26 May, 2007

New German COUNT DRACULA DVD



Thanks to Magnus for these screengrabs from the new German DVD of Jess Franco's COUNT DRACULA issued by Kinowelt.
Top: the atmospheric opening image of the forest near Dracula's castle. This image is missing from the 2007 R1 Dark Sky COUNT DRACULA DVD, which begins a number of seconds later. The scene of the gypsy woman pleading for her child to be returned (MIA from the DS DVD) is also present on this disc.
Here is a list of the extras:
Interview with Jess Franco (audio only, in English with german subs).
Christopher Lee reads Bram Stoker's Dracula (english audio only, with stills)
Nachts Wenn Dracula Erwacht Super 8-print (german audio only, approx. 33 mins*) Super 8 cover artwork + info (german only). *[This is a shortened version of the film].
Trailers: Das Rätsel des silbernen DreiecksDracula - Nächte des EntsetzensSchulmädchen Report - Teil 2: Was Eltern den Schlaf raubt


Magnus also reports that the color is noticeably washed out and the blue tinting seen in some of the night scenes in the Dark Sky presentation is missing. Although I haven't yet decided if I will acquire this I'm grateful that it is more complete than the DS print, although I did appreciate the rich colors and High Definition quality of that presentation. The Super 8mm version also makes this an attractive purchase for me.
Thanks again to Magnus for the images and information.


(C) Robert Monell, 2007

7 comments:

Douglas A. Waltz said...

Does it have English Subtitles??

Robert Monell said...

It has Eng and German audio options as far as I know now. I don't think it has Eng subs for the German audio though.

Anonymous said...

No english subs.

Magnus missed all extras from the first disc:
- Audio commentary with Fred Williams (in german, no subs)
- Beloved Count (the featurette from the Dark Sky disc)
- Interview with Jack Taylor (english, with german subs)
- Stills galleries (german Lobby Set etc.)
- several text pages (in german)

Anonymous said...

No english subs.

Magnus missed all extras from the first disc:
- Audio commentary with Fred Williams (in german, no subs)
- Beloved Count (the featurette from the Dark Sky disc)
- Interview with Jack Taylor (english, with german subs)
- Stills galleries (german Lobby Set etc.)
- several text pages (in german)

Robert Monell said...

Thanks for the additional information, Ewe! If you want please write a brief review and email it to me. I'll post it with an image. An impressive list of extras. But what about the image quality?

Anonymous said...

The blue tinting of the forest scenes might have been "enhanced" in post production but I'm pretty sure there was an actual blue filter on the camera lens itself for the day for night shots (note that the hotspots in certain shots including one where the sun dips into the top of the frame take on a neon pink tinge (this is on the Spanish DVD I have not seen the German one yet) which the filter could not entirely block.

The Spanish print is also definately faded so the blue might be more pronounced on a better print of the Spanish version.

Robert Monell said...

I tend to agree with that. The blue tint definitely looks like a post production addition. Franco may not have had anything to do with it, but it improves the look of the film. The day for night tinting has always seemed to have a blueish tinge to me even when I saw it on TV in the 70s.