SOUND:

WOLF HOWLS IN THE DISTANCE

HARKER:

(SOLEMN) When the spirit dies but the dead live, the dark god of the night is a beast.

SOUND:

LONE WOLF HOWLS! LONG, LOUD AND CLOSE

MUSIC:

BIG OMINOUS FANFARE ... THEN IN BG

ANNOUNCER:

Stage 49, Item Thirty -- Dracula, by Bram Stoker -- dramatized for radio by George Salverson. Starring Lorne Greene as Count Dracula, and Alan King as Jonathan Harker. Produced and directed by Andrew Allan, with an original musical score composed and conducted by Lucio Agostini. George Salverson's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

MUSIC:

BIG OMINOUS INTRODUCTION ... THEN IN BG

HARKER:

(NARRATES) This is the journal of Jonathan Harker. Should any read, convey its warning to those who will believe and act, and convey it to those who mourn me -- for I have written my last word.

MUSIC:

TRANSITION ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]

SOUND:

RUMBLE! OF HORSES AND COACH HURTLING ALONG POOR MOUNTAIN ROADS ... THEN IN BG

HARKER:

(NARRATES) Transylvania, May the fourth, Eighteen Ninety-Seven, a day of a strange, wild journey to carry me on my mission. Is travel among these motionless mountains and long-sleeping castles always pursued so recklessly, so desperately -- our Slovak driver lashing his horses, the coach for Bukovina rocking and bouncing, the passengers crying for more speed?

PASSENGER:

More quickly! More quickly! The sun sinks!

COACHMAN:

(SHOUTS INDECIPHERABLY AT HORSES)

SOUND:

CRACK! OF WHIP

HARKER:

Crying for more speed as darkness is near. And watching me with eyes that are somehow troubled. [X]

2ND PASSENGER:

Obviously, you are the Englishman.

HARKER:

The Englishman? Yes, I am English.

2ND PASSENGER:

In Bistritz, when we took the coach, there was much attention on the Englishman.

HARKER:

But why, sir, is it so remarkable to be English?

2ND PASSENGER:

I do not know why. But I can tell you that this wild country, the ancient battleground of Bulgard and Turk, is not only a melting pot of races, it is a melting pot of all the world's superstitions. And it is sometimes remarkable what an Englishman will do.

HARKER:

There's nothing remarkable in what I am doing. I represent a completely respectable firm of London solicitors. I am here to perform a service for a client.

2ND PASSENGER:

And who is this client, sir?

HARKER:

A Count Dracula.

PASSENGER:

(GASPS, CALLS) Driver! More quickly!

COACHMAN:

(ANNOYED) Am I to fly, then?

HARKER:

Must we travel through these potholes as though the devil were after us?

2ND PASSENGER:

Tradition would have it. These roads should be never repaired, lest the Turk consider it a warlike action.

PASSENGER:

Herr Englishman, is this the eve of St. George's Day? Is it?

HARKER:

(UNCONCERNED) Oh, yes, of course.

PASSENGER:

Do you not know at midnight all evil in the world holds sway? Do you know where you go, Herr Englishman?

HARKER:

I do not understand you, sir.

2ND PASSENGER:

Our friend has had his say. You, sir, are from London and I from Prague. I fear we find these people amusing.

HARKER:

They seem to be afraid of me, I don't know why. The Count will have his carriage meet the coach at the entrance of Borgo Pass. Then I leave you to perform certain services to the Count of Castle Dracula.

PASSENGER:

Driver!

COACHMAN:

I know, I know!

SOUND:

CRACK! OF WHIP

HARKER:

I cannot understand this bone-shattering speed.

2ND PASSENGER:

Perhaps our fellow passengers fear the dark. Or perhaps the devil is after us.

MUSIC:

FOR A DARK, FOREBODING TRANSITION ... THEN IN BG

HARKER:

(NARRATES) Darkness, with the feel of the mountains hiding in it. A long, hard climb toward Borgo Pass. The horses walking and my bones aching. Campfires near the road. Gypsies.

SOUND:

HORSES AND COACH HAVE SLOWED TO A WALK

MUSIC:

GYPSY VIOLIN PLAYS WHILE A GYPSY MAID SINGS A GYPSY MELODY ... THEN IN BG

HARKER:

I am going to walk apiece.

COACHMAN:

(SHARPLY) What are you doing?

HARKER:

I am going to walk while the hill has slowed us down to a reasonable pace.

COACHMAN:

I forbid it! I am responsible. I forbid you to leave the coach. The wolves! The wolves are savage here!

HARKER:

Those Gypsies don't seem afraid.

COACHMAN:

I forbid it!

HARKER:

Oh, very well.

SOUND:

HORSES AND COACH WALK OFF, LEAVING ONLY--

MUSIC:

THE GYPSY VIOLIN ... WHICH CONTINUES IN BG

GYPSY MAID:

(SPEAKS) A stranger passes in the night. He believes only what he sees. Will he see what he cannot believe? (LAUGHS MERRILY)

COACHMAN:

(RELIEVED, TO HARKER) There is the road. There goes Borgo Pass. You see? There is for you no carriage.

HARKER:

The arrangements were very precise.

PASSENGER:

The Herr Englishman is not expected after all. Stay with us to Bukovina. Come. Let us wait no longer.

HARKER:

We came at such a speed, I am sure that--

MUSIC:

VIOLIN STOPS ABRUPTLY

DRACULA:

(BEAT, SLOW, IMPRESSIVE) You are early tonight, coachman.

BIZ:

THOSE ON THE COACH REACT WITH GASPS, ET CETERA

COACHMAN:

(NERVOUS) The - the Herr Englishman was - in a hurry.

DRACULA:

That is why, I suppose, you wished him to go on to Bukovina.

2ND PASSENGER:

(LOW) That is a strange-looking fellow. When he smiles, those sharp white teeth--

PASSENGER:

(TREMBLING) Herr Englishman, if you must do this, take - this - this crucifix. For you mother's sake. Wear it. And God go with you.

SOUND:

LONE WOLF HOWLS!

MUSIC:

BIG ACCENT ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]

HARKER:

(NARRATES) The coach, with its frightened passengers, swept into the darkness on its way to Bukovina, leaving me with the stranger who had so suddenly materialized. Without a word, he motioned me to a carriage which stood silent in the shadows. As we drove upward through the Pass, the cry of the wolves followed us until midnight found us in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle from whose tall black windows came no ray of light. The silent coachman set me down, drove away, left me in the darkness before the massive iron door. And there I waited. [X]

SOUND:

WOLF HOWL

HARKER:

(NARRATES) Waited. And waited. Until--

SOUND:

CLANKING AND CREAKING! AS THE ENORMOUS IRON DOOR IS SLOWLY UNLOCKED AND OPENED

DRACULA:

Welcome to my house. Enter freely and of your own will.

HARKER:

Count, er, Dracula?

DRACULA:

I am Dracula. And I bid you welcome, Mr. Harker.

HARKER:

Yes. Thank you.

SOUND:

DOOR CLOSES

HARKER:

The door is very -- effective.

DRACULA:

It once frustrated a Turkish army.

HARKER:

(LIGHTLY) It wouldn't do to lose the key, would it?

DRACULA:

Come, sir. It is late and my servants are not available. Let me see to your comfort myself.

MUSIC:

SOMBER, IN BG

HARKER:

(NARRATES) His servants! I wondered if the servants existed as I followed along the passage, up a great, winding stair and down the stone floor of another endless passage. Even Dracula's silent coachman -- was Dracula!

MUSIC:

OMINOUS ACCENT AND TRANSITION

DRACULA:

You will, I trust, excuse me that I do not join you at supper. But I have dined already.

HARKER:

I quite understand.

SOUND:

WOLVES HOWL IN THE DISTANCE

HARKER:

(SURPRISED) Even in here, the sound of the wolves.

DRACULA:

Listen to them. The children of the night. What music they make.

HARKER:

Music?

DRACULA:

Ah, sir. You dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter.

MUSIC:

SOMBER, IN BG

HARKER:

(NARRATES, INCREASINGLY TENSE) Dracula smiled. The firelight leaped and fled about the ancient room from the bright red lips, the sharp white pointed teeth. I dropped my eyes to his hands. The nails were long and pointed. I remembered, as he greeted me, how strong they were and how cold. I became aware of something else. I pushed my food away. My God! His breath!

MUSIC:

UP, FOR A SHARP, NASTY ACCENT ... THEN OUT

DRACULA:

Now tell me of London and the house which you have procured for me.

HARKER:

(RECOVERS HIS POISE) Yes. Well, it's in a suburb, Purfleet, and it's called Carfax. It contains, in all, some twenty acres, heavily-treed, surrounded by a solid stone wall. There are very few other houses close at hand, one being a large mansion now used as a private lunatic asylum.

DRACULA:

And the house? Carfax?

HARKER:

Much as you requested -- very large, of mediaeval times, including an ancient stone keep attached to an old chapel.

DRACULA:

Good. I, myself, am of an old family. To live in a new house would -- kill me.

HARKER:

I understand, but really, sir, Carfax is little better than a disused dungeon.

DRACULA:

I belong to the past -- a past of brave races who fought, as a lion fights, for lordship. The Huns, whose fury swept the earth till the dying peoples thought the werewolves themselves had come, that in their veins ran the blood of those old witches, who, expelled from Scythia, mated with the devils in the desert. Fools. What devil or what witch was ever so great as Attila, whose blood is in these veins?

SOUND:

ROOSTER CROWS IN THE DISTANCE

DRACULA:

But you will forgive me. I have kept you until morning and you are tired.

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

HARKER:

(NARRATES) May the twelfth. Many days here, and somewhat amused at my first emotions, for the Count is an interesting, if unusual, person. He seems to be away all day, but through the night he has questioned me closely about England, about banking and shipping procedures, and has obtained the names of various solicitors who might assist him in his proposed move.

VAMPIRE:

(HER SINISTER ECHOING LAUGHTER)

HARKER:

(NARRATES) Tonight, for the first time, the Count has not appeared. The yellow moonlight almost dims the lamp by which I write. How strange. A London solicitor, by this window which overlooks a thousand-foot cliff, in this room of ancient beauty, alone.

VAMPIRE:

(HER ECHOING LAUGHTER)

HARKER:

(NARRATES) Alone? Yes, for there are no servants here.

MUSIC:

EERIE AND INCREASINGLY HYPNOTIC IN BG, DURING FOLLOWING--

HARKER:

(NARRATES) This must once have been the room of a great and beautiful lady. I almost imagine I hear--

VAMPIRE:

(ECHO, LOVINGLY) Darling.

HARKER:

Who's there?

VAMPIRE:

(ECHO, WITH PLEASURE) Our most desirable guest.

HARKER:

Where are you?!

VAMPIRE:

(ECHO) Here. Shall I come more closely? (ECHO FADES AWAY) Now! Do you see me?

HARKER:

(GASPS, CAPTIVATED) Yes.

VAMPIRE:

(SEDUCTIVE) I want you to see me. It is lonely here.

HARKER:

I cannot imagine you could be lonely.

VAMPIRE:

But I am. You are so young, strong, handsome.

HARKER:

Forgive me. I seem - unable - to get up.

VAMPIRE:

Perhaps you are sleeping. Dreaming.

HARKER:

Yes. Yes. I must be.

VAMPIRE:

Yes. Dreaming of love, perhaps?

HARKER:

A dream, a vision from some forgotten age.

VAMPIRE:

One dreams of love, and longs for love.

HARKER:

Yes. (RESISTS) No, I have a love.

VAMPIRE:

And what is she called, your love?

HARKER:

She-- Mina. Mina!

VAMPIRE:

Mina?! Shall I come nearer?

HARKER:

(IN A TRANCE) I-- Yes.

VAMPIRE:

Has she hair like this, your love?

HARKER:

Yellow, like the moonlight.

VAMPIRE:

Would you like to touch?

HARKER:

Yes!

VAMPIRE:

Then I lean over you -- so. Touch it, if you like.

HARKER:

(RESISTS) I-- I can't.

VAMPIRE:

Has she eyes, like these, your love?

HARKER:

So dark. Almost rubies.

VAMPIRE:

Has she lips like these?

HARKER:

Rich. Rich. Red.

VAMPIRE:

And her smile, my love?

HARKER:

The whitest teeth. The sharpest.

VAMPIRE:

Would you like me to kiss you?

HARKER:

I-- Yes. Yes!

VAMPIRE:

Then I will. I will. Let me show you love you never dreamed. First, my lips -- to your throat!

TWO SISTERS:

(LAUGHTER)

VAMPIRE:

(EXPLAINS, TO HARKER) My sisters.

HARKER:

Beautiful. Beautiful.

VAMPIRE:

(TO SISTERS) Are my sisters impatient?

1ST SISTER:

Go on. Yours is the right to begin.

2ND SISTER:

He is young and strong. There are kisses for us all.

VAMPIRE:

Yes. Kisses for us all!

MUSIC: OUT ABRUPTLY WITH--

DRACULA:

(SNARLS)

VAMPIRE:

(STARTLED GASP)

DRACULA:

How dare you touch him?! How dare you, when I had forbidden it? Beware how you meddle.

VAMPIRE:

(PETULANT) You, yourself, never loved. You never loved.

DRACULA:

Yes. I, too, can love. When I am done with him, you shall kiss him at your will. Now go. I must awaken him, for there is work to be done.

VAMPIRE:

Are we to have nothing for tonight?

DRACULA:

Yes!

TWO SISTERS:

(LAUGHTER)

SOUND:

WAIL! OF A CRYING BABY

MUSIC:

GRIM TRANSITION ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]

HARKER:

(NARRATES) I have awakened in my room, a sweet horror in my heart, some grim desire I dare not confess to myself. Why do I remember tales of the vampires, who sink their sharp - white - teeth - daintily - and - drink? [X]

MOTHER:

(OFF, SCREECHES) Thieves! Thieves, thieves!

HARKER:

A woman! In the courtyard!

MOTHER:

Thieves, monsters! Give me back my child!

HARKER:

Her child? My God!

MOTHER:

My child, my child! Give me back my child!

DRACULA:

(AS A WOLF, GROWLS HARSHLY AND HOWLS)

SOUND:

OTHER WOLVES HOWL ... THEN IN BG

HARKER:

That cry. A wolf. An animal. Why does it sound like - like - Dracula?

MOTHER:

Go back to your graves!

HARKER:

What is she saying? The wolves! [They cry,?] and the wolves are coming out of the forest! I must get out there, I must help her!

MOTHER:

You have her blood! Now give me my baby!

SOUND:

RATTLE! OF LOCKED DOOR

HARKER:

My door -- locked! My God, he rules the wolves!

MOTHER:

Give me my child! (WEAKLY) My child!

SOUND:

LONE WOLF HOWLS LOUDLY ... DROWNING OUT THE OTHERS

MUSIC:

TRANSITION ... THEN IN BG

HARKER:

(NARRATES) My door is opened again, and though I've tried all the day, there is no escape from this part of the castle -- no way but the windows and the cliff. At nightfall, heartsick, I was shaving, using the mirror from my traveling case.

DRACULA:

Well, my young friend--

HARKER:

(STARTLED GASP)

DRACULA:

(UNNERVED) Mr. Harker!

HARKER:

I - I did not see you behind me; I - cut myself.

DRACULA:

Blood!

HARKER:

(STARTLED EXCLAMATION)

DRACULA:

Blood on your face!

HARKER:

(CHOKING) What - what are you doing?

DRACULA:

Blood on your face!

HARKER:

(WITH EFFORT) Your hands, take away your hands. My throat.

DRACULA:

(PAUSE, THEN SLOWLY) What - is this - you wear on your breast?

HARKER:

(RECOVERS) What? A gift. A crucifix.

DRACULA:

This mirror is the wretched thing that has done the mischief! Foul vanity! Away with it! (PAUSE AS DRACULA THROWS MIRROR OUT WINDOW, CALMLY) Our business will be completed tonight, Mr. Harker. Tomorrow, I go to England. If you care to listen at the window, you may hear when the mirror strikes the stones below. You may.

HARKER:

(NARRATES) He smiled, with his sharp, white teeth. What manner of being is this, who, in a mirror, has no reflection?

MUSIC:

BRIEF ACCENT ... THEN GYPSY VIOLIN IN THE DISTANCE, IN BG

GYPSY MAID:

(SINGS, IN THE DISTANCE)

HARKER:

(NARRATES) The Szgany in the courtyard -- the Gypsies! If I could reach them, I might be saved! There is one door I haven't tried -- the door to his quarters, Dracula's.

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION ... THEN OUT

SOUND:

HARKER BANGS ON DOOR

HARKER:

(SLIGHT ECHO) Open - open the door, for God's sake! Gypsies, I hear you in there; you know I'm here! You know I was in there with - with that! Aren't you living men?

SISTERS:

(ECHOING LAUGHTER)

HARKER:

Gypsies?! Will you leave me with the dead?

SISTERS:

(ECHOING LAUGHTER)

HARKER:

(TERRIFIED) Where are you?! Go back to your graves! (TO HIMSELF) No use. The Gypsies are leaving. Taking him-- Write it. Night coming; write it. Someone may read and find him.

(NARRATES) May the thirtieth -- my last entry in this journal. I have sought every way of escape. There is none but the windows of these quarters which overhang the terrible cliff. I entered the Count's rooms. The door led me to a deep stairwell, down to a ruined chapel, down to dark vaults of dusty coffins. No way out. Then there was the smell -- old earth, newly turned. And boxes -- large boxes -- like coffins, half-filled with the earth. Fifty of them -- I counted them -- with earth new-dug from the graveyard floor. Now I know where he spends his daylight. Now I know what he is! For in the last box, I found -- him!

MUSIC:

AN ACCENT ... THEN IN BG

HARKER:

(NARRATES) Dracula, in the coffin -- alive or dead, I could not tell -- but red burning eyes opened, fastening on me. His youth seemed anew; the cheeks fuller; the white skin, ruby red underneath; the mouth redder than ever; the flesh swollen, and from the corners of the mouth, trickling over the chin and neck, gouts of fresh blood!

MUSIC:

A SHRIEKING ACCENT ... THEN IN BG

HARKER:

(NARRATES) He lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion. This was the being I was helping to transfer to London with its teeming millions. I seized a shovel left by the Gypsies. I raised it to strike at that hateful face, and it turned -- turned as the eyes blazed hatred at me. My limbs weakened, the shovel fell, gashing the forehead! And I fled.

MUSIC:

ANOTHER SHRIEKING ACCENT ... THEN OUT

HARKER:

(NARRATES) When I heard the Gypsies in the vaults, removing the dreadful boxes, I tried to return. They locked me out. (CORRECTS HIMSELF) Locked me in! I know they work. They're in his pay -- filling his coffins, transporting them to the sea, where the work I have done will bring the Vampire Who Breeds Vampires to my home. What am I to become with those others waiting?

SISTERS:

(ECHOING LAUGHTER)

HARKER:

(NARRATES) The Gypsies are leaving. I am alone with the living dead, who, by day, return to the earth of their own graves -- and night is coming.

I will choose the cliff.

My beloved Mina, I will never see you again.

May the thirtieth, the last entry -- on the last day of Jonathan Harker. The precipice is steep. But God's mercy is better than that of those monsters!

SISTERS:

(ECHOING LAUGHTER)

SOUND:

LONE WOLF HOWLS, LOUD AND LONG

MUSIC:

A THUNDEROUS CONCLUSION ... THEN BRIEF TRANSITION, WARM AND BRITISH

VAN HELSING:

This, then, is your little patient, doctor?

DR. VINCENT:

Yes, Dr. Van Helsing. But asleep; asleep, Dr. Van Helsing. Quite a simple case, Dr. Van Helsing.

VAN HELSING:

To awaken the boy is no need.

DR. VINCENT:

No, certainly. He was found on Hampstead Heath this past September twenty-ninth. Quite a simple case, Dr. Van Helsing.

VAN HELSING:

His color, it is good.

DR. VINCENT:

Nourishment, Dr. Van Helsing, nourishment. A simple case. Hardly justifies a journey all the way from Amsterdam by such a noted philosopher and scientist, Dr. Van Helsing.

VAN HELSING:

I've read of this, and the other children in your papers. When found, he was so white, so bloodless?

DR. VINCENT:

Quite so. A simple case.

VAN HELSING:

Now, please to remove the bandage from the throat.

DR. VINCENT:

Yes. As you wish. (BEAT) There, you see?

VAN HELSING:

(UNSURPRISED) Ahh.

DR. VINCENT:

The two tiny wounds. A simple case, Dr. Van Helsing.

VAN HELSING:

Please, what is it that is so simple?

DR. VINCENT:

Malnutrition and anemia, sir. The parents deny it. Nonsense, Dr. Van Helsing.

VAN HELSING:

And this lady, so beautiful, of the newspaper stories?

DR. VINCENT:

Oh, tut, sir. (CONTEMPTUOUS) "The beautiful lady who lures away the little ones in the night"? (SHORT LAUGH) Journalistic tommyrot, sir.

VAN HELSING:

The wounds -- for them, how do you account?

DR. VINCENT:

Scratches, Dr. Van Helsing, scratches. Your interest flatters me, sir. But I cannot account for the honor.

VAN HELSING:

(DRY) Dr. Vincent, there is so much for which we cannot account. (MATTER-OF-FACT) In August, I have come to London to fight such an illness as this. It was, of a fine young friend of mine, the dearly beloved fiancée, a most sweet lady. He, my young friend, is a doctor as well. You may know him? Dr. Seward?

DR. VINCENT:

Dr. John Seward? Ah, yes, a student of mental disorders. I believe he has a private asylum at Purfleet.

VAN HELSING:

The same.

DR. VINCENT:

And what was the outcome of the case, sir?

VAN HELSING:

With our knowledge, our science, we were babies. She died.

DR. VINCENT:

A pity. The cause?

VAN HELSING:

The cause? That I should wish to know.

DR. VINCENT:

Anemia, Dr. Van Helsing?

VAN HELSING:

Her blood, it was as rich as her youth. (SLOWLY) She died, somehow, of losing her blood.

MUSIC:

BRIEF SOMBER TRANSITION

MINNIE:

(WEEPING ... THEN IN BG)

DR. SEWARD:

(SADLY) She weeps and weeps without end.

SWALES:

Lord love ya, Dr. Seward, old Minnie don't feel nothing, I'm thinking.

DR. SEWARD:

No, Swales, you're wrong. She feels nothing but all the world's helpless, horrible sorrow. So many years have held her silent. When she began to weep, I had hope for her.

SWALES:

Yes. Years of starin', now another ten of sobbin'.

DR. SEWARD:

When did she start?

SWALES:

August thirteenth it was, Dr. Seward.

DR. SEWARD:

How are you so sure?

SWALES:

It was the night old Renfield gave up his pets and turned so violent like.

DR. SEWARD:

How do you remember that?

SWALES:

(HESITANT) I-- It was the first night that your-- Poor Miss Lucy--

DR. SEWARD:

Oh. Yes. How is Renfield tonight?

SWALES:

Still quiet, with his pets, as he's been since the, uh-- the, uh--

DR. SEWARD:

Since the what?

SWALES:

The - the funeral, sir.

DR. SEWARD:

What?

SWALES:

Dr. Seward, sir, I-- Don't you, er--? Haven't you--?

DR. SEWARD:

(IMPATIENT) What is it, Swales?

SWALES:

Old Renfield, he's been asking to see you, but I didn't like to disturb you, what with - what with all your troubles.

DR. SEWARD:

By all means, I'll see him, any of them. (SELF-PITY) What else have I now?

SOUND:

DOOR CLOSES, SHUTTING OUT MINNIE'S WEEPING

SWALES:

If it were me, I'd be finding my consolation by the pint. A pity, you've nothing but loonies.

DR. SEWARD:

Open the door. I'll call if I need you.

SWALES:

Yes, sir.

SOUND:

METAL DOOR UNLOCKED AND OPENED

DR. SEWARD:

Well, Mr. Renfield, you wish to see me?

RENFIELD:

Ah, yes. Yes, indeed, doctor. I have the temerity to beg your indulgence a very great favor, doctor.

DR. SEWARD:

Should I be permitted to guess? Your little colony of sparrows has exhausted your supply of string to maintain their faithfulness to their master?

RENFIELD:

Ah, no, sir. No. You misapprehend the significance of my future projects.

DR. SEWARD:

Then how may I help you, Mr. Renfield?

RENFIELD:

A kitten, sir.

DR. SEWARD:

A kitten? That would be rather irregular, Mr. Renfield. I gave you sugar to catch your flies. What became of your friendly little flies?

RENFIELD:

Oh, they all flew away.

DR. SEWARD:

Then somehow you collected a handsome family of spiders. Did they fly away?

RENFIELD:

Possibly, possibly.

DR. SEWARD:

Now, by some skill of your own, you've enticed this goodly collection of sparrows. Do you tire of them, by chance?

RENFIELD:

A harsh accusation, doctor, a harsh accusation.

DR. SEWARD:

Now you ask for a kitten. Mr. Renfield, where is all this going to end?

RENFIELD:

A kitten. A nice little sleek playful kitten, that I can play with, and teach, and feed, and feed, and feed.

DR. SEWARD:

I'm afraid I'll have to think it over.

SOUND:

BRISK KNOCK ON DOOR, WHICH OPENS IMMEDIATELY

SWALES:

Begging your pardon, Dr. Seward, but the old gentleman from Amsterdam is asking for you.

DR. SEWARD:

(SURPRISED) Dr. Van Helsing?

SWALES:

That's him, sir.

DR. SEWARD:

(PUZZLED) Van Helsing in England. Why?

RENFIELD:

A kitten, sir. A kitten to play with -- and feed?

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

VAN HELSING:

Ah, my so loyal young friend, how is it with you?

DR. SEWARD:

As well as can be expected.

VAN HELSING:

Such a terrible thing one does not quickly forget.

DR. SEWARD:

What brings you to England?

VAN HELSING:

This.

DR. SEWARD:

"Westminster Gazette"? Have you turned journalist?

VAN HELSING:

No, no, my friend. Read. Read here.

DR. SEWARD:

"The Hampstead Horror"? Really, Van Helsing--

VAN HELSING:

Read, read.

DR. SEWARD:

(SIGHS, READS) "We have just received intelligence that another child was missed last night. It was only discovered late in the morning under a furze bush at the Shooter's Hill side of Hampstead Heath. The child was terribly weak and quite emaciated. When partially restored, it told the now-familiar story of being lured away by 'the beautiful lady.' Doctors noted the same tiny wounds in the throat."

VAN HELSING:

Well? What do you think of that?

DR. SEWARD:

It - it's like - Lucy's.

VAN HELSING:

And what do you make of it?

DR. SEWARD:

(SHARPLY) Make of it? Make of it?! How should I make anything of it? If I could make anything of it, Lucy would be--

VAN HELSING:

Do you mean to tell me, friend John, that you have no suspicion as to what poor Lucy died of?

DR. SEWARD:

Must we go on discussing what she died of? She died! She died! She died!

VAN HELSING:

Ah, my poor friend.

DR. SEWARD:

(CALMS DOWN) I beg your pardon. She died of nervous prostration, following on great loss or waste of blood.

VAN HELSING:

And the blood -- how lost or wasted?

DR. SEWARD:

Haven't we maddened ourselves enough trying to solve that fantastic riddle?

VAN HELSING:

You are right. Night after night, a loss of blood. And the throat wounds, it could not have been lost thus, for where then was the blood? Nowhere.

DR. SEWARD:

No. Nowhere. Can't we forget it?

VAN HELSING:

You're clever, friend John. But you do not let your eyes see that which is outside your daily life. Can you tell me, for example, why, in the Pampas, there are bats which come at night and open the veins of cattle and suck them dry?

DR. SEWARD:

Good God. Do you mean to tell me that Lucy was bitten by such a bat?

VAN HELSING:

No, friend John. What I know is this. Our knowledge, our science, left us like a baby before this terrible thing. So for this past month, I have had to resort to mythology -- to the dark, whispered memories of humankind. This only supplies the answer, and points the way to a grim battle which you and I must fight.

DR. SEWARD:

I fail to understand you.

VAN HELSING:

First, I must give you proof. Proof! Tonight you must come with me.

DR. SEWARD:

All right. But where?

VAN HELSING:

To the tomb.

DR. SEWARD:

Tomb? Tomb? What tomb?

VAN HELSING:

Lucy's.

DR. SEWARD:

(STUNNED) Lucy's?!

SOUND:

DOOR OPENS

SWALES:

Dr. Seward, sir; Mr. Renfield, he's turned violent again.

DR. SEWARD:

(STILL STUNNED) I-- Van Helsing--?

VAN HELSING:

Friend John, I throw my reputation, my reason, upon your mercy. Let me give to you proof.

SWALES:

Please, sir, he's broken out, and he's in a dangerous mood.

DR. SEWARD:

(RECOVERS) What? Oh, yes, I - I'm coming.

VAN HELSING:

Friend John, you know me.

DR. SEWARD:

(AGREES) Yes.

VAN HELSING:

(PLEASED) Ah!

SWALES:

(PLEADS) Dr. Seward!

DR. SEWARD:

(SNAPS) I'm coming!

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

SOUND:

SCUFFLE, AS ATTENDANTS STRUGGLE WITH RENFIELD ... CONTINUES IN BG

SWALES:

This way, Dr. Seward, by the gate to old Carfax.

DR. SEWARD:

I hear that. What's he started?

SWALES:

Took after two men coming out with a carrier's cart.

DR. SEWARD:

I don't understand this.

VAN HELSING:

What manner of disorder is it, this poor man?

DR. SEWARD:

I call him a zoophagous -- an eater of life.

VAN HELSING:

"Eater of life"?

DR. SEWARD:

Many flies to a spider, many spiders to a sparrow. He eats the sparrows.

SWALES:

The attendants are having difficulty, sir.

DR. SEWARD:

I see the carter's men help from a great distance.

SWALES:

He banged the carter's men up something wicked, sir.

RENFIELD:

(YELLS) Thieves!

GUARD:

'Old his legs, there!

2ND GUARD:

(WITH EFFORT) D'ya think I'm practicin' the minuet?

RENFIELD:

Murderers!

GUARD:

That's it! 'Old him!

RENFIELD:

Robbers!

DR. SEWARD:

(STERNLY) Mr. Renfield! Mr. Renfield!

RENFIELD:

They shan't rob me! They shan't murder me! I'll fight for my Lord and Master!

DR. SEWARD:

There's nothing to be done with him. Put the straitjacket on him.

VAN HELSING:

"Lord and Master"? Did you not say he eats life?

DR. SEWARD:

It's beyond me, Professor. Only once before has he had a "Lord and Master." Otherwise, only flies. (CALLS, TO THE CARTERS) You are the men the patient attacked?

CARTER:

(INDIGNANT) Attacked, is it? Murder is the word. There'll be actions and damages over this, I can tell ye.

DR. SEWARD:

(GOOD-NATURED) Now, surely two strong carters, like yourselves, are in no great danger from a feeble, sick man.

CARTER:

Well, not rightly speakin', doctor. But then, them boxes as we was removin' from Carfax, full of earth, is no light weight. And if it wasn't for our strength bein' spent on them, we'd make short work of him.

DR. SEWARD:

(LIGHTLY) Well, I'm sure it's thirsty work, and, uh, perhaps-- (HANDS OVER SOME MONEY)

CARTER:

(FRIENDLIER) Why, thank you kindly, sir. We do sympathize with you and the poor gentleman, sir.

SOUND:

SCUFFLE CEASES

SWALES:

They've got him, doctor.

RENFIELD:

Aaaahhh! My Lord! My Master! Will you desert me?! (IN DESPAIR) All over. No hope. No hope unless I do it myself!

DR. SEWARD:

(TO GUARDS) Get him into his cell.

VAN HELSING:

And now the sun sets. You will come with me, as you promised?

DR. SEWARD:

Yes, yes. Why is Renfield suddenly so quiet? What's he staring at?

SWALES:

(SLOWLY) Nothing that I can see, sir -- but that there bat, flyin' away into the sun.

MUSIC:

BRIEF OMINOUS TRANSITION

SOUND:

NOCTURNAL BACKGROUND OF CRICKETS, FROGS, ET CETERA

DR. SEWARD:

(UNENTHUSIASTIC) Van Helsing, we come into the graveyard like ghouls by night. I don't even know why.

VAN HELSING:

John boy, all your life you have honored me. Now--?

DR. SEWARD:

Well-- There's her tomb, then. (UNHAPPY) My God. My Lucy.

VAN HELSING:

Come.

DR. SEWARD:

You can't open the door.

VAN HELSING:

The door will open.

SOUND:

CLANKING AND CREAKING! OF TOMB DOOR UNLATCHED AND OPENED

VAN HELSING:

You see? Come.

DR. SEWARD:

Oh no, no, I can't. I want to remember her as she was. No!

VAN HELSING:

You are a doctor. You must know why she died. Even more so you may be revenged.

DR. SEWARD:

Revenged?

VAN HELSING:

Come.

SOUND:

THEIR FOOTSTEPS INTO THE TOMB ... NOCTURNAL BACKGROUND GIVES WAY TO TOMB BACKGROUND WHERE THEIR VOICES ECHO

DR. SEWARD:

How will you open the coffin?

VAN HELSING:

The coffin will open.

DR. SEWARD:

Wait! Don't!

VAN HELSING:

You must see.

DR. SEWARD:

Do you want to put me in a straitjacket beside Renfield?

VAN HELSING:

You must see.

DR. SEWARD:

My God, man, that's Lucy in there! Don't you--?

VAN HELSING:

Is it?

SOUND:

COFFIN PRIED OPEN AND LID LIFTED

DR. SEWARD:

(GASPS)

VAN HELSING:

Is it?

DR. SEWARD:

Gone. She's gone. What have you done with her?

VAN HELSING:

Trust me, please. I will show you.

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

SOUND:

STILL IN THE TOMB ... THEIR VOICES ECHO

VAN HELSING:

It is near dawn. We cannot have much longer now to wait.

DR. SEWARD:

It's only that I spend my life with the mad that has kept me from leaving you hours ago with your gravestones.

VAN HELSING:

You will see.

DR. SEWARD:

That last night, when your only treatment was to fill her room with garlic flowers -- great heavens, garlic flowers! -- I knew you were going mad.

VAN HELSING:

And her mother, poor soul, she came and she removed the garlic flowers. (SADLY) My first suspicion, my last attempt to save your Lucy. (DISGUSTED) Her mother, she thinks the flowers by night not good. Ach!

DR. SEWARD:

You say dawn. I give you till dawn because I hope to save the mind that has meant much to me. But when dawn--

VAN HELSING:

Look!

DR. SEWARD:

(GASPS) A woman.

MUSIC:

TENSE, IN BG

DR. SEWARD:

In nightdress.

VAN HELSING:

You see? She is carrying with her a sleeping child.

DR. SEWARD:

What's she doing to it?

VAN HELSING:

This is the proof. Carefully observe; her lips to the throat.

DR. SEWARD:

(ASTONISHED) Lucy! It's Lucy! She's alive! (CALLS) Lucy!

MUSIC:

UP, FOR A ROMANTIC TRANSITION

SOUND:

STILL IN THE TOMB ... WHERE VOICES ECHO

DR. SEWARD:

(BREATHLESS) No. I couldn't find her anywhere. She vanished.

VAN HELSING:

You wait by the door; she must come. The child is all right. You saw?

DR. SEWARD:

Yes. But Lucy's alive. Alive!

VAN HELSING:

(DISMISSIVE) Oh, Lucy, she is dead. Only lives the body.

LUCY:

(APPROACHES, EERIE, SEDUCTIVE) Johnny!

DR. SEWARD:

Here she comes.

LUCY:

Johnny!

DR. SEWARD:

Lucy!

MUSIC:

FOR LUCY'S ENTICING BUT DANGEROUS PRESENCE, IN BG

VAN HELSING:

Only observe. Is it Lucy?

DR. SEWARD:

(ENTRANCED) Yes. Beautiful. Alive. Even more beautiful.

VAN HELSING:

Notice the blood-red lips, the teeth have altered -- somehow they always protrude, the eyeteeth -- and the eyes, red.

DR. SEWARD:

(REALIZES, HORRIFIED) She was - drinking that child's--

LUCY:

Johnny! My arms are hungry for you.

DR. SEWARD:

Oh, Lucy.

LUCY:

Come, and we can rest together.

VAN HELSING:

(A WARNING) Slowly, Lucy!

LUCY:

(EXCLAMATION OF PAIN)

VAN HELSING:

Ah, this you do not like.

DR. SEWARD:

Van Helsing! Her face.

VAN HELSING:

This you cannot pass. Return to your tomb; the sun, it comes.

DR. SEWARD:

Her face.

VAN HELSING:

See, she goes. Into her grave.

MUSIC:

FADES OUT WITH LUCY'S DEPARTURE

DR. SEWARD:

Twisted with rage, like an animal, like a fiend. What did you do?

VAN HELSING:

Ah, friend John, there is much here that you and I as men of science never have believed. Tonight, this -- the crucifix -- has been our salvation.

DR. SEWARD:

(DISMAYED) My God. There was - blood on her mouth.

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

SWALES:

Beggin' your pardon, Dr. Seward.

DR. SEWARD:

What is it, Swales?

SWALES:

There's a lady to see you, sir. She says her name is--

DR. SEWARD:

(QUICKLY, DISMISSIVE) Don't know her; never heard of her; I'm busy.

SWALES:

I'm sorry, sir, but the lady was most insistent--

DR. SEWARD:

I tell you, I can't see her! Tell her to go away! Get out of here!

SWALES:

Yes, sir.

SOUND:

OFFICE DOOR SHUTS

DR. SEWARD:

All right, Van Helsing. You've proved everything. Now what?

VAN HELSING:

To me, too, it is so difficult to believe what we have seen. There are the living dead.

DR. SEWARD:

Vampires.

VAN HELSING:

So fails us our science. To go upon, we have only tradition.

DR. SEWARD:

(DERISIVE) Superstition.

VAN HELSING:

There is, among us, a vampire who works this evil. He does not sting and die, the vampire; he becomes more strong. He is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning is the growth of ages through which he does not die. He is a brute. And he may command the brute -- the rat, the owl, the bat, the wolf. His love is the living, and his food is their blood. When his prey die, they, too, become the living dead, the vampire.

DR. SEWARD:

Yes. Lucy. And how does tradition tell us we can deal with this? Tell me, and I'll do it.

VAN HELSING:

Good. I will tell you. I will show you!

MUSIC:

FOR VISITING A TOMB ... TRANSITION ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]

SOUND:

BACK IN THE TOMB ... WHERE THEIR VOICES ECHO

VAN HELSING:

The grave diggers have gone. We are unobserved. Close the door.

SOUND:

TOMB DOOR SHUTS

DR. SEWARD:

The tomb of the Westenra family. If they knew--

VAN HELSING:

(SHARPLY) What's that? (BEAT) Give me the bag.

DR. SEWARD:

If these others who sleep here knew the purpose to which their tomb is to be put-- If they knew that one of their loved ones--

VAN HELSING:

We have yet to do which had must be done. Set up the lantern there on that other coffin so we may see to work.

DR. SEWARD:

To work? (RELUCTANT SIGH) Yes.

VAN HELSING:

And here, ready -- the garlic flowers. [X]

SOUND:

WOLF HOWLS IN THE DISTANCE

DR. SEWARD:

What was that?

VAN HELSING:

(DRY) A dog? (CHUCKLES)

DR. SEWARD:

What are you laughing at, Van Helsing?

VAN HELSING:

I was thinking of my friend in his Holland greenhouse who sent me these flowers. Strange medicine.

DR. SEWARD:

What for?

VAN HELSING:

When we are done, we lay them in the grave -- to make intolerable the grave to the vampire who must ever by day return to it.

DR. SEWARD:

(UNHAPPY) So Lucy may never be at rest?

VAN HELSING:

You forget, then she will not be vampire. Open the coffin.

DR. SEWARD:

(HESITATES) I--

VAN HELSING:

(INSISTENT) Open the coffin. We must bring to her peace.

DR. SEWARD:

(WHISPERS) Yes.

SOUND:

COFFIN PRIED OPEN AND LID LIFTED

DR. SEWARD:

(SADLY, SLOWLY) Ohhh, the strange, terrifying beauty. Is this really Lucy? Are those the lips I kissed?

VAN HELSING:

It is, and it is not. Do not think. You are still willing?

DR. SEWARD:

Yes. No one else has the right or the duty; I'm ready.

VAN HELSING:

Then in the bag you will find what you need.

DR. SEWARD:

Yes.

VAN HELSING:

The mallet, the pointed wooden stake.

DR. SEWARD:

(DRY) You are very methodical.

VAN HELSING:

Don't think, just do. Take them.

DR. SEWARD:

Yes, I-- The stake; where?

VAN HELSING:

The heart. The heart!

DR. SEWARD:

The heart?

VAN HELSING:

Through the heart, right through, and she will have peace. Now, take up the mallet.

DR. SEWARD:

The - the mallet, yes.

VAN HELSING:

No, this is wrong; I should be the one--

DR. SEWARD:

No! She is mine. No one will do this to her but me. My God, how I loved her.

VAN HELSING:

Remember, her career, it has just begun. Those children, they are not yet so much the worse. If she live on, undead, by her power over them they come to her, they become as her. But if she die in truth, then all cease -- the tiny wounds from the throat disappear; the children play, not knowing of this; and the soul of the poor lady whom we love shall be free.

DR. SEWARD:

Yes. Yes.

VAN HELSING:

And perhaps she will know it is his hand that freed her, the hand of him that loved her best. Now -- let it be done.

MUSIC:

FOR STAKING A VAMPIRE, IN BG, IN AGREEMENT WITH FOLLOWING ... PUNCTUATING EACH BLOW

VAN HELSING:

(A PRAYER) Eternal rest, give to her, O Lord -- and let perpetual light shine upon her!

SOUND:

THUNK! OF MALLET BLOW TO THE STAKE ... SLURP! OF BLOODY FLESH

LUCY:

(GASPS)

DR. SEWARD:

(SHUDDERS) Oh, dear God, I can't.

VAN HELSING:

Do it, do it! Will you leave her in torment?! (RESUMES PRAYER) The just shall be in everlasting remembrance. She shall not fear the evil herein!

SOUND:

THUNK! OF MALLET BLOW TO THE STAKE ... SLURP! OF BLOODY FLESH

VAN HELSING:

Absolve, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from every bond of sin!

SOUND:

THUNK! OF MALLET BLOW TO THE STAKE ... SLURP! OF BLOODY FLESH

VAN HELSING:

And by the help of Thy grace, let her be found worthy to escape the sentence of vengeance!

SOUND:

THUNK! OF MALLET BLOW TO THE STAKE ... SLURP! OF BLOODY FLESH

VAN HELSING:

And to enjoy the full beatitude of the light eternal.

MUSIC:

UP, FOR A DARK TRANSITION ... THEN OUT

RENFIELD:

(CALLS) Master?! Master?! I await you, Lord and Master! I am here to serve you, Lord Master! Remember me!

SWALES:

Now, then, what's all this, Mr. Renfield? Why not play with your little sparrows and give us a rest?

RENFIELD:

(FORLORN) I've eaten them. They're nothing to me. Let me, if you will, sir, enjoy a moment of Dr. Seward's inestimable company?

SWALES:

The doctor's sick today. And if you ask me, I don't blame him. Shame on you, Mr. Renfield. All those nice pleasant little sparrows, so chipper and friendly.

RENFIELD:

(WITH GREAT PLEASURE) Ahhhh! Madam, I am honored indeed!

SWALES:

Now what?

RENFIELD:

What incomparable elegance, what gentle, dainty charm!

SWALES:

Why, thank you, Mr. Renfield, I do my best to keep up appearances.

RENFIELD:

(ANNOYED) I refer, insolent rogue, to the lady behind you!

SWALES:

(DRY) Oh, her. (CHUCKLES) Ladies are always following me about.

MINA:

Are you Dr. Seward?

SWALES:

(STARTLED) Oh, bless me.

MINA:

(GASPS, UNHAPPY) It's you again.

SWALES:

Yes, it's me again; and the doctor can't see you; and 'ow did you get in?

MINA:

(INCREASINGLY EMOTIONAL) I walked in. And I must see Dr. Seward. It's about my husband. His mind. Some disorder. It haunts me, it terrifies me! You must let me see him! (STARTS TO WEEP)

RENFIELD:

(DERISIVE, TO SWALES) Rogue! Would you let a lady weep?

SWALES:

(GIVES IN) All right. I'll ask him again, mum.

MUSIC:

QUICK TRANSITION

VAN HELSING:

John? Friend John? You are feeling better perhaps? (NO ANSWER) Possibly you should to your bed return. Another sedative--?

DR. SEWARD:

No, no, no.

VAN HELSING:

There's so little we know. I have learnt the first time when he enter a house, he must receive invitation. But he's cunning. We must trace each detail in the case of poor Lucy. We-- What do you watch so intently?

DR. SEWARD:

Nothing. Go on.

VAN HELSING:

Each moment of her life, from the moment of the first sign, the paleness, the dreams, the throat wounds, this you must trace and study for some -- some clue. (BEAT, ALARMED) What do you do with the pistol, friend John?

DR. SEWARD:

This!

SOUND:

GUNSHOT! WINDOW GLASS SHATTERS!

VAN HELSING:

Friend John, what is this?!

DR. SEWARD:

In the window -- with his black, ugly wings spread out -- there was a bat!

VAN HELSING:

Ahhh! A bat.

SOUND:

OFFICE DOOR OPENS

SWALES:

Dr. Seward?! Dr. Seward?! Are you all right, sir?

DR. SEWARD:

Quite all right, thank you, Swales. I just shot a bat.

MINA:

Dr. Seward?

DR. SEWARD:

Swales, who is this young lady?

SWALES:

I'm sorry, sir; I heard the shot. She would follow me.

MINA:

(LIGHTLY) Dr. Seward, I believe it is not considered quite fashionable to point at a gentlewoman with a pistol.

DR. SEWARD:

What? Oh, your pardon. What is it you want?

MINA:

Dr. Seward, it's about my husband. And your reputation has brought me to you.

DR. SEWARD:

What about your husband?

MINA:

He's perfectly sane -- and he insists he's _in_sane!

DR. SEWARD:

(AMUSED) That's refreshing. The world is full of people perfectly insane insisting they're sane.

MINA:

Please, Dr. Seward. It really is driving both of us out of our minds. He had some terrible experience he won't speak of. He was ill a long time, and now-- Oh, you must help us, Dr. Seward. Prove to him he isn't unbalanced.

VAN HELSING:

(OFF) Friend John, there is no bat here -- shot at or otherwise!

MINA:

Dr. Seward, please!

DR. SEWARD:

What's your name?

MINA:

Mrs. Harker. Mrs. Jonathan Harker!

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

SOUND:

HORSE AND CARRIAGE ON COBBLESTONE ROAD ... CONTINUES IN BG

HARKER:

(AGITATED) I didn't mind the train down to Purfleet, but the carriage, the sound of those wheels, the horse's hoofs--

MINA:

(SOOTHING) Oh, Jonathan, darling, we'll be there in a minute.

HARKER:

Unbearable! Un_bear_able!

MINA:

Oh, darling, please. Dr. Seward will help you, you'll see. But you'll have to let him have that sealed journal.

HARKER:

Oh, yes. Yes, I know you're right, Mina. We have to settle this and the journal is part of it.

MINA:

Oh, Jonathan, now that you're facing this, everything will be right.

HARKER:

Dear lovely Mina; so good to me, so patient.

MUSIC:

GYPSY VIOLIN FADES IN AND CONTINUES IN BG BEHIND--

MINA:

No, no, darling, I'm not. I love you, that's all.

HARKER:

Even as I am? Tormented with the certainty--

MINA:

No, no, darling, sweetheart. There's nothing certain about it, except that you've been ill, and you'll be better. And there's nothing wrong with your mind. Do you think I could love and marry someone whose mind--? (BEAT) What is it?

HARKER:

(TENSE) Do you hear it?

MINA:

What?

HARKER:

You must hear it! Tell me! Tell me, Mina, that you hear it, too!

MINA:

Jonathan, what? Do you mean the music?

HARKER:

(SIGHS, RELIEVED) Yes, I - I meant the music.

MINA:

It's only a Gypsy camp out there by the road.

HARKER:

Only a -- Gypsy camp?! Take me to your doctor of madmen! Lock me up!

MUSIC:

ORCHESTRA SWOOPS IN FOR A BRIEF TRANSITION

HARKER:

Well, Dr. Seward, you read it. I haven't even allowed Mina here to see it. All those experiences, they're real to me. Everything so real. Well?

MINA:

(NO ANSWER) Well, doctor?

HARKER:

(NO ANSWER) Oh Lord, I see myself hanging above the ghastly abyss, climbing, climbing, none of it possible, but the brain fever and the Budapest hospital. I know it happened! Therefore I must have a madness in me!

MINA:

Doctor, please. Say something.

DR. SEWARD:

(CALLS) Van Helsing!

MINA:

Doctor?

DR. SEWARD:

(CALLS) Van Helsing! Swales! Swales, you rascal!

SOUND:

OFFICE DOOR OPENS

SWALES:

Yes, doctor, what is it?

DR. SEWARD:

Van Helsing! Get him in here, now; this instant! Hurry! Hurry, what are you standing there for?

SWALES:

Love me, yes! (MOVING OFF) Yes, indeed, at once!

MINA:

For the love of Heaven, doctor--

HARKER:

It's no use, Mina.

DR. SEWARD:

Now listen, you two are moving into my quarters here. You, Mr. Harker, are going to tell me everything you know about this - this Count Dracula. Every contact you gave him, every solicitor's name, every small detail you can rip up from your memory.

HARKER:

(BEWILDERED) Is that to be part of the treatment?

DR. SEWARD:

Treatment? Ha! Jonathan Harker, you're as sane as I or the great Van Helsing himself. We need you, Jonathan Harker. We're going to war.

HARKER:

War?

DR. SEWARD:

Yes. War on -- Dracula!

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

DR. SEWARD:

(IMPATIENT) Mr. Renfield, you have made yourself very difficult with your insistence when I'm exceedingly busy. What is it you wish? Sugar for flies?

RENFIELD:

(NO LONGER A MADMAN) Dr. Seward, I am in full possession of my faculties. I must beg of you to release me.

DR. SEWARD:

If that is true -- in time, Mr. Renfield.

RENFIELD:

No, sir, now. This request is not of first consequence to myself, but to the health, the welfare, the very lives of others.

DR. SEWARD:

Why do you wish to leave, Mr. Renfield? What reasons?

RENFIELD:

(HELPLESSLY) If I tell you that, it will convince you only of my undoubted madness. What can I say?

DR. SEWARD:

You have answered for me, Mr. Renfield. Perhaps I can serve you in some other fashion.

RENFIELD:

What can I say? You will, I trust, Dr. Seward, do me the justice to bear in mind later on, that I did what I could to convince you tonight.

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

VAN HELSING:

And now, gentlemen -- and dear lady of whom we have become so fond--

MINA:

Thank you, Dr. Van Helsing.

VAN HELSING:

Now we are ready to begin to act. But we deal with one which has survived many centuries and, we must assume, many attacks. We must not fail!

DR. SEWARD:

We won't.

HARKER:

He drove me to madness. He won't do that again to any other.

MINA:

(UNCOMFORTABLE) I'm - cold.

HARKER:

Mina is not well today.

VAN HELSING:

It has been a strain for such a gentle one.

MINA:

This scarf seems hardly enough. I'll borrow a coat?

HARKER:

Take mine, of course.

VAN HELSING:

We know that in life he was a brilliant man -- a descendant of Atila the Hun. We know, too, from our studies, he must be the Count Dracula who did his army abandon to the Turkish slaughter and did homeward flee to raise a new force and try again.

DR. SEWARD:

And we know, from Jonathan, that he's at Carfax. Carfax! Next door!

VAN HELSING:

That is our move the next. Is he there? We will see.

MINA:

Please, be careful. Last night, I - I dreamed--

DR. SEWARD:

(INTENSE) Let him be careful now.

MUSIC:

FOR VAMPIRE HUNTING ... TRANSITION ... THEN IN BG

SOUND:

ECHO ON ALL VOICES IN CARFAX, DURING FOLLOWING--

HARKER:

(COUNTING) Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty. (PAUSE) There were fifty.

VAN HELSING:

So these, then, are the boxes, the coffins, with the earth of his own grave, the vampire's lair. And each coffin a lair.

HARKER:

Did you hear something?

DR. SEWARD:

No.

SOUND:

SQUEAKING AND SCRAMBLING OF RATS ... VERY SOFTLY AT FIRST, UNNOTICED BY THE CHARACTERS ... THEN SLOWLY GROWING LOUDER, DURING FOLLOWING--

HARKER:

(AGITATED) It preys upon my nerves, this ruined old house -- the dark shadows, the stone walls, the coffins. It's Castle Dracula again.

VAN HELSING:

It is well to be cautious. Our enemy not only has a magic cunning, he has the strength of twenty men. And whereas our windpipes are of the common kind, we cannot hurt _him as he can hurt us. He is dead.

DR. SEWARD:

Van Helsing! We've seen those boxes before.

VAN HELSING:

Yes, friend John. An uncommon vampire is Dracula, so wily as to provide himself somewhere in London with twenty ways of escape and of hiding -- besides this old house, his headquarters. It's our friend Jonathan here, who must show us how to trace them, through the solicitors, the shippers and carters, who unknowingly transported these terrible things.

DR. SEWARD:

(REALIZES) Renfield! Renfield attacked those carters!

VAN HELSING:

Renfield? Yes. Yes, "Lord and Master" was his cry.

DR. SEWARD:

Renfield knows something about this. We've got to see him.

HARKER:

(SCARED) I thought I saw a face.

DR. SEWARD:

Where?

HARKER:

There, in the shadows -- the highlights of his face, the high ridge of the nose, the red lips, the red eyes, the awful color!

DR. SEWARD:

There's nothing there.

SOUND:

SQUEAKING AND SCRAMBLING OF RATS ... VERY LOUD NOW

HARKER:

Listen! (BEAT, HORRIFIED) Rats!

SWALES:

(APPROACHES, CALLS) Dr. Seward! Dr. Seward!

HARKER:

What's that?

DR. SEWARD:

Swales.

VAN HELSING:

Thousands of rats. Look, they are coming!

HARKER:

It's him! He's sending them!

SWALES:

Dr. Seward! It's Mr. Renfield. Someone tried to murder him.

DR. SEWARD:

Someone tried to murder Renfield?

VAN HELSING:

(ASTONISHED) Dracula sent these rats?

HARKER:

(PANIC) Great heavens, I see a million wicked eyes! Run! Run for your lives!

SOUND:

RATS HIT A PEAK ... THEN TOPPED BY--

MUSIC:

FOR FLEEING RATS ... BRIEF TRANSITION

RENFIELD:

(MOANS AND GROANS, THEN IN BG)

SWALES:

This is how I found him, doctor. Just a few minutes back. As I was coming 'round to light the lamps. The window bars, torn open; the door flung into the corridor, and the poor old loony--

RENFIELD:

(WEAKLY) Jacket. Take off the straitjacket. (GROANS, IN BG)

DR. SEWARD:

There is no straitjacket, Mr. Renfield.

HARKER:

Poor devil, smashed about like that.

VAN HELSING:

We must arouse him. He must talk.

RENFIELD:

Brandy--

DR. SEWARD:

Swales -- brandy in my office!

RENFIELD:

Brandy--

DR. SEWARD:

Mr. Renfield. Tell us.

MUSIC:

EERIE, IN BG

RENFIELD:

(GROANS, DELIRIOUS) The dogs howled, and the bats came. In the mist, he stood at my window, as before. His eyes were fierce, like a man's when mad. He laughed with his red mouth. The white teeth glinted in the moonlight. I was angry.

Before, he sent the flies -- the great fat ones, with steel and sapphire on their wings. All lives. All red blood with years of life in it. "All these lives and more will I give you through countless ages if you fall down and worship me."

I invite him in. "Come in, Lord and Master. Enter." Ha, ha. He laughs. He is in my room. Then I know! It is next to be the young lady of charm. I am a madman! And have me now a madman's strength! Yes! Lord and Master! I gave you the [?]-- I gave you--

MUSIC:

UP, FOR AN ACCENT ... THEN OUT BEHIND--

RENFIELD:

(DYING) Oh, Lord--

DR. SEWARD:

Renfield? (NO ANSWER) Renfield?!

MUSIC:

SHARP ACCENT ... FOR RENFIELD'S DEATH

DR. SEWARD:

He's dead. There's no doubt how.

SWALES:

I tried to get the brandy. The poor old loony. He was a decent sort in his way.

VAN HELSING:

Friend John?

DR. SEWARD:

Yes?

VAN HELSING:

What did he say? "It is next to be the young lady of charm"?

DR. SEWARD:

(BEAT, REALIZES) Mrs. Harker!

HARKER:

(HORRIFIED) Mina! Oh, Heaven! Mina!

MUSIC:

TRANSITION ... THEN EERIE, IN BG, OUT AT [X]

SOUND:

VOICES ECHO IN CARFAX

DRACULA:

(HYPNOTIC) Your skin is the snow. Your throat as soft as the quivering rabbit.

MINA:

(WEAKLY) Cold. I am frozen with ice.

DRACULA:

I have kissed you. And I will kiss you again. I will come again. And kiss again.

MINA:

Cold. Cold.

DRACULA:

Shall we warm your dream, beautiful one? You, too, will kiss. Place your lips, your pale lips, to my throat. They will be rich again. Your blood will be my blood. My blood will be your blood. You will know in your blood that I will come again, and you will seek me forever. [X]

SOUND:

CARFAX DOOR RATTLES OPEN

HARKER:

Dracula!

DRACULA:

(ANGRY SCREAM)

HARKER:

Shoot him down!

SOUND:

GUNSHOT!

DRACULA:

Fools!

HARKER:

Shoot him, shoot him!

SOUND:

GUNSHOT!

DRACULA:

(LAUGHS)

DR. SEWARD:

I shoot, but he doesn't die!

VAN HELSING:

I have the weapon he fears!

SWALES:

Be careful! He'll [try something?]!

VAN HELSING:

(TO DRACULA) Oh, no, you fear it, is it not? You, who live in eternal death, you fear this cross -- the sign of eternal life!

DRACULA:

(SAVAGELY) You think to baffle me?! You -- with your pale faces all in a row like sheep in a butcher's?! My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries! You shall be my creatures, to do my bidding! And to be my jackals when I want to feed!

SOUND:

WINDOW GLASS SHATTERS! AS DRACULA LEAPS THROUGH IT

HARKER:

He's gone through the window! Stop him!

VAN HELSING:

We cannot stop him!

MUSIC:

BIG BRIEF ACCENT FOR A TRANSITION ... THEN OUT

VAN HELSING:

Only friend John to return. Through the shippers, the cartage men, we have traced each coffin to its hiding place. We have polluted each with a garlic flower and sanctified each with a holy crucifix. Now he has only Carfax. We will there catch him by daylight, helpless.

HARKER:

Unless Dr. Seward found him in his coffin in the Piccadilly house.

VAN HELSING:

Unless. Otherwise, I could wish friend John would hurry. It grows late, and each night is a terror.

MINA:

I am cold. I'm not well.

VAN HELSING:

What precautions can we take? Each must have the protecting crucifix. I place it to your forehead, Jonathan. And Mina, I touch it to yours.

MINA:

(GASPS IN PAIN)

VAN HELSING:

What?

HARKER:

Mina, don't be afraid. All he did was touch the cross to--

VAN HELSING:

Her forehead!

MINA:

It -- burned.

HARKER:

Look. Mina!

DR. SEWARD:

(OFF, TO SWALES) Not now, Swales, not now. Take care of it yourself. (CALLS) Van Helsing!

VAN HELSING:

(THOUGHTFUL, TO HIMSELF) Burned. Burned.

HARKER:

Burned into her forehead. A brand!

DR. SEWARD:

Van Helsing! Jonathan! Mina!

HARKER:

Did you find him?

DR. SEWARD:

Only the coffins. I fixed them right enough, but-- Then I went over to Carfax.

HARKER:

You should have waited. I, too, have a score to settle.

DR. SEWARD:

There were only twenty-nine. Somehow he has removed one. Sometime in the night. Now we have no way to trace him.

MINA:

(IN A TRANCE) Escaping. He is escaping. Darkness. The smell of earth. Wagon wheels.

VAN HELSING:

What is she saying?

MINA:

(IN A TRANCE) I want to follow. I want to go!

HARKER:

Look what he's done to her, my lovely. The marks of a vampire on her poor throat.

VAN HELSING:

We must all keep together, always. What is the story? "When, in life, he abandoned to the slaughter his helpless people, and fled home to try again"?

DR. SEWARD:

He's going to a seaport. To go home. To start over.

VAN HELSING:

Come. All of us. We must together go to make the last desperate fight against this monster.

DR. SEWARD:

Where to?

VAN HELSING:

If necessary, to Transylvania. To Castle Dracula!

MUSIC:

QUICK TRANSITION

DR. SEWARD:

May God give him into my hands just long enough to destroy that earthly life. If beyond it I could send his soul forever and ever to burning hell, I would do it!

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

SOUND:

COFFIN LID SLOWLY CREAKS OPEN

SOUND:

ECHO ON VOICES

DR. SEWARD:

(GRIM SATISFACTION) Dracula. In his coffin.

HARKER:

We've got him!

VAN HELSING:

We must do this quickly; the sun is low.

MUSIC:

FOR STAKING DRACULA ... IN BG

MINA:

What are you going to do?

HARKER:

Hush, Mina, darling, we've got him now.

MINA:

I'm frightened!

VAN HELSING:

Friend John, I think you, especially, have the right.

DR. SEWARD:

I know just what to do.

VAN HELSING:

First, I must remind you all that this is not vengeance. We set to rest a human soul.

DR. SEWARD:

Whatever it is, I'm ready. If you want to pray for him, start praying. For me, every blow will be for Lucy! And what he made me do at her tomb.

VAN HELSING:

(FASCINATED) How his eyes burn -- with what ferocious rage -- out of the coffin.

HARKER:

Don't look at him! That was my mistake; just do it!

VAN HELSING:

(CATCHES HIMSELF) Ah, yes, yes. Now the sun is lower, and soon it will be too late. Now. (A PRAYER) Eternal rest, give to him, O Lord.

SOUND:

THUNK! OF MALLET BLOW TO THE STAKE

MUSIC:

PUNCTUATES THE BLOW

VAN HELSING:

And let perpetual light shine upon him.

SOUND:

SEVEN RAPID BLOWS TO THE STAKE

MUSIC:

PUNCTUATING EACH BLOW ... THEN OUT FOR--

DRACULA:

(BLOODCURDLING SCREAM ... THEN GURGLES AND DIES)

MUSIC:

TRIUMPHANT!

MINA:

(NO LONGER ENTRANCED, LOVINGLY) Jonathan. Oh, Jonathan.

HARKER:

Mina, darling. (AMAZED) Your forehead, your throat! The marks of the vampire are washed away.

MUSIC:

FOR A FINISH

ANNOUNCER:

Stage 49, Item Thirty -- Dracula, by Bram Stoker -- dramatized for radio by George Salverson, was produced and directed by Andrew Allan, with an original musical score composed and conducted by Lucio Agostini.

Starred as Count Dracula, Lorne Greene. As Jonathan Harker, Alan King. With Lister Sinclair as Van Helsing, Budd Knapp as Dr. Seward, Mavor Moore as Renfield, Alice Hill as Mina, Aileen Seaton as Lucy, Dianne Foster as the Vampire and Eric Christmas as Swales. The others, Tommy Tweed, Doug Haskins, Murray Westgate, Frosia Gregory, Marcia Diamond, and Lloyd Bochner. Sound by Fred Tudor and Alan Gilroy. Technical operation by Bruce Armstrong.

MUSIC:

FOR A WARM FAREWELL ... THEN IN BG, TILL END

ANNOUNCER:

Stage 49 is from Toronto. Elwood Glover speaking. This is the Trans-Canada Network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.