Taste The Blood Of Dracula

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Peter Sasdy

Starring: Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Gwen Watford, Linda Hayden, Peter Sallis

From: Hammer

Yep, I watched this last night. It is wackily entertaining. I explain why below: 

I continued watching the Christopher Lee as Dracula movies that TCM showed last night. This was one I hadn't seen but part of the plot description did make me chuckle so I was hoping I would dig this. I did know beforehand that Lee had to be strongly encouraged to make this movie and thus he only appears in a limited role.

There is a prologue where we see the aftermath of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. Then, onto the crux of the story. We follow a family which is the parents and a teenaged daughter. Dad does not want daughter to be a “harlot” and acts downright Puritanical. Yet, he and his pals enjoy hanging out with prostitutes. Personally, I got a big laugh out of seeing the guy (Geoffrey Keen) I best know for being the Minister of Defence in a half dozen James Bond movies frolicing with tramps and watching a green/blue haired woman dancing around with a python on her shoulders.

While out and about, he and his pals meet a mysterious and ghoulish man known as Courtley. He decides to fool around with Dracula's remains and brings along this new friends because they're all dumbasses, and you can figure out what happens next. It should be no surprise that Keen's daughter Alice and her boyfriend Paul both become involved in this kerfuffle. Note that Keen and his friends are all upper class people and not common peasants.

It has to be said that I am not quite sure how TCM rated this at TV-PG. The movie is rated R by the MPAA and for good reason; there are topless women, along with all the violence and blood. Then again, I am not sure how Dracula Has Risen from the Grave was rated G by the MPAA, considering there was a saucy redhead along with all the violence and blood, and someone was impaled in the climax.

Anyhow, this movie is ridiculous and to me that's part of the charm. Dracula getting revenge on people is nothing new, but the reason why he's pissed at those people is certainly unique: upper class chaps fooling around with the occult. He hypnotizes Alice and she does his bidding; it's goofy yet pretty entertaining. While I am disappointed that one of the three bourgeois men was supposed to be VINCENT PRICE (but that was changed due to the lack of money), I was entertained enough to where Lee's small role wasn't too much of a detriment to me.


If only the ending would not have been so weird and flaccid. Still, by my tastes this was fine.