‘Dracula: Dead and Loving It’—Behind the scenes of the vampire comedy
Is this Mel Brooks horror comedy movie the worst Dracula movie ever? Or is it actually underrated?
Looking at several behind-the-scenes elements of Dracula: Dead and Loving It to see why people have been warming up to the classic vampire movie.
The vampire comedy movie Dracula: Dead and Loving It got bad press upon its 1995 release in movie theaters—and bombed at the box office. In fact, it stands as the last film directed by legendary director Mel Brooks.
But did audiences misjudge the movie? In the years since its original release, the movie Dracula: Dead and Loving It has grown in popularity. Today, there are a growing number of people online and in print saying that the movie was actually pretty fun and is worth checking out.
Below, we look at some behind-the-scenes facts in the making of Dracula: Dead and Loving It—including clues about why fans are starting to enjoy it.
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Dracula: Dead And Loving It | Behind the Scenes of Mel Brooks’ Vampire Comedy Movie | Monster Complex
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About the movie
A comic rethinking of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula and of some of its many adaptations—especially the classic 1931 Dracula movie that starred Bela Lugosi—Dracula: Dead and Loving It features a Transylvanian vampire who works his evil spell on a perplexed group of Londoners. Directed by Mel Brooks, his version of the Count is a pratfalling evil prince of a guy who believes in long relationships. Brooks portrays vampire hunter Van Helsing, who won’t give a bloodsucker an even break.
Dracula: Dead and Loving It stars Leslie Nielsen as the main character. The other stars in the movie include Amy Yasbeck as Mina Seward, Peter MacNicol as Renfield, Steven Weber as Jonathan Harker, Harvey Korman as Dr. Seward, and Anne Bancroft as Madame Ouspenskaya.
The movie references styles and ideas from several Dracula adaptations. In addition to the Universal Monsters classic Dracula (1931), other inspirations include the Dracula movies from Hammer Horror films that starred Christopher Lee, plus the 1967 vampire comedy movie The Fearless Vampire Killers and the 1992 movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppolla.
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‘Dracula: Dead and Loving It’—Behind the scenes of Mel Brooks’ vampire comedy
#1) Mel Brooks has directed lots of similar parodies.
It’s amazing to realize that writer and director Mel Brooks has a career that spans more than seven decades. He’s also one of the few people to win the EGOT—meaning that he has won an an Emmy AND a Grammy Award AND an Oscar AND a Tony Award. He’s also won lots of other awards.
Of his MANY accomplishments, the ones that are the most relevant right now are how he is responsible for movies like HIGH ANXIETY, which is a parody of Alfred Hitchcock movies. (By the way, I can tell you from experience that the movie is hilarious even if you watch it before you’ve seen any of the actual Hitchcock movies it’s making fun of)
Brooks also made the movie SPACEBALLS, which makes fun of Star Wars. (I consider that joke about them watching the video of the movie while they’re still making ikt to be one of the funniest movie scenes ever.)
I also want to bring up that Mel Brooks was the co-creator of the 1960s spy-fi comedy TV series GET SMART!
But of course for today’s topic, the most relevant fact of all is that Mel Brooks directed and co-wrote the 1974 movie YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, which is a parody of the Universal Monsters movies about the Frankenstein’s Monster. The movie co-written by Gene Wilder, who also starred as the young grandson of Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Also part of the cast was Peter Boyle as the monster.
The movie pokes fun at classic horror movies, especially those that were inspired by Mary Shelley’s original novel Frankenstein. In fact, a lot of the lab equipment we see in Young Frankenstein is actually the same stuff the studio made for the 1931 movie Frankenstein. To help strike the feeling of the original movies, Brooks shot Young Frankenstein in black and white, and even copied 1930s-style opening credits and scene transitions.
A very successful movie, Young Frankenstein appears on lots of lists of great comedy movies. And Mel Brooks has even said that he considers Young Frankenstein to be one of the best movies he’s ever made.
#2) Dracula: Dead and Loving It was created as a companion to Young Frankenstein.
In fact, the making of a Frankenstein movie is part of what inspired Mel Brooks to make a Dracula movie. As he said in an interview for an international DVD release of Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Brooks said:
“I did Young Frankenstein and I said I need a companion piece. And then [Francis Ford] Coppola did Dracula, and I always loved the Bela Lugosi [Dracula], the first one he did in America in the ‘30s, so I said it’s time! And I was watching Leslie Nielsen in Naked Gun 33 1/3 and I said, Ah! He is a perfect Dracula—he has wisdom and age, and he’s charming. Everything is perfect for Nielsen to play Dracula. And I decided to be Van Helsing the vampire hunter, you know, the one who knows that something is wrong. It was perfect.”
Brooks says that the intent behind Dracula: Dead And Loving It was to be both thrilling and funny.
“That’s what we tried to do in this picture. Like Young Frankenstein—it should be very dramatic, and yet it should always be hysterically funny. You know, that’s our job.”
#3) They originally planned to make Dracula: Dead and Loving It in black and white.
When Mel Brooks and the other filmmakers began to discuss the making of Dracula: Dead and Loving It, one of the early ideas was whether to make the movie in black-and-white—as a way to follow one of the successful characteristics of Brooks’ 1974 Universal Monsters parody Young Frankenstein. That film was created in black and white to make it feel more like one of the old Frankenstein movies.
But for the Dracula movie, they evenually dropped the idea. In the Blu-ray movie commentary, screenwriter Steve Haberman said they thought through how so many great Dracula movies were in color. Examples include the Hammer pictures starring Christopher Lee, plus Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
#4) In Dracula: Dead and Loving It the Count is at the mercy of his servants.
Leslie Nielsen, who portrayed Dracula, said that their approach to the character was to make him a victim.
“[The movie] shows his vulnerability. He relies on the assistance from a man like Renfield—he’s looking for assistance from mortals, and he gets nothing but botched up because they don’t follow instructions. They turn out to be pretty dumb, and poor Dracula is the one who suffers. So what you see in this is a suffering Dracula, a victimized Dracula. It’s a shame.”
#5) Dracula: Dead and Loving It has that scene with lots and lots—and lots—of blood.
Making fun of some of the more violent vampire movies—like Interview with the Vampire and Bram Stoker’s Dracula—Mel Brooks’ Dracula: Dead and Loving It includes a particularly unrestrained scene involving staking a vampire through the heart. The end result is a fountain of blood that drenches Jonathan Harker, played by Steven Weber.
Watching the scene, it seems like Weber did not expect to get splattered on so much. In fact, he told an interviewer that the scene was a lot of fun to shoot but fairly complicated. He said that his eyes still sting whenever he watches that scene because of all the fake blood that got into his eyes.
Mel Brooks said that he loved how the blood scene turned out. He called it his “masterpiece of insanity” and that he will always remember it.
#6) Anne Bancroft’s character referenced classic Universal Monster movies.
One of the actresses in Dracula: Dead and Loving It was Anne Bancroft. The wife of director Brooks—as well as a renowned actress in her own right—Bancroft played the character of Romani woman Madame Ouspenskaya. What’s significant is that the character is named after an actress from the Universal Monsters movies: Maria Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress who as an old woman played a fortune teller in 1941’s The Wolf Man and in 1943’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
Since I mentioned Anne Bancroft—so we’re talking about Mel Brooks family—this is a great time to mention that their son Max Brooks wrote the novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.
#7) Leslie Nielsen loved working with Mel Brooks on Dracula Dead and Loving It.
Younger fans may not realize that actor Leslie Nielsen spent a lot of years as an actor—starting in the 1950s—playing very serious and dramatic roles. It wasn’t until the 1980 movie Airplane! that he suddenly got to do comedy. (Granted—the reason they hired him was to play his role in the movie like a serious actor.) That change in his career led to him starring in the Naked Gun movies.
Talking about his time working on Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Nielsen said working on the movie was as fun as working on Naked Gun.
“I’ve been having nothing but fun. It’s like, I get up early, to get to work early, to start laughing sooner, because I have a wonderful time. It’s a pleasure to come here and to do this wonderful, fun stuff working with a marvelous cast. And know that I’m gonna be coming here to be working with Mel Brooks. Aside from being so talented and skillful and funny himself, he’s a very gentle and thoughtful and supportive man. He’s great. We take all of the other things for granted—that, you know, how skillful and funny he is—but he’s just a very thoughtful, very, very supportive, very gentle person, and very smart guy. He’s terrific.”
#8) Peter MacNicol was thrilled to play Renfield.
Of course, the character of Renfield, who first appeared in Bram Stoker’s original novel Dracula, is Count Dracula's tormented, bug-eating handyman. The actor said that anyone who plays the character of Renfield is trying to match the quality of Dwight Fry, who played the role in the 1931 movie Dracula. “He’s there looming over us to be paid homage to.”
When Mel Brooks called MacNicol to ask whether he was interested in talking about the Dracula movie, the actor was immediately on board.
“Renfield is a part I’ve been hearing about. I don’t know why people thought I should have a go at it—I suppose I should have been insulted. But no, I couldn’t pass it up. And, you know, [Dracula: Dead and Loving It] was filled with delights.”
#9) Dracula: Dead and Loving It did not end Mel Brooks career!
So, Dracula: Dead and Loving It was the last movie directed by Mel Brooks. But unlike what some people want to tell you, he clearly has not given up.
Let’s look back over his career: Going all the way back to the 1940s, he has spent decades as an actor, a comedian, a filmmaker, a songwriter, and a playwright. His products have included TV shows and movies and comedy albums and Broadway musicals and books.
Mel Brooks is now 97! And he’s still doing stuff! In the years since he made the Dracula movie…
Brooks created Broadway musical versions of Young Frankenstein and the award-winning The Producers.
Brooks has been acting, including Mr. Peabody & Sherman (as Albert Einstein), the Hotel Transylvania movies (as Dracula’s dad), Toy Story 4 (as Melephant Brooks) as well as the movie Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (a loose remake of Brooks’ classic western comedy Blazing Saddles).
Brooks has been working in television, including Spaceballs: The Animated Series and History of the World, Part II.
So while some have tried to consider Dracula Dead and Loving It as a stake in Mel Brooks career—the fact that we continually have to update his resume proves those people wrong.
#10) Dracula Dead and Loving It has slowly grown in popularity over the years.
When the movie came out, Dracula Dead and Loving It had some trouble finding an audience. But over the years, a growing number of people have started to recognize its value and have grown to appreciate it. Just some examples:
Slash Film posted: “To this day, there are moments of this movie that still make me laugh out loud, and the movie has aged remarkably well.”
CBR posted: “The film deserves more praise for brilliantly lampooning vampire movies.”
SF Debris posted: “This film does have a lot that I like about it. One thing I find so funny is that this film has the most accurate portrayal of Van Helsing in any media.”
In the years since the movie Dracula: Dead and Loving It hit theaters, it has grown in popularity and is completely worth checking out. Vampire comedy fans owe Dracula: Dead and Loving It some respect for how it showed how to have fun with the classic vampire movies.
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Sources:
Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) - BEHIND THE SCENES/INTERVIEWS
Stephen Weber “Dracula: Dead And Loving It” 1995 (Bobbie Wygant Archive)
Peter MacNicol “Dracula: Dead & Loving It” 1995 (Bobbie Wygant Archive)
Year Of The Vampire: Dracula Dead And Loving It Doesn’t Suck (Slash Film)
Dracula: Dead and Loving It aka the Most Accurate Van Helsing in Cinema (SF Debris)
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The History of Mel Brooks: Parts I-X (The Millions)
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