American Cinematographer - May 1988 - 40

Meticulous

shown

cos¬

standing majestically beside their coffins. (In
Spanish version a heavy mist spreads from each
opened coffin, followed by a pillar of light, then by the
standing figure of the vampire).
Subsequent night for night scenes, represent¬
ing the midnight meeting point in Borgo Pass, were
photographed at a mountainous junction in the west
part of the lot. These unreal but eerily effective shots
are backlit from below, the
light beaming up through
the mist, presumably from a town in the valley.
Renfield is all but dumped in the road as the
driver hurries away. The closed carriage from the castle
awaits. The driver is a silent man in black recognizable

tuming and details

the

lend conviction to

Transylvanian
scenes.

as

Dracula himself. Renfield boards and is whisked

roughly

away. He tries to speak to the driver, but the
empty. A large bat flaps along between the
heads of the horses. Debarking at the castle, Renfield is
seat is

Rubio

as

Renfield. Villarias somewhat resembled

Lugosi and obviously patterned his portrayal after
him, only to come out second best. The other players
seem not to have been influenced by the first string
performers. Tovar and Rubio are very good. The spe¬
cial effects scenes and some of the exteriors and long
shots from the first unit production were utilized for
the Spanish rendition.
Both versions of Draculn open with a glass
shot, which was photographed by Frank Booth, of a
horse-drawn coach coming at breakneck speed down a
mountain road in the wilds of Transylvania. Swirling
mist is superimposed over the scene, which was photo¬
graphed northeast of Los Angeles at Vasquez Rocks,
whose angular hogback formations blend flawlessly
into the artist's towering peaks. A young English pas¬
senger, Renfield, admonishes the driver to slow down,
but is ignored. A local rider explains excitedly,"We
must reach the inn before sundown! It is Walpurgis
Night, a night of evil. Nosferatu! On this night... the
doors, they are barred, and to the Virgin we pray." The
coach arrives at the inn, where there is rejoicing that
the coach arrived in time. The innkeeper, learning that
Renfield plans to continue on to a midnight rendevous
with Count Dracula at Borgo Pass, tries to talk him out
of it. "We people of the mountains believe that Dracula
and his wives are vampires," he explains. "They leave
their coffins at night and they feed on the blood of the
living." Renfield boards the coach after accepting a
crucifix from a peasant lady who admonishes him to
"Wear this, for your mother's sake."
The inn, yard, corral and peasant hut were
constructed on a backlot hill (now the site of a studio
tour rest stop) around a deeply rutted old wagon trail.
A large wooden cross, jutting from the brow of the hill,
and other Old World props lend versimilitude to the
setting. There are other glass shots of the castle and the
coach in the mountains and

an

excellent miniature of

Castle Dracula
roams

perched atop the crags. The camera
the ruined cellars, where rats, armadillos and

other animals scurry among

skeletons and debris.
one raises slightly

several coffins. The lid of

There

are

and

man's hand snakes forth. The hands of

a

emerge

from three other coffins and

a

women

gigantic beetle

crawls out of another. Then Dracula and his wives

38

American

Cinematographer

are

unable to find the driver. The massive doors of the
castle

swing open and Renfield enters, appalled to find
hall in ruins. A voice announces, "I am
Dracula," and Renfield looks up the huge stairway to
see his
smiling host, formally attired, standing in front
of a huge spider web. Wolves howl outside. "Listen to
them!" says Dracula enthusiastically. "Children of the
night. What music they make!" He bids Renfield to
follow and the Englishman is startled to discover that
Dracula has moved beyond the unbroken web, which
spans the width of the staircase. As Renfield hacks
through with his cane, Dracula notes, "The spider,
spinning his web for the unwary fly. The blood is the
the great

life, Mr. Renfield."
where

a

Renfield is ushered to a large, cheerful room
meal awaits him. It is shown that Renfield is a

realtor from London who has been asked to

secretly bearing

come

lease to Carfax Abbey in Whitby.
When Renfield accidently cuts his finger on a paper
clip, Dracula is transfixed by the sight of blood and
approaches menacingly. The crucifix drops out upon
Renfield's hand and Dracula steps back, covering his
eyes. He then offers Renfield a bottle of "very old
wine," but doesn't partake with him because, "I never
drink
wine." After Dracula departs, Renfield,
drugged, stumbles to the terrace window, where he is
halted by a large bat that emerges from a wall of fog.
As Renfield collapses, Dracula's wives enter and
ap¬
proach wolfishly, but they are driven back by a silent
command from Dracula. At the fade, as fog engulfs the
a

-

room,

Dracula bends toward his fallen guest.

The journey to the castle is handsomely pho¬
tographed, particularly in a stunning pit-shot as the
team and carriage hurtle over the camera in a thunder¬
ous roar and vanish into the castle
grounds. The vault¬
ed hall is introduced in a glass shot that expands the
impressive set to enormous proportions. It perfectly
conveys decaying grandeur and an atmosphere of
dread. A fallen tree thrusts its branches through tall

windows, bats flutter and screech beyond breaks in the
walls, and the place is littered with fallen stones,

decaying tapestries, cobwebs and dust. The deep shad¬
and some scurrying sounds suggest unseen men¬
ace at
every hand. The "cheerful" bedroom is also
ows

May 1988
American Cinematographer - May 1988

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