***SPOILER*** The trivia says that this is possibly the first vampire movie that shows the desintegration of the vampire. That´s not correct. At first you have the ending of Nosferatu and also in the movie "Vampyr" you see the vampire desintegration after the staking. In the DVD i have here you see just a short dissolve and then Belas face starts to melt, but it is only a very short shot. Was that cut? Is there a version with a longer "melting-scene" out there?
What I don't understand is why the wolfman put the spike (everyone knows its a wooden stake where did they get that spike bit?) the sunlight should have been enough.
I don't see how this is any kind of sequel to Dracula.
In the novel 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker, Dracula lost a few powers during the day. He could be injured or even killed. He lost his ability to transform himself into various mean animals, or a fog, or a sort of speckled cloud, or make himself so thin that he could go through the tinyest crack in a doorway. He can still move with super speed.
He appears in the daylight and goes about his business without fear.
As to the spike -- at the end of the novel, Dracula is assassinated by two men. They both jump him, (this is in the daylight, so he can't transform his way out of it), and one of them plunges a steel knife into his chest, while the other uses a knife something like a claymore, called a Kukri knife, to cut off Dracula's head.
Van Helsing is the instructor for Dracula's abilities and disabilities, in the novel, but he gets them from his good friend 'Arminius', a professor of Transylvanian lore who is a professor in Hungary.
Van Helsing can't be sure of the information from his friend, but he tells the others that they must follow what Arminius says, because he is their sole source.
It turns out that some of the information is wrong.
The surprising thing, is that in the novel, even Dracula is surprised to be able to do things that he himself never thought he could do.
We do need some variety in our hundreds of vampire films, don't we?
With due respect to your opinion (and everyone has them), I have read "Dracula" at least three times, and cannot put it down. I am disappointed that it ends, at the end! It IS l-o-n-g, without a doubt; it is the PERFECT book for cold winter nights in front of the fire (or woodstove, in my case), in an old recliner and with a cold beer. Or, what have you. I recommend EVERYONE read "Dracula", and most, if not all, of the rest of 'The Classics' ("Frankenstein", however, takes a Herculean effort.....)
I thought the novel was super creepy up until we reach London, then everything drags. In fact, I never finished it. I suppose I should give it another try soon.
A 3-D Spaghetti Western rereleased to theatres cominatyanoir3d.com Comin' soon!
> Belas face starts to melt, but it is only a very short shot...
Looks like the censors had their way with this one. It was the beginning of a great-looking effect, decades before Spielberg did it in "Raiders of the Lost Arc". The wax bust of Lugosi is absolutely convincing. The later shot of him melted away is nicely gruesome, too. So, we'll just have to imagine the stages in between.
If anybody finds the complete effect, we'd love to know about it!