In Search of Dracula

Once upon a time, they actually showed documentaries in the movie theaters. And not just those NPR-esque things about the environment or electric cars that play at the local indy theatre, but stuff like The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, about Nostrodamus, In Search of Noah's Ark, and tonight's movie In Search of Dracula.

Now, I know a lot of viewer would roll their eyes at the idea of a feature length Dracula documentary, especially in the era of the non-fiction television, like The History Channel or The Discovery Channel, where they go over the subject matter every October.

In Search of Dracula has a couple of cool things going for it that make it stand out.

First is the fact that it's narrated by Christopher Lee, who even plays Dracula in footage about the Count's life, playing it so seriously that he grew a mustache so that he looked like the famous portrait of Vlad Tepes. In a way, it's like an extra Hammer Dracula.

Then there's the subject matter, taken from the book of the same name by Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu; these guys did their research wonderfully, presenting the history in a readable manner.

The movie does get bogged down toward the end with footage of Theda Bara- because she's a "vamp"- and clips from Nosferatu.

Really though, even though I've read the book and knew all the stories they related in the movie, it was still a treat to listen to Christopher Lee narrate- he's got a voice that could make reading the phone book compelling. (Another subtle treat is the score- they used a piece by Krzysztof Penderecki that sounds... familiar. It wasn't until I looked at the Internet Movie Data Base did I know that it was later used in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining).