Count Dracula (1969 Film) - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

The film starts with a shot of Count Dracula's castle and the following text

Over fifty years ago, Bram Stoker wrote the greatest of all horror stories. Now, for the first time, we retell exactly as he wrote, one of the first — and still the best — tales of the macabre.

Jonathan Harker, a lawyer traveling from London to Transylvania to secure property for Count Dracula, arrives at Bistritz to stay for the night. There, he is warned by a concerned lady against continuing his journey the following day. Harker believes that her concerns are rooted in peasant superstition. He ignores her, but starts to feel increasingly unnerved by the way everyone looks at him. Harker sets off for the rest of his journey and arrives at the Borgo Pass where he's picked up by the Count's mysterious coachman.

Harker debarks at Castle Dracula, and the coach immediately rushes off. Somewhat hesitantly, Harker approaches the main door, whereupon a thin, tall, gaunt old man opens it. Harker asks, "Count Dracula?" "I am Dracula, enter freely and of your own will," says the man at the door. Dracula takes Harker to his bedchamber where Harker notices that Dracula casts no reflection.

Later, Harker goes to sleep, but wakes up only to find himself in an ancient crypt where he is seduced by three beautiful vampiresses. An enraged Dracula rushes into the room and orders them to leave Harker alone. Dracula explains, "This man belongs to me," then gives the vampiresses a baby to feed on. Harker wakes up screaming in his room and assumes it was a nightmare, but two small wounds on his neck say otherwise.

Harker soon comes to realise he's now a prisoner and tries to escape by climbing out of his bedroom window. He finds his way back to the crypt where he finds Count Dracula and his three brides in coffins. Harker runs out of the crypt, screaming in horror and jumps out of the castle's tower into the river below.

Harker wakes up once more, finding himself a patient in a private psychiatric clinic in the outskirts of London, owned by one Dr. Van Helsing, in the care of Dr. Seward. He is told he has been found delirious in a river near Budapest and, naturally, no one believes him about what happened at Castle Dracula until Van Helsing finds the two punctures on Harker's neck. Harker's fiancée Mina and her close friend Lucy also arrive at the hospital to help take care of him. Unbeknownst to them, Count Dracula has followed Harker back to England and now resides in an abandoned abbey close to the hospital.

As Mina nurses Harker back to health, her friend Lucy's health strangely declines. Dracula has been secretly appearing to her by night and drinking her blood, growing younger as he feeds off his victim. Quincey Morris, Lucy's fiancé, joins Drs. Seward and Van Helsing in an attempt to save Lucy by giving her a blood transfusion from Quincey.

One of the patients at the lunatic asylum becomes of considerable interest to the men; R. M. Renfield, who is classed as a zoophagus. He eats flies and insects in order to consume their life, believing that with each life he consumes he gains that life. He also seems to act violently whenever Dracula is around.

Lucy eventually dies while her men helplessly look on. As Van Helsing suspected, Lucy has become one of the undead and murders a young child, but the ordeal is put to an end when Quincey, Seward and Van Helsing ambush Lucy in her tomb, stake her through the heart and decapitate her. Harker, now in full health, comes around and joins the group who now are sure that Count Dracula is their vampire.

Dracula then turns his attention to Mina and begins corrupting her as well. Around this time, Van Helsing suddenly has a stroke and remains in a wheelchair. Dracula visits the weakened man, mocking his attempts to destroy him. Quincey, Harker and Seward track Dracula to an abandoned abbey, only to find out he has fled back to Transylvania with the aid of a traveling Gypsy band.

As Count Dracula's Gypsy servants take him back to his castle, he is trailed by Harker and Quincey. After battling the Gypsies, the two heroes find Dracula's coffin and set it on fire. Dracula, unable to save himself due to the sun still being up, is consumed by flames.