Dracula @ Hammer

You can't keep a good man down and Hammer Films brought Dracula back time and time again. Michael tells the story behind the films - the unused scripts, the numerous times the studio had to beg Christopher Lee to step back into the cape, and the unprecedented continuity the series gave fans. He also recommends a double feature of two of Hammer's nine Dracula films to sink your teeth into. So, get your goblets it's time to toast the prince of darkness, the lord of corruption, the master of the undead - Count Dracula!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

I am Dracula, and I welcome you to my house.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey everybody, welcome to Friday Night Brights. I'm Michael Huey, your host. I'm a theater professor, an author, an actor, and I'm a big Dracula guy. I don't know why that story. Movies about the character have fascinated me since I was a kid. And frankly, they still do. And I try to see most films that have anything to do with Dracula because I just I can't get enough. That includes the original novel by Ram Stoker, which you were listening to this podcast and have not read, you really owe it to yourself to read it. It's an amazing novel. Certainly some of it is very dated, but then some of it you go, man, I cannot believe that was published in the 19th century, in the late 19th century. It's fascinating. And the way the story is told through diaries and letters and journals, et cetera, is it feels almost almost modern. Well, Dracula is a subject of the podcast today, specifically Dracula at Hammer Films. Now, I've talked about Hammer a lot here. Probably if you're listening to this podcast, you're something of a Hammer fan, and if if you're not, I'm certainly trying to convert you into one. Hammer, the British studio that still exists, existed since the 1930s, but from the mid to late 1950s through the mid-70s, they were known for horror films, specifically gothic horror films. And they made all kinds of horror films. They made four mummy films, werewolf films, Phantom of the Opera, et cetera, et cetera. But their bread and butter were two series. The first one, the Frankenstein series. Seven films from 1957 through the mid-1970s, six of those films starring Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein. And then the Dracula series, which is what we're going to talk about today, nine films in total, starting in 1958 and going through the mid-1970s, depending on what you uh what release date you go by, seven of them starring Christopher Lee as Dracula. I think the Dracula series is really what Hammer is known for. And if you have seen any of the new Hammer physical media, they have this sort of video montage that is their introduction. And it has a lot of the great monsters, Oliver Reed from Curse of the Werewolf. And of course, there is Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein, but the final image is Christopher Lee as Dracula hissing. It's just his face that ends it. So I really do think Dracula sort of is what the studio is known for. So today we're going to talk about those nine films, not necessarily the plots of those films, in depth at least, but the story behind the films, why they made these films, how they got to the second film, how many times they had to coax Christopher Lee to come back, how many times Christopher Lee said, There is no way I am ever going to return to Hammer and do a Dracula film. Some of it is really quite fascinating. So that's what we're going to do, or we'll just go ahead and dive in with the very first one, and that is from 1958, Dracula. It's also known as Horror of Dracula. In the United States, the U.S. distributor was afraid people would get it confused with the Bellelegosi Dracula from 1931. So Dracula comes after The Curse of Frankenstein, which was Hammer's first big gothic. And it was such a big success. Their mix of technicolor blood and some gore, you know, with sort of these gothic trappings was a major success. So they naturally said, if we've done Frankenstein, we need to do Dracula. And Dracula, the horror of Dracula, has basically the same core team that worked on the curse of Frankenstein. And this is important because these people, these men, set the look for these early films. And I'm talking about Terence Fisher, the director, Jimmy Sangster, the writer, Jack Asher, the cinematographer, and Bernard Robinson, who was production designer. Christopher Lee, in an interview at one point, said the biggest star at Hammer was Bernard Robinson and his production and art design. Because he, at this time, Hammer was at Bray Studios, which was a smaller studio, and he took literally the same sets, would change things around, turn it into a completely different, opulent, gorgeous set. And one other person, James Bernard, who is a composer, and they all came over to work on Dracula. And I just have to say that I do think Dracula is a step up from Curse of Frankenstein. Many people consider it to be, including myself, their favorite and the best Hammer film of all time. Now, I have talked at length about Dracula on this podcast, our second episode, which is an intro to Hammer Double Feature. I go into it in detail, so I'm not going to talk about it too much, the story. It's a basic sort of introduction to Dracula film. The movie was so incredibly popular and so significant. It had so many firsts. The first time really you have an erotically charged Dracula on screen. You know, certainly before that, Dracula had been a seductive figure, but when you watch this movie and you see Dracula with his victims, you really get the sense that they are spending a thrilling night with Tall, Dark, and Gruesome. You have a very vigorous, very athletic, very knowledgeable Van Helsing played by Peter Cushing, of course. And then all that blood from the moment, the very opening credits, you see this red blood splattering on the nameplate on Dracula's coffin. It's so exciting. And this movie doesn't end with Dracula in his coffin getting staked, you know, the way the 1931 Bell Lagosi one does. It ends with a dramatic chase, with a fight. It's much more akin to the ending of a, you know, uh an action film. So it's very, very different from what had come before it. It's right ironic that Christopher Lee is only on screen seven minutes in this first movie. Seven minutes total. And yet you're thinking about him the entire time. His presence really kind of pervades the film. So when the movie came out, critics were not kind in the UK. One critic said that there should be a new rating system because of Dracula, and it should be rated S for sadistic or D for disgusting. Of course, that only made more people want to go see it. Because this movie was so successful that Hammer canceled all their non-horror films after this and said we're just going to focus on horror. It also was very influential, sort of culturally. I'm sure many of you out there are probably Italian horror fans. Roberto Curdy, who writes about Italian horror, has said that Christopher Lee's performance is Dracula, and this film was massively influential on the Italian cinema scene, and influenced directors like Mario Bava, Antonio Margheriti, with their early, you know, black and white and color gothic horrors. So many firsts from this film did really well. Naturally, there has to be a sequel, right? With all the stars back. Well, most of the stars back, at least. So now we're on to the second film in the series in its 1960s, The Brides of Dracula. So a little backstory about this film. Jimmy Sangster, the writer of the first film, was asked to write a screenplay for the Dracula sequel, and he called it the Disciple of Dracula. And in it, Dracula only has a cameo appearance at the end, where he appears and I guess, you know, kills the disciple of Dracula who's causing all this trouble. So Hammer took a look at that screenplay and went, oh, okay. And then they gave it on to Peter Bryan, another writer. Bryan wrote a screenplay called Dracula the Damned, but he had two marching orders from Dracula from Hammer, excuse me, about his screenplay. Number one, cut Dracula. We don't want Dracula in this film. Number two, we want Van Helsing in this film. And so that brings up this sort of controversy that has la lingered among Hammer fans for many years is why was Christopher Lee not in the sequel? Uh there are two theories. Number one, and this theory comes from Lee, is that he was busy in Europe, many film commitments, and he could just not work it into his schedule. There's also another theory that Hammer at the time felt that their real star was Peter Cushing, and the real star of this series was Van Helsing, and that Lee, even as Dracula, was a supporting player. And so they didn't really need him for this, and they wanted to do something else with Van Helsing. So whatever the case is, The Brides of Dracula, which has again many of the same people back from Horror of Dracula, Terence Fisher directing. You've got, again, Jack Asher cinematography, Bernard Robinson, who outdoes himself in this film. So I'm just going to read you the letterbox summary of Brides of Dracula, a young teacher on her way to a position in Transylvania, helps a young man escape the shackles his mother has put on him. In so doing, she unleashes, innocently unleashes the horrors of the undead once again on the populace, including those at her School for Ladies. Luckily for some, Dr. Van Helsing is already on his way. So The Rides of Dracula is an absolutely terrific film. And it's part of the reason that it's terrific, two reasons, really. Number one, it is gorgeous. I think it's one of the most beautiful horror films ever made. The sets are incredible, the lighting, the colors pop. It's peak gothic in so many ways. It also has some terrific supporting performances. Once again, we have Peter Cushing back as Van Helsing. He enters at about, I don't know, 25, 30 minutes into the film, and he lifts what is already a really good movie. But there are two other actresses I just want to talk about: Martita Hunt, who plays Baroness Meinster, the mother of the young man who is in shackles and who, uh, when he's unshackled becomes the uh the disciple of Dracula, and Frieda Jackson, who plays uh Greta, the housemaid, who is also sort of the vampire enabler. These two women have had incredible careers before The Brides of Dracula. They're both in The Great Expectations by David Lean. And here in this film, they are exceptional. It's almost like they're pushing one another to do more and be better, like, oh, if Martita's doing this, well, I'm going to do this. Oh, well, if Frida's doing this, I'm going to go there. You cannot come away from this movie and not talk about the performances of Martita Hunt and Frida Jackson. In fact, one scene in particular, Frida Jackson is coaxing a young vampire bride out of her grave with this organ music playing, which Haver rarely use organs in their scores. And it is an incredible scene.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Come, my precious.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

And he's quite good as the sort of, I don't know, gothic romantic pretty boy that the young teacher falls in love with and feels so sorry for. But then when he has to play the, you know, the beast, the vampire, um I don't feel like his heart's in it. And I feel like that's scene, you can tell that on screen just a little bit. Uh Peel, I think, was around, was in his 40s, I think, in this film. He looks much younger, so he he certainly pulls off the romantic side very well. Uh but again, his performance as the vampire is what kind of knocks it down a little bit for me. And TCM, Turn to Classic Movies, their website has some great, just some great blurps about a lot of Hammer films that they have shown. And there is a quote from Richard Harlan Smith, who wrote an essay about Brides of Dracula. I just want to read. He writes, The Brides of Dracula feels at once more personal, more specific, and despite a syllabus rich in necromancy, necrophilia, incest, homoeroticism, and all-around monstrousism, more human. And I really think that's true. I mean, there's just so much going on behind the scenes with these characters in the Brides of Dracula, with the mother, with the housemaid who is the enabler of the vampires, with Van Helsing, you know, with the young schoolteacher who is played by Yvonne Montelau. The only thing that pulls me back from saying Brides of Dracula is the best hammer film and therefore the best Dracula film is the performance of David Peel, but it's absolutely a must-save. So it is now six years before we get another Dracula film. And it is from 1966.

SPEAKER_05 14:34

Dracula, Prince of Darkness, King of the Vampires. For ten years, his mortal remains were cherished by his faithful servant, awaiting the opportunity, and a victim to provide the life force for the reincarnation of Dracula.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Lee reluctantly returns to the role. This is a theme that we will see throughout this. We do not have Peter Cushing as Van Helsing this time. We have Andrew Keir, who you may know if you've seen Quatormasse and the Pit. He plays Professor Quatermass there. Here he plays Father Shandor, a uh a rugged monk, let's say. Marcus Hearn, the hammer historian, has called Dracula Prince of Darkness the quintessential hammer film. And in many ways, I agree with that. It is the story is such a like a fairy tale sort of setup. And let me just read again read the letterboxed uh review here. While vacationing in the Carpathian Mountains, two couples stumble across the remains of Count Dracula's castle. The Count's trusted servant, whose name is Clove, kills one of the men. The ritual after a ritual, the Count is revived. There's depravity and evil. I'm actually editing this because I feel like there are too many spoilers, even in the letterbox summary. You have to suspend a little bit of disbelief with Dracula Prince of Darkness because you do have these two couples who have been warned to stay away from the castle. The coachman who is taking them on their to their next location stops because it's too close to sunset and says, Get out. If you're still here tomorrow, I'll come and get you in the light of day. They have no choice but to get out, and then suddenly a coach appears and takes them to the castle, and they're treated to an opulent meal, and they even toast their host, uh Dracula, who, Clove, the servant says, uh, has died some time ago. Dracula Prince of Darkness is also a really terrific film. And it boasts a great performance from Barbara Shelley as Helen. Barbara Shelley is a theater-trained uh actor, and as far as I'm concerned, she should be listed in, you know, when you talk about Peter Cush and Christopher Lee, she her name should absolutely be among them as terrific actors who worked at Hammer. She plays a very nervous traveler, very anxious, who keeps saying we have got to leave this castle. Bad things are going to happen. And she is right. Uh, Dracula Prince of Darkness has the best resurrection scene in the entire series. Absolutely fantastic. I am stunned Hammer got away with it. I actually saw Dracula Prince of Darkness in a theater when I was a kid at a kitty matinee. Folks, we do not have kitty matinees like that anymore with this amount of blood and gore and death. Um obviously it made an impression on me. Here's another great quote from TCM uh about Dracula Prince of Darkness. It says, while it lacks the classic narrative structure and stunning art direction of horror of Dracula, that's true. Even though we do have Terence Fisher back as director, we have a new cinematographer on this. This is Michael Reed, and a different art Bernard Robinson is doing the production design, though. So continuing on with that quote, Lee's second vampire film conveys a genuine sense of unease that erupts into pure horror at the first appearance of the count. So Lee is back, we've got Dracula back. One of the really cool things I just want to take a minute to talk about about these films is the continuity from film to film. It feels to me like this is really unusual in the 1950s, 60s, and 1970s that sequels would have continuity. But Dracula Prince of Darkness begins with the end of the first film of Dracula, the Big Chase scene and the demise of Dracula. In fact, uh they had to pay Peter Cushing for the use of uh of that scene in Dracula Prince of Darkness. And instead of paying him, uh Peter Cushing needed some work done on his house, so Hammer just arranged for the work to be done, and that's how he was paid. This film starts with the end of Dracula, and that's gonna be important as we move forward. And now, as I do on every episode, I want to recommend a double feature for you. And these next two films, I'm gonna go into a little more detail about them. And the first film of your hammer Dracula double feature should be from 1968. Dracula has risen from the grave.

SPEAKER_07 19:30

No coffin could ever hold him. No dog can ever bomb his way. He is back from the dead. Out, Dracula.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

This film starts out with a bit of bad luck. Terence Fisher was supposed to direct Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, and he's crossing the street and gets hit by a motorbike and breaks his leg, so he can't. So instead of him, Freddie Francis is called on to direct the film. And now Freddie Francis is well known among horror fans. He directed a lot of uh several films for Amicus, several hammer films, but he's best known in the greater film world as a cinematographer. In fact, he won two Oscars for cinematography, Sons and Lovers from 1961, and Glory from 1990. So Francis comes on. He was also the cinematographer on the film The Innocence, and he his influence is very much seen in the look of this film. At the same time, Hammer leaves Bray Studios, and they move to the much larger Pinewood studios for this film. Now, Bray, as I mentioned it before, for Hammer fanatics, Bray feels like home. It feels like that's where the best movies were made. It's a smaller studio. It feels like it has this family sort of atmosphere. So Bray is, which is in Windsor in England, about, I don't know, about an hour, I think, uh north of London, uh, has this real nostalgia feel uh among fans. So they're they're at Pinewood now. Lee, of course, had to be coaxed back to play the part again. And he used to tell this story that James Carreras, who was then head of Hammer, would call him on the phone and would say, Chris, you've got to come back. If you don't come back and do this, all of these people will, I will be out of work. I won't be able to use them because I have to have Dracula in this movie. And so he would guilt Lee into coming back. At least that's the story that Lee would tell. Dracula has risen from the grave. The budget is a bit higher because uh Hammer has made a deal with Warner, Seven Arts, in the United States, so they have that money and they have a guaranteed distribution. Okay, so let's do the letter. Boxed summary of this. All right, Dracula is from the grave in the shadow of Castle Dracula. The Prince of Darkness is revived by blood trickling from the head wound of an unconscious priest attempting exorcism. So we have that continuity from Dracula Prince of Darkness. Dracula is where he was at the end of that movie, and that's where we pick up. And once more, fear and terror strikes Transylvania as the undead Prince of Darkness stalks the village of Kinenberg to ensnare victims and satisfy his evil thirst. That's not really a very good summary, actually, because this is a movie about Dracula warning revenge. The very first scene of this movie probably takes place around the time of Prince of Darkness, and you see this, the village of Kinenberg, the church, and uh this kid goes to ring the church bell one morning and there's blood dripping down the rope that leads to the bell. He runs away screaming, the priest goes in, he goes up to the bell tower to see what's wrong, and there is one of Dracula's victims hung in the bell and dripping blood. And then we fast forward a year. Dracula has ostensibly died at the end of Prince of Darkness. But the village is still living in fear. So the Monsignor of the local um diocese comes, and as Dracula desecrated a church in the village, the Monsignor goes to Castle Dracula to perform an exorcism and leaves a giant cross on the door. So he sort of repays Dracula the favor. And that's where the resurrection happens that the letterbox summary uh mentions. One of the cool things about this film, it is the most heavily religious of these films. All of these films, especially Terence Fisher, the Terence Fisher-directed films of Dracula, have a really strong good versus evil uh kind of sensibility, and with good always winning. But this one is all about religion because you have a priest who is controlled by Dracula, a priest who is weak. You have the Monseigneur who represents, you know, stalwart religion. And then the um our young male lead, whose name is Paul and played by Barry Andrews, is an atheist. And guess who is the one who has to fight Dracula at the end, right? Um so again, I don't want to go into too many spoilers, but that undercurrent of religious belief is very important and leads to one of the most controversial scenes in Hammer history, where in this film, and I'm not sure if it was a screenwriter or Freddie Francis or who, changed one big thing about the vampire myth about how to kill Dracula. And it ties in with this uh religious sort of through line in this film. So that's that's that's all I will say. So again, Dracula is out for revenge against the Monseigneur for desecrating his castle. Freddie Francis, in interview, said he was most interested in the romance. And there is a pretty good romance here. We have Veronica Carlson, her first film uh with Hammer, and she became one of the favorites of people who love Hammer. And she uh you know, she's blonde, she's beautiful, she's quite a good actor, and she's really good and very specific here, and she plays opposite Barry Andrews, who is the our Paul, who is an atheist. But Francis said he was more interested in that than Dracula, which is uh concerning. There's a terrific performance by Barbara Ewing as um a barmaid, would you think that's sort of a throwaway sort of role? And and she is really wonderful in it. Uh Zena is the character's name. She is so good. She uh is, you know, bitten by Dracula early on and then sort of has to do his bidding. And really, she's terrific. I will say one thing about this film that might slight drawback. Hammer had a reputation of shooting day for night. And this film has a lot of it. So uh just a bit of a warning there. This film uh is a film that was really significant, I think, especially in the United States. So Warner had this uh deal with Hammer, and they decided to do this tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign. So the you have this the poster was this uh woman with a very low-cut top, with two band-aids on her neck where the pipe marks would be, and it says Dracula has risen from the grave, and in parentheses, obviously. One of the uh trailers for this was a grandmother-like figure talking about her son.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

I'm a mother with a problem. I have a son who many people consider somewhat strange. He's moved into the strangest apartment. He never gets up until midnight.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

And she's referring to Dracula. So this whole tongue-in-cheek kind of marketing thing really must have gone over well because Dracula has risen from the grave is Hammer's biggest moneymaker of all time, at least in the classic era. I mean, when we get to the, you know, the 2000s and Woman in Black with Daniel Radcliffe certainly outmade it in terms of money there. But this movie caused James Carreras to say, guess what? We're going to give you a Dracula film once a year every year. So that is the first film of your double feature. And now on to the second one, which comes out as James Carreras promises the next year, and it is Taste the Blood of Dracula. So actually, that's a little more than a year, but close enough. Um Taste the Blood of Dracula begins about, I'd say approximately one hour before the end of Dracula has risen from the grave. So the first scene in Taste the Blood of Dracula is you've got Roy Kinnear, who is this merchant, he's on a carriage, he gets thrown out of the carriage, you know, so the people on it can have his his uh his goods. And he's lying in the woods in the middle of the night, and he hears this gut-piercing scream, absolutely terrible scream, and he runs to the source of it, and it is Dracula dying at the end of Dracula has risen from the grave. Sorry, spoiler, Dracula died. Beg your pardon. As Dracula disintegrates, he takes the cape, the clasp, and Dracula's blood. And so uh the movie begins. So after Dracula has risen from the grave, Lee, of course, said, no way, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore. Okay? And in fact, the original script for this film, and this is the biggest complaint a lot of people have with this movie, is that why is Dracula even in it? Uh the original script did not have Dracula and had a young sort of um bon vivant uh Lord Cortley, who you know worships the devil and is kind of this rock star, Victorian rock star. And that character is played by Ralph Bates. And so in the original script, Courtney drinks the blood of Dracula and becomes a vampire. Hammershill had their backing with Warner at this time, and Warner, who had money at stake, pun intended, said no, you can't have a Dracula film without Dracula, and it needs to be Christopher Lee. So James Carreras went back again, begging Lee to come back and play the role. And Lee had a fan club at that time, and he would write things. I guess he had a sort of a newsletter or not, and he wrote to his fans that this would absolutely be his last Dracula film. He uh he did three more after this, by the way. And in that newsletter, he wrote, The tasteful title is Taste the Blood of Dracula. As usual, words fail me. That was Christopher Lee at that time. He he could be a bit caustic about his work. So why do I like this film? It's a great story. I think it's a really good story. Even though Dracula does feel a little shoehorned into this, um and he is once again seeking revenge. It's such a good story. And there is a great cast of supporting actors. I think really one of the best in the entire series. You've got Jeffrey Keene. The whole story is about these three fathers, massive hypocrites, who say that once a month they're going to go do this charity work in the East End of London, and then they go to this fetishistic brothel and just give in to their worst urges, uh, and they help cause Dracula's uh return.

SPEAKER_07 31:27

These men thought they had tasted all that life had to offer.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

Would you be willing to sell your souls to the devil? If one thought that one's experience might be extended, it would be extended to infinity.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

So the Three Fathers are played by Jeffrey Keene, who is really good here, tortured and scary and kind of awful. Then you've got uh John Carson, who is a hammer regular, he's in Plague of the Zombies and Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, and you've got Peter Sallas, who is the voice of Wallace in the Wallace and Grommet series. So those three hypocritical dads are kind of the core. And then you've got Linda Hayden, who was very young. She plays um uh the daughter of Jeffrey Keene's character. And she, I think she's probably about 18 in this film, and she's really quite good. She is probably best known as the one of the leads in The Blood on Satan's Claw. And you've got Anthony Higgins, uh. Higgins is goes on to be in Vampire Circus for Hammer. He's also a Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Art. And both of them are just so good and so believable, and that really grounds, I think, taste of it of Dracula. And of course, I have to mention Ralph Bates, who plays Courtley, who is one of those Hammer actors just absolutely going for it. So definitely the great cast is another reason I like it, the great locations. There is this church, uh, unconsecrated church that has is being used for satanic rituals, and there is a very specific path to get there, and that is filmed in Highgate Cemetery in London. But the most fun thing about this one is Dracula takes down the patriarchy. Dracula goes after the hypocritical fathers. Now, he doesn't get a lot of thanks for that, but that is what it is. And producer Aida Young, who um produced a lot of several of these Dracula films, said this one was about something. Terrence Fisher did not direct this one. Peter Sassy directed it. He also directed Hands of the Ripper, which is a very good hammer film of the 70s, and Countess Dracula. So this opened in the spring of 1970, close to a year after James Carrera's Promise One Every Year. It was another big hit. So within months, Hammer rushes another Dracula film before cameras, and it is The Scars of Dracula, also from 1970.

SPEAKER_08 34:14

He is evil. He's the embodiment of all that is evil. He's the very devil himself. Dracula's reign of horror reaches out even further.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

There are two different schools of thought on Scars of Dracula. There is one school of thought that says, wow, this movie returns Dracula to his castle. Christopher Lee has more lines, there's more Dracula, plus there's more blood, there's more gore, there's sadism. This is really moving in the direction of horror films at the time. You know, Night of the Living Dead has already been out by this time, so they feel like it's a bump up. There's another group of people who says this movie looks cheap. Finally, you know, the hammer magic has dried up. Uh, the sets don't look good. There are some giant bats where you can clearly see the wires, and uh Lee looks like he's he's not having a very good time. And uh, you know, both of those things can be true. So the the backstory of Scars of Dracula is Hammer lost their American financing before production began, and I I do think that you can see it here. Secondly, the continuity that Hammer has had from the very first movie, really through Brides of Dracula, Prince of Darkness risen from the grave and taste a little bit of Dracula thrown out the window. This is practically a reboot. So in the very first scene, Dracula is in his castle, just dust on a coffin, a giant bat flies in the window and pukes blood on the dust, and Dracula comes back to life. Not the greatest resurrection scene. I've seen Scars of Dracula a couple times, including a really nice 4K remaster that um Keno Lorber just put out, and uh it looks good, but I do agree that the magic is just not there. So let me read the summary for you. Prince of Darkness casts his undead shadow once more over the cursed village at Kineberg, uh, and two innocent victims search for a missing loved one, uh, loved to death by Dracula's mistress. But after they discover his blood-drained corpse in Dracula's castle, the vampire lord's lustful vengeance begins. That's fairly vague. And I would say that the plot is fairly typical. Um, there is a young couple searching for uh their friend and who has gone missing, and that's what brings them to Castle Dracula. I think the one saving grace of the Scars of Dracula is Patrick Trout, who was the second doctor in the Doctor Who series, plays Clove, uh Dracula's servant. Uh not really the same clove that we saw in Dracula Prince of Darkness, a different clove. At least he looks very different. And that character is pretty well written. You know, he has he finds a picture of um uh of the the young ingenue played by Jenny Hanley in this, and he sort of falls in love with it, and then suddenly she shows up at the castle, and you know, his his world is turned upside down. So that's that's quite nice, but I do feel like a little bit of the magic is gone in this one. Now, Hammer is gonna keep this Dracula series going, but they say we've got to do something brand new, and their idea is to bring Dracula into the modern era, and that is with Dracula A.D. 1972. So I'm just gonna go ahead and read you the summary here, set in London in the early 1970s. Supposedly, for teen thrills, Johnny organizes a black magic ceremony in desolate church. The culmination of the ritual, however, is the rejuvenation of Dracula from Shriveled Remains. So Hammer said, let's move Dracula to the present day. In fact, one of the cool things about this movie is you get Christopher Lee back. And the reason he came back to this when he had some film projects that fell through. And so he said, okay, I'm coming back. Remember, on Taste of the Blood of Dracula, he said, I'm done, I'm done. And he's he did scars, and now he's back for Dracula AD 1972. However, I must say that I did read that to try to get into the character, he had a box of dirt imported from Transylvania, which he kept on set. Now, I don't think he slept in it, I think he just kept it there to remind him of his character, and probably because his character is now in the modern world, right? So, but the cool thing about this film is you get Peter Cushing back as Van Helsing. In fact, this movie opens in 1872 with Dracula and Van Helsing in a pitched battle on top of this coach. Uh the coach wrecks Dracula gets a um a wheel spike through his chest, and and Van Helsing dies as well. And then there's a nice kind of pan up to the sky, and we see a jet fly, and then the titles go. Dracula A.D. 1972 uh lives and dies with these uh teens that are referenced in the summary. They're not teens, they're definitely uh actors in their 20s, but it's these kids, and I'm using air quotes around kids, that resurrect Dracula. And the leader of that group is called Johnny Alucard. I'm sure if you're a horror fan, you know what Allucard is backwards, and that's played by Christopher Neem. And Christopher Neim is another one of these actors in a hammer film, just absolutely going for it, and God bless him, he brings so much energy. And that's what this movie has. It has great energy. It's got Lee back as Dracula, it's got Van Helsing, played by Peter Cushing. And it sort of makes Dracula believable in a modern sense. What's not believable are the kids who are supposed to be hip, you know, kind of fashionable hippies in early 1970s London. The music, some of their lingo is painful at best, but if you can just go with the whole cordiness of the whole thing, you will like this movie. And all the actors seem a hundred percent into this. And again, you get a great showdown at the end of this film between Cushing and Lee. You know, yeah, you haven't had that since 1958 in the original Dracula, the two of them being on screen as these iconic characters. So Dracula 80 1972, you've got a new director, a new screenwriter. Uh, it was written by Don Houghton and directed by Alan Gibson. So, Dracula 80 1972 I also saw in the theater as a very young kid, and remember it specifically, just blowing my mind and making me want to be, you know, Van Helsing and Dracula at the same time. So that is successful, and of course, Hammer does another one. And it is a direct sequel to A.D. 1972. So after that sort of reboot with Scars of Dracula that ignores all the continuity, we are back with um a new continuity. Uh, and it's called The Satanic Rites of Dracula from 1973. It's happening right now in London.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

New York could be next. Or Paris or Rome or Tokyo. It's happening right now to the skill.

SPEAKER_02 42:10

Master of the undead. And Dracula.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

So the static rites of Dracula is uh a bit of a hybrid. It's part spy film, it's part thriller, it's part horror movie. Uh Dracula does not appear in it until I would say almost, I don't know, 50 minutes to an hour. Uh it is some of the same cast. We have Peter Cushing back as Van Helsing. Uh you have Michael Coles back as Inspector Murray. He was in Dracula A.D. 1972. And I would say this, I think this takes place about a year after Dracula A.D. 1972. And uh here's the summary: the police and British security forces call in Professor Van Helsing to help them investigate a satanic ritual which has been occurring in a large country house and has been attended by a government minister, an eminent scientist, and the Secret Service chief. The owner of the house is a mysterious property tycoon who is found to be behind a sinister plot involving a deadly plague. So you do get sort of a James Bond sort of feel with this. You know, there's some like sort of teams of these motorcycle guys giving chase to uh to Inspector Murray and Van Helsing and uh and this sort of global plot to destroy the world. Of course, it's not a huge spoiler to say who is behind it. My personal feeling about satanic rights is it doesn't quite have the energy that A.D. 1972 has. It also we have Joanna Lumley as Van Helsing's granddaughter. And in A.D. 1972, that part was played by Stephanie Beecham, who is probably best known for being on Dynasty. I think Stephanie Beacham is quite a good actor, and Joanna Lumley is incredible. She's an absolutely fabulous, she's done a lot, she's a terrific actor. Her part is so underwritten in Satanic. Rights of Dracula. All she does is sort of scream and get in trouble, and it's you just feel bad for her. But again, to me, it's it's the energy that that that sort of is not there in Satanic Rights. However, it is a direct sequel, and it would make a great double feature, a second great double feature of doing AD 1972 and then Satanic Rights because they follow one another so clearly. Unfortunately, uh by the 1970s, distributors were not necessarily treating these movies very well. The Satanic Rights of Dracula was not released in the United States until 1978. And then it was released under the title Count Dracula and His Vampire Broad, which is a title that has absolutely no meaning to this film. And it was cut. So that brings us to the end of the road. Finally, Christopher Lee said, I've had it. I'm not doing any more Dracula films. And this time he kept his word. But Hammer had one more in them. And it is the legend of the seven golden vampires.

SPEAKER_06 45:06

From Warner Brothers, who crashed the action barrier with Enter the Dragon comes a new dimension in black belt thrills. As Hammer, Masters of Horror, and the Shaw Brothers, Masters of Kung Fu, join forces to create the first martial arts horror spectacular ever filmed.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

So just to give you the quick synopsis here, Professor Van Helsing has been asked to help against the tyranny of skeletal creatures that are responsible for terror and death amongst the peasants in rural China. He is the only person qualified to deal with the cause of these phenomena, for the undead are controlled by the most diabolical force of all, Count Dracula. But he is not alone. To aid him comes a mystical brotherhood of seven martial arts warriors. So on the one hand, you've got Peter Cushing, final kick at the can, playing Van Helsing, and you've got these brothers who help him and their sister fight these vampires, these Chinese vampires, in martial arts contests. It's a weird hybrid. It's a very fun movie. Dracula, the sort of Dracula that we all know and love, does make an appearance. This time he is played by John Forbes Robertson, a British actor who wears a lot of makeup to play Dracula, I have to say. He only appears in it briefly, and then Dracula actually transfers his soul into another actor who becomes the leader of the seven golden vampires. Again, this movie is disrespected by the distributors. And when it is finally released in the United States, which is in 1979, five years after it was released, it was cut by 20 minutes, and it was given the title The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula. The trailer for it says The Seven Brothers and Their One Sister Meet Dracula. Incidentally, there is a Blu-ray from Scream Factory that has the original cut, Levage and Seven Golden Vampires, and I believe it also has the U.S. cut, uh, The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula. They're minus 20 minutes. So surely that's gotta be it, right? No more. Well, Hammer had one more Dracula up their sleeve. Unfortunately, they never they were never able to film it. They had plans to do a sequel to The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires that would take Dracula to India. And its first title was Kali, Devil Bride of Dracula. It was never made. You can read about it extensively in a book called Hammer Goes to Hell, which is a book devoted to the unmade hammer films. So that's our look at the Hammer Dracula series. And don't forget, you know, our recommendation for a double feature is 68's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and 1970s Taste the Blood of Dracula. But any of these are worth watching. There's something in every single Dracula movie that you should see. Well, that's all we have for you right now. Thank you so much. And we'd love it if you'd follow us on our socials. We're on Instagram at Friday Night Frights Podcast, we're on Blue Sky as well. And we'd love it if you subscribe, leave us a review, send us an email just to let us know if you're into the show. And let me just say if you were in a hammer film and you were anywhere near a vampire's coffin when it's gonna be sundown, you have got to get out of there. See you next time.