That’s Why The Landlord Was Familiar--For Me, Anyway

[calliopes_pen]

Don’t worry, there won’t be any spoilers for yesterday’s episode of Doctor Who. Well, today’s for me, since I had a severe migraine (and accompanying nausea related extras*) at the time it was streaming yesterday, and onwards through when it would have aired on BBC America.

I kept thinking that David Suchet looked very familiar, and that it wasn’t just due to the role as Hercule Poirot (which I’ve never seen, aside from the occasional promo on either KET or PBS). It turns out he played Van Helsing in Dracula (2006).

While it isn't a particularly good adaptation, it had one of the better castings I've seen for Lucy Westenra in Sophia Myles. I watched it for the first time a couple months ago.

*I would have posted a 'this community is open' for hidden_passages yesterday, if not for the migraine. I'll get on that now. I'm torn between three layouts for it, but I'm currently going with Amaranth in Librarian's Dream (the other two are Touch in Dusty Foot, and Pigeon Blue in Librarian's Dream).

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Seward unlocks the basement door in someone's mansion and there he is, makeshift crosses made of twigs surrounding him. He's just glad to see sunlight at long last again once things are concluded. He even insists Seward and Mina walk away towards sunlight so he can just watch them before he departs by carriage.

Aww. I was almost wanting to watch it just for that and then you said the magic turn off words, Marc Warren. (I mean, it's unfair, Marc Warren is a good actor, but he was in everything at one time, and it was too much!)

As to Syphilis, I think it is possible you wouldn't automatically know you have congenital syphilis - you might have symptoms, you might not, you might have them but not necessarily know what the cause was (or be in denial about it). And it might depend exactly how long after it was contracted he was born as to how noticeable or not symptoms were. (I read up on it once, but it was a while ago.) That sounds kind of melodramatic in a v 21st C look-at-us-being-grim-and-historical kind of way, though!

I'll have to reword it in just a bit, most likely with exactly what you suggested. I'll blame a briefly dead post-migraine brain on the bad wording.

I'm pedantic and nitpicky, but it was worth mentioning because so is a good half of fandom! Heh. I'm glad you didn't mind, and I think that all looks pretty straightforward and clear and welcoming to me now!

ETA: Except for one bit of my own bad/hasty wording - I think "other than teasers" in the icon bit under cut for... rather than "beyond teasers" but I also have little brain today!!

[calliopes_pen]

The Marc Warren bit is a big part of why I didn't track it down for a while. While he can be creepy in this version, he doesn’t feel right for the role.

I think Arthur was supposedly asymptomatic and then upon being told, suddenly he had sores on his arms, and elsewhere, and looked pale and a bit clammy before he was murdered. He also decided that he wouldn't consummate his marriage with Lucy. In this version, they are married. They made it that far.

Arthur knows what happened with Lucy since he brought Dracula to England. He refuses to allow Seward to treat her for blood loss, even holding Seward at gunpoint. Seward then suspects she was poisoned. And that's why Seward became nosy and checked around basements.

Actually, if you skip to almost the very end, you get a hint of Seward/Mina making plans to go eat together for a split second prior to Dracula in old age make-up trying to leave the door open for a sequel. (Which happily never came to be.)

Van Helsing actually asks, right after Seward saves them all (well, whoever's left) by thrusting a stake through Dracula's back, and he's basically a pile of clothing and mist: "...Did you get his heart?"

Seward actually had to check around the remains, but the answer was yes. Yes, he did.

There are three Youtube uploads for the film on Youtube, so far as I'm aware; two in their entirety, and one broken up into 9 parts. So if you want to just see those bits, Seward finds Van Helsing in a creepy basement in part 7, after finding a house with people Dracula killed/made kill themselves. Part 8 has Van Helsing out of the basement, and at least trying to help as Lucy attacks.

Go with part 9 for the staking of Dracula, brief flicker of Mina/Seward after seeing Van Helsing off, Arthur getting smacked around by Mina for what he's done, and a letter to the beyond as she says goodbye to Jonathan. Just ignore the subtitles.

(No problem, I’ll fix that in a moment.)

[thisbluespirit]

Aww, I loved the little bit of Mina/Seward! I'd been wondering if, among the many adapations, any went that way, and there's one - with bonus David Suchet! (I don't know quite how I progressed to multi-shipping any Mina/any Seward, but apparently it's a thing now.) Maybe I'll have to track it down and watch it despite Marc warren. As you say, so not Dracula!

and then upon being told, suddenly he had sores on his arms

lol, as you do!