John Badham directed this version of the famous Bram Stoker novel and later stage play that cast Frank Langella as a cultured, charming aristocrat who beguiles the women he encounters, especially Kate Nelligan as Lucy Seward, whose father(played by Donald Pleasance) runs the local sanitarium that Dracula makes use of to further his diabolical schemes. Sir Laurence Oliver plays professor Abraham Van Helsing, who comes to believe Dracula is a powerful vampire who must be stopped.
Though handsomely made, with a fine cast, especially Langella who is quite good in a different interpretation of the famous count, this film falls short because of too many needless(and unwise) changes to the story(like the opening and especially the ending, as well as inverting the Lucy and Mina roles) rendering the film unsatisfying and pretentious; some effective scenes, though women are undoubtedly the primary fans of this heavily romanticized version.
Though handsomely made, with a fine cast, especially Langella who is quite good in a different interpretation of the famous count, this film falls short because of too many needless(and unwise) changes to the story(like the opening and especially the ending, as well as inverting the Lucy and Mina roles) rendering the film unsatisfying and pretentious; some effective scenes, though women are undoubtedly the primary fans of this heavily romanticized version.