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Dracula (1958 film)

Horror Of Dracula
Dracula1958poster.jpg
Original film poster
Directed by Terence Fisher
Produced by Anthony Hinds
Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster
Based on Dracula
by Bram Stoker
Starring
Music by James Bernard
Cinematography Jack Asher
Edited by Bill Lenny
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • 8 May 1958 (1958-05-08)
Running time
82 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Budget £81,000
Box office 1,008,834 admissions (France)

Dracula is a 1958 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher and written by Jimmy Sangster based on Bram Stoker's novel of the same name, The first in the series of Hammer Horror films inspired by Dracula, the film stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, and Melissa Stribling. In the United States, the film was retitled Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion with the earlier Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi, and the film was released in the U.S. in 1958 on a double bill with the Universal film The Thing That Couldn't Die.

Production began at Bray Studios on 17 November 1957 with an investment of £81,000.

In May 1885, Jonathan Harker arrives at the castle of Count Dracula near Klausenburg (Cluj), to take up his post as librarian. Inside, he is startled by a young woman who claims she is a prisoner and begs for his help. Dracula then appears to greet Harker and guide him to his room, where he locks him in. Jonathan starts to write in his diary, and his true intentions are revealed: he is a vampire hunter and has come to kill Dracula.

Freed sometime later, Harker again is confronted by the desperate woman. She begs him for help but then bites his neck. Just as she does, Dracula – fangs bared and lips bloody – arrives and pulls her away. When he awakens in daylight, Harker finds the bite marks on his neck, knowing that's he is doomed to become undead unless he kills Dracula. After writing his final entry, he hides his journal in a shrine to the Virgin Mary outside the castle and descends into the crypt, where he finds Dracula and the vampire woman resting in their coffins. Armed with a stake, he impales the woman, who, as he looks on, immediately ages from young to old. Whilst he does this, the sun sets, and when he turns to Dracula's coffin with the intention of killing the vampire, he finds it empty. Looking up, Harker is in time to see the Count shut the door and they are both plunged into darkness...


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