Dracula in Istanbul (1953)

Azmi is a lawyer from Istanbul. Drakula of Romania has assumed a new title. Azmi travels to Romania for legal matters. He is warned of Drakula but Azmi is a strong believer of goodness.

Director:

Mehmet Muhtar

Writers:

Turgut Demirag, Ümit Deniz

Stars:

Annie Ball, Cahit Irgat, Ayfer Feray

Cast

Credited cast:
Annie Ball	...	Güzin Arsoy
Cahit Irgat	...	Turan
Ayfer Feray	...	Sadan
Bülent Oran	...	Azmi
Atif Kaptan	...	Drakula
Kemal Emin Bara	...	Doktor Naci Eren
Kadri Ögelman	...	Usak
Münir Ceyhan	...	Doktor Afif
Osman Alyanak	...	Tiyatrocu
Eser Tezcan
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Toron Karacaoglu	...	Bülent Oran Seslendirmesi
Esref Kolçak	...	Dansci

Storyline

A Istanbul lawyer named Azmi goes to Romania to meet with a Count named Dracula. Azmi is assigned to convey certain documents to the castle of Count Dracula. Dracula has bought many houses in Istanbul through Azmi and will move to Istanbul. But Dracula is a vampire from the descendant of Vlad the Impaler. It won't take long for our heroes to understand this.

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Plot Keywords:

istanbul turkey | 1950s | istanbul | constantinople | turkey | 

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror

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Did You Know?

Trivia

In the movie, the word "vampire" is never mentioned. The word "spook" is used, instead of "vampire".

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Goofs

That night Azmi is attacked for the first time, following morning he wakes up without a tie. But when he goes to the room which he has breakfast, he has a tie.

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Connections

Featured in In Search of Dracula with Mark Gatiss (2020)

User Reviews

Not very good but still better than I expected.

Over the years, I have seen several incredibly campy Turkish films from the 1970s and 80s, such as knockoff versions of "Star Wars" and "Captain America". However, I've never seen an older Turkish film until I stumbled upon this version of "Dracula" (1953) floating about on YouTube. It does have subtitles but in some ways is much better than the newer films I've seen. Yes, the production values are at times very bad....but the acting is pretty good and the film does provide a few frights...and it's not as campy as the other films I mentioned. Now I am not saying it's good....but at least it's not terrible.

The story is generally that which you'll see in other Dracula stories with only a few major exceptions. It's set in contemporary times and instead of Dracula buying a manor in England, this one decides to move to Istanbul--which makes a lot of sense considering there aren't that many crucifixes there to dissuade him (you see none in the film)! As for Drac himself, he's a weird looking one with teeth that go out at 45 degree angles--which makes you wonder HOW his bite can penetrate ANYTHING!! Predictably, when Drac begins sucking Sadan dry, her family bring in a Van Helsing-like old bearded guy to help them put a stop to all this.

A few things to note. First, although this was filmed in a Muslim nation, it was at the time officially a secular state and seeing some of the women wearing very little still surprised me a bit. Second, the print on YouTube is in terrible condition and I have no idea how else to find this film with subtitles. Third, while the IMDb trivia section says the word 'vampire' does not appear in the film, it is in the English language subtitles and in many ways it stays very close to the original Bram Stoker novel.

Overall, not even close to being a must-see film. The camera-work is often sketchy (especially on closeups), the 'castle' is an obvious painting and the entire production looks pretty cheap.

Details

Country:

Turkey

Language:

Turkish

Release Date:

4 March 1953 (Turkey)

Also Known As:

Dracula in Istanbul

Company Credits

Production Co:

And Film, Erman Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1