The Saga of the Original Vampire Lord : DRACULA

When Bram Stoker wrote the original novel of DRACULA in the last decade of the 19th Century, he could never have surmised that his creation would become one of the most famous monsters/villains of the horror genre. Stoker based his vampire count on the historical Vlad Tepes Drakulya, a Rumanian warlord who lived from 1431 to 1476. Vlad was the son of Vlad Dracul, who was member of the Order of the Dragon (Drakul in Rumanian, hence Drakulya as Son of the Dragon) and he fought the Turks many times in his harsh life. He was known as Vlad Tepes, meaning Vlad the Impaler, as he had a nasty habit of impaling the Turkish prisoners of war on high wooden stakes so they would die slowly. How much of the details Stoker knew is not clear but he turned his Dracula into an unforgettable Vampire Lord, who would time and again be reincarnated and rebooted.

The first film version was NOSFERATU from the German filmmaker F.W. Murnau who interpreted the Vampire Lord in a peculiar way (maybe more so because they did not have the money to pay Florence Stoker, the widow of Bram Stoker, for the rights for filming her husband’s book). His Dracula was named Orlock and was played by Max Schreck.

In 1979 Klaus Kinski played this version of Dracula for Werner Herzog in a new version of NOSFERATU: PHANTOM DER NACHT, this time fully paid for.

Hollywood quickly went to work and produced Tod Browning’s DRACULA in 1931 starring Bela Lugosi, who played the Vampire Count to great effect (maybe because of his Hungarian background, he was able to put some exotic qualities in the part).

At the same time that the American version was shot, a Spanish version was shot on the same sets with Spanish speaking actors. The funny thing here is, the Spanish version is much more dynamic than the American version but the Spanish actor to play Dracula could not imbue him with what Lugosi brought to the part.

It was in the 1950s that Hammer Films would make their version of the book with Christopher Lee as the immortal Count. Lee played the Count in many films but after complaining continuously that there was no real development in the treatment of the Count from one film to the next, he opted out in the 1970s.

Jack Palance did a very passable version for American television that immediately inspired Marvel Comic book artist Gene Colan on how to draw the Vampire Lord for the new Marvel Comics series TOMB OF DRACULA, which was hugely popular.

Later in the decade, Louis Jourdan did a very nice version of the Vamprie Count for BBC television before Frank Langella brought a new, romantic version of the Count to Broadway and then also into John Badham’s film DRACULA (1979).

But in all those different versions of the original story, none came as close to the Stoker book as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1992. Gary Oldman portrayed the Vampire Lord in this v ersion with a dramatic flair.

Many other versions have also graced the screen, from the sincere (Count Dracula, 1969 by Jesus Franco) to the insane (Blood for Dracula, 1974, Paul Morrissey, aka Andy Warhols Dracula).

Leslie Nielsen even played Dracula for comedy for Mel Brooks’ Dracula, Dead and Loving It (but George Hamilton had already beat him to it with 1979’s Love At First Bite with an incomparable quote: (Dracula, at the sound of howling wolves) "Children of the Night…… SHUT UP!”

Dario Argento was the first director to make a 3D Dracula film with Thomas Kretschmann as the Count in DARIO ARGENTO’s DRACULA 3D (which was horrendously bad).

A new version will be forthcoming this fall on American television with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as the Count. This reimagining will put the Count in our own time, posing as an entrepreneur who is out for revenge on those who had betrayed him (as the Vampire Lord) in the past. We will have to see if this will be any good.