Dracula (1979) - Is there any chance of a re-release? (1 Viewer)

[Kramer Lowry]

 

[Paul_Scott]

while the new disc isn't robustly colorful, I was able to crank up the color saturation on my display and get an image that I was quite happy with- with no blooming or smearing. The newer dvd was already much better in this regard than the old Image one already, but a quick display adjustment worked even more wonders- and elicited a good compromise between a directors (woefully misguided) intentions and my own subjective preferences.


The only improvment I want to see now is an HD release.

 

[James Phillips]

I took those grabs for one of the old Dracula '79 threads. Neither of them are taken from the current Universal DVD.

The top one's from the 1982 CIC/DiscoVision laserdisc, and the bottom one's from the 1998 Image DVD.

 

[Mike_Richardson]

Agreed. I do want to see a re-issue too with the original cinematography of Gil Taylor restored to HIS intentions.

Regardless of what Badham wanted, the movie WAS filmed in color, Taylor shot it for color, and frankly it looks terrible in Badham's "preferred" transfer...in some netherworld between color and B&W.

Thus, it's neither, and it's neither representative of being a "true" B&W film or the color version that Taylor composed for.

 

[Kramer Lowry]

 

[Dave Mack]

I get what Badham was trying to do, like a Sleepy Hollow desaturated look but it winds up looking mostly greenish and people often sickly. Great film, though...

 

[Mike_Richardson]

Agreed Dave! It is a great movie, but it definitely seems "off" in that transfer. We need the original

 

[Mike Williams]

Dracula (1979) is my favorite Dracula movie (with FFC's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" a close second. I loved Frank Langella, and continue to love seeing him in anything today, all because of my first introduction to him in "Dracula" when I was 9 years old. I didn't mind the color tinting. It's been many years since I had seen the film, so while I remembered what happened in many scenes for all these years, I wasn't distracted by the color, or lack thereof. I would like to see the original color, however, and see which I prefer.

 

[IanD]

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/11254...a/Product.html

The UK DVD will likely be the same as the US but given two years seperate them I wonder if this might be a transfer from an original colour print. Then again, this is Universal UK, the company which continues to re-release The Birds in pan'scan

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Badham's, Whose Life is it Anyway? was shot in both black and white and color versions, but only the color version was ever released.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I actually prefer the more monochromatic color timing of the DVD version to the full color theatrical run. It lends a more stylistic atmosphere to the image.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I saw this film several times in the theater in the summer of '79, and one of the things that kept bringing me back was the stunning photography, and the rich color. DRACULA still looks nice, but it would be even nicer if we could at least have the option of seeing it the way it was originally shot.

 

[Radioman970]

I've never seen this one but will now. I like the muted color. I use DirectDVD to view movies sometimes and it has a setting that ups the color and makes everything look technicolor. For horror films it just doesn't work for me. Grimm and dark is better.

Anyway, The Horror of Dracula by Hammer Studios is the best Drac movie I've ever seen. Based on the clip, this looks good, but I doubt it's better than Lee and Cushing.

 

[Dave Mack]

It's very different. VERY atmospheric and the music is one one of John Williams (IMHO) best scores ever.
Dracula never has fangs, his eyes never turn all vampy.
But when Mina appears in the tunnels.... EEEEGH!
Major wigguns. The whole audience in the Ziegfeld theater on opening day audibly gasped.

 

[DeanR]

I saw this movie when it came out in 1979, too. Frank Langella gave the best post 1975 Dracula performance I have ever seen. I believe he had a long run on Broadway playing Dracula on stage prior to this films performance. I remember how vivid the colors were. I love this film! I bought the latest DVD but I have not a chance to view it.

 

[Dave Mack]

Don't expect vivid colors on the DVD except in the 70's laser disco love scene. The scene even back THEN was so dated and kind of out of place that now being the only scene on the DVD with the vivid color is REALLY jarring. My gf had never seen it before, was getting into it and then when that scene happened was like, "WTF?!?!?" She said it looked like a James Bond title sequence!



And I knew Langella when he was in a show, "Fortune's Fool" at the theater I worked backstage in (my NYC days) Amazing actor, truly, but an incredible Diva and pain in the ass.

 

[IanD]

The love scene was designed by Maurice Binder, which explains it.

 

[Mike Williams]

Dave, you can tell from his interviews on the DVD that Frank Langella is very much a diva, especially with all of his demands for the character in order for him to do the movie (although I agree with most of them).

 

[IanD]

I'm quite the Langella fan but my favourite performance of his is Skeletor in Masters Of The Universe. He elevates the film magnificentally - even if his makeup makes him look like he's smeared in putty

 

[Randy Korstick]

hehe...The Love scene is one of the reasons my friends and I always refer to this film as "the Disco Dracula". The film is pretty good and I have grown to like it better over the years but it doesn't hold a candle to the Christopher Lee Hammer Dracula's. I too would like to see a version with the original color released preferably in HD.