re: How much better would Bram Stoker’s Dracula be regarded if they had a more appropriate

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Palance is as menacing a Prince of Darkness as there is on film.

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Water is wet....

Palance was intimidating in everything he did.

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Jourdan’s performance rivals Palance’s. Both are very good.

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Two excellent actors approaching the role from different perspectives. Jack Palance was physically imposing and powerful. His evil was balanced with a powerful sense of loss. I always got the impression that if Van Helsing had not staked Lucy, then Dracula may have left everyone else alone. He only set his sights on Mina as revenge.

Louis Jourdan played Dracula with an air of seductive evil. I never got the impression that he had an emotional attachment to either Lucy or Mina. He was just using them. In that respect, it is closer to the source material. He was so soft-spoken and non-threatening that I never found him to be scary. That said, he still was excellent in the role.

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I like Keanu as much as the next person but that was horrible casting

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For those of you who weren’t around back then, this was the consensus when the movie came out. As soon as Keanu started talking, you could feel the collective cringe in the theater audience.

Keanu Reeves has done really good for himself in recent years and he deserves all the popularity he has now… but let me tell you… this was a textbook case of bad casting.

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I seem to recall that Coppola wanted Johnny Depp for Harker but got over ruled by the studio.

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Harker was originally going to be played by River Phoenix. River couldn't do it because of other filming commitments. They were then going to use Depp, but River recommended Keanu, who he had just filmed "My Own Private Idaho" with. Supposedly Depp was pretty mad about it. Ironically River OD'd outside of Depp's club(Viper Room) in 93. It spawned a bunch of stupid conspiracy theories.

There's an old interview from the 90's where Keanu talks about it. I just spent 30 minutes trying to find it, but I gave up.

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Two excellent actors approaching the role from different perspectives. Jack Palance was physically imposing and powerful. His evil was balanced with a powerful sense of loss.

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Yes, that’s very well said. I’ve never thought about his loss of Lucy transforming into rage and vengeance giving a real “human” side to his character. Good take.

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He(Jourdan) was so soft-spoken and non-threatening that I never found him to be scary.

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That was what made bringing his “brides” the satchel with the babies in it so effective and chilling. Jourdan’s evil was almost mundane. Like evil personified is often banal. Jourdan’s Dracula lacked any real humanity like Palance’s displayed.