Day Thirty-Nine: Dracula Dead and Loving It

DRACULA DEAD AND LOVING IT

Starring:
-Leslie Nielsen
-Mel Brooks
-Steven Weber
-Harvey Korman

Directed by: Mel Brooks

Screenplay Credits: Mel Brooks, Rudy De Luca & Steve Haberman

MPAA Rating: PG-13 - for comedic sensuality and gore

I adore Mel Brooks. I met him once in New York and made him laugh, which is one of the crowning moments in my short life to date. I normally neglect to mention that after I met him, I cried for twenty minutes. Such is the extent of my devotion to that teeny little man.

When you strip this one down to the bare bones, it isn’t too different than Bram Stoker’s DRACULA. Mel stars as Van Helsing, a vampire hunter who is hot on the trail of Count Dracula (Nielsen). Dracula is, as usual, hot on the trail of two emaciated looking women. Here’s my beef with Dracula. You’d think he’d go for the big healthy looking girls. Surely their blood would be richer and more satisfying than some stick thin hussy’s. I’m not knocking his choice for eternal bride, though. If you’ve got to spend it with somebody then John Ritter’s widow is probably a pretty safe bet. That chick’s pretty funny, and she’d have to be cool in order to snag John (RIP Jack).

My favorite scene in this movie is the big dance number near the end. This is when Val Helsing and his buddies are pretty sure Dracula is the vamp and they’re just trying to prove it. Everybody’s at a ball and Dracula is dancing with Mina (or is it Lucy? No, I think it’s Mina. Who names their kid Mina?) so they set up a giant mirror in front of the dance floor. Dracula and Mina are doing all these complicated dance moves and everybody’s oohing and aahing, but then they notice that Dracula has no reflection and that freaks them out a little.

This is strange, but I really liked how they would turn Dracula into a bat. He would have a bat body, but he still had Leslie Nielsen’s little head. How cute is that?

Despite my love for Mel, I can’t say that this film is one of his best. It has definite elements of a zany, silly Brooks comedy, but it can’t compete with heavy hitters like YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN or BLAZING SADDLES.

I think my favorite line from this movie belonged to Harvey Korman, just because it was so ridiculous: “Yes, we have Nosferatu! We have Nosferatu today!”

FINAL GRADE: C+

Off in search of a garlic necklace,

M.