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Seems like this is a topic for a whole new thread, but here goes...
The Jess Franco COUNT DRACULA is shabby, filled with a constant barely motivated use of the zoom lens to underline every tiny, little incident. Christopher Lee himself once summed up the philosophy behind the movie thus: "Get it on camera and slightly in focus, and it will make money somewhere, if not a lot." It's basically schlock, with some interest for its curiosity value.
The BBC COUNT DRACULA seems to have almost as many defenders as NOSFERATU, and it is equally overrated, equally bad -- probably more so. The television values are just not up to the job of telling the story, and the pacing is frankly dull. The last time I even tried to watch any of it was during a convention timed with the 100th anniversary of Stoker's novel. I sat through five minutes of two guys working in Seward's sanitarium as they look out the window and see some boxes arriving at Carfax Abbey -- a scene that should have lasted fifteen seconds, all visual (we get the point when we see the boxes and know they house the Count's coffins). Instead, the scene goes on for what seems like another five minutes while the two characters sit around and discuss the fact that the abbey has been rented by some foreign count -- exposition we in the audience already known. It's a pointless, stupid way to tell a story and deserves contempt.
As for the Coppola film, it's filled with wonderful production values, but it is an absolute mess, based more closely on THE DRACULA TAPE than Stoker's Dracula. Trying to cast the Count as a romantic hero is ridiculous, and Mina's pretty much a dim bulb if she falls for the Count's overtures. The film pretends she's his one and only true love but ignores that she's simply becoming part of his harem, which already includes three previous brides. Oerall, I think the approach is worthy of a daytime talk show: "Vampires, and the Women who Love Them" -- today, on Oprah.
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