A scan of a page here says it originally ran for 85 minutes:
http://archive.org/stream/filmdailyvolume555newy#page/400/mode/2up
Is this true? Even with Van Sloan's epilogue cut out, that's an awfully long time discrepancy compared to the version that we have now.
Mark Moore
The Unofficial Captain N Home Page
Online since 02/27/97
http://ldloveszh.tripod.com
I think there was also a last minute censor cut of a scene where Harker and Van Helsing go to the cemetery to put Lucy put of her misery.
shareI just read that the film was severely cut despite the director's wishes. I wonder if the original director's cut could somehow be released in the future, when I'm alive preferably, lol!
shareIf that's true, I'd be curious to know what cuts were made.
The thing that stood out the most to me was the end. Dracula is killed OFF CAMERA and then we immediately cut to credits (if I'm remembering correctly). How, in a movie like this, do you kill the villain off camera?
I just don't get it. It was as if by the time they got to the end they were just sick of making the movie and didn't care anymore. It's incredibly anti-climactic and dulls the impact of the film as a whole.
Yes. Which is why the trivia on IMDB of the cuts made on this film rings true to me. It is disjointed, leaping from scene to scene without the proper transition. And again, it's only an hour and 14 minutes, a very very short film indeed! Perhaps if the cut scenes were found and restored, the film would gain new heights but how would we even know the director's true intent for the film? He must be dead by now unfortunately.
With your last paragraph - I agree as well. I wonder what drama went on behind the scenes while making this? The film was supposed to have a higher budget and following the novel more closely, but things did not turn out that way.