BEFORE: I've noticed a lot of connections between the Hammer Films movies and a couple other series, most notably the Bond films and also the "Star Wars" films. The Bond thing I get, because both series were filmed in the U.K. in the 1960's, so they were drawing from the same pile of actors.
Desmond Llewelyn, who played "Q" in the Bond films so many times, appeared in "The Curse of the Werewolf, for example. And Christopher Lee, of course, played Scaramanga in "The Man with the Golden Gun", but a lot of other actors in smaller roles also crossed over between the two series.
The Star Wars connections are very obvious to me, of course - Peter Cushing (Van Helsing) also played Grand Moff Tarkin in "Episode IV: A New Hope", and his image was then used again in "Rogue One" a couple years ago. Then Christopher Lee played Count Dooku years later in the prequels, Episodes 2 and 3. Then we've got Eddie Byrne, who appeared in 1959's "The Mummy" as a police inspector and was also a Rebellion General in "A New Hope". Tonight we've got Russell Hunter, who plays the queerish guy who works as the British pimp, it turns out he was married to Caroline Blakiston, who played Mon Mothma in "Return of the Jedi".
I'm sure there are a bunch more connections, I'll keep an eye out for more. Christopher Lee carries over again from "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave".
AFTER: It's not just that Count Dracula is evil, it also stings that he's very impolite. Here, three English upper-classmen are so bored with all the usual vices that they go seeking a new friend, someone who can turn them on to the harder sins, and that guy wants to bring Dracula back to life. When they succeed, you'd think that Drac would be happy to be alive again, right? Like, I don't know, a thank you card at least seems in order, but it wouldn't hurt to also send them a nice gift, something personalized and from the heart. But as we learned last night, Dracula doesn't really do polite very well - his default setting is "Kill", or I guess that really is "Drink all their blood first, then kill".
But wait, how do they bring Dracula back? The last time we saw him, he'd been impaled on a cross, and that's curtains for a vampire, right? I mean, if a wooden stake through the heart would usually kill them, a cross has got to be worse than that, PLUS the priest managed to say the prayer, so that's it, he's toast, done for, no coming back. EXCEPT that an enterprising man had been thrown out of a carriage, and that just happened to take place right near where Dracula was dramatically decomposing and turning into a pool of ketchup. Wait, I mean blood, it only LOOKED like ketchup. Dracula has chunky-style blood, it turns out. Anyway, that guy saved the Count's clothing, plus the medallion with the word "Dracula" on it (you know, he wears that just in case he might forget his own name ??) and he scooped up as much of the blood as he could, before it turned into a fine powder.
(Great, the only people more vampiric in this world than vampires are collectors...trust me on this one)
Anyway, the weird new friend tries to get the guys to drink some VERY Bloody Mary's, only they can't do it, so he does it himself, and is sort of turned into the Dracula familiar to this franchise. Dracula takes being brought back to life as some kind of personal offense, because that process destroyed one of his biggest fans, though it's a bit questionable how Drac knows this, since they're never seen together. But the vampire process that brings him back to life somehow uses this guy's body as source material, or a template, or something, so perhaps some kind of sense memory was retained? It's tough to say. He strikes at the older gentleman by seducing two of their daughters, Alice and Lucy.
Alice is in love with Paul, who's Lucy's brother. Only Alice's father forbids her to date Paul, even though he's friends with Paul's father. This is never fully explained, why he won't let his daughter date the son of his friend - is this because he and Paul's father have visited so many whorehouses together? Is he assuming that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, so Paul will never be faithful to his daughter? Or is he such an over-protective father that no man will ever be good enough to date his daughter?
Anyway, Dracula proves again that he can steal just about anyone's girlfriend or daughter, and make her do whatever he wants. It's not like any woman can resist him, after all, since they're the fairer sex and therefore weak-minded. Geez, Dracula, it's time to drop these old stereotypes and join the 21st century! (OK, the 20th at least.)
Also starring Geoffrey Keen (last seen in "Doctor Zhivago"), Gwen Watford (last seen in "Cleopatra"), Linda Hayden, Peter Sallis (last seen in "The Curse of the Werewolf"), Anthony Corlan, Isla Blair (last seen in "Johnny English Reborn"), John Carson, Martin Jarvis (last heard in "Wreck-It Ralph"), Ralph Bates, Roy Kinnear (last seen in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother"), Michael Ripper (also carrying over from "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave"), Russell Hunter, Shirley Jaffe, Keith Marsh (last seen in "Othello"), Peter May, Madeline Smith (last seen in "Live and Let Die"), Reginald Barratt.
RATING: 5 out of 10 desecrated graves
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