Dracula in Whitby Blog » dracula society

Dr. Elizabeth Miller and Bram Stoker’s Notes for Dracula

Dracula — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:29:55 +0000

Last year, McFarland’s published a facsimile edition of Stoker’s Notes (transcribed and annotated by Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Dr. Elizabeth Miller). This volume gave the public the chance to view all 124 pages of Bram Stoker’s working Notes for Dracula. The original notes were auctioned at Sotheby’s in 1913 and are now housed in the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia.

Dr. Elizabeth Miller is a widely published authority on Dracula and she will be visiting the UK at the end of April. She will be lecturing at the National Library of Ireland on April 28th and will also be making a visit to Whitby (hope it lives up to her expectations!).

Dr. Miller (who is a Dracula Society member, although she lives in Toronto) will also be speaking to the society in London at the beginning of May.

Should be quite an enlightening meeting and, as usual, I can’t get to London to attend. Maybe I’ll bump into her in Whitby as she counts the 199 Steps

Alan

Dracula in Pakistan: Zinda Laash

Dracula — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:35:03 +0000

I’ve just been reading about an obscure Pakistani Dracula film called, ‘Zinda Laash‘, a rather unique interpretation of the classic 1958 Hammer film, ‘Dracula‘.

Basically, it seems like some mad professor discovers the secret of immortality (there’s a catch – as an undead vampire!). His assistant becomes his victim, lots of running around, inappropriate music for the soundtrack (except the music nicked from James Bernard’s great score) and exotic dance numbers.

Apparently, when ‘Zinda Laash‘ was first shown (in 1967) it was unusual in that it was given an ‘Adults Only’ certificate – Pakistan’s first ever ‘X’ rated film!

Now I must admit, to not having seen the film and I may be doing it a huge diservice.

Has anyone out there seen it? I’m guessing nobody has (other than a few brave Dracula Society members), but if you are that rare creature who has actually sat through the film, PLEASE reply to this post and give us all a review.

If it’s good, I’m going to buy it – oh, yes!

Looking forward to some replies…

Alan

The Dracula Society

Dracula — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:58:57 +0000

Thought I’d do a quick plug for the Dracula Society (and yes, I am a member!).

The Dracula Society publishes a great newsletter (‘Voices From The Vaults’) with loads of informative articles and reviews centred around Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

They organize trips around the UK (Whitby!) and abroad (Romania) and have regular meetings and events (readings by celebrity guests, etc) in London.

I live too far North to attend their meetings in London, but they certainly sound like a colourful bunch of people who attend.

If you’d like to join this esteemed organization, or want further information, here are the details:

Website: www.thedraculasociety.org.uk

Address: The Dracula Society, PO Box 30848, London, W12 0GY.