Dracula AD 1972

**½

I’m not as critical of Dracula AD 1972 (1972) as most, but I certainly don’t consider this among Hammer’s best offerings featuring the Count as played by Lee. The Hammer Dracula films, to me anyway, aren’t all that great (or at least a majority of them) for the most part anyway, but I particularly find most of them tolerable at any rate. I have always considered this a bit of a disappointment, if just a lost opportunity to feature Lee’s Dracula among the city of London’s modern 70s night life. 

There are scenes of Cushing’s Van Helsing descendent rushing about London in fear that his granddaughter (Stephanie Beacham with that bust that just won’t quit) will soon be among the undead if he doesn’t find her, and I can just imagine how Lee would have appeared in such a similar fashion. Instead we only see him at the ruins of a Catholic church set for future demolition while his loyal servant, Johnny Alucard (nice homage to Son of Dracula, I thought), played by Christopher Neame, is out and about bringing him fresh cattle (Beacham’s friends for whom he befriended and seduced). Neame’s Alucard comes from descendents loyal to Dracula, and he brings the Count back from the dead by fusing his blood with the vampire’s ashes. 

Caroline Munro, before Captain Kronos, has a minor part as the first Lee feeds from after Neame splatters blood all over her. She’s just delicious as this vixen but is underused and taken out too soon. On the altar of sacrifice, Munro makes for the perfect first victim as her outfit splits right down the middle as her cleavage just barely rests inside her blouse. Meanwhile the others flee like roaches as the light hits them. Neame starts to influence his friends one by one, with plans to secure Beacham for Lee when the opportunity arises. 

Scotland Yard’s Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) is baffled by the body count of girls, bitten on the throat and drained of blood, turning to occult expert, Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) for advice and assistance. So Van Helsing will be on the hunt for Dracula and Alucard, as his granddaughter becomes a pawn of revenge. While Lee once again dons the cape, wears that scowl, brings out the menacing fangs as he always does, and towers in frame like no other, Neame saunters into the film and steals it with his scheming, slithery servant of the Count. Neame, for instance, while sitting at a table with Beacham and her brood, magnifies his space while they are irresistible of his influence. When he is first introduced, as a hippie band plays at a snobbish family’s home in swanky London—the swinging youth of the time fully occupied by the freedom to indulge in their decadence and vice—he draws attention his way. Isn’t it funny how certain actors just have that? Neame has it in spades. And he’s the one that is responsible for the reawakening of Dracula and the victims his return creates. How Van Helsing takes care of Alucard is unique, through the use of clear running water from a shower and an appropriately placed bible/crucifix combo in his coffin. Before this Alucard was causing quite a bit of grief for the cops and Van Helsing. 

The finale goes as expected for the usual Dracula and Van Helsing faceoff within the church ruins as a silver dagger and a pit of sharpened stakes thwart the Count’s efforts to feed from Beacham’s Jessica. That was the plan: Dracula wanted Alucard to bring him Jessica as she was to be a vampire in retaliation for how Lawrence Van Helsing sent him to the grave. Beacham’s wig is a bit distracting but her body in that hugging shirt pops that bosom on screen at the end as she walks about in a trance under Dracula’s spell. Cushing once again is the valiant and wise hero, having to match wits with Dracula as his strength certainly wouldn’t be a factor. Van Helsing triumphs and Dracula once again deteriorates into dust. The predictable results come as no surprise which might explain why the film was considered a failure. And the inconsequential modern setting the film so boldly pimps to us as relevant to Dracula might as well stayed in 1872 instead of moving to 1972.