HORROR OF DRACULA (1958)
Starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing
Arguably the best Dracula film ever made, this Hammer production was released the same year as the inferior "Curse of Frankenstein". It still delivers plenty of atmosphere and chills, and it’s unfortunate that the film has yet to be released on DVD.
The movie more or less follows the traditional Bram Stoker’s Dracula storyline, only this time Jonathan Harker is killed before he can leave Dracula’s castle. Back in London, Dracula meets his match in the form of Van Helsing, played with unusual gusto by Peter Cushing.
The real highlight of this film is Lee, the greatest Dracula who ever graced the silver
screen. Although he hardly has any dialogue, his presence is menacing and (girls tell me)
sensual at the same time. You truly get the sense that Van Helsing and his sidekicks are
in over their heads when they try to go up against him.
With buxom vampire babes galore and Technicolor blood, "Horror of Dracula" set the stage for a European vampire rennaissance that lasted into the 1970s. Directors like Jean Rollin and films like "Vampyres" all owe their existence to this legendary movie. Hammer would continue to produce stellar "costume drama" vampire films for more than a decade, before the craze finally waned at the end of the 1970s.