Zoltan, Draculas Bluthund

Cheaply made horror film from the 70's that is surprisingly better than you might initially expect. The film opens in Romania as soldiers uncover the underground tomb of the Dracula family. A soldier pulls the stake out of a puffy sheet in an opened casket and is soon bit to death by a giant of a hound(A Great Dane I believe). This is Zoltan and he soon pulls the stake out of his master - not Dracula but his servant - and the two begin a trek to the United States to turn the last surviving family member into their undead master. On the heels of these two is Inspector Branco who is well-versed in vampirism and folklore. Anyway, the two follow the Drake family to the woods where they camp and soon all hell breaks out as Zoltan begins to infect all the canines around. The plot sounds ridiculous - and it is, but it strangely works as reasonable entertainment. The actors are all decent with Jose Ferrer lending cachet and clout as Branco. He does a fine job bringing some much needed credibility, though I must confess seeing him drive in a convertible in black slacks, a black turtleneck, and a black beret is something not to be missed. The odd servant is played by none other than Reggie Nalder who just looks evil and up to no good. Throughout the movie he commands Zoltan telepathically. The rest of the cast is serviceable as well. Michael Pataki is believable as the last member of Castle Dracula and even plays the count in a flashback sequence. The dogs do a good job and the director Albert Band, despite a lack of any sizable budget and some real poor lighting, creates just enough suspense and tension to keep this dubious project somewhat afloat. Don't expect any real scares, but there are a few scenes that are well-shot: the dogs attacking the small rented cottage and the dogs attacking the car are just a couple to mention. I saw the denouement coming early in the picture, but is was pretty neat any way. The special effects are nothing really more than the eyes of the vampiric dogs glowing. A fun, bad film from the only decade where something like this could and would have been made.

Blending the vampire and creature feature themes, Albert Band's "Zoltan" is a haunting filmscape canvassing Dracula's faithful undead servant Veidt Schmidt (Nalder) and bloodhound named Zoltan, awoken from their eternal slumber to locate Dracula's last known descendant (Pataki) and restore the undead dynasty. Pataki is on vacation with his family and two German Shepherds when Detective Jose Ferrer arrives to deliver the bad news.

Routinely panned as a monumental lemon, I have no trouble enjoying the creepy performance of the tight-lipped, scar-faced Nalder, his dialogue delivered telepathically as he commands the dutiful Zoltan (a savage looking greyhound) to execute opposition to their mission. Pataki is virtually a bewildered bystander as Ferrer has to convince him that not only is he the last adult descendant of Count Dracula, but that his lineage want him converted to undead status. Arlene Martel has a small supporting role as one of the foolish uniforms who exhume the long-dead vampires in the film's prologue, while some viewers might also recognise Simmy Bow and JoJo D'Amore in a humorous cameo as a pair of ill-fated fishermen.

Suspenseful at times (e.g. Ferrer and Pataki holed up in the log cabin while the pack terrorise them throughout the night), "Zoltan" is a novel twist on the Dracula theme and not, in my opinion deserved of the criticism - it's clearly a B-movie, yet technically well constructed with a moody atmosphere, some gruesome shocks and downright entertaining.

A different sort of twist on the Dracula tale, the premise nevertheless wears thin by the second half, and overall the film is not too good either, despite having a degree of eeriness to it. The cheap special effects are hardly special, the dialogue is full of dud lines, and the quirkiness of the plot gives way to some awkwardly goofy silly moments. The dogs are the main aspect of interest here, better trained than what one would expect. Still, that is not quite a good enough reason to watch it. Some of the music is effective, and overall it is a bearable watch. It is a very trashy film and not at all very good, however it is still okay viewing if one is in the mood for some B-grade horror fluff.

It's kind of weird and I certainly did not expect this but I simply enjoyed watching this movie. It was all some good fun for the genre buffs and as an horror- and part of the Dracula franchise it's a quite original movie with a different approach.

This is certainly a B-movie but surprisingly enough you don't really see this back in the movie its look. The movie is way more horrible with its unintentionally funny dialog and silly plot holes and other stuff that just doesn't really make sense.

As ridicules as the main concept might sound, it actually is the strongest point of the movie. The evil dogs really play a big and significant role in the movie and I really think they did a great job with using the dogs as the main ingredient for the movie its horror. The movie is filled in which the dogs get to do their evil stuff and attack the human characters. They used some great animal trainers for this movie, fore the dogs really become characters in the movie that act out their scenes. Still it's a bit funny to hear the dog's their howling and barking, since it obviously got done by a human voice.

I can certainly understand why people would call this a bad movie, since yes well, the movie just isn't truly standing out with a good story, or great dialog and characters. However when you are into this genre, you'll see that this movie is actually one of the more entertaining but also original ones, even though it just isn't all done that very well.

Always a weird sight to see once great actors turn up in these sort of movies at the end of their careers. It happened to quite a lot of actors that were big and well known in the '40's and '50's. Big name that appears in this movie is José Ferrer, who once received an Academy Award for his role in "Cyrano de Bergerac" and starred in many more great and well known movies of the '40's and '50's. He plays the sort of Van Helsing role in this movie, though he seems to be more like the Sam Loomis character from the Halloween movies, of which the first one got released during the same year as this movie. This movie still got released a few months earlier though, so I don't think this movie did actually get 'inspired' by that movie. Also a good role is being played by Reggie Nalder, who is perfectly cast as a servant of the old count, who has rising from the grave. Nalder looks as if he had rising from the grave himself and he looks halve death to be frank. He still lived for another 13 years though after this movie and actually reached a respectable age of 84. He just looked much older, sicker, close to death, pretty much for most part of his career. Pretty much how Peter Cushing looked like from the '70's on, like halve a skeleton, halve man.

I really liked watching this movie, despite of all its all too obvious weaker elements.

7/10

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This film is great. Dog lovers should get a kick out of this movie. Seeing Zoltan lick his chops after biting both humans and fellow dogs is worth a chuckle or two. The Reinfeld-type character is probably the ugliest human being I have ever seen. Michael Pataki, seen in many more horror films such as "Grave of the Vampire" puts in another B-movie "performance." Jose Ferrer is simply there to pick up a paycheck. The dog that plays Zoltan is the second best actor in the movie. Overall, if you don't expect too much you won't be let down. Definitely a gem in the "so bad it is good" genre. Check it out while downing a few beers. You might enjoy it.