Set in the Victorian era, the inimitable Roy Kinnear stumbles upon Dracula (the even more inimitable Christopher Lee) in the throes of death, and Kinnear being Kinnear, nicks Dracula’s ring, cape, and even some of his dried blood. Cut to respectable, puritanical William Hargood (Geoffrey Keen) and his fellow aristocrats (played by Peter Sallis and John Carson), who are anything but respectable behind closed doors. Indeed, they are in the habit of visiting houses of ill repute (managed by a seriously camp Russell Hunter) and indulging in such debauchery so as to make members of the Hellfire Club blush. They meet up with an infamous heretic played foaming at the mouth by Ralph Bates, in his first big role. Looking for more saucy fun, it is suggested by Bates that they resurrect Count Dracula, for the ultimate decadent thrill, one supposes. When the fit hits the shans and Bates reacts badly to ingesting Dracula’s blood, Keen and cronies act like good Samaritans and kick the stuffing out of him, leaving him for dead. But when Dracula is resurrected and sees what has happened to his servant, he wants revenge on these men and their rather dull children (it’s Hammer after all).
Why so much time invested in describing the plot? Because the one flaw this entertaining Hammer entry has is that there is far too much going on before the fanged one shows up proper. This is probably because it was originally not even intended as a film in which Dracula was an active participant, with Lee grumbling over his salary as per usual (Still love the guy, though). I just thought the Dracula story seemed a little too tacked-on for my liking.
Is what is on the screen very entertaining to watch? Absolutely, with the best cast of any of the Hammer Dracula films helping a great deal, even if Lee himself is finally showing some boredom or resignation in his performance (the first signs I’ve ever seen of it). Kinnear and Bates both vie for scene-stealing duties, in highly entertaining performances. Keen makes for a perfectly detestable Victorian gentleman, with this whole angle being quite fascinating, if not perfectly meshing with the Dracula storyline.
The film is also stunning to look at, and very easy on the ears thanks to a fine musical score by series regular James Bernard. The ending is much reviled, but it is such an amusing idea that I actually liked it a lot. Best of all, dependant upon which version you see, the film even boasts a little more red stuff than usual and even a few flashes of boobage, which I ever so much appreciated.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Though slow-building and featuring a somewhat irrelevant appearance by Dracula, this is a fascinating and strong entry in the series. Good-looking and sounding, and featuring a great cast of British genre veterans doing their thing.
