It all came together in my head when I saw Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun series and was tickled by his deadpan portrayal of his character in the midst of comedy chaos. Then and there, I knew he would make a perfect Count Dracula. That was the spark that eventually became Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
I met with Rudy De Luca and Steve Haberman, just recently my co-writers on Life Stinks, and they both agreed. Steve Haberman was a true horror-film aficionado, and actually later went on to get a doctorate in film studies. His encyclopedic knowledge of classic horror films from the silent Nosferatu （1922） through Tod Browning’s Dracula and on through the Hammer Dracula films was invaluable in putting together our story and screenplay. We took inspiration from all of them, but the one we stayed closest to for the look was the classic Tod Browning Dracula film from 1931. Even though Dracula was shot in black and white, I decided to shoot our film in color. I was probably influenced by the classic Hammer horror films’ memorable use of buckets of blood. Blood doesn’t work unless it’s all over the place in bright vibrant color. And boy, did we use it! （More on that later.）
But we did parody some details from other famous Dracula films. We used the ludicrous hairdo of Gary Oldman’s Count Dracula from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1991 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It featured two big white buns on either side of his head, but instead of using it as a hairdo we just turned it into his big crazy hat. Later in that same film, Dracula’s shadow plays a prominent part. For our version, we made his shadow show the audience Dracula’s real feelings. For example, after he falls down the stairs, even though Dracula doesn’t portray any aftereffects, his shadow limps after him obviously in pain.
In addition to casting the very funny Leslie Nielsen as Count Dracula, I decided that I would play his mortal enemy Professor Van Helsing. I based my character on the Edward Van Sloan version of Van Helsing, but I based my accent on the Albert Bassermann character Van Meer from Hitchcock’s classic Foreign Correspondent （1940）。 He spoke in a crazy, loopy German accent. I remember Steve saying to me about Bassermann, “Maybe English was his second language, but he spoke it as if it was his fourteenth.”
We were lucky that once again my Academy Award–winning wife had the time to lend us her talents to play a small cameo as a gypsy woman who warns us against the strange count who lives in the castle above the village. Anne would take her fingers and shake her throat while delivering the lines in a salute to famous Russian actress Maria Ouspenskaya’s signature shaky delivery.
For the female lead we once again got our talented and beautiful flaming redhead Amy Yasbeck, who was so terrific as Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Her character, Mina, was our damsel in distress, who was at risk of being turned into a vampire by Count Dracula. Her fiancé, the very proper Victorian Englishman Jonathan Harker, was played by the talented Steven Weber, who was starring at the time on the hit comedy TV show Wings.
A good clue to his character is in the dialogue between him and Mina:
Mina: Oh, it makes me so happy to be at the opera! I love this palace of art and beauty!
Jonathan: Oh yes, my dear, the opera is astonishing! The music is fraught with love, hate, sensuality, and unbridled passion!…All the things in my life I’ve managed to suppress so far.
Setting a scene with the wonderful Leslie Nielsen while directing Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
Steven’s line reading was absolutely exquisite. The character of Renfield, who becomes Dracula’s devoted servant, was brilliantly played by Peter MacNicol, who was responsible for so many of the funniest scenes in the movie. I remembered him from his very humorous performances in Addams Family Values and Ghost Busters II. The Renfield character was played by Dwight Frye in the 1931 Dracula film, and Peter delivered a perfect imitation of his somewhat nutty mannerisms. Good old reliable Harvey Korman was cast as Dr. Seward, a bumbling British physician which he played in the manner of Nigel Bruce’s Dr. Watson from the famous Sherlock Holmes series.
Harvey Korman as Dr. Seward, me as Professor Van Helsing, and Steven Weber as Jonathan Harker in Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
He and Peter had a hilarious breakfast scene together. It went like this: We see Peter MacNicol’s Renfield and Harvey’s Dr. Seward eating outside in a garden. MacNicol is trying to convince the doctor that he is perfectly normal, but Harvey suspects that he is crazy. Instead of eating the food, MacNicol snatches a bug crawling across the table and surreptitiously shoves it into his mouth.
Dr. Seward sees him out of the corner of his eye: