Laszlo Tamasfi

The illustrated English translation of the 1924 prose adaptation of the apparently lost 1921 Hungarian silent movie ‘Dracula’s Death’ - the first film to ever feature Dracula himself (altho not based on the original story of Stoker classic).

Although this is a very short book and the story is rather unremarkable, its value lies in its importance to European film history and that only by a quirk of bureaucratic fate did the story get preserved at all.

Like over 90% of silent films in Hungary, the film itself is lost forever. What we are left with is this fun novelisation of the story—believed to be true to the film—and an insightful essay which discusses the place of the film’s director, its groundbreaking set development and the preserved promotional articles of time—many of which conflict each other in the details, reveal pre-screening spoilers or are poorly researched (the one mentioning H G Wells as the author of the English novel of Dracula amused me most).

It’s a great little book, with a strange, but magical little story and an insightful essay that belongs on the shelves of any film or horror fan.… (mehr)