MovieChat Forums > Dracula (1974) Discussion > Dracula's Wife's Death-Spoiler

Dracula's Wife's Death-Spoiler

posted 10 years ago by lm362
6 replies | jump to latest

How did Dracula's wife, in this movie, die? I know she was lying on a bed, but I did not see any indication of how she had died except for what might have appeared to be blood streaming from each wrist, but I saw the movie later on Hulu and the picture was clearer. Her right arm was tied to the bed and her left arm was loose, but the rope, or whatever, was still tied to her wrist. What I saw earlier on her left wrist was the rope, not blood. It looked to me as if she had been possibly tortured/raped and then murdered. What do you think? I'm assuming the men holding onto Dracula were his own soldiers and not the enemy capturing him.

[–] Wuchak (8772) 3 years ago

I was wondering the same thing. The longest synopsis I could find for the movie simply says: "Dracula has flashbacks of his wife -- of whom Lucy is the spitting image -- on her deathbed centuries earlier." I was leaning toward the idea that she committed suicide, but it's not clear what the ropes were meant for. Perhaps she was mentally ill and had to be tied down.

Interestingly, this version by Dan Curtis & Richard Matheson was the first to introduce the idea that Dracula was lovesick over his wife of 400-years earlier and finds what seems to be a reincarnation of her (in this movie it's Lucy whereas in Coppola's 1992 version it's Mina). This of course paints Drac in a more sympathetic light and wasn't a part of Stoker's original story wherein the undead Count is depicted as a paragon of unadulterated evil. Curtis swiped the idea from his own hit daytime soap opera "Dark Shadows" (1966-1971).

[–] lm362 (341) 2 years ago

I don't think it was that she had to be tied down. According to Wikipedia, she hated Dracula's enemies and so committed suicide by falling off the battlements of the castle when she learned they would attack the next morning. I think in this movie they changed her death to murder, not suicide as if the enemy got there and killed her. Here is the Wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A2ul_Doamnei
And actually, the Bram Stoker novel makes a vague reference to the fact that Dracula had someone he loved once in life. In one section, the coffins of the "brides" are arranged from highest to lowest order with Dracula's being located nearby on the floor. I feel this indicates that the highest coffin held the woman who reminded him of his lost love. Also, Stoker's wife said the short story, Dracula's Guest was actually to be the first chapter of the novel. It also hints at the vampiress killed in the story as another woman Dracula felt reminded him of his long dead love. Some say the realtor that is in the story is Harker, but others say it is Renfield who earlier visited the Count before Harker.

[–] Wuchak (8772) 2 years ago

Those are good insights, thank you. But it doesn't change the fact that Dan Curtis' "Dracula" and Coppola's version painted the undead count in a sympathetic lovesick light compared to the "paragon of unadulterated evil" of Stoker's novel.

[–] lm362 (341) 2 years ago

Yes, but I think that was done under the mistaken notion that viewers would not view him as sympathetic if they put more of the evil things he did in the novel. If you get sympathetic story right, and balance it out with showing the evil he has done as is in the novel, the audience will feel the sympathy it needs to feel.

[–] Wuchak (8772) 2 years ago

I'm just saying that the Coppola/Hart version stressed the sympathetic side more than the novel and obviously so.

Yet you can't say their version neglected to show Drac's glaring evil, such as when he handed a baby to his three wives to feed on, which was a pretty horrifying moment.

In any case, I appreciate your citing vague details from the book, etc. to support a downplayed sympathetic portrayal of the Count. I'll be sure to pay more attention to this aspect the next time I read it.

[–] lm362 (341) a year ago

I also found a story that says a lady or princess was running away from Turkish soldiers who wanted to rape her. She accidentally drowned in the river. That might be where the writers of movie got the idea as to how to portray her death.