After visiting with Frankie it's time to turn this flipper disc over and visit with our old buddy Dracula....
Date watched:6/21/2007
Title: Taste the Blood of Dracula Made: 1970
Genre: Horror Studio: Hammer Films/ WB Video
Format: DVD Extras: Part of a double feature on one flipper disc. The Other feature is The Curse of Frankenstein. Each film is enhanced WS and comes with a trailer.
# of times viewed: 3
Christopher Lee--Dracula
Geoffrey Keen--William Hargood
Gwen Watford--Martha Hargood
Linda Hayden--Alice Hargood
Peter Salis--Samuel Paxton
Anthony Corlan--Paul Paxton
Isla Blair--Lucy Paxton
John Carson--Jonathon Secker
Martin Jarvis--Jeremy Secker
Ralph Bates--Lord Courtley
Roy Kinnear--Weller
Michael Ripper--Inspector Cobb
Russell Hunter--Felix
Tagline: They taste his blood and the horror begins!
This is the fourth in the Hammer Dracula series.
Plot: Three society gentlemen, Samuel Paxton (Sallis), Jonathon Secker (Carson) and William Hargood (Keen), find their wealthy humdrum life boring and are constantly seeking new thrills. Once a month, on the last Sunday of the month, they tell their families that they are performing "charity" work. In truth, they meet for a wild time at a uniquely exotic brothel. But even that thrill is losing its charm and they find themselves lusting for bigger thrills.
The gentlemen happen upon young Lord Courtley (Bates) who promises them the thrills of a lifetime if they'll only do as he says. Unbeknownst to them, Lord Courtley is a disciple of Dracula who is seeking a way to revive his master. He convinces the gentlemen to buy the dried blood of Dracula from a man who was present at Dracula's "death". The blood is to be used in a ceremony to resurrect Dracula, only instead of the three older men drinking the blood they chicken out and Lord Courtley is forced to drink the blood. Courtley ends up dead but Dracula has risen.
Once Dracula walks the Earth again he is none too happy to learn that because of the three gentlemen his servant is dead. He decides to take revenge against each of them in a most cruel fashion.
Dracula (Lee), "They have destroyed my servant. They shall be destroyed!"
In the end, young Paul Paxton (Corlan), son of one of Samuel Paxton, bolstered by his love for Alice Hargood (Hayden), the daughter of William Hargood, and his love for his sister Lucy (Blair), must try to save the day.
There is a liberal use of Hammer's fire engine red blood. Lee looks powerful in his few brief scenes. The close-ups of his bloodshot eyes were plenty spooky when viewing them as a child. A good looking production, as you would expect from Hammer, and a different twist on the story featuring the thrill-seekers. Ralph Bates as Lord Courtley is the most interesting character, outside of Dracula, unfortunately he doesn't last that long.
6* (out of 10) A solid Hammer entry that would have benefitted from more Dracula screen time.
Horror films that Hammer really nailed!
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cinemalover
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- Location: Seattle, Washington
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classicmonster
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Best Hammer Horror
My favorite Hammer Horror -
Horror of Dracula
The Mummy
Curse of the Werewolf
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Mark
Horror of Dracula
The Mummy
Curse of the Werewolf
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Mark
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cinemalover
- Posts: 1594
- Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:57 am
- Location: Seattle, Washington
Hi classicmonster,
Cool moniker! Welcome to our site. If you don't mind why don't you expand your thoughts and let us know what it is about those three that make them your favprite, there are many of us here that love to read new opinions.
I hope you'll enjoy your visits and post often!
Cool moniker! Welcome to our site. If you don't mind why don't you expand your thoughts and let us know what it is about those three that make them your favprite, there are many of us here that love to read new opinions.
I hope you'll enjoy your visits and post often!
Chris
The only bad movie is no movie at all.
The only bad movie is no movie at all.
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classicmonster
- Posts: 9
- Joined: March 13th, 2008, 7:25 pm
- Location: Morton, IL
These are my favorite Hammer films because Horror of Dracula & The Mummy were the Original & first of their Hammer series.Curse of the Werewolf is just a very well done film in my opinion.I love the Gothic feel of most of the Early Hammer horror films.The later films in the series were for the most part to graphic for my taste.
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Mark
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Mark
my favourite Hammer film wasn't even a horror flick. it was She with Ursula Andress as a 2000-yr-old goddess (not to be confused with the young Miss Goddess, who's only a young thing) who is a brutal dictator in a lost city. i also think it's better remake than the Randy Scott/Nigel Bruce original that went before.
I have to go with "Curse of the Werewolf" (is it true that Chris Lee was at one point considered for Leon?). The film just brings all the werewolf lore into a sharp focus, from the rape of the mute girl by the animal-like beggar to the blasphemy of having this poor child born on Christmas Day. I thought it neat how love could keep the beast at bay, and when that love was denied Leon, the curse of the werewolf was given full vent. And the absolute horror of poor Michael Ripper helplessly confined in the jail cell with Leon as the full moon rises. That scene still gives me chills.
Many say that Leon was Oliver Reed's finest film part, and though he doesn't appear onscreen until the movie is almost half over, he captures the depth and complexities of the role perfectly. IMO, his lycanthrope is the best ever seen on film. Frightening and vicious in all its Technicolor glory - yet there is a definite pathos at his ultimate demise. All in all, a great story and a superb chiller. I'm just glad Hammer resisted the urge to make a sequel.
Many say that Leon was Oliver Reed's finest film part, and though he doesn't appear onscreen until the movie is almost half over, he captures the depth and complexities of the role perfectly. IMO, his lycanthrope is the best ever seen on film. Frightening and vicious in all its Technicolor glory - yet there is a definite pathos at his ultimate demise. All in all, a great story and a superb chiller. I'm just glad Hammer resisted the urge to make a sequel.
I also like "Curse of the Werewolf" a lot. it is a grim film, and the only light touch (ro me) is purely accidental. The actor who played Q and a minor figure from "Dr. No" turn up in "Curse of the Werewolf."
I was always under the impression that "curse of the Werewolf" disappointed at the box office, perhaps because it took so long for the werewolf to show up.
Having said that, I love the way the film is structured. The society depicted is so cruel that it seems to call the werewolf into existence.
I was always under the impression that "curse of the Werewolf" disappointed at the box office, perhaps because it took so long for the werewolf to show up.
Having said that, I love the way the film is structured. The society depicted is so cruel that it seems to call the werewolf into existence.
I'm surprised that no one's mentioned the great PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1962 d-Terence Fisher, with Herbert Lom as the Phantom and Michael Gough turning in his deliciously bad guy role). Herbert Lom plays a murderous phantom, willing to string up stage-workers and let them swing from the wings, and an Igor-like helper who's willing to kill, too. This is a far more cold blooded version than others, powerfully delivered and thankfully so much different from the awful Claude Rains 1943 version (gee - I guess they couldn't get Abbott & Costello to play in that one - gag).
GORGON also gets a big vote because it pairs Lee and Cushing AND it doesn't involve the overused Frank/Drac storylines.
I wasn't a CURSE OF F fan, but more of an EVIL OF F fan just because we meet another villain in it.
CURSE OF WW does get top marks. And in the last two years, I've really enjoyed the 2 or 3 sets of Hammer Noir releases. Not great films, but it's interesting to see how their original success got started but they apparently decided to make films for the American dollar and stuck with their Gothis-Costume Horror with plenty of cleavage.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But by the mid-70s, they'd bored their American audience and were reputationally-challenged to alter the American theater distributors' opinions toward other genres that they'd started with - crime dramas, B-movies.
GORGON also gets a big vote because it pairs Lee and Cushing AND it doesn't involve the overused Frank/Drac storylines.
I wasn't a CURSE OF F fan, but more of an EVIL OF F fan just because we meet another villain in it.
CURSE OF WW does get top marks. And in the last two years, I've really enjoyed the 2 or 3 sets of Hammer Noir releases. Not great films, but it's interesting to see how their original success got started but they apparently decided to make films for the American dollar and stuck with their Gothis-Costume Horror with plenty of cleavage.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But by the mid-70s, they'd bored their American audience and were reputationally-challenged to alter the American theater distributors' opinions toward other genres that they'd started with - crime dramas, B-movies.
For you Hammer Frankenstein & Dracula fans: did you think they went too far, too often? Did you want more?
As the '70s hit, this "Gothic Costume" type of movie held no more interest in me, but wasn't too long before STAR WARS and GOLDEN GUN made me reconsider any dismissive attitudes towards Cushing and Lee. In fact, I realized I was still a huge fan of theirs. Maybe those two films reinforced my nagging sense that both actors were being wasted on those cookie-cutter F & D Hammer films.
But would half as many films been twice as pleasing to me? I'm not sure. I've got all available DVDs and I've tried to give each film a more independent viewing but I still don't find the '70s and '80s Hammer films too "rewatchable".
As the '70s hit, this "Gothic Costume" type of movie held no more interest in me, but wasn't too long before STAR WARS and GOLDEN GUN made me reconsider any dismissive attitudes towards Cushing and Lee. In fact, I realized I was still a huge fan of theirs. Maybe those two films reinforced my nagging sense that both actors were being wasted on those cookie-cutter F & D Hammer films.
But would half as many films been twice as pleasing to me? I'm not sure. I've got all available DVDs and I've tried to give each film a more independent viewing but I still don't find the '70s and '80s Hammer films too "rewatchable".
Ollie, I grew up on Hammer films and really cannot imagine my childhood and early adolescence without them. Many Saturdays were spent at the Downtown Theater watching the film exploits of Cushing and Lee, and I always enjoyed them.
Having said that, I feel that Hammer should have quit while they were ahead. I suppose the last good Hammer film I saw was "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed". It seemed that after that, most of their films were tagged with an "R" rating that precluded my seeing (at the time) "The Vampire Lovers", "Countess Dracula", "Twins of Evil", "Hands of the Ripper", etc. Even the double bill of "Scars of Dracula" and "Horror of Frankenstein", if I remember correctly.
When Hammer went modern with their final two Dracula films, I said to myself: "That's it." And when they tried to revive the character in a period piece "The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires", it was clearly apparent that they just didn't have it anymore. Vampires and Kung Fu! To me, "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell" completely lacked the spark of the earlier Cushing Baron F. films. And the Monster just didn't make sense . . .
So I just contented myself with the memory of their glory years - which I can still enjoy with the same youthful enthusiasm I had in the 60s thanks to the DVD sets.
Having said that, I feel that Hammer should have quit while they were ahead. I suppose the last good Hammer film I saw was "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed". It seemed that after that, most of their films were tagged with an "R" rating that precluded my seeing (at the time) "The Vampire Lovers", "Countess Dracula", "Twins of Evil", "Hands of the Ripper", etc. Even the double bill of "Scars of Dracula" and "Horror of Frankenstein", if I remember correctly.
When Hammer went modern with their final two Dracula films, I said to myself: "That's it." And when they tried to revive the character in a period piece "The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires", it was clearly apparent that they just didn't have it anymore. Vampires and Kung Fu! To me, "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell" completely lacked the spark of the earlier Cushing Baron F. films. And the Monster just didn't make sense . . .
So I just contented myself with the memory of their glory years - which I can still enjoy with the same youthful enthusiasm I had in the 60s thanks to the DVD sets.
While the Dracula series really deteriorated for Hammer in the Seventies, I think they did make some good movies in that decade.
"The Vampire Lovers" is a terrific film, with far more going on than its "sex vampire" reputation suggests.
"Vampire Circus" is very stylish and feels like a Mario Bava film instead of just re-heated Hammer.
"Demons of the Mind" is very clever and has good performances from actors outside of the "Hammer mainstream."
"Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde" is very clever and fun. It and "Vampire Lovers" was directed by Roy Ward Baker, who made some of the best British horror films of the Seventies.
However, I'd have to say that on average, Amicus probably did better than Hammer in the Seventies, and the best Cushing-Lee team-up of the Seventies, "The Creeping Flesh" didn't come from either Hammer or Amicus.
"The Vampire Lovers" is a terrific film, with far more going on than its "sex vampire" reputation suggests.
"Vampire Circus" is very stylish and feels like a Mario Bava film instead of just re-heated Hammer.
"Demons of the Mind" is very clever and has good performances from actors outside of the "Hammer mainstream."
"Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde" is very clever and fun. It and "Vampire Lovers" was directed by Roy Ward Baker, who made some of the best British horror films of the Seventies.
However, I'd have to say that on average, Amicus probably did better than Hammer in the Seventies, and the best Cushing-Lee team-up of the Seventies, "The Creeping Flesh" didn't come from either Hammer or Amicus.
Hammer ends up being like a drug-addict to me. They were fueled by the American dollars, and the promises of American distributors of even more money if Hammer gave them Frankenstein and Drac film ad nauseum led to my boredom with Hammer - and apparently with everyone else's. At some point, the phrase "Hammer" meant "sheer boredom-why bother?" to me. By the time the American distributors figured they'd beaten a dead horse about 5 or 6 years too long, it was too late - Hammer apparently couldn't return to their diverse roots any longer.
Or at least they didn't.
I see there's some effort to get them up and running again. I usually pick up every Hammer or Amicus DVD I can find, and I'll definitely stand in line for a new Hammer film. (And I've probably seen all of the Hammer films at our local theaters over the past few years during their annual Monster Month shows. Some films are great fun, but so many are still SO boring.)
Or at least they didn't.
I see there's some effort to get them up and running again. I usually pick up every Hammer or Amicus DVD I can find, and I'll definitely stand in line for a new Hammer film. (And I've probably seen all of the Hammer films at our local theaters over the past few years during their annual Monster Month shows. Some films are great fun, but so many are still SO boring.)