A few questions about Hammer's Horror of Dracula!

[yendor1152]

I watched Hammer's classic "Horror of Dracula" last night for the umpteenth time, but this was the viewing where I noticed five odd things. Can anyone explain them?

Odd thing #1: I swear that the foyer hall Harker enters (when he arrives at Castle Dracula) is the same room as the interior main hall. There's different lighting in each shot, and the opening foyer has some kind of wall/arch work that's not there in the main hall--but the stairway is definitely the same.

Odd thing #2: when Dracula appears, he leads Harker upstairs. They cross to still another flight of stairs, which I'm pretty sure is the flight they just went up (only shown from a different angle).

Odd thing #3: when Dracula and Harker enter Harker's room, I swear you can see both of their breaths. Would it be that cold in a studio?

Odd thing #4: when Harker goes exploring and ends up in the library, again I swear this is the same room as the main hall, except now books have been added. The fireplace is there, however.

Odd thing #5: when Harker is staking the girl vampire, Dracula awakes and looks at the cellar window. The sun is quickly going down. The impression I've always gotten is that evening came very quickly, and now Dracula can rise. But later, when Van Helsing pulls down the curtains, we see that it's very sunny outside. How could Dracula be walking around out of his coffin if it's sunny? And wasn't it night just a few moments before?

Hopefully, someone can "shed some light" on all this!

[Mike Scott]

I'd have to look at the movie again, but it wouldn't surprise me if they redressed the same set more than once in the same movie. You see that main hall set in many Hammer movies, like "Hound of the Baskervilles". Other sets and locations, in and around the Bray studio, are familiar to Hammer fans.

I'd chalk up the sunlight thing to "artistic license". 

[Earth 2 Chris]

Castle Dracula's interiors seemed to be reused a lot. Brides of Dracula, Kiss of the Vampire and even the Reptile seem to reuse a redress set, or at least many of the same elements.

Hammer was known for making a lot out of nothing, so redressing the same set over and over as different rooms wouldn't surprise me, especially this early in their full-color efforts.

Chris

[Anton Phibes]

I dunno for sure, but Paranoiac seems to make use of some of the sets from other Hammer films as well.

[yendor1152]

I know they redressed sets and re-used props...the pillow inside Dracula's coffin in Dracula, Prince of Darkness, for example, showed up in several Hammers of the period. And I think Dracula's castle was also re-used in Hound of the Baskervilles. But I can't recall seeing the same set redressed again and again in the same film, not like Horror of Dracula. The same set is used in a stream of images, from the front hall, to the main hall, to the upstairs hallway to the library. Very interesting.

[Allhallowsday]

What's really crazy about this movie is the ending where they all travel by coach... back to Castle Dracula... in one night!  Didn't Dracula comment upon Harker's "long journey" at the beginning?  No ship journey in this one.  It's a screwy movie, but a lot of fun anyway!