Don't make me call it Shocktober: vol. III

Poor Count Dracula (Leslie Nielsen). The salesman (Peter MacNicol) he's made his slave is a bungling idiot, no one can get his orders right and that damn Van Helsing (director/producer/co-writer Mel Brooks) keeps trying to get the last word. This is not one of the Brooks masterpieces, but put it against what passes for horror spoofs nowadays (Stan Helsing, Transylmania, Vampires Suck), and how can it not seem a classic? There's nothing here that 1979's Love at First Bite didn't do better, but it's worth a watch if you catch it on cable.

I consider the composer/director pairing of John Morris and Mel Brooks on a par with Williams/Spielberg, Herrmann/Hitchcock, Elfman/Burton, Newman/DeVito and Goldsmith/Dante, but I really appreciate the music that Hummie Mann wrote for Robin Hood: Men in Tights and this film. Mann's main theme is an appropriately Gothic descending four-note melody, effectively conveying Dracula's menace (musically, anyway; he's a goofball in the movie).

Around the 1:11 mark of the "Main Titles", a slowly building sub-theme on strings and winds emerges, representing the danger Dracula poses and how it affects the characters. The danger motif can be heard throughout the score, like in the melancholy "Van Helsing Sees Mina's Bite" and given a sweeping, resolutive rendition in the succinctly-titled "Romantic Moment".

Mann gets a lot of mileage out of a full choir, such as at the conclusion of the "Main Titles" and the seductive female voices in "Dracula's Women", accompanying one of my favorite gags. "Hypnotizing Renfield" and "Dracula Hypnotizes Mina and Essie" feature a repeating string figure, while "Faster Horses" pulses with wavering strings and horns.

A number of cues float along with strings, winds and the occasional choral intrusion as Dracula stalks his prey, such as "Dracula in the Garden" and "Bat Flies to Window". However, cues like "Dracula Attacks Lucy" and "Lucy Reacts to the Cross" burst, albeit briefly, with pounding horns and nervous strings.

Though encouraged by the director to play it straight, Mann can't help himself in "Limping Shadows", where wind-based mickey-mousing accompanies Dracula's shadow as it tries to walk off a painful fall. A soulful violin solo earmarks "Gypsy Woman", as an old woman (the late Anne Bancroft, Mrs. Mel Brooks) tries to warn Renfield away from Dracula's castle (would that he listened...).

The climatic cues "Escape", "Fight!" and "Attempted Escape" provide an exciting conclusion to the score with chopping strings, pounding horns and ghostly choral accompaniment.

Mann also provides spirited arrangements of classical pieces, with pipe organ taking the lead in the tango of "El Choclo" and the all-too-briefly-heard "Hungarian Rhapsody #5" heavily featuring tambourine in the mix. "The Kaminsky Two-Step" isn't classical music, though not for lack of trying; the source music fits in quite nicely in the ballroom scene.

The score was released on a promotional CD, which is hard to find these days. It pops up on Ebay from time to time, but be ready to part with at least $40. (Samples of every track can be found here.) If you're unwilling to take that chance, the music can be heard in the film.