Dracula (1968) Picspam
As promised/threatened! A picspam of ITV's 1968 version of Dracula, made as part of their Mystery & Imagination series, with Denholm Elliott, James Maxwell, Suzanne Neve, Bernard Archard, Corin Redgrave, Susan George and Joan Hickson.
This was actually the first version of the original Dracula I'd ever seen/read, so I can't comment on changes properly, but from what the info booklet tells me and Googling, this version cut out some sections to keep the action contained in Whitby (barring one flashback), conflated Renfield with Jonathan Harker (who's already married to Mina), and Lucy has only one suitor, Dr John Seward (her fiance). This results in two pretty random canon couples, and the only thing to do is ship them with everyone else. Which, to be frank, they are already only too inclined to do...
But, as you can tell, this is not the world's greatest adapation of Dracula. And thank goodness; where would be the fun in that? ;-p
I realise, looking back through my screencaps that I didn't bother to take many pics of Dracula himself. Sorry about that. Here he is:
Denholm Elliott - Dracula, Superstar! (It's very odd to watch cultural icons backwards as it were. It seems incomprehensible now that a bunch of people think there's a vampire somewhere about and don't suspect that Count Dracula from Transylvania. Seriously, people. It's Dracula!!!)
James Maxwell as John Seward. Funnily enough, I did not obtain this DVD because it had James Maxwell in it. I bought it for David Collings in The Suicide Club and then discovered when I flicked through the booklet that I had also got a bonus 90 minutes of James Maxwell. Best buy ever, what? (I discovered something else, getting it out again this week: one of the two surviving ABC episodes is directed by Kim Mills! I'll have to be brave and actually watch it. I just get worried that even random old 60s TV horror will be too scary for me...)
Dracula has come for dinner at Dr Seward's house, but he hasn't eaten anything. He's just eyeing up Lucy (Susan George), which annoys Seward. He frowns at him a lot and sometimes sulks, but that's probably just because the make-up people have assaulted him with fake facial hair again (though it's better than usual). Mrs Weston [yes, they changed it, I don't know why] is Joan Hickson, who doesn't get anything much to do and it's awful. *sigh*
James Maxwell is engaged to Susan George. This is just wrong on so many levels, but that's Victorians for you.
He's still up to his old hand-holding tricks, though. (Do not give him your hand if you want it back again before the end of the scene, I tell you.)
Dracula tells Seward he would love to meet Van Helsing and cross swords with him. Metaphorically speaking. Ahahahahaha. (Denholm Elliott is standing on a step. His vampiric powers do not include suddenly being taller than James Maxwell. I don't know how tall James Maxwell was, but very.)
Lucy is fascinated by the Count.
In fact, next time the Count's around (at the Westons), this is what Seward walks in on. No wonder he's frowny. Dracula, Liadt, is a ring-wearer, you'll notice. (Also I see that Lucy's dress that I didn't like so much has a lot of beading on it that I didn't realise while watching.)
The affronted Victorian medical gent. (Actually, talking of clothes, I do like James Maxwell's coat/jacket thing that he wears up until the end of Act Two. It just works for him, I think. Funnily enough, I enjoy the adaptation significantly less once Seward goes into mourning and stops wearing the coat, but I'm sure that's just coincidence...)
Lucy: "Don't worry, Count. John is mainly here to see my Mother." Ouch. (Mind, it serves Seward right, because - Lucy's other suitors having vanished - he appears to be the only man she really gets to see, what with her mother being ill, which makes it look as if he's rather unfairly taken advantage of that & possibly her first big crush. Bad, James Maxwell, bad. However, it may of course be Lucy who's taking advantage of him, which is my only theory for making sense of people's canon romances in this...)
Because...
Then Mina (Suzanne Neve) arrives and the mystery is solved! Lucy and Mina just went for the nearest handy oblivious/dim Victorian male, so they could continue their relationship in peace. (Mina/Lucy is genuinely kind of canon in this, so why not?)
In this photo, you can see nearly the whole cast at once. Amazing!
Actually, Seward is surprisingly keen on Mina, too, especially since he's not supposed to know her all that well. (This is probably because James Maxwell and Suzanne Neve were married in Portrait of a Lady only a short while before. It's bound to get confusing for actors.)
Or possibly they'll just solve everything with a threesome. (Dr Seward will be outraged to start with, but don't worry, he's surprisingly persuadable into doing just about everything he disapproves of. This may be because, as Google just informed me, he's carrying out the roles of four other people at once. That explains a lot. It's no wonder he doesn't know whether he's coming or going.)
What? (Oh, and Mina has lost her husband, who went to visit Count Dracula and never came back.)
So, naturally, since Mina has come all this way to see Lucy, she immediately goes off for a nice talk with Dr Seward. They have more meaningful interaction in this one scene than either of them ever do with their canon partners.
Except she doesn't want to know details of his love life, thanks. (I know, Mina, me neither, but this is Dracula, and vampirism = sex, and don't think this adaptation doesn't know that. It's going to get a whole lot dodgier than Dr Seward being jealous.)
"Now do stop sulking, Dr Seward."
Quick pic from Portrait of a Lady, also 1968 & probably why Suzanne Neve & James Maxwell are confused about who they're going out with.)
Mina is actually married to Jonathan Harker (Corin Redgrave) who, as it turns out is Seward's mad patient locked up in the asylum.
(James Maxwell is a bit of a gooseberry, though.)
And, as I said, Lucy/Mina is also a thing. It'll have to be a threesome unless a vampire eats them all first... (What are the chances of that?)
Van Helsing (Bernard Archard) has also turned up to take a look at Harker, just in time for vampiric shenanigans to go down. At least, these are his reasons, but frankly all of his plans seem to involve causing Dr Seward to take his jacket off, clutch at him, and turn faint. And incidentally don't seem to involve actually saving Seward's fiancee. Sadly, Van Helsing is unaware that this adaptation already has an OT3 and it has no room for someone with more extreme facial hair.
I may mock, but there are really nice bits. This is from the one of two pieces of film work, where Lucy goes to visit the Count's house and the whole thing is filmed through windows and over railings from the point of view of someone or something watching her. The b&w only adds to the eeriness of it.
The other piece of film work is a flashback to Jonathan Harker at Dracula's castle, encountering the Brides of Dracula, and the Count himself. Actually, it should get several bonus points for this, because one of the Brides happens to be black, which Googling told me is definitely not specified in the book. (I know that's not much, but it was for a 1960s British TV classic adaptation, I have to say.)
After this, Lucy is mysteriously ill and Dr Seward and Van Helsing try to find ways to help her, which mostly consists of Van Helsing suggesting things that Seward is horrified and Victorianly outraged about and refusing to contemplate until two seconds later when he agrees to do everything Van Helsing says. (Talking of people having unhealthy influence over other people, er, yes...)
In between, they are mean and patronising to Miss Marple. It was awful and wrong, and that was why I wrote that ficlet where Miss Marple beat Dracula. If Victorian gents were not so clueless, they'd have realised that if you have Miss Marple around, you get her involved and then you'll have no more vampire problems. They didn't. What can you do?
Joan Hickson is as fed up about it as I was.
You can sum up Van Helsing and Seward's relationship in these two pictures:
"That's outrageous! No!"
"... but if you say it's important, then okay."
Anyway, Van Helsing suggests a blood transfusion. Dr Seward is professionally opposed to such things, except he's rolling up his sleeves to volunteer before Van Helsing has finished talking.
Van Helsing has accomplished Step 1: Make Dr Seward remove his jacket and go faint. It might have helped Lucy, you never know.
Then Step 2: Take him home and wrap him in a blanket and give him some tea. And tell him scary stories about vampires.
Dr Seward finds it even harder standing up to Van Helsing when he's fainty than when he's not: NO POT-POURRI! he says when Van Hlesing gets the crosses out (and then collapses back into the chair). (Sorry. Dreadful pun. Bad me.)
Van Helsing: It's important!
Dr Seward: Oh, all right.
Dr Seward: NO, NO GARLIC! NO HOKEY SUPERSTITION!
Van Helsing: It's important.
Dr Seward: Oh, okay.
Dr Seward: i don't believe in vampires!!
Van Helsing: But I have pictures!!
Dr Seward: Hearsay and rumour and... wait, Count Dracula is a vampire!!
Van Helsing: ... don't be silly, John.
He's not as dim as he seems. He never did trust that dratted Count.
They fail to save Lucy. Van Helsing is probably terribly sorry about this.
Terribly, terribly sorry...
Dr Seward is upset, and cries all over her. (He faints, he cries, he's useless at vampire hunting... I don't know what Van Helsing sees in him. It must be the jacket.)
Even in grief, James Maxwell will hold people's hands, even when Susan George has tried to put hers out of reach.
James Maxwell/hand holding OTP. *shrugs* Don't ask me.
And then the dead body moves and talks. Gosh.
But this is what happens when you try to kiss girls.
Lucy is having an active afterlife, and appears to Mina in the graveyard and seduces her.
Sadly, nice as this is, Van Helsing is planning staking, so there will be no more femslash. He's such a spoilsport.
Dr Seward goes into mourning. (Goodness only knows what happened to Lucy's mother. Maybe she died of the shock, because we never see her again. Poor Miss Marple.)
Dr Seward tells Van Helsing that he's had enough of his necromancy and he's not helping him any more, dammit!
... except of course if Van Helsing says that it's really important they sneak into the crypt of his dead girlfriend in the middle of the night and hammer a wooden stake through her heart. That would be okay, obviously. He's very persuadable. He is, however, about as much use as a chocolate teapot when it comes to fighting vampires. I can only conclude that Van Helsing takes him to graveyards for the same reason miners took canaries down mines. If there's a vampire lurking about, Dr Seward will fall into its clutches. Or faint. Or possibly whimper.
The stress is getting to him.
Van Helsing takes him out vampire hunting for a second night. (I suppose he does make Van Helsing look good in comparison, there is that.)
During the showdown (which sadly, did indeed only involve metaphorical sword-fighting), Dr Seward faints off again.
Dracula's crumbling into dust is a big SFX scene and takes quite a while. (It gets points for this, too. It's pretty nice/scary for 1968 British TV.)
However, before I get too mean, let it be said that Dr Seward is the kind of person who'll think to give you his coat when you've been running round chilly graveyards in your nighty, and that's what counts in the end, isn't it?
... except, whoops, Mina has Dracula's ring and she's looking lustfully at Seward's neck. (Yeah. I don't know, but she really isn't that interested in her husband, even now he's slightly not mad again.) What happens next, who knows? That bit is up to you.
I'm a terrible person. I'm so uninterested in Dracula himself, so I went and found a sensible picture of him to make up for it.
If you made it through all of that, I'm impressed - now, have some virtual cake! *hands it round* (If anyone really likes this episode, I'm sorry! I do, too, really. I'm just easily amused and prone to flippancy with screencaps.)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there:
This was actually the first version of the original Dracula I'd ever seen/read, so I can't comment on changes properly, but from what the info booklet tells me and Googling, this version cut out some sections to keep the action contained in Whitby (barring one flashback), conflated Renfield with Jonathan Harker (who's already married to Mina), and Lucy has only one suitor, Dr John Seward (her fiance). This results in two pretty random canon couples, and the only thing to do is ship them with everyone else. Which, to be frank, they are already only too inclined to do...
But, as you can tell, this is not the world's greatest adapation of Dracula. And thank goodness; where would be the fun in that? ;-p
I realise, looking back through my screencaps that I didn't bother to take many pics of Dracula himself. Sorry about that. Here he is:
Denholm Elliott - Dracula, Superstar! (It's very odd to watch cultural icons backwards as it were. It seems incomprehensible now that a bunch of people think there's a vampire somewhere about and don't suspect that Count Dracula from Transylvania. Seriously, people. It's Dracula!!!)
James Maxwell as John Seward. Funnily enough, I did not obtain this DVD because it had James Maxwell in it. I bought it for David Collings in The Suicide Club and then discovered when I flicked through the booklet that I had also got a bonus 90 minutes of James Maxwell. Best buy ever, what? (I discovered something else, getting it out again this week: one of the two surviving ABC episodes is directed by Kim Mills! I'll have to be brave and actually watch it. I just get worried that even random old 60s TV horror will be too scary for me...)
Dracula has come for dinner at Dr Seward's house, but he hasn't eaten anything. He's just eyeing up Lucy (Susan George), which annoys Seward. He frowns at him a lot and sometimes sulks, but that's probably just because the make-up people have assaulted him with fake facial hair again (though it's better than usual). Mrs Weston [yes, they changed it, I don't know why] is Joan Hickson, who doesn't get anything much to do and it's awful. *sigh*
James Maxwell is engaged to Susan George. This is just wrong on so many levels, but that's Victorians for you.
He's still up to his old hand-holding tricks, though. (Do not give him your hand if you want it back again before the end of the scene, I tell you.)
Dracula tells Seward he would love to meet Van Helsing and cross swords with him. Metaphorically speaking. Ahahahahaha. (Denholm Elliott is standing on a step. His vampiric powers do not include suddenly being taller than James Maxwell. I don't know how tall James Maxwell was, but very.)
Lucy is fascinated by the Count.
In fact, next time the Count's around (at the Westons), this is what Seward walks in on. No wonder he's frowny. Dracula, Liadt, is a ring-wearer, you'll notice. (Also I see that Lucy's dress that I didn't like so much has a lot of beading on it that I didn't realise while watching.)
The affronted Victorian medical gent. (Actually, talking of clothes, I do like James Maxwell's coat/jacket thing that he wears up until the end of Act Two. It just works for him, I think. Funnily enough, I enjoy the adaptation significantly less once Seward goes into mourning and stops wearing the coat, but I'm sure that's just coincidence...)
Lucy: "Don't worry, Count. John is mainly here to see my Mother." Ouch. (Mind, it serves Seward right, because - Lucy's other suitors having vanished - he appears to be the only man she really gets to see, what with her mother being ill, which makes it look as if he's rather unfairly taken advantage of that & possibly her first big crush. Bad, James Maxwell, bad. However, it may of course be Lucy who's taking advantage of him, which is my only theory for making sense of people's canon romances in this...)
Because...
Then Mina (Suzanne Neve) arrives and the mystery is solved! Lucy and Mina just went for the nearest handy oblivious/dim Victorian male, so they could continue their relationship in peace. (Mina/Lucy is genuinely kind of canon in this, so why not?)
In this photo, you can see nearly the whole cast at once. Amazing!
Actually, Seward is surprisingly keen on Mina, too, especially since he's not supposed to know her all that well. (This is probably because James Maxwell and Suzanne Neve were married in Portrait of a Lady only a short while before. It's bound to get confusing for actors.)
Or possibly they'll just solve everything with a threesome. (Dr Seward will be outraged to start with, but don't worry, he's surprisingly persuadable into doing just about everything he disapproves of. This may be because, as Google just informed me, he's carrying out the roles of four other people at once. That explains a lot. It's no wonder he doesn't know whether he's coming or going.)
What? (Oh, and Mina has lost her husband, who went to visit Count Dracula and never came back.)
So, naturally, since Mina has come all this way to see Lucy, she immediately goes off for a nice talk with Dr Seward. They have more meaningful interaction in this one scene than either of them ever do with their canon partners.
Except she doesn't want to know details of his love life, thanks. (I know, Mina, me neither, but this is Dracula, and vampirism = sex, and don't think this adaptation doesn't know that. It's going to get a whole lot dodgier than Dr Seward being jealous.)
"Now do stop sulking, Dr Seward."
Quick pic from Portrait of a Lady, also 1968 & probably why Suzanne Neve & James Maxwell are confused about who they're going out with.)
Mina is actually married to Jonathan Harker (Corin Redgrave) who, as it turns out is Seward's mad patient locked up in the asylum.
(James Maxwell is a bit of a gooseberry, though.)
And, as I said, Lucy/Mina is also a thing. It'll have to be a threesome unless a vampire eats them all first... (What are the chances of that?)
Van Helsing (Bernard Archard) has also turned up to take a look at Harker, just in time for vampiric shenanigans to go down. At least, these are his reasons, but frankly all of his plans seem to involve causing Dr Seward to take his jacket off, clutch at him, and turn faint. And incidentally don't seem to involve actually saving Seward's fiancee. Sadly, Van Helsing is unaware that this adaptation already has an OT3 and it has no room for someone with more extreme facial hair.
I may mock, but there are really nice bits. This is from the one of two pieces of film work, where Lucy goes to visit the Count's house and the whole thing is filmed through windows and over railings from the point of view of someone or something watching her. The b&w only adds to the eeriness of it.
The other piece of film work is a flashback to Jonathan Harker at Dracula's castle, encountering the Brides of Dracula, and the Count himself. Actually, it should get several bonus points for this, because one of the Brides happens to be black, which Googling told me is definitely not specified in the book. (I know that's not much, but it was for a 1960s British TV classic adaptation, I have to say.)
After this, Lucy is mysteriously ill and Dr Seward and Van Helsing try to find ways to help her, which mostly consists of Van Helsing suggesting things that Seward is horrified and Victorianly outraged about and refusing to contemplate until two seconds later when he agrees to do everything Van Helsing says. (Talking of people having unhealthy influence over other people, er, yes...)
In between, they are mean and patronising to Miss Marple. It was awful and wrong, and that was why I wrote that ficlet where Miss Marple beat Dracula. If Victorian gents were not so clueless, they'd have realised that if you have Miss Marple around, you get her involved and then you'll have no more vampire problems. They didn't. What can you do?
Joan Hickson is as fed up about it as I was.
You can sum up Van Helsing and Seward's relationship in these two pictures:
"That's outrageous! No!"
"... but if you say it's important, then okay."
Anyway, Van Helsing suggests a blood transfusion. Dr Seward is professionally opposed to such things, except he's rolling up his sleeves to volunteer before Van Helsing has finished talking.
Van Helsing has accomplished Step 1: Make Dr Seward remove his jacket and go faint. It might have helped Lucy, you never know.
Then Step 2: Take him home and wrap him in a blanket and give him some tea. And tell him scary stories about vampires.
Dr Seward finds it even harder standing up to Van Helsing when he's fainty than when he's not: NO POT-POURRI! he says when Van Hlesing gets the crosses out (and then collapses back into the chair). (Sorry. Dreadful pun. Bad me.)
Van Helsing: It's important!
Dr Seward: Oh, all right.
Dr Seward: NO, NO GARLIC! NO HOKEY SUPERSTITION!
Van Helsing: It's important.
Dr Seward: Oh, okay.
Dr Seward: i don't believe in vampires!!
Van Helsing: But I have pictures!!
Dr Seward: Hearsay and rumour and... wait, Count Dracula is a vampire!!
Van Helsing: ... don't be silly, John.
He's not as dim as he seems. He never did trust that dratted Count.
They fail to save Lucy. Van Helsing is probably terribly sorry about this.
Terribly, terribly sorry...
Dr Seward is upset, and cries all over her. (He faints, he cries, he's useless at vampire hunting... I don't know what Van Helsing sees in him. It must be the jacket.)
Even in grief, James Maxwell will hold people's hands, even when Susan George has tried to put hers out of reach.
James Maxwell/hand holding OTP. *shrugs* Don't ask me.
And then the dead body moves and talks. Gosh.
But this is what happens when you try to kiss girls.
Lucy is having an active afterlife, and appears to Mina in the graveyard and seduces her.
Sadly, nice as this is, Van Helsing is planning staking, so there will be no more femslash. He's such a spoilsport.
Dr Seward goes into mourning. (Goodness only knows what happened to Lucy's mother. Maybe she died of the shock, because we never see her again. Poor Miss Marple.)
Dr Seward tells Van Helsing that he's had enough of his necromancy and he's not helping him any more, dammit!
... except of course if Van Helsing says that it's really important they sneak into the crypt of his dead girlfriend in the middle of the night and hammer a wooden stake through her heart. That would be okay, obviously. He's very persuadable. He is, however, about as much use as a chocolate teapot when it comes to fighting vampires. I can only conclude that Van Helsing takes him to graveyards for the same reason miners took canaries down mines. If there's a vampire lurking about, Dr Seward will fall into its clutches. Or faint. Or possibly whimper.
The stress is getting to him.
Van Helsing takes him out vampire hunting for a second night. (I suppose he does make Van Helsing look good in comparison, there is that.)
During the showdown (which sadly, did indeed only involve metaphorical sword-fighting), Dr Seward faints off again.
Dracula's crumbling into dust is a big SFX scene and takes quite a while. (It gets points for this, too. It's pretty nice/scary for 1968 British TV.)
However, before I get too mean, let it be said that Dr Seward is the kind of person who'll think to give you his coat when you've been running round chilly graveyards in your nighty, and that's what counts in the end, isn't it?
... except, whoops, Mina has Dracula's ring and she's looking lustfully at Seward's neck. (Yeah. I don't know, but she really isn't that interested in her husband, even now he's slightly not mad again.) What happens next, who knows? That bit is up to you.
I'm a terrible person. I'm so uninterested in Dracula himself, so I went and found a sensible picture of him to make up for it.
If you made it through all of that, I'm impressed - now, have some virtual cake! *hands it round* (If anyone really likes this episode, I'm sorry! I do, too, really. I'm just easily amused and prone to flippancy with screencaps.)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there: