Word: dracula
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...Stoker's tale, Dracula is destroyed in a combined Anglo-American gesture: Jonathan Marker, an Englishman, decapitates Dracula with his great kukri knife in the same moment that Quincey Morris, a young Texan, drives his bowie knife into Dracula's heart. Stakes are used against vampires in Stoker's novel, but only against ravishingly attractive females...
...Dracula is showing signs of life, thanks largely to efforts by Rumanian President Nicolae Ceausescu to resurrect him as, of all things, a national hero. At ceremonies last week in Bucharest celebrating the 100th anniversary of Rumania's independence, Ceausescu solemnly included Dracula among the immortals in the nation's Hall of Fame. The honor bestowed on Dracula followed a propaganda campaign to refurbish the image of the count. The real Dracula, Rumanian party historians insist, was the 15th century warrior-prince Vlad Dracula, who heroically battled Turkish oppressors...
Vlad the Impaler. In fact, the historical Prince Vlad Dracula is scarcely an improvement over the legendary Count Dracula. In his day, the prince was known as Vlad Tepes (pronounced Tsep-pesh) or Vlad the Impaler. Reason: his favorite method of killing enemies was to impale them on wooden poles. He was fond of dining outdoors, surrounded by a veritable forest of impaled men, women and children. According to one account, Vlad remarked, "Oh, what great gracefulness they exhibit!" as he watched his victims writhe in their death agonies...
Vlad met a fitting end not always stressed by Rumanian historians. After being captured by Turks in 1476, he was decapitated. His head was sent to Constantinople, where it was publicly displayed on a stake-the impaler impaled. Dracula's headless body is said to be buried in the monastery of Snagov, near Bucharest. It was there last week that a party-line-conscious priest observed of Rumania's new hero: "Vlad was a good Christian and he loved the truth. If he impaled people it was just to put a stop to injustice by noblemen at home...
...Including F.W. Murnau's classic 1922 Nosferatu, the celebrated 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, Roman Polanski's 1967 black comedy The Fearless Vampire Killers or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck, a 1970 skinflick called Does Dracula Suck? and the 1974 X-rated Andy Warhol's Dracula...