This coming Sunday, February 11th, PBS will unveil their adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The program is part of the network’s famous Masterpiece/Mystery Theater, the same program that has showcased such great shows in the past like “I, Claudius,” “Upstairs, Downstairs” and “The First Churchills.”
Now the stalwart of WGBH has attempted to bring to the small screen, what every venture on the big screen has failed to do, bring Stoker’s mesmerizing blood-sucking character to life from the imaginative mind of the page to the visual imagination of the viewer. All previous attempts have failed to adequately portray this stunning work with the beauty and grace it deserves and one must ask “Will Masterpiece succeed where all others have failed?” We will leave that final assessement to the viewer. But, if reviews coming from the media are any indication, then this latest attempt falls far short of accomplishing that goal. The most compelling performance to date has come from Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins. And, even though their portrayal of Dracula and Van Helsing respectfully were virtually flawless, the cinematic storyline fell far short of Stoker’s literary masterpiece.
“Dracula” can be seen Sunday, February 11, 2007 at 10PM ET/9PM CT. It stars:
- David Suchet (Poirot) as Abraham Van Helsing
- Marc Warren (Band of Brothers) is Count Dracula
- Dan Stevens (Frankenstein) as Lord Holmwood
- Sophia Myles (Doctor Who: The Girl in the Fireplace) stars as Lucy Westenra
- Benedick Blythe (Highlander) as Lord Godalming
- James Greene (Spooks) portrays Dr. Blore
- Tom Burke (The Libertine) is Dr. John Seward
- Donald Sumpter (Eleventh Hour) as Alfred Singleton
- Stephanie Leonidas (Revelations) as Mina Murray
- and Rafe Spall (Shaun of the Dead) stars as Jonathan Harker
If you miss the showing on February 11th, the DVD is available from the PBS Store.
I saw this version of Dracula over the Christmas holiday, and was disappointed. It seemed to be all spectacle and no heart.
Adaptations of Dracula should (IMHO) be as faithful as possible to the original, OR should take as much liberty with the original as possible. I still prefer the various Hammer versions with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. They now appear dated and unsophisticated, but were usually satisfying. Later adaptations tended to accentuate the barely hidden sexuality of the Count’s thirst for blood, but this TV version was neither one thing or the other. Marc Warren (who was superb in The Vice) gave a mannered caricature of the Count, and David Suchet seemed to walk on simply to show that Van Helsing was part of the story. Jonathan Harker hardly appeared at all.
Some may like this version, but I didn’t.
PBS has a series called “Great Performances”. In 1977 they had a broadcast of “Count Dracula” starring French actor Louis Jordan. It was the best and scariest thing I’d seen on TV since “Pidgeons from Hell”. (Yeah, I’m that old.)
There’s a shot in it where it shows the Count crawling down the exterior wall of castle Carfax.
Scared the s*** out of me.
Louis Jordan rocked.