Made about the same time as the latest Frankenstein sequel
(Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed), Taste the Blood of Dracula was released in
the United States on June 7, 1970. I
have no idea when my parents would have driven us to see it, but if we
cross-referenced dates of stock car races at the nearby fairgrounds, we might
be able to determine when. You see, any
movie at the Enid Drive-In on a Saturday night would have included the
additional soundtrack of cars racing just across the road. (The good part of that is when we went to the
stock car races, I could climb to the top of the grandstand and watch whatever
movie was playing at the drive-in!)
The point is, I would have been merely 7 or 8 eight years
old at the time. For a movie with
“Dracula” in the title that barely featured the character, I was pretty darned
scared. I’m sure it was the ceremony in
which the three members of an exclusive gentleman’s club, under the tutelage of
the arrogant Lord Courtley (Ralph Bates), attempt to raise Dracula from the
grave by drinking the vampire’s blood (hence the title) that frightened
me. Today, that remains one of the
better scenes of the movie.
But the rest of the movie…
Well, let’s just say it’s not one of my favorites. The aforementioned ceremony does not take
place until 32 minutes into the movie, which means there’s a lot of exposition
before that. And since the main
characters are three older men, it’s not that exciting an exposition. There is a younger set of corresponding cast
members, but their importance doesn’t become clear until later in the
movie. When it does, I must admit it
made me appreciate the first 30 minutes more (and perhaps made me wish I had
paid better attention).
What I like about all the Hammer Dracula sequels is the way
they transition from one to the other.
Dracula is usually killed in a dramatic way at the end of one, then
brought back to life in the next one from the very place the story left
off. The continuity of it all has always
engaged me. This is a different
approach from the Hammer Frankenstein sequels, which were not always so
literally connected.
In Taste the Blood of Dracula, a salesman named Weller (Roy
Kinnear) stumbles into the ending of the previous sequel, Dracula Has Risen
from the Grave and witnesses the vampire’s death. Snatching up the “cloak, signet ring, clasp”
and some of his powdered blood, these become the “relics” he can later sell so
that Dracula can be brought back to life during a black mass.
Supposedly, Christopher Lee was not going to be in this
movie. Instead, Ralph Bates was going to
become the Prince of Darkness after the black mass. However, the movie could not be financed
without Lee, so this explains the disappearance of Lord Courtley when Dracula
appears. It also gives the purpose for
the rest of the plot. As Dracula states,
“They have destroyed my servant… They will be destroyed.”
And so, Dracula begins a variety of attacks on the three men
and their offspring. Sometimes he
commands the lovely Alice (Linda Hayden) to do his bidding and sometimes he
performs the attacks himself. In either
case, he concludes a death by counting down… “the firrrst”, “the seeecond” and “the
thirrrd”. And that’s about as much
dialog as Dracula has. Regardless of the
amount of screen time, it can be argued that Lee’s presence as Dracula still
resonates throughout the movie. It’s
almost more suspenseful to see what the monster will do to exact his revenge by
using other people as his puppets.
As long as there’s a big finale with Dracula, I think it’s
fine. And Taste the Blood of Dracula has
a pretty good one (although not my favorite of the sequels). Young hero Paul (Anthony Higgins) strips the
altar and lays down white cloth and candles.
Trapping Dracula inside the abandoned church, he’s forced to the rafters
where a cross in the stained glass burns his back and begins the choreography
of his eventual demise.
There aren’t as many familiar names behind the scenes in
Taste the Blood of Dracula as in most other Hammer films around this time. This was when the public’s taste was changing
and the studio was beginning to focus more on the “Hammer Glamour” aspects of
its movies. This was the first of four
movies Peter Sasdy would direct for Hammer.
And the reigns of art direction were taken by Scott MacGregor. After the next sequel, the remaining
two would find Dracula in modern times.
Even though this one takes place in horse and buggy days, it has a more
60s feel, particularly within the seedy nightclub where the gentlemen’s club
meets.
Tomorrow: House of Dark Shadows!
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