Taste the Blood of Dracula

What I have always loved about the Hammer Dracula movies is that they give you a bloody good impalement (emphasis on bloody). I always imagined the Hammer think-tank spent some long hours drumming up the perfect way to kill Drac at the end. I think the trickles of blood from Dracula's eyes (blood shot), like bloody tears, down his face is quite the image of acquittal, his giving up the ghost once again, only to be revived in some godforsaken ceremony, free to drink from the living, a predator on the prowl. Though, at the conclusion of this film, the filmmakers decided on a very different route to return Dracula back to the dry blood we see at the onset when his remains are spotted.

Here's a new plot for you: "gentlemen" (if that's what you call them), seemingly uptight members of the aristocracy who attend church and command their families to be of the strictest morals, actually frequent a den of hedonism, in search of new decadent thrills to suit their perverse hearts, tell their wives they're off to conduct charity work (yeah, nice guys they are...) while truly dedicated to satiating their base desires. While at their usual spot, with girls and a snakecharming female dancer, hosted by a feminine pimp named Felix, Ralph Bates shows up to steal Mr. Hargrove's prostitute, gathering interest from the trio when his identity is revealed, and what his dark interests are.

A concentration of evil, my dear sirs. These pieces belong to the most evil man of all time...Count Dracula.

The cloak, his signet ring, the necklace, and his very blood, the items left at his death site in front of Castle Dracula, carried away by a pawnbroker, sold to the gentlemen society at the urging request of Bates who serves his name, worshiping the vampire with a devotion most noticeable. What you would see in Dracula AD 1972, a black mass ritual where another's blood (another Dracula disciple, this time Bates' Lord Courtley) is used to revive what remains of Dracula, returning him to his full-bodied form, was replicated from a similar event shown in this film.

They have destroyed my servant. They shall be destroyed.

Hanging on this flimsy reason, Dracula will get revenge for the murder of his disciple at the hands of Mr. Hargrove, Mr. Paxton, and Mr. Secker. I guess, in essence, the sinful will now be punished for their flirting with the darkside. Hargrove is a detestable grump who seems to hate his daughter, Alice (the delectable Linda Hayden, of The Blood of Satan's Claw fame), and for no reason ever quite explained (except, maybe who his father is...) he loathes her boyfriend, Paul, a really nice, mannered young man. Paxton, most of the time, sweaty and nervy, seems to be the weakest of the group, perhaps only a member due to his wealth and interest in naughty behavior, while Secker is the most sophisticated and cultured. Because they stomp and cane Courtley when he drinks Drac's blood and beckons, while in agony on the floor, crawling, for their help, the Count will not only seek to kill them, but turn their children into the undead. The way he disposes of Lucy, Paxton's red-headed beauty, like garbage after ferociously drinking from her throat, uses Secker's own son to stab him in the stomach, has Alice stake Paxton as Lucy watches intently, and ultimately Alice crushing her father Hargrove over the melon with a stave, Dracula is as psychopathic as ever using he mental powers to really butcher these characters.

 Michael Ripper, normally equipped with a character that probably had very little on script paper he made into gold, has an underwritten role as a police inspector investigating missing girls and a dead Hargrove, sure Alice has fled from home for parts unknown while Paul assures him that something dire is wrong. Paul will have to take the mantle from Secker who plans to end Dracula's path of destruction but is cut short because of developments including Paxton and his under-the-influence son's interference. Paul follows the line of young men who must gather the courage to face a foe who has led men against armies.

I think his reign of terror in this film reaches some epic heights. Rarely do you see a human get a stake through the heart, particularly in such a heinous fashion. Bates' metamorphosis into Lee is rather odd, as if he were covered by a dust storm, cocooned, and as a caterpillar bursting from its shell a demon, unleashes Dracula, a full-blooded resurrection. I think Sadsy really excels at lensing Lee photographically, as if he were the grim reaper, a skyscraper in a long black cloak. His face and figure from a distance, from the shadows, up close, afar, Sadsy produces a Dracula that lurks and awaits, cutting a swath of menace that will leave a wake of bodies certain to give Hammer fans plenty to enjoy. Hayden and Isla Blair provide nice shapely bosoms and enticing neck lines perfect for the vampire kiss and lustful arousal.