Here's my .005 cents (at the present devalued US currency rate) on the matter. I think I have read, for the life of me can't remember where, probably Dick Klemensen's or Wayne Kinsey's zines, that this dummy was specifically constructed for DRACULA to convey a post-staked Jonathan Harker, but that for reasons of censorship it ended up going unfilmed. It's no great leap to imagine that the idea of the good guy being not only being killed, but being reduced to this horribly dessicated state, may well have set off censorship alarm bells at the time.

However: As Ted says, because the scene already peaks with Van Helsing's staking of the vampire woman, to follow it with the equally graphic destruction of Harker would have been poor & redundant construction. Ergo, what Skel sez about Harker's state here being a consequence of Dracula's revenge rings authentic. Truly disturbing implication (just what did Dracula do to that poor guy, suck him down to the marrow?) &, what is more, fascinatingly sadistic for 1958. This really makes me hear those aforementioned alarm bells! I wonder if this extreme revenge thing was a Jimmy Sangster conceit, wicked & inventive boy that he was then.

Back to this Harker dummy foto: Some of us boomers may remember it as a particular mainstay of early monster mags & monster card sets. At least one way or another Hammer got some use out of the dang thing.

Last Edited By: vayapues Nov 6 08 8:12 PM. Edited 1 times.