This BBC produced adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel is one of the most faithful ever filmed, aswell as being one of the most atmospheric and spookiest. At two and a half hours long it's certainly ambitious, but Louis Jourdan gives the performance of his life as Dracula. Handsome, elegant, and charmingly polite, he is also a sociopath who knows how to gaslight those who are under his control. Frank Finley is brilliant as Van Helsing, he actually looks like a Dutchman (which the character was), and plays the role as if it was Shakespeare. Jack Shepherd comes close to stealing the show though, in a gleefully manic turn as the fly eating Renfield, a disciple of the count incarcerated in a lunatic asylum. A highlight is Dracula's crawl down the castle wall, witnessed by Jonathan Harker from his window. Hammer films did this sequence in Scars of Dracula (1970), but it wasn't half as good as it is here. Kudos too for this adaptation featuring the English seaside town of Whitby. An integral part of Stoker's novel ( and which to this day attracts Dracula devotees from around the world to it's annual goth weekend), it is pretty much ignored in practically every other version that has been filmed. Philip Seville's film however features great location filming, including making use of the towns atmospheric abbey ruins. This is one TV movie you can really get your teeth into.
