Product description

Horror of Dracula [DVD] [1958] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Price: £2.95
Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790768106
ISBN : 0790768100
Label : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Release date : 2002-10-01
Title : Horror of Dracula [DVD] [1958] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actor : Array
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 1958-06-16
Region code : 1
Running time : 82
Studio : Warner Home Video
Theatrical releaseDate : 1958-05-08
MPN : WARD11499D

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2009-01-22 rating:

Fangs very much, Hammer
The makers of Dracula, for budget reasons, could not faithfully reproduce the Bram Stoker novel, so instead had to adapt it to their own limitations. br / br /The result is a great success, although maybe more one for cult film lovers rather than mainstream fans. br / br /The plot has already been discussed by other reviewers, so I'll just add that this is one of those rare films were the actors play their parts to such perfection that it just couldn't fail.

review by: Jan and Alan date: 2008-08-20 rating:

The Best Dracula adaptation witht the great Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee
This is an excellent adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, it doesn't remain as loyal to the book as other adaptations do but still, it's excellent! Peter Cushing is the best Van Helsing and Christopher Lee is the best Dracula, undoubtedly. On the DVD, the quality of the sound and footage is excellent, no scratches, this is overall and excellent release.

review by: date: 2008-06-22 rating:

'The Terrifying Lover Who Died Yet Lived !'
Along with 'the Wicker Man' this is the finest British thriller ever made. br /A big accolade but one it deserves. br /It made me jump out of my seat as a child; the scene where Christopher Lee bursts in and starts throwing luscious Valerie Gaunt around. Despite my mother having histrionics, and warning me not to tell my teachers that I'd been up late watching horror movies; it set me up for a lifetime of wonderful (and occasionally vile) film experiences. br /Whether you're a horror fan or not, this is a cracking, lightning-paced, sexy, gothic joy-ride. br / br /The plot is bare-basic (and is detailed elsewhere) so 'Dracula' relies on atmosphere, beautiful visuals and superb acting - particularly Peter Cushing who, despite delayed entrance into the action, is completely believable as the single-minded vampire nemesis Van Helsing. br /I read somewhere that Cushing had, in the writers opinion: 'an elegant, yet soulful screen presence'. I'm in agreement. He holds the attention totally when he's on screen; similar with Lee but for different reasons. While Cushing is a better actor, Lee makes an unforgettable impression, and looks genuinely other-worldly. br / br /The music track is sensational. James Bernard; One of 'scores'(sorry!) he did for Hammer during a rewarding (for us!) 20 (another score! Sorry again.) year association with them, and there's not many better than this one. Surprisingly subtle at times, but lets rip with that familiar and startling theme when needs demand. br / br /Quality scenes tumble over themselves; most memorable, and disturbing for me are the ones in the windy, leafy cemetery, where one of Count Lee's female victims - resurrected as an undead - attempts to seduce a child into the joys of vampirism. br /The tension is at breaking point until a timely intervention by Dr Van Cushing saves the day. br /Director Terence Fisher was on dangerous ground here, albeit implicating rather than visualizing, and doesn't it tell you plenty about the mind set of Trevelyan and his minions down at the censors board, who apparently missed the suggestive nature of these scenes, preferring to concentrate on stakings and other such trivialities. br /Perhaps it was the fact that the child was a girl that foxed them. Same sex and all that (well it was the 50's!). br / br /The ending too is spectacular; a literal reading of the Church's final funeral rites, set to a pounding music and acted out to perfection by two of dear old Blighty's finest. Awesome. Once seen, never forgotten. br / br /Despite being reviled on release for it's sex and violence; nowadays, 'Dracula' is perfect family entertainment of the rainy, Sunday afternoon variety (After you've been to church of course, can't be too careful!); and don't forget to look out for the comedy-actor colossus, Miles Malleson who sparkles as a bumbling undertaker. br / br /They certainly don't (and have no interest in trying to..) make 'em like this anymore -- so treasure this one.

review by: carnatic musician date: 2008-01-19 rating:

CHRISTOPHER LEE'S DRACULA
One of the GREATEST DRACULA FILMS OF ALL TIME. When this film was first released in India, in 1960, it created a SENSATION! People(particularly Keralites) had a new star. CHRISTOPHER LEE! Even now, 48 years later, the name on people's lips the moment one mentions 'DRACULA' is CHRISTOPHER LEE. Mr.Lee is the perfect Dracula. With dripping fangs and blood shot eyes, he is, in my opinion, the Dracula, Bram Stoker created. Pure Evil. No Love-lorn weepie weepie 'Count'. br /

review by: date: 2007-12-21 rating:

Hammer's finest vampire film - but a disappointing DVD
Hammer's groundbreaking 1958 version of Dracula (aka Horror of Dracula) is still one of the very best despite the many liberties Jimmy Sangster's concise and highly effective script takes with Bram Stoker's novel to whittle it down to an hour-and-a-half. It's not just the names that have been changed around and the cast of characters greatly reduced to Hammer's budget levels (admirably disguised here by Bernard Robinson's excellent production design). John Van Eyssen's Jonathan Harker is no longer a lawyer, but here is posing as a librarian to get into Dracula's castle with an ulterior motive - presumably on the grounds that the audience knows going in just what Dracula is so there's no point putting the hero through all that mystery when there's staking to be done. The budget doesn't stretch to the voyage and arrival of the ghost ship Demeter or even a Renfield for that matter, and this Dracula has no social interaction with his intended victims in Whitby or London - in fact, he never even leaves the continent. Nor is the vampire fascinated with Harker's intended - here he simply seeks her out as revenge. Yet the changes work surprisingly well, and even throws in a few good twists like the location of Dracula's hiding place. br / br /Although he doesn't have much screen time, Christopher Lee is inspired casting, a feral, vicious creature rather than a Eurotrash smoothie while a very agile Peter Cushing makes a surprisingly physical Van Helsing, the final fight between the good doctor and the evil count surprisingly energetic and violent before the best of the studio's ashes to ashes, dust-to-dust finales. Although rather sedate by today's standards, this film still has a surprising degree of energy and it's easy to see why it made had such a profound impact on the horror genre for decades to come. The first colour version of the tale, it made a big selling point of being able to see the blood in all its vivid hues of red, although it also makes much play on the vampire's female victims being absolutely gagging for it (perhaps not so surprising with Peter Cushing and Michael Gough as the male leads), setting the groundwork for the tits'n'fangs formula that would become the studio's bread and butter over the next couple of decades. A surprisingly cheap picture, thanks to Bernard Robinson's elegant production design and fine direction from Terence Fisher before the drink got to him, it never looks cheap: if anything, it's rather seductively good looking. Unfortunately this is slightly compromised by Warners' widescreen DVD, which feels overcropped at 1.85:1 (the film was intended to be shown in 1.66:1) and there's also a slight wobble at the end of the closing credits.

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