Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

***
With my sleeping wack lately, Wednesday seen me nodding on and off all afternoon and night, but I did get in a viewing of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), the Freddie Francis sequel with Dracula falling onto a giant golden cross that impales him. The opening is preposterous as the shadow of Dracula's castle seems to possess the ability to kill and leave a priest and his young church custodian worse for wear. I think the provocative content of the priest (uninspired to fill his church, conduct Mass, or go about the duties of a man in his position, later forced by Dracula to help him fetch women to bite) and atheist hero (hoping to stop Dracula from taking his girlfriend as another bride) might set this particular Hammer sequel apart from the others. The shadow of the castle idea at the beginning was perhaps a bit much, but Dracula sets off to get revenge against Rupert Davies' priest for placing the gold cross at the door of his abode. Ewan Hooper, as the "rogue priest", is easy prey because his faith in God is non-existent and he's got no spiritual strength. Davies' doesn't expect Hooper to be the one who attacks him unexpectedly. With Barry Andrews as the doctor wannabe working as a baker, an atheist needing help ultimately from Hooper (in a twist of irony at the end), and Veronica Carlson as his girlfriend (and Dracula's bride focus), literally snatched from Keisenberg, her home, and dragged back to Castle Dracula. This has that delightful poster with the woman with bandaids on her neck and desirable bosom (click).

Dracula's dead but his castle's evil shadow hits the catholic church of the town below. Monsignor Ernst(Rupert Davies)is passing through the village on his way home to Keinenberg when he's called on to exorcise Dracula's castle so that he will no longer bother the township. The Priest of the village(Ewan Hooper)is weak and, upon following the Monsignor, chickens out at going to the top to the castle. Staying behind, the priest falls a piece cracking the ice prison encasing Dracula's body with blood from his forehead reawakening the Count from his slumber. In an interesting turn of events, Dracula uses the priest to do his bidding..quite unusual for a Hammer Dracula film to have the Count's servant being a man of the cloth. When Dracula returns to his castle to his horror the Monsignor has left a large golden cross at the door. Seeking revenge for this, Dracula, with the priest in tow to watch over his well being and do as he wishes will head for Keinenberg. Ernst has a sister-in-law Anna(Marion Mathie)whose daughter Maria(the truly lovely Veronica Carlson, representing a Hammer trademark voluptuous blond innocent that Dracula pursues)is really in love with a smart charming lass, Paul(Barry Andrews)who keeps to his studies so that he can make a name for himself outside, having no designs on being a baker. In another interesting angle for this film, Paul is in fact an atheist which causes quite a ruckus when the Monsignor finds that his niece is dating a non-believer. Dracula, using the priest, will set his sights on taking a bite out of Maria, scheming to make her his vampire bride.

This film takes a few daring steps away from the regular rules in place regarding the murder of Dracula. In my favorite scene, Paul, a non-believer, stakes Dracula, yet if he doesn't recite a prayer to a God he doesn't believe in, the Count will not die. The scene is all nice and bloody(fountains..the more, the merrier I always say)with the massive stake plunged right into Dracula's chest. There's another marvelous scene towards the end where Dracula is dueling with Paul at the entrance of his castle, as he slips off lunging right into the golden cross sticking from the ground below(he had ordered Maria, under his vampire spell, to remove it from his door). We see the tip of the cross protruding from his chest. I'm not sure I ever recall the need to say a prayer when staking Dracula and feel that this was added at the behest of the religious so that we get Paul becoming a believer at the end. Whatever the case, this flick was still a lot of fun as we see Christopher Lee, maybe in the film a total of twenty or so minutes, looking as menacing as ever with the camera capturing his presence so well. His "burning eyes" as the camera pulls in have such impact..such a stylish little Hammer film. Not the best of the Dracula Hammer series, but I had a good time nonetheless. Good cast given likable characters helps matters. I do have problems with the opening because it doesn't make much sense..if Dracula is encased in ice how could he bite the female victim found in the church? How could a castle's shadow do that?