The 1978 BBC Dracula, with Louis Jourdan, is easily my favorite production of the novel. While it takes some liberties with the source (most notably, the omission of a couple of key characters from the novel, and the apparently obligatory altering of Mina's maiden name), of all adaptations, it's probably the truest to the novel. The actors are all first rate, especially Frank Finlay as Van Helsing -- who puts Anthony Hopkins to shame, I'm sad to say; he easily rivals Peter Cushing for sheer screen presence. Jourdan probably doesn't jive with most people's mental image of Dracula, but he captures the spirit of the role better than any other actor; it's just a pity that he didn't first appear an old, withered man, as Dracula did in the book -- an aspect that Gary Oldman captured beautifully in Coppla's version, even if his "old man Drac" doesn't quite match Stoker's description.
Each time I've watched Bram Stoker's Dracula, I've come away with a slightly different impression -- which may actually speak to its credit, on some level. When I saw it at the theater during its first run, I was pretty well taken with it, despite its drastic deviations from the novel and its flagrant pilfering of DS's reincarnation theme. On subsequent viewings, though, my reactions have varied from faint admiration of its style to outright loathing of just about everything in it, particularly Keanu Reeves. Without casting aspersions on Anthony Hopkins, who is one of my favorite actors, I despise him as Van Helsing; and I must abashedly admit that my original admiration of Winona Ryder as Mina was based entirely on certain somewhat more, um, physical criteria. The whole production appears to take place on one big optically augmented sound stage, and, especially at the end, the screenplay borders on the outright saccharine.
On the other hand, some of the cinematography is inspired, Wojciech Kilar's score is one of the most dramatically effective works of film music I've ever heard, and Gary Oldman is just irresistible as a bloodsucker. The delivery of his lines, wonderfully Lugosi-affected, couldn't be more apt or expertly delivered. And Tom Waits as Renfield is so engaging that I could probably watch the film several times just to hear him passionately yelling "DOCTOR JAAAACK!!!!" His scene with Mina in the asylum, where he asks the Lord to bless and keep her, is really quite moving.
And that's my tuppence.
