Javier
Aguirre, 1974
Starring:
Paul Naschy, Rosanna Yanni, Victor Alcazar, Haydee Politoff
The
creepy Dr. Wendell Marlowe purchases an old sanitarium in the Carpathian
Mountains. Two delivery men take crates to his basement and break in to them,
assuming they contain something valuable. They are both mysteriously killed and
a man is revealed to be sleeping in one of the crates. Later, four women traveling
in a coach – Karen, Senta, Marlene, and Elke – have an accident and their
driver is killed. They take shelter at the sanitarium, though many of them are
afraid of the decrepit castle or of Dr. Marlowe.
The
innocent Karen insists they stay on longer, because she has fallen in love with the
mysterious Marlowe. It turns out that he is really Count Dracula in disguise
and slowly turns the other women into his vampire brides. Dracula has feelings
for Karen, but wants to use her in an elaborate ritual to resurrect his undead
daughter. Will he be able to go through with the sacrifice?
This film
scripted by star Paul Naschy has absolutely nothing to do with Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Really it’s just another excuse
for Naschy to star as another of the Universal monsters – he made his name with
a series of Wolfman films – and to make out with a lot of attractive actresses.
With director Javier
Aguirre, Naschy also made The Hunchback
of the Morgue, one of his best loved films. Though this is more subdued
than Hunchback, there are a couple of
key moments of violence, namely a well-shot whipping scene.
Like a lot of European vampire films
from the ‘70s, this is essentially a sex film and is certainly the most explicit Naschy film I’ve seen. More erotica than softcore, it is
light on plot and heavy on cleavage, mild lesbianism, and makes any excuse to
show blood to running down a woman’s naked throat. The most over the top scene
involves two female vampires slowly, almost luxuriously feasting on a third woman.
Jess Franco regular Rosanna Yanni (Kiss
Me, Monster) is particularly alluring in these scenes.
The female vampires add a lot of
atmosphere to the film, particularly moments where they wander through the
foggy crypts in slow motion, wearing gauzy nightgowns. They perform a few
convincing attacks, but are mostly dreamy, erotic creatures with some
predictably silly fangs.
Naschy looks ridiculous as Dracula – he essentially just slicks his hair back and puts on a costume-store cape – and plays the same role he played in the El Hombre Lobo series: the tragic hero. As with nearly all of his films, he has trouble deciding if he wants to be the monster or the protagonist, but is not a skilled enough writer to make both compelling (think An American Werewolf in London). The idea to turn Dracula into a romantic hero has been done before, most notably in Blacula (1972), the Frank Langella Dracula (1979) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). It doesn’t work here simply because there is very little plot and the focus seems to change abruptly based on Naschy’s mood.
Another major issue is that Naschy’s
Dracula often seems physically weak. He is sometimes overcome by other
characters, despite the fact that he’s supposed to be King of the Vampires. He
fails to seductively stalk his victims and just appears in front of them, ready
to awkwardly feast on their blood. The few male vampires aside from Dracula are
designed remarkably well, with beady, almost glowing eyes that would be used to
such ill effect a few years later in the TV production of Salem’s Lot.
Also known as Cemetery Girls, Count
Dracula’s Great Love was initially released as a double feature with the
similarly slow and atmospheric Vampires
Night Orgy. The former is available online and on some cheap DVDs, namely
as part of Elvira’s
Movie Macabre series. Fans
of Eurohorror will want to check this out – particularly devotees of Jean
Rollin and Jess Franco – as it has some wonderful atmosphere and some lovely
visual moments, but anyone reliant on fast paced, more plot driven or coherent
horror will want to avoid it. It’s not the best Naschy film, but it’s certainly
not the worst.
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