Count Dracula [il Conte Dracula (1970)] - Soundtrack

Although the film Bruno Nicolai composed this excellent music for was first released in 1970. A soundtrack LP of Nicolai's score would not be released until 1982. Twelve years later, that same album recording would get reissued on compact disc, with an additional 10 previously unpublished tracks. This 2021 disc is a remaster and reissue of the latter and a welcome addition to my collection.

When I checked the IMDB I found that Christopher Lee was in a total of nine films that had 1970 as the registered year of release. Three of those films were Dracula movies. Two of them were Hammer Film productions. The first being Taste the Blood of Dracula, which was the last film, at that time, to have a narrative connection to the entry that preceded it. Seeing that it picked up right where Dracula Has Risen from the Grave had ended. The second Hammer offering was the far inferior, I think, Scars of Dracula.

Count Dracula, an offering from Spanish director Jesús [Jess] Franco, would be the third time Lee would play the legendary vampire on the big screen in the year 1970. The lure here seems to have been an intention stated by the filmmaker(s) to hew closer to the narrative of Bram Stoker's novel than any other film had, up to that point.

While I have seen, and enjoyed, Franco's more Universal Monster mash styled (and almost dialogue free) Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972), which also used this score. Count Dracula remains a vacancy in my viewing history. One that I hope to rectify, sooner rather than later.

In Search of Dracula [Vem var Dracula (1974)] - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - May 5, 1976]

I know this ad is supposed to invoke a Vampire Bat swooping down to attack, but to me it just looks a slightly doctored image of a hanging bat that was inverted. So it could look spooky and threatening. While I am somewhat certain it may have worked in 1976, today it only makes me think of those videos of inverted bat footage set to Bela Lugosi's Dead.

In Search of Dracula is one of a plethora of paranormal-themed documentaries that carpet bombed theaters and drive-ins throughout the 1970s. The big selling point here is Christopher Lee, who was quite vocal with his frustrations at being unable to perform Dracula as written and envisioned by Bram Stoker. This documentary gave him the chance to portray the historical figure, and Dracula inspiration, Vlad III (aka Vlad Țepeș, or Vlad the Impaler).
 

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - May 4, 1965

While Amicus would produce a great many more, and quite a few better, anthology films. Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, the company's first such offering, is a nostalgic favorite of mine. It is one of those movies I grew up watching. Back when the proliferation of English and European genre films on the various late, late shows, as well as any and all syndication stations, made it seem as if Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing had starred in every horror movie made between 1957 and 1977. This one even had Donald Sutherland in it! I also recognized character actor Michael Gough.

My childhood favorite segment was The Creeping Vine, because a monster plant just seemed weird and cool to me. That segment also featured Bernard Lee. An actor best known for playing M in every James Bond film from Dr. No (1962), the first, to his final appearance in 1979's Moonraker.

As an adult I think my favorite segment just might be Werewolf. Maybe. But I do reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

The distributor looks to have dusted off the 1959 Hammer offering The Man Who Could Cheat Death to keep Dr. Terror company, whilst touring with his diabolical deck of terrifying tarot cards. 

Return from Witch Mountain (1978) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 17, 1978

Although I had a great deal of cultural awareness of the Witch Mountain movies, the only one I have a solid memory of actually seeing on the big screen was 2009's Race to Witch Mountain. That they got Whitley Strieber to make a cameo in that film was an unexpected and giggle inducing delight.

But my memories of the original films are fragmented and spotty, at best. But the simple fact that this film features Christopher Lee, Bette Davis, and Anthony James as the menacing antagonists, and that it was directed by John Hough, means that I will no doubt revisit it at some point in the future. No idea when, though.

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - February 11, 1970

Considering the amount of pre-release tampering that is alleged to have been done on Frankenstein Must De Destroyed, I was surprised to read that, when asked which of his own films were his favorites, Terence Fisher (in an interview in Vol. 4, Issue 3 of Cinefantastique magazine) said this was one of them. That, of all his films, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed was the one he most enjoyed making.

As far as that supposed tampering goes, I heard there was a "last minute" decision it "spice up" the film with a sexual assault that, according to an interview with Veronica Carlson that appeared in (I think) Fangoria magazine, had both Cushing and Fisher apologizing to the actress throughout the filming of the scene.

Another ill-advised "last minute" inclusion was the comedic investigating carried on by Inspector Frisch (Thorley Walters). One could excise both the assault and Frisch scenes from the film and be left with a tighter, leaner, and far better paced movie, I think.

My favorite hammer Frankenstein's remain The Revenge of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Created Woman.

Double-billed with Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, the middle section of Hammer Film's trilogy of direct sequels to [Horror of] Dracula. While an interesting and entertaining enough follow up to Dracula Prince of Darkness, picking up more or less where that film ended, and leading directly into Taste the Blood of Dracula, I have to say that I prefer and enjoy both Prince and Taste a great deal more than Grave.

It is not bad, I just find it a tad slow and, because of that, it has tested of my patience at times. Other times, not so much.

Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride [The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)] - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - November 26, 1978

Although the poster for this retitling of The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) promises that 'The King of the undead marries the Queen of the Zombies" at some point, it would not be in this movie. Not that anybody would have cared, or noticed, at this point in time.

This would be Christopher Lee's final performance as Dracula for Hammer Film. Lee, when embellishing the reasons for Dracula having no dialogue in Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966), would often cite terrible lines, such as, "I am the Apocalypse!" Silly trash that the character from Stoker's novel would never have uttered, according to Lee.

The thing of it is, this line is from The Satanic Rites of Dracula. The movie that 'convinced' Lee to stop, step away, and distance himself from the role that had grown to define and shackle him.

I do enjoy this movie, though.

Trog (1970) / Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - September 30, 1970

I know I have seen Trog, but all I remember is the scene involving Trog getting caught pilfering a handful of some fruit or veggie from a display bin by an unfortunate grocer. Nothing else. So it goes.

Yet I do remember the first time I saw Taste the Blood of Dracula. That was when it was aired on the CBS Late Movie - on Friday, September 11, 1981 - as the follow-up to another beloved (by me, at least) rerun of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

The episode was The Sentry, which was the short-lived series final episode and one of the few I managed to see during its original primetime run.

Taste the Blood of Dracula would be the last Hammer Film Dracula with direct continuity to Horror of Dracula (1958). Taste starts where Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) ended, which had picked up where Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966) had ended, which picked up a decade or so after the conclusion of Horror.

Prince, Grave, and Taste, be they intentional or not, are a pretty solid trilogy of Dracula sequels well worth the time and effort to watch.

The Mummy (1959) / Curse of the Undead (1959) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - September 11, 1959

Bryan Senn, in his book Twice the Thrills! Twice the Chills! Horror and Science Fiction Double Features, 1955 - 1974, describes The Mummy (1959) as being, "Tightly plotted, efficiently directed, superbly acted, sumptuously dressed, and featuring a number of tense and exciting action set-pieces..." [P. 168] I whole-heartedly concur.

Although The Mummy shares its title with the classic 1932 Karloff feature, its plot elements were taken from the plodding programmers that Universal Pictures released in the early-to-mid 1940's. Unlike those repetitive and patience testing outings, Hammer Film's version contains an attention holding amount of energy and ferocity. Which is why this particular entry remains an all-time favorite of mine.

Coupled with The Mummy is the vampiric weird western Curse of the Undead. Although it began as a silly lark of writing practice for the husband and wife team of Edward and Mildred Dien, a producer saw its potential. So the joke was reworked into something a tad more serious and a minor classic was born.

Curse of the Undead is one of a trio of weird westerns that I remember watching on television as a youngster. The other two were the infamous Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966) and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966).

I have no idea as to the order I first saw them, but Curse of the Undead is the best of them, by far.

To the Devil A Daughter (1976) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - September 8, 1976

The release of To the Devil A Daughter did not ping my burgeoning horror geek radar, back in the day. I think I may have first heard about the film via an article or still in the pages of Fangoria magazine, maybe.

Then again, perhaps, it was the review I read in John Stanley's Creature Features Movie Guide saying, "[Director Peter] Sykes zooms all over the gloomy landscapes and the final results are pretty good if somewhat muddled..." I have no argument to make with that assessment. 

I do know that I first saw the film on home video in, or around, 1984. When we were living in Hong Kong. I also rented and watched The Wicker Man around that time, as well.

While the movie does have its issues and controversies, I remember really liking it. Dennis Wheatley hated the liberties the film took with his source novel and wanted no more Hammer Film adaptations made of his work. Nastassja Kinski, Richard Widmark, and Christopher Lee also seem to have had unpleasant experiences making the film. Evidently the shoot was really chaotic.

The film's abrupt ending also seems to be getting no small amount of negative criticisms, but I remember liking it. This is one I should add to my collection, I think.

Oh, and To the Devil A Daughter was coupled with Embryo at most theaters. Save for the Hilltop Drive-In, where the co-feature was Abby, and the Hayward Automotive, where the co-feature was, of all things, St. Ives.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) / X the Unknown (1956) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - July 30, 1957]

John McCarty, in his seminal book Splatter Movies Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen, shared how his "young, monster-movie addicted eyes were quick to spot a series of starkly lettered handbills that had been tacked to the trees and telephone poles." [Splatter Movies, Pg. 16]

Those handbills were hyping the imminent release of today's subject du jour, a double-bill of two terrific, top tier Hammer Film productions: The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and X the Unknown (1956).

Going in order of production, 1956's X the Unknown, the 'B' feature of this double-bill, began as a sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment,  a moneymaker for the company. Only there was one small detail Hammer Film had not factored into the equation. Screenwriter Nigel Kneale, who had created the character of Bernard Quatermass and retained the rights, refused to have his creation appear in anything that he himself had not written. 

Even with any and all marketable connections and/references to The Quatermass Xperiment excised, X the Unknown is able to stand on its own as a cracking good monster movie. 

First-time screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, having penned a sturdy and reliable script for X the Unknown, was then entrusted with scripting Hammer Film's first color film, 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein. 

Curse took a very different approach than the 1931 Universal film and its sequels, for reasons that were both legal and artistic. In this film Baron Victor Frankenstein turns out to be every bit as dangerous and deadly monster as his witless creation.

Audiences ate it up and Hammer Film, seeing that it had struck gold, proceeded to mine the Gothic Horror genre for every penny it could uncover.

Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968) - Blood Demon [Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel] (1967) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - February 25, 1970]

Bryan Senn, in his entertaining and compulsively readable "Twice the Thrills! Twice the Chills!" Horror and Science Fiction Double Features, 1955 - 1974, offered this slam-dunk description of this bizarro drive-in double-feature: "Filipino jungle wackiness meets German Gothic craziness in this unlikely but entertaining double-bill from Hemisphere Pictures, their second of three terror tandems." [P.313]

Mad Doctor of Blood Island is the middle film in a "Blood Island" trilogy. The father of one of my oldest friends knew star John Ashley, back in the day. They were schoolmates. This led to a humorous anecdote. At a function of some kind, my friend's father was talking with a filipino woman and John Ashley was mentioned. The woman said Ashley was considered to be, "The Marlon Brando of Filipino cinema." My friend's father commented that was an admirable accomplishment. The woman smiled and told him, "You have not seen Filipino cinema!"

Ouch.

Blood Demon, also known as either The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism of The Castle of the Walking Dead, appears to have been the first gothic horror film to be made in Germany since the end of World War II.

The production made up for lost time, it seems, by cramming the film with, as Senn writes, "horror hokum by the coffin-full," making it "a tasty piece of ghoulish eye candy."[P.314] Just as long as you don't try to take it the least bit seriously, that is.

Critic and one time TV Horror Host John Stanley, in Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide, agreed, somewhat, stating that, "Good atmosphere and expressionistic settings offset" the weak script and lackluster performance by horror superstar Christopher Lee.

The Skull (1965) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - September 28, 1965]

September 28, 1965

Despite my growing up on a semi-regular diet of assorted Hammer and Amicus films broadcast on television, coupled with my burning through all the Robert Bloch novels and short stories I could get my hands on in the late 80s and early 90s, a viewing of The Skull has eluded me.

The source material for the film was a short story by Bloch titled The Skull of the Marquis de Sade, which was first published in the September 1945 edition of Weird Tales. While I have read the story twice - first in Final Reckonings, the first volume of The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch, and again in the 1963 anthology Bogey Men - I have zero recall of it.

The Skull was first released on a double-bill with The Mad Executioners, a German 'Krimi' film from 1963. It appears to be one of a very few to receive wide distribution in the United States. If the IMDB is to be believed, that is.