Here are three screen captures:



Still an anemic film, however.
Mirek
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Latarnia |
Dark Sky's COUNT DRACULA DVD |
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For sure the best quality we've seen here on NTSC, though perhaps the Italian and Spanish DVDs look a bit better.
Here are three screen captures: ![]() ![]() ![]() Still an anemic film, however. Mirek |
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bobmonel |
Re: Dark Sky's COUNT DRACULA DVD | ||
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Having the Spanish DVD I'm reluctant to pay for something with not as good video quality.
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Francesco Cesari |
Re: Dark Sky's COUNT DRACULA DVD | ||
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Latarnia |
Re: Dark Sky's COUNT DRACULA DVD | ||
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I have to find my Spanish DVD to evaluate the differences.
Here are two more screen captures of Lee as a rejuvenated Dracula, shots you hardly see when the film is being illustrated. ![]() ![]() Mirek |
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Latarnia |
Re: Dark Sky's COUNT DRACULA DVD | ||
Quote: From memory, it seems to me that the Spanish and Italian versions may have more boost/liveliness in their colors, but the Dark Sky version is very good. (The Italian version I've seen was from some emule download, so it may not be the Italian DVD.) Extras include a 26 minutes interview with Jess, an essay by Amy Brown on Soledad Miranda, and a photo/poster gallery. I forgot to mention a dramatization of the Stoker novel by Christopher Lee. This is a very old recording that was available before on 33 1/3 RPM records and later on CD. Very nice to have it here. Mirek |
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Francesco Cesari |
Re: Dark Sky's COUNT DRACULA DVD | ||
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The Jess Franco interview makes the disc worth buying.
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Latarnia |
Re: Dark Sky's COUNT DRACULA DVD | ||
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Some more info...
The credits are in Italian with the exception of the title, which is the French one: LES NUITS DE DRACULA. The first credit reads "Alexander Ha Coen Presenta".... My guess is that this version was prepared by the Italian co-producer for the French market. Also, the Italian version, though incorrectly framed in widescreen, does offer more information on the right side of the screen--not considerably more, but enough that in some shots you see objects that are lost or cut off in the Dark Sky presentation. For example, when Dracula places the candelabra down on a table after he shows Harker his room, the candelabra is cut in half in the Dark Sky version but completely seen in the Italian one. Also in that wide shot of Harker dining as Dracula goes over the plans of his London estate, you see, in the Italian version, a couple of wall (?) candles at the right edge of the frame that are missing from the Dark Sky presentation. The composition has more depth as a result. But, as noted, the Italian version crops top and bottom, so you're losing information in this version as well. Mirek |
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ECC |
Re: Dark Sky's COUNT DRACULA DVD | ||
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Is the Italian version cut or scored differently? I think Bruno Mattei is supposed to be credited with the Italian version.
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Latarnia |
Re: Dark Sky's COUNT DRACULA DVD | ||
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On a brief viewing, I only noticed that the credit theme is arranged differently, with a lush middle section.
Mirek |
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Kaya O |
to Mirek: | ||
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Did you watch the new DVD and emule download Italian version on the same screen or are you waching one on tv screen and the other on computer screen?
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Latarnia |
Re: to Mirek: | ||
Quote: I've watched them both on my tv and computer monitor. Mirek |
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iamglobal |
Re: to Mirek: | ||
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Does the film look generally 1:33ish to 1 to you? Have you tried zooming it at all (I don't know if you have a widescreen monitor)-- I'm all about standard academy ratio, but not above widescreening on ocassion if it seems to frame OK...
"No one sleeps the sleep of the just unless the abuse of dreams rendering
us powerfully helpless bottling up and unbottling renders a justice that restores us..." |
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Latarnia |
Re: to Mirek: | ||
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Franco says this film should be exhibited full-frame, so that's why it is presented that way on the Dark Sky DVD. A 1.66:1 ratio would be okay, but anything more than that, say a 1.78:1 or 1.85:1, would have an unfortunate result, I'd think.
Mirek |
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bobmonel |
Re: to Mirek: | ||
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The Spanish disc has strong colors but the night scenes are sometimes murky and there's some kind of articfacting in the forest sequence. There are different editors for the four individual language versions: Mattie [It]; G. Reinecke {WG]; Maria Luisa Soriano [E]; Derek Parsons [UK/US]; the UK US is always referred to as the longest version with some bits missing from the Italian. The German version seems to be the shortest, missing about a quarter of an hour of footage and the soundtracks have different arrangements. Strangely, the Spanish version is listed as 100m in some sources while the UK US is 98. And the reason JF says fullframe is correct is because it was planned out that television would be it's ultimate destination so it was carefully framed with that in mind.
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ECC |
Re: to Mirek: | ||
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I like the French Cocinor poster for the film. I think that might have made a nice alternate cover for the disc.
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Squonkamatic |
Re: to Mirek: | ||
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The IMDb has a technical listings for the film saying the OAR is 1:37:1, which is about the same just barely LBX'd ratio as the Italian language VHS I have, which ironically is my favorite version of the film.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0065569/technical I have not watched it for a couple years but my recollection of the runtime for the Divisa DVD is 96 minutes. The warmth of the color pallette may be a simple PAL/NTSC issue, I have always preferred the more drab color of the home video releases. Such seems fitting for the tone of the movie. |
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Latarnia |
Re: to Mirek: | ||
Quote: Apparently the same television plan was in store for Franco's Fu Manchu pictures. Mirek |
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Tod Corman |
Mattei editor | ||
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when I asked Franco about whether or not Mattei had served as editor on any version of this film he shrugged and said the only reason different editors of varying nationalities were credited was for co-production reasons so each co-producer could claim tax benefits in their territory and that Mattei never touched a frame of this film.
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The Real Belfagor |
Re: Mattei editor | ||
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Mattei was - and still is - employed in and around Telecolor (now Eurolab), the production facility/lab that handled the film here in Italy. Variety - rights owners of COUNT DRACULA - are part of this set up. It could be that Mattei's name was used solely for co-productions purposes, but seeing as the Italian version uses the score differently, he may have edited the music track.
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Francesco Cesari |
Re: Mattei editor | ||
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As regards the music score, am I wrong or the English version of the opening credit sequence has the ABA structure like the Italian? (B being a more melodic theme which isn't in the Spanish version)
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Squonkamatic |
Re: Mattei editor | ||
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I distinctly recall a discussion from a couple of years ago where it was more or less agreed on that EL CONDE DRACULA (as we called it then) was indeed a fullframe open matte shoot, but may have been cropped for theatrical presentation. There are abundant examples of advertisement art from all sorts of theatrical runs in many countries (the Divisa DVD itself uses a Spanish poster design for the cover: I have one of the originals :-] ) but I do not doubt that TV screenings were a planned use due to the toned down nature of the film plus the presence of so many recognizeable stars esp. Christopher Lee, language presentations and the fullscreen original shoot ratio.
I still remember seeing this on Monster Movie Matinee & Eivom (our local weekend creature feature hours in the pre-infommercial age of local programming) usually paired up with DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, and while as a kid I could not distinguish between the origins of the 2 films as Britsh vs. Spanish/Italian/German/Liechtensteinian, me and my friends were aware that they were very different films. One you would watch from a vantage point of "fun" like a cartoon and the other was more a meditation on the idea of the Dracula story as a movie. The scene that always made the biggest impression on me as a kid was when Herbert Lom scratches the cross on the floor with the fire poker to ward off Dracula, and of course the ending where Christopher Lee gets lit on fire. I also recall Jonathan Harker carrying a box of matches and lighting the candelabra as being rather impressive and used to annoy my parents by insisting on carrying matches all the time in case I ever needed to light up a candle (WEB OF THE SPIDER's use of matches and candles also contributed to the fetish, no doubt). It was weird re-encoutering the film as an "adult" in the 1990s when I got my own VCR and started accumulating movies to watch. This was one of the first pre-records I ever bought and it was only when seeing it side by side with tapes of the Hammer Draculas that I started to realize just *HOW* different of an approach to making a Dracula movie it is, and then only later still (probably thanks in part to finding this forum) did I realize they were from different filmmaking traditions. The Hammer approach is more plot or action driven, using Dracula like the bad guy in a western, who is then injected into the film at various points to drive the plot by doing things that effect the people involved. Franco's approach is more Spanish, where Dracula is the focus of the story and the other characters in the film are held at bay by his powers. If you go to that IMDb link and follow it to the main details page they also have two trivia posts about the film that are of interest (which are probably old news to the regulars of this wing, but whatever). The first of which is that Herbert Lom and Christopher Lee were never on the set at the same time -- over the shoulder doubles were used for their scene facing off over Mina. The other is that Klaus Kinski refused to read the script for a Dracula film and was given one that had a different title to sort of con him into appearing in the film. My favorite goof from the movie is one I still recall as a kid: The split palm trees in front of Carfax Abbey or whatever house it is that Dracula is inhabiting. I remember even noting as a kid that those should have been pine trees or something less equatoreal in nature. My favorite scene as an adult is easily the one where the "heroes" stumble into the room with all the stuffed animals (PSYCHO reference??) and Dracula makes them hallucinate the things coming to life. And the scene I look forward to seeing on the Dark Sky DVD is the one where Dracula's wolves convince Harker into boarding the coach. It will be nice to see them rather than just hearing them snarl. |
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