Count Dracula

Count Dracula is a British television adaptation of the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Produced by the BBC (in the then standard video/film hybrid format), it first aired on BBC 2 on 22 December 1977. It is among the more faithful of the many adaptations of the original book. Directed by Philip Saville from a screenplay by Gerald Savory, it stars Louis Jourdan as Count Dracula and Frank Finlay as Professor Van Helsing. Plot Lucy Westenra's sister Mina bids farewell to her fiancé Jonathan Harker, who is leaving for a business trip. Harker, a solicitor, is travelling to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania to expedite his purchase of Carfax Abbey and other properties in England. On the penultimate leg of Harker's trip, in a horse-drawn coach with three locals, one warns him not to attend Dracula's castle. Harker tells the woman not to worry, but she gives him her rosary for protection as a precaution. Harker is dropped off at the Borgo Pass in the dead of night with wolves howling in the distance, and is picked up a few moments later by the Count's coach. At the castle's door, Count Dracula welcomes Jonathan and carries his heavy trunk, with no effort, up the stairs to his room. Jonathan hesitantly agrees to stay for a month to help the Count with his English. Dracula is urbane and gracious, but also vaguely sinister; he casts no reflection, and has pronouncedly sharp fingernails and hair on his palms. After a series of disturbing events, including an encounter with Dracula's brides, Harker explores the castle, finds the Count and his brides' sleeping quarters in a crypt, all asleep in coffins with their eyes open yet seemingly unaware of his presence. Harker tries ineffectually to kill Dracula with a shovel before fleeing the castle.