(Screams)
Prince of Darkness...
(Screams)
The producer of the film,
Harry Alan Towers, wanted always
and proposed to me 10 times at least
to make the original "Dracula" book,
I said immediately, "Of course, yes," because
it's 10 times better
than any adaptation they made after, you know?
So I wanted to do it, too,
And Christopher liked the idea,
I think the original idea came from Christopher,
This was a Dracula indeed.
But Christopher didn't believe it could be done,
I told him, "Yes, let's do this "Dracula",
He was afraid,
because it's something in the novel
the problem is Dracula is very old at the beginning,
and then once he starts to get the blood
of Lucy and of everybody,
he starts to get younger and younger
and younger and stronger,
and Christopher was afraid about it,
"Do you think that people will understand
that every sequence I'm a little bit younger?"
I said, "Your hair will get black and..."
And finally we made it that way,
and I think that this film was very good,
It was a surprise, because
the adaptations of that period of "Dracula"
and everything of the kind based on gothic books
were very primitive adaptations,
Not this one,
I think this one is a real one,
I know that Coppola said his adaptation
is more faithful to "Dracula"...
it's not true,
The meaning of the film
is completely wrong
because Dracula can never be someone who
falls in love with normal people,
And if it happens that he wants a woman,
if he loves a woman,
is to bite her more
and to get more blood from her,
not in that romantic, traditional way,
As a matter of fact,
what Coppola did was a lot of funny things,
But the heart of the matter was
that Dracula falls in love with a normal woman,
and he doesn't want to bite her,
He wants to love her,
to hold her hand and
to walk around a beautiful park,
Dracula!
The very mention of the name
brings to mind things so evil,
So fantastic. So degrading.
you wonder if it isn't all a dream
A nightmare!
I like very much the original "Dracula" film,
but the Hammer "Dracula" films,
I don't like that much,
because I don't think the Hammer people
like Terence fisher took it seriously,
They made them because it was probably a nice business
and a nice thing to do,
but not having too much care about the stories
or the development of the subject,
I think from this group,
I like the first two films probably the most,
but I still preferred the Bela Lugosi film,
And Christopher himself,
I think he liked to play Dracula in the beginning,
In his mind
the book was very good,
and he would like to do the book,
but not the adaptations,
I was immediately for this,
I wanted to do it madly,
I spoke with Christopher,
and Christopher, too,
so we attacked the film in that way,
We shot in Barcelona mainly,
and then we did some scenes
about castles, and scenes like that, in France,
A kind of second unit thing,
But the film was shot in Barcelona,
Barcelona... and this is very funny to know now...
was in General Franco's period.
We had permission to shoot
in the royal castle
of the Castellan people,
We shot the dungeons
where now,
are the big celebrations of the General
with no problems,
so everything was really great,
And our sets were incredible,
beautiful, really, really gothic,
I don't mean gothic as in from the gothic novels,
which means the 19th century almost, 18th, 19th,
No, this was gothic from the 14th century,
Welcome to my house.
Count Dracula?
I am Dracula.
You know what happened...
in that moment...
there's that sequence,
which in the book the scene is fantastic,
is the first meeting between Dracula and Jonathan Harker
with the famous line,
"The children of the night, what beautiful music..."
He did it splendidly, wonderfully,
(Howling)
Listen to them.
The children of the night.
What music they make.
The producers cut out
a lot of the language on this scene,
because they said, "It's too long,
Nobody will understand it,"
But I said to Christopher,
two days before shooting,
"Listen, if you want,
please, let's do it complete,
And then if the producers want to cut something,
what can we do?
But let's try to get it 100 percent as it is in the book,"
And Christopher immediately
was delighted with the idea,
and we made the whole sequence,
The Dracula's have ever been.
the heart's blood, the brains,
the sword of our people.
And then the whole sequence stayed in the film,
nobody cut it out,
because I think it's the best sequence of Christopher,
It's the first time...
because between Christopher and me there was always
a kind of cold thing between us,
And it disappeared with this sequence, completely,
He was sincere with all his power,
and he had a lot of power as an actor,
But you know the problem with Christopher was
at that period, not now,
was that he wanted to be a Shakespearian actor,
He wanted to be Ralph Richardson
or Laurence Olivier,
and he wasn't Laurence Olivier,
And also he got his start in the cinema
through monsters,
through Dracula
and through Frankenstein,
and he wasn't very happy about it, because
he said, "I'm becoming a puppet,
A face you put make up on and it works,"
But in that moment, in that sequence,
a new world was opened between us,
between him and me,
We had to go further
and to go deeper into the character,
and he did it... wonderful, wonderful,
True.
The shadows of my past remain here.
We had some problems...
Always in cinema you have problems,
because of the dogs,
They're kind of wolf dogs...
because real wolves are very difficult,
But they were dogs for sure,
I was very much afraid that they'd
get a hand of Christopher or something,
So we used police dogs,
I think that they are quite frightening,
and of course, if you stop the film
and look at them it shows they are dogs, maybe wild dogs,
When we shot this sequence,
this wasn't in the script, of course,
but I thought it was a good idea,
I explained it to Harry and he agreed with me
that seemed to make like
the forces of nature are getting active,
I think it's nice to watch, this sequence,
Probably, I don't know,
Perhaps...
perhaps you could tell us more.
Klaus Kinski was very difficult,
He didn't want to appear in a "Dracula" picture,
So we ultimately did a screenplay
in which there was no mention of Dracula,
and he accepted the role,
and he was shooting in the studios,
and my wife, Maria, was in the scene with him,
and he had his hands around her neck,
he had to strangle her in this scene...
and he suddenly said to her,
"Maria, I think that bastard husband of yours
has brought me in a Dracula picture,"
I said, "Oh no, no, no, Klaus you're quite mistaken,"
His hands were around her neck at the time,
so we didn't have much alternative
but to deny the whole thing,
No, I can't remember that,
because it's not true
I think this is a fantasy from Harry,
Harry is a man full of fantasy
and inventions and things,
He's a very creative man,
And I think he would have mentioned this problem,
because when I met Klaus for the film,
he knew perfectly well he was doing Renfield,
the part of Renfield,
He knew the book, and he knew everything,
Don't forget that Klaus was a very clever man,
and quite a cultivated man,
He was scared and said,
"Are you doing a stupid Renfield
Iike I saw in other Dracula pictures?"
I said, "No, we're making the real Renfield of the book,"
It was very funny
because we shot in a studio in Italy, in Tirrenia,
He was a little bit scared
when he saw that we were building a set for him,
for his cell,
He told me,
"Listen, why are we shooting on a set?
"Are there no madhouses around here?
Because it would be better you think?"
I said, "Yes, but I'm afraid
if we shoot with you
in a real cell, they'll keep you!
They won't let you out!"
And he was laughing, It was no problem,
You know, Klaus got also the reputation
of being a difficult man,
a difficult actor,
pretentious, et cetera,
It was not true,
He got a little bit mad, but real mad,
it wasn't all that,
kind of you know,
of a snob position, but it's just not true you see,
We were quite good friends,
and we shot always in a very nice way,
What is it, Renfield?
Renfield, nobody's going to hurt you.
Klaus Kinski was a very special actor because
most actors in the world,
they want to have more lines
and to say more things,
"Why don't I say, 'You are not guilty!'"
and things that actors like to say,
And Klaus would say,
"Why should I say that?"
"Show that!"
"I can show it without talking,"
"You want me to say,
'Because I love you so much!'
"But if I have a shot
I can show that without saying anything,"
In general, he wanted always to cut dialogue,
He realized that if he was not against the director,
it was better for him to have more shots,
more close-ups and less lines,
which is not that stupid,
And he was right,
because I think the part of Renfield is much better
if he's completely out of it,
And he really was eating flies,
I asked the set decorators
to put some honey in the cell or something,
"What for?" Because Tirrenia, in Italy, was full of flies,
During the shooting when he was like that...
He ate the flies, You can see it on the film,
He kept mumbling someting
about a certain Count Dracula.
Dracula!
I wanted Vincent Price,
But from the beginning, when I asked for him,
he was engaged with AIP
to do a film or something like that,
It was impossible to get him,
I tried once, but I saw the result,
The other possibility was Herbert Lom,
I was very happy with Herbert Lom,
It's not unlikely you have an actor you like very much,
and then instead of him, you get an idiot,
I think also, Herbert Lom
is a better actor than Vincent,
Vincent, I liked him very much for personal reasons,
and because he had a wonderful sense of humor,
and he's a kind of showman also,
But I think, talking just about actors,
Herbert is a better actor for me,
I have never meant the Count.
And yet I feel I...
I know him better than my own soul.
When Herbert's part finished in the film, the shooting,
Christopher wasn't there,
Christopher came over later,
So I had to shoot with a double,
all the sequences with him,
and then to do it again with Christopher,
All my life I've studied the black arts.
It's strange to finally confront
the Prince of Darkness himself.
You have learned much.
They don't have many sequences together,
just a couple of them, like when he shows the cross...
but it happens every day in cinema,
When you have two very good actors,
if they're not together in some sequences,
sometimes if they are clever, they know each other, things like that,
there's nothing wrong with it for me,
I liked her because she was photogenic, wonderful,
She was half gypsy,
and gypsy people in Andalusia, in the south of Spain,
are different, they do different things,
And they are much more creative and elegant,
They even know how to breathe,
You see them entering a place,
you say, "Oh my God, the prince has arrived,"
And then they start talking, and it's shit,
But the presence is very much interesting,
It's what I tried to get from Soledad,
Christopher was not very happy when I told him,
because he said, "Oh my God, Lucy played by a gypsy?"
But, I said, "Shut up, Christopher!
"Wait until your first shooting day with her,
and then you tell me what you think and whatever you want,"
And she shot three hours on the set...
Because she was so natural,
You know for her,
she was very real, it also happens a lot with children,
they don't feel the importance of what they're doing,
They just do it normally,
And I think she was a little bit that way,
And that's why I felt she was fantastic,
And everybody in the crew
said, "Oh my God, she's wonderful, dhe's fantastic,"
After "Dracula" we made together five films,
and most of them produced by Brauner, Brauner from Berlin,
and Brauner was in love with her,
He'd say, "She's fantastic,
Don't lose her, She's wonderful,"
And he offered her a contract
to make six films in three years,
Brauner, her and me together,
We had to make the contract with Brauner,
And the manager for that shoot
asked me to go to Lisbon with him
to meet her to discuss the contract,
and to sign the contract,
It was a wonderful contract,
And she never did it,
because on the way from her home in Lisbon
to my hotel, to our hotel,
she crashed her...
her car against another car
that just appeared in front or something,
and she was dead a couple of hours after,
(Screams)
I don't think it's the perfect presentation of the book,
I was very happy about the film,
but for other reasons, for many reasons,
because the film, I know it looks like a good production,
It's not such a good production
as you can believe watching the film,
There's little things which are like that...
it's just because of the money,
or the no money,
I tell you frankly
I had to put the money myself,
I never was a rich man at all,
to put the money out of my pocket to finish "Dracula"
because everything was fucked up,
I got the money back, this is true,
Oliver Unger called me to say, "Thank you",
"You're a beautiful guy
because you didn't have to do it,
Why did you do this?"
Because, my God,
I'm the director and a little bit
the executive producer also on "Dracula" film,
I had to finish the film,
I cannot leave a film like that say,
"I'm going home, fuck off,"
And he was very happy and when he got enough money,
I'm sure because Oliver was a nice man
to cover the money I put in,
Immediately he sent it to me,
This is why "Dracula" sometimes...
I know the scenes,
I can tell you which shots needed more things
is not as brilliant as I'd like it to be for this reason,
It happened from the moment Christopher finished his part,
not before,
because Harry knew Christopher very well,
and he knew that Christopher could never shoot a shot
if he didn't agree
about the quality of what he was doing,
And then when he finished his part,
this happened to him many times,
the rest was done just like that,
Sometime later he called me from London,
when he was already shooting the new Dracula film
with Peter Sasdy, I think,
and he told me, "Listen, I'm calling you, because..."
You know, for Christopher it was very difficult
to say nice things,
He was always trying to be cold, you know?
"... I called you, because my wife asked me to call you,
"I came back from the shooting,
and I was saying, I don't like this film,
I think when we were shooting in Barcelona
it was much better,
much more serious,
and even the direction and everything,"
"And my wife told me to call him and tell him,
"It will be the first time
he will hear something nice from you, you know?"
And then we never spoke again about this call, you know?
But something from the moment
of the sequence I told you about,
through this sequence
started a new relationship
between Christopher and me,
A real friendship, you know?