that the process "turned out well" in the end. However, Langella's most vivid memories were his efforts to create a different Dracula. "I did not want to look like Bela Lugosi, or Christopher Lee", remembers Langella. He thus read the novel and found the character to be "gothic, elegant, lonely, without anyone who understood his problem, which consisted of the need for blood to survive." Langella also understood that the attraction that the character produced among women was key to realize his enormous "power of seduction", which Langella did not hesitate to use. Reception Box office In 1979, at least three Dracula films were released around the world: this film, West German director Werner Herzog's retelling as Nosferatu the Vampyre, and the comedy Love at First Bite. The success of the jokey Love at First Bite, starring George Hamilton, may have been relevant to the muted response this version experienced. The film opened at number one at the US box office with an opening weekend gross of $3,141,281 nationally from 455 theaters but performed modestly at the box office, grossing $20,158,970 domestically, and was seen as something of a disappointment by the studio. Critical Response Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film 3½ stars out of 4, writing: "What an elegantly seen Dracula this is, all shadows and blood and vapors and Frank Langella stalking through with the grace of a cat. The film is a triumph of performance, art direction and mood over materials that can lend themselves so easily to self-satire...This Dracula restores the character to the purity of its first film appearances..." Janet Maslin of The New York Times, stated: "In making this latest trip to the screen in living color, Dracula has lost some blood. The movie version ... is by no means lacking in stylishness; if anything, it's got style to spare. But so many of its sequences are at fever pitch, and the mood varies so drastically from episode to episode, that the pace becomes pointless, even taxing, after a while." Film historian Leonard Maltin gave the film 1.5 out of a possible 4 stars, describing it as "Murky...with Langella's acclaimed Broadway interpretation sabotaged by trendy horror gimmicks and ill-conceived changes to Bram Stoker's novel." Accolades Home video The movie made it onto Varietys All-Time Horror Rentals in 1993, but it fell into relative cinematic obscurity for several years, partly due to