Tall and lean, with piercing eyes set in a face seemingly carved from granite, Carradine's Dracula glides through the shadows with a monolithic intensity. Unfortunately, the material isn't up to his performance. For that matter, most of the actors in this "monsters take the cure" movie are better than the script deserves. Dracula's role is essentially that of catalyst--he ultimately puts the mad in the doctor, who in turn gives the Count a fatal sunburn. That didn't prevent Carradine's Count from being resurrected two decades later in Billy the Kind vs. Dracula. He'd have been better off staying dead.
Other than his astonishing filmography, John Carradine is noted for four other accomplishments--sons David, Robert, Keith and Bruce, all of whom followed him into film and television. He died in California in 1988.
Which brings us to the man who, after Lugosi, is the actor most identified with the role of the Prince of the Vampires. I refer of course to the incomparable Christopher Lee, whose performances as the Count in a series of films from Hammer have come to define the parameters of the part.
Born in London in 1922, Lee was a decorated veteran of World War II when he contracted with the Arthur Rank organization in 1947. A singer as well as an incredibly talented actor, he first appeared as Dracula opposite Peter Cushing's Van Helsing in 1958 in a film that owes little more than it's basic elements to Stoker's novel. What distinguished this film from its predecessors, however, was the introduction of the sensuality that earlier films--and the book--had only hinted at. Lee's Count isn't just scary, he's sexy--so much so that Van Helsing's zeal to destroy the monster suddenly takes on a hint of puritanical fanaticism.
