MovieChat Forums > Dracula (1979) Discussion > Does anyone know if the original version...

Does anyone know if the original version will ever be released?

posted 12 years ago by preppy-3
5 replies | jump to latest

It's pretty obvious that everybody here on this board doesn't like the color drained away. Supposedly director John Badham ordered this done. I'd really like to sit down with him and have him explain to me how he thinks it helps. The worst thing was Mina as a vampire. In the original her eyes were glowing red which was VERY creepy. Now they look white! Any chance the original with the full color will come out?

[–] garlandgreene-442-656521 12 years ago

I have the original on tape.

[–] Rodgermore 12 years ago

It would look fantastic in full colour again. With capacity on bluray and DVD, would be easy to put both versions on a disc. Just depends whether John badham is prepared for universal to put out a special colour edition, instead of the awful look it has now? 2014, is the 35th anniversary, lets hope we get what we want.

[–] NickMichalak 12 years ago

I would so LOVE to see this movie in its full, rich color print, but even by the reviews of it, the HD version on Amazon and iTunes is also the color drained version. That is so terribly sad. I have never been able to see the film in its original presentation as I only discovered it last year. I would wonder if there was anything we could do to encourage Universal to restore the film to its original glory. Digital remastering is done all the time now, and an original print of the film must exist somewhere.

[–] preppy-3 12 years ago

Well the director of the film is still alive and he's the one who ordered the changes so a rerelease of the original isn't going to happen soon. The same happened with "Tom Jones". The director looked at it in the 1990s and thought it was too slow (although no one had complained about it). He cut out one entire sequence and shortened others to make it move quicker. No one agreed with the changes but he was firm about it. All the versions from then on were the shortened version. He died a few years after and all the prints went back to their original form.

[–] monkey-26 11 years ago

It's schedule for a blu-ray release on 2nd October, as far as I can find out so far only in Japan. No word on which version it will be.

Be horny.