gaunt
Landlord -- George Woodbridge
J. Marx, Undertaker -- Miles Malleson
Porter -- Geoffrey Bayldon
Policeman -- George Meritt
Frontier Official -- George Benson

Music by James Bernard
Cinematography by Jack Asher