Product Details

• Actors: Lysette Anthony, Gregg Binkley, Mark Blankfield, Megan Cavanagh, Jennifer Crystal
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English, German
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Turner Home Ent
• VHS Release Date: May 18, 1999
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0780623614
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,485 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #24 in

  Video > Comedy > Comedy Directors > Mel Brooks

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In 1995, it was promising to hear that Mel Brooks was creating "the companion piece to Young Frankenstein." He had also brought in the heavyweight of deadpan--Leslie Nielsen. As Lt. Frank Drebin in the Police Squad movies, Nielsen has no peer for silly stuff--just the player Brooks would seem to need for a strong movie, as any fan of Brooks perpetually hopes a new film may rekindle his madcap magic. Alas, the end results in Dracula: Dead and Loving It include a sprinkling of amusements and one big belly laugh. Brooks and his writers use a very tight adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, but the spoofs can be spelled out as we go, as if they are paint-by-number. Some are jabs at Coppola's version of Dracula, but most are attached to classic Dracula films. If any real pleasure comes from the movie it's thanks to the efforts of the cast. Peter MacNicol plays the crazed Renfield to the letter, Steven Weber has a good time as the tight British Harkin, and Lysette Anthony charms as the doomed Lucy. Brooks and Nielsen ham it up just fine. There's even a surprisingly controlled performance by Harvey Korman (a character spoofing Anthony Hopkins's role in the misfire The Road to Wellville). As with Brooks's period comedies, the film looks better than it needs to and includes a few tricky special effects for good measure. This has nothing to do with the audience laughing--we need bigger jokes. And when you double over laughing in one scene--involving a stake through the heart and a bucket of blood--you want the movie to achieve Brooks's days of glory, when hearty laughter was the norm, not an isolated moment. --Doug Thomas

Product Description

A comic reinvention of the Bela Lugosi classic about a Transylvanian vampire who works his evil spell on a perplexed group of Londoners.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have for any Halloween Fan, September 15, 2004

By	Wayne Beckham (Fontana, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dracula - Dead and Loving It (DVD)

Let me say at the start that it's the perfect (and required) companion-piece to Mel's own classic, "Young Frankenstein."

That said, I have to admit - this movie grew on me.

When it first came out in 1995 I was still in the military and, though a great fan of Mel's films, I didn't have time to go see it. Given it's evident lack of theatrical success, it was available on VHS shortly there after and I rented it from a local video store.

At first, it was amusing, but not much else.

However, my local renter gave me two weeks to review it and, as I watched with more attention to detail, I grew to appreciate it's comic genius.

Others have written that it's a salute to Universal's 1937 classic "Dracula." It's all of that, but much more. It mocks elements of Frank Langella's sexy 1979 "Dracula," but the most obvious parody is Francis Ford Coppola's much more pretentious "Bram Stoker's Dracula."

Much of the dialogue is lifted, verbatim, from Universal's "Dracula," but given a new twist. For example the theater scene where Leslie Nielsen, as Dracula, attempts to contact Dr. Seward (played by Harvey Korman) and, before entering their opera box, instructs the usherette (played by Leslie Sachs) to "remember nothing of what I have said" - she takes him at his word and throws open the curtains to only stare at Seward & company and wonder blankly why she's there!

Another bit of amusing trivia is the famous stake scene. Steven Weber, playing Jonathon Harker, drives a stake through Lucy Westenra's (portrayed by Lysette Anthony) heart. In the production, no one told Steven that gallons and gallons of fake blood would erupt - and it shows! You can actually see Steven struggle to remember his lines and go on with the show.

One other bit of trivia - if there any Cub Scout Leaders out there who've seen this movie, check me out on this. In the Ball Room scene where Mel Brooks (playing Dr. Van Helsing) is decked out in tuxedo, isn't the medal he's wearing on his lapel a "Tiger Cub Leader" scout medal?

See it - Buy it - Love it. It's very nearly the last of a genre of humor that can be enjoyed by every generation of your family. From the youngest to the oldest, all will find a reason to laugh.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best INTENTIONALLY funny Vampire Movie, November 1, 2000

By	AmazingMrKimble "amazingmrkimble" (Rio Rancho, New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews

As with "Young Frankenstein" you sort of need to have seen the original Universal films (if not the Francis Ford Copolla version) to get all the jokes. This might be the favorite vampire movie for pre-teen kids. It sure is in my house. Leslie Nielsen has the Dracula role nailed in what is his best performance outside of the Police Squad movies (George Hamilton, eat your heart out). Mel Brooks is slightly over the top, but since when is that news? You have to go back to "Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein" to find something this funny involving vampires.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Brooks' makes a companion for "Young Frankenstein", January 5, 2000

By	Alex Udvary (chicago, il United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I think just about every person I've every spoken to about Mel Brooks has told me the same think:"My favorite is "Blazing Saddles!" or "I love "Young Frankenstein!" But this is one you'll never hear anyone mention.(To some people that's a good thing!) I was surpised to see what other viewers thought of this movie. I assumed everyone HATED it! But this is the kind of film you'd expect from Mel Broks,the man who brought you "Spaceballs",or "High Anxiety". A silly crazy spoof! The only way the enjoy this movie is to sit back and relax! It's not a masterpiece! It's a light hearted comedy! Good for some laughs! The mirror scene at the end will induce the biggest laughs!