Taste the Blood of Dracula

They have destroyed my servant. They will be destroyed...

Taste the Blood of Dracula is directed by Peter Sasdy and written by Anthony Hinds (AKA: John Elder). Out of Hammer Film it stars Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Peter Sallis, Linda Hayden, Gwen Watford and Ralph Bates. Music is by James Bernard and cinematography by Arthur Grant.

Trawling through all the sequels of Hammer's Frankenstein and Dracula series it becomes apparent that opinions differ greatly, a case in point is this, the fifth of the Dracula cycle. For her we have a Dracula film thought of very highly in some quarters, most notably in one of the Hammer Films' lauded literary bibles, myself, like the other 50% of Hammer film fans, just don't see that at all.

Famously it's the Drac film where Christopher Lee had to be greatly coerced into reprising the role of the blood sucking count, financial rewards doth talk it seems. His apprehension with script and stale feelings were well grounded, with the final result begging the question as to how bad was the script before Lee's intervention?

Story has three upstanding English gentlemen showing themselves to be model pillars of society by day, good stern parents/husbands and all that, but by night they are purveyors of a different sordid lifestyle, kind of like members of the naughty Hellfire Club! When decadent dandy Lord Courtley (Bates) offers then something tantalisingly more dangerous, they indulge and it results in murder and the rebirth of Count Dracula.

After a neat opening which tags onto the ending of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, we find Dracula once again on a daft revenge mission, being a bit part once again in a film bearing his name, and saddled with minimal lines that really aren't worth a suck of the neck. Some striking sequences apart (Dracula birth - bloody retributions etc) the film feels like a confused blend of ideas. On one hand it's taking a caustic peak behind the curtain of upper crust Victorian England, on the...

Dracula takes on members of the Hellfire Club (sort of)

Hammer did nine Dracula or vampire films from 1958 to 1974 as follows:

Horror of Dracula (1958); The Brides of Dracula (1960); Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966); Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968); Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969); Scars of Dracula (1970); Dracula AD 1972 (1972); The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973); and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974).

While "Taste the Blood of Dracula" has a kick-axx first act, a highlight of the series, the remaining hour is rather run-of-the-mill and flawed.

The most intriguing aspect of the story is "the circle" of three Affluent British thrill-seekers. Once a month they secretly meet together to taste of life's taboo activities. Enter Lord Courtley, an Aleister Crowley-like servant of darkness. Ralph Bate's performance as Courtley is one of the highlights of the film; he's utterly twisted, diabolic, maniacal, self-centered and arrogant, a great character to love to hate! Courtley offers the ultimate fiendish thrill to the circle of friends.

Geoffrey Keen plays the hypocritical William Hargood, who puts up the pretense of being a respectable, church-going aristocrat. Meanwhile his ill-treatment of his sweet, beautiful daughter Alice, played by Linda Hayden, is infuriating and reprehensible. It also proves that he's a counterfeit.

The sequence where Courtley and the circle of three 'taste the blood of Dracula' is ingenious, not to mention horrific. Commendations to screenwriter Anthony Hinds!

"Taste the Blood of Dracula" is lush in Gothic atmosphere, plus the set-up of the story is engrossing and refreshingly innovative.

There are a couple problems though. It's kinda hard to buy Dracula's vengeful attitude toward the murder of his supposed servant (Courtley). Isn't Dracula the Prince of EVIL? Why would he care about Courtley? Wasn't Courtley's death the necessary catalyst to the Count's resurrection? Isn't Dracula a use-em-and-...