Time for me to jump into the fray.

I've collected vampire movies for years; they are pretty near my favorite horror genre. (Also, in my skinnier days, I was known for years for dressing up as Dracula around Halloween time.)

Here are just some of the ones that stand out in my mind, in no particular order. A few of my favorites:

Nosferatu (1922)

Dracula (1931 - Bela Lugosi)

Dracula's Daughter (1936 - Gloria Holden) An underrated gem, IMO.

Dracula (USA: Horror of Dracula - 1958 - Christopher Lee) One of the best ever. Period. (TIS, I think this is the actor you were thinking of.)

El Conde Dracula (USA: Count Dracula - 1970 - Christopher Lee) Not part of the Hammer Films series. It had potential, but oh, what they could have done if they only had more than a $20 budget.

The Fearless Vampire Killers (AKA: Dance of the Vampires - 1967) Roman Polanski's film should be seen in its uncut, European release version, if at all possible.

The Night Stalker The original telemovie was great. The series that came after, was, well...let's just say the premise wore a bit thin.

Vampyr (1932) Carl Dreyer's film is, for me, sort of an acquired taste. If you don't like films like this, you won't like this film. One of the problems is that there are no really high quality prints of the film extant.

The Brides of Dracula (1959) An underrated semi-sequel to Horror of Dracula that should be shown more often.

Kiss of the Vampire (1963) A stand-alone gem by Hammer Films. After many years of being only available in the US in a butchered/mutilated version, I understand it has finally been restored.

Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) Begun as a low-budget nudie, the producers had a change of heart and it was released as a straight horror film. Very low-budget, but quite effective in its way.

Fright Night (1985) For some reason, this one seems to be all but forgotten these days. Worth seeing for Roddy McDowall, Chris Sarandon, among others.

Innocent Blood What a film! A vampire/Mob movie with more than its share of comedic moments. Directed by John Landis, starring the gorgeous Anne Parillaud, with Robert Loggia as an Undead Don and Don Rickles (as his Bruce Cutler-esque lawyer) thrown in for good measure. Ya gotta see this one!

I'm sure I'll post some more when I check the Vitelli Archives. I will say, though, that I pretty much hated two of the more popular films already mentioned:

Dracula (1979 - Langella)

Bram Stoker's Dracula

The reasons? Well, basically, my reasons were similar: The leading actors, in both cases, were absolutely not what I thought Count Dracula should look like. I thought Langella's "sexy vampire" and Oldman's long-haired something-or-other (with those ridiculous eyeglasses) were miles away from what Stoker wrote and were totally unbelievable. Also, and possibly worst of all, the writing in these films veered so far awar from the novel (at times) that I just had to shake my head in disgust and wonder "What were these people thinking?"

Anyway, I'll probably get back to this thread a little later.

Time to scour the countryside for fresh victims.

Signor V.