Free Ken Russell's Dracula by Ken Russell

dizzy, it must be
    The champagne.
     
    MINA
    Stop a moment.
     
    Mina notices two specks of blood on
Lucy’s neck.
     
    MINA
    You must have pricked
    yourself. There!
     
    She brushes away the blood while
Lucy smiles to herself remembering.
     
    LUCY
    It is nothing.
    I was dancing.
     
    MINA
    Well next time, don’t
    choose a rose bush
    for a partner.
     
    Arm in arm the two girls walk off
towards the darkened house.
     
    EXT. SKY. NIGHT.
     
    A BAT flies past the moon.
     
    E XT. RENFIELD’S CELL. NIGHT.
     
    RENFIELD grips the bars and watches
the bat in a fever of religious devotion.
     
    RENFIELD
    Long have I prayed for your
    coming, dear Master, and now
    that you are near, I await
    your commands, and you will
    not pass me by will you,
    dear Master, in your
    distribution of good
    things?
     
    EXT. SKY. NIGHT.
     
    The BAT circles once as if
acknowledging Renfield’s prayer and goes out of sight into some nearby trees.
     
    RENFIELD’S VOICE
    Amen!
     
    EXT. RAILWAY STATION SOUTHAMPTON
EAST. DAY.
     
    DR SEWARD is standing on an almost
deserted platform staring up the line into the early morning mist, lost in
thought, when he recognizes with a start a familiar, if unexpected, voice.
     
    MINA
    Dr. Seward! Thank God!
    What luck!
     
    There, on the opposite platform is
MINA looking worried and agitated.
     
    MINA
    I tried phoning the
    Sanatorium but they said
    you had already left.
     
    DR. SEWARD
    Mina! Good gracious,
    what on earth ( alarmed ) ...
    it’s not Lucy, is it?
     
    MINA
    ( quickly )
    She’s had a relapse.
    She must be at the
    sanatorium by now.
    They sent an ambulance.
    When I went into her room
    this morning she ...
     
    The train drowns her explanation
and hides her from view as it arrives at her platform. But soon she has boarded
the carriage and is shouting to Dr. Seward through the window of her
compartment.
     
    MINA
    ... I couldn’t wake her,
    not for some time anyway,
    and even then...
     
    DR. SEWARD
    What were the symptoms?
     
    MINA
    ( hesitantly )
    Well, she was weak and
    feverish, and when she
    tried to get up she had
    a dizzy spell and collapsed
    so I put her back to bed
    and phoned...
     
    DR. SEWARD
    ( interrupting )
    Speak up, I can’t hear you!
     
    Further speech is rendered
impossible by the arrival of the train at Dr. Seward’s platform. From one of
the carriage windows leans the cloaked figure of a stout old man with a round,
cheery face and billowing silver locks. The train brings him into a big
CLOSE-UP and halts. It is none other than Dr. Seward’s old teacher, Professor
VAN HELSING, greeting his ex-pupil with a laugh and a jest.
     
    VAN HELSING
    Ah ha! The first sign
    of madness - talking to
    oneself. I always said
    insanity was contagious,
    remember?
     
    He embraces the slightly distracted
Doctor Seward.
     
    VAN HELSING
    How are you, my boy?
     
    DR. SEWARD
    Very well, Professor.
    Excuse me!
     
    To Van Helsing’s surprise, Dr.
Seward shakes himself off and jumps into the carriage.
     
    INT. COMPARTMENT. DAY.
     
    DR. SEWARD lowers the window and
talks across to MINA in the opposite carriage.
     
    DR. SEWARD
    Mina, what is all this
    about? Start from last
    night.
     
    MINA
    ( flustered )
    After you’d gone I found her
    in the rose garden. I think
    she’d had a little too much.
    She’d cut herself on one of
    the shrubs - nothing much,
    ( she points at her
throat )
    Just there. She’d been
    dancing with her lover,
    she said.
     
    DR. SEWARD
    ( alarmed )
    Her lover?
     
    Mina knows she is making the case
sound totally implausible and finishes off lamely.
     
    MINA
    I know it sounds silly,
    But you did ask.
     
    DR. SEWARD
    ( exasperated )
    Lucy sounds as if she’s
    Got an almighty hangover,
    and you’re acting as if
    you’re still tipsy - how,
    otherwise could you have
    left her alone?
     
    MINA
    ( urgently )
    I didn’t leave her until
    she was safely in the
    ambulance with a nurse.
    Please, you must believe me.
    It’s serious. Jonathan’s
    back home. I have to