Mel Brooks apply his particular brand of humour to the vampire mythos with Dracula: Dead and Loving it inspired by the recent (at the time) success of the Francis Ford Coppola adaptation but mostly a homage to the 1931 Tod Browning iteration, taking both story beats and frequent lines of dialogue, yet often with added innuendo or pun based twist.
Leslie Nielsen, the Meryl Streep of the spoof genre, is Drac. Peter Macnicol effectively resurrects the subservient submissiveness of Janosz Poha with a dash of Dwight Frye insanity as Renfield. Amy Yasbeck gives good Madeline Khan in her turn as Mina. The director himself inhabits Van Helsing, medical scientist and foremost proponent of the theory of Yes or No.
It’s not as sharp as Brooks at his best, and it feels a little unsure whether it wants to serve the modern crowd (primarily through use of sentient shadow) or present as a throwback to the classic model, but I can’t pretend I didn’t laugh - there is fun here to be had and the relatively brief yet brilliant interaction between Nielsen and Brooks feels almost just as monumental pairing as Pacino and Deniro in Heat.
I have a copy of Fangoria from 95 that was quite complimentary to the level of blood utilised in the staking scene.
Mel Brooks apply his particular brand of humour to the vampire mythos with Dracula: Dead and Loving it inspired by the recent (at the time) success of the Francis Ford Coppola adaptation but mostly a homage to the 1931 Tod Browning iteration, taking both story beats and frequent lines of dialogue, yet often with added innuendo or pun based twist.
Leslie Nielsen, the Meryl Streep of the spoof genre, is Drac. Peter Macnicol effectively resurrects the subservient submissiveness of Janosz Poha with a dash of Dwight Frye insanity as Renfield. Amy Yasbeck gives good Madeline Khan in her turn as Mina. The director himself inhabits Van Helsing, medical scientist and foremost proponent of the theory of Yes or No.
It’s not as sharp as Brooks at his best, and it feels a little unsure whether it wants to serve the modern crowd (primarily through use of sentient shadow) or present as a throwback to the classic model, but I can’t pretend I didn’t laugh - there is fun here to be had and the relatively brief yet brilliant interaction between Nielsen and Brooks feels almost just as monumental pairing as Pacino and Deniro in Heat.
I have a copy of Fangoria from 95 that was quite complimentary to the level of blood utilised in the staking scene.
