The great Christopher Lee in the groundbreaking Hammer Films production Horror of Dracula, 1958.
|
Stoker based his vampire on actor Henry Irving's personality, but on Vlad's life, as indicated by this passage from chapter eight of the novel: "He must indeed have been that Voivode (military commander, ruler) Dracula who won his name against the Turks...If it be so, then was he no common man: for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the land beyond the forest." In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed Tod Browning's film version of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, as "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. The blood thirsty Count plays the fifth role of The Big Six, rising above his origins, more than human, and becoming Folklore, Legend, and then Myth.
|