Il marchio di Dracula

The last period Hammer horror film with Dracula. The story isn't really that good--just a bunch of young, good-looking, talentless young actors getting involved with Dracula (Christopher Lee).

There are MANY things wrong with this film: 1) The plot is slight and heavily padded (even at 90 minutes) 2) There are some ridiculously fake rubber bats 3) The special effects are dreadful 4) With two exceptions the acting is even worse than usual for a Hammer film 5) Dracula stabs a woman vampire to death (why???) with an obviously fake knife and THEN drinks her blood. How could a knife kill a vampire? And WHY did he kill her?

This is considered the worst Lee Dracula film. I disagree. I think it's one of the best. For one thing it is easily the goriest Hammer Dracula film (it was the first one to get an R rating here in the US) with some mild nudity thrown in. The violence is strong and savage and played to the hilt by Lee. Also there are two sequences that come directly from Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel--Dracula sleeping in a room with no way in or out--except a window; and when Dracula climbs UP the castle wall from window to window. It was great seeing Hammer at least (for once) TRYING to get some of Stoker's creation on screen. Also Patrick Troughton is very good as Dracula's servant Klove and even Christopher Matthews has a few moments as the doomed Paul. But Lee's acting is the main reason to see this. He has more screen time and dialogue in this than any of the other Draculas and he just gives out an incredible performance. You can't take your eyes off him when he's on screen.

Supposedly Lee and director Roy Ward Baker HATED this film (they blamed Hammer management for forcing them) but they shouldn't. It's very scary and well-done. Recommended.

In this movie we see Dracula burn his servant with a hot sword and stab his female vampire slave to death with a knife.

Christopher Lee had said this was the weakest and most unconvincing of the series. Perhaps he said that before "AD 72" and Satanic Rites" came out? He commented that the makeup was wrong. Was it "Vampires do NOT wear pancake!"? He didn't like the way they had him "biting" the victim. Biting more than once is chewing, is it not? He also complained that instead of writing a story around Dracula, they write it then try to fit Dracula into it.

This movie did have its moments. At least they put in a Stoker scene with him climbing the walls, though it looked a bit weird. He was bent over hobbling on the wall like he had something heavy on his back. Imagine him crawling up the way they showed Langela (Dracula 1979) doing it - from that angle. That would have been sweet.

The bat looked fake, the knife looked rubber, the burning castle looked like an obvious miniature with a big candle in it, the lightning hitting Dracula at the end was an obvious stunt man with a really bad (Michael Myers?) mask and the church scene after the bat attack was disturbing. I agree that the supporting actors were a bit over-matched against the Count. There is no expert vampire hunter in this, just two brothers (one being the third vampire hunter named "Paul" in the series) and that weak priest. I'll give this 5 stars out of 10, an average rating.

As far as the Hammer Dracula films go, Scars of Dracula is among neither the best or worst of them, if anything it's bang in the middle in my opinion. Horror of Dracula is the best of the series(as well as being one of Hammer's classics), with Brides of Dracula and Dracula: Prince of Darkness being the best of the follow-ups, but Scars of Dracula is better than all the Hammer Dracula films that followed.

If Scars of Dracula can be summed up in one phrase, it would be 'decent but could have been much more.' The story has its great parts certainly and kudos to the film for incorporating details from the book which few of the sequels did. It however does drag quite badly and has too much padding that had very little to do with the film. The script is at best mediocre and at worst shoddy, some parts are far too talky, and there's some silliness, vaguely explored ideas and sometimes tedious melodrama(like Dracula Has Risen from the Grave but worse).

The special effects do look dreadfully fake, especially the bats that look laughable even by today's standards. Scars of Dracula generally is not a bad-looking film at all, but it was at this point where the Hammer Dracula films started getting cheaper in comparison to the earlier films. While the acting is fine on the whole, Dennis Waterman did nothing for me, he is incredibly bland and while he looks and sounds right at home in 1970s London he looks and sounds completely out of place here.

Scars of Dracula has some highly atmospheric sets(especially Dracula's castle, which is like a character all by itself), is very stylishly shot and has wonderfully moody lighting. Roy Ward Baker's direction is decent, having the right amount of suspense and style if never erasing memories of Terrence Fisher, whose direction had more colour and atmosphere. James Bernard's score booms with intensity without being intrusive, while also having a rich lushness without becoming too sentimentalised. Scars of Dracula is very high in atmosphere, with a great sense of dread and suspenseful mystery throughout, it's also one of the the goriest and most violent of the series but not in a way that feels cheap or excessive. There are some memorable scenes, with the standouts being the powerful opening, the visually striking scene of Dracula climbing the castle walls and Dracula's demise, which is one of the most memorable of the series.

With the exception of Waterman, the cast do a solid job, even if the antagonists make a better impression. Christopher Matthews is reasonably likable in the screen-time he has, and Jenny Hanley is charming and natural as well as displaying a scene-stealing cleavage. Michael Ripper brings crusty and poignant demeanour to a character that could easily have been forgettable, and Michael Gwynn is good as the Priest. Klove and Dracula however steal the show. Patrick Troughton's Klove, sporting some very memorable eyebrows, is skin-crawlingly creepy, and I did find myself rooting ever so slightly for him. Christopher Lee has more screen-time and dialogue than the rest of the Hammer Dracula films featuring him, which is great considering that generally his screen-time and amount of dialogue were lessoning with each instalment, and he absolutely relishes that in a powerful and positively blood-curdling performance. Some have said that he was losing interest and that he considered this film the worst of the series, but it didn't come over that way to me, besides Lee was too great and conscientious an actor to show that.

Overall, decent but could have been much more; Hammer's fifth Dracula film out of eight ranks right in the middle personally. 6/10 Bethany Cox

A young man (Christopher Matthews) running from the law ends up at an ominous castle and goes missing. Thus his brother and a friend (Dennis Waterman & Jenny Hanley) travel to the dubious dwelling to find him, but come face-to-face with a formidable fiend (Christopher Lee).

"Scars of Dracula" (1970) is a sort of reboot of the Hammer series in that it's basically a redo of Lee's first two stabs at the undead Count: "Horror of Dracula" (1958) and "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" (1966), not to mention it mixes in aspects of "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" (1968) and, most significantly, the plot of "Psycho" (1960). For those who question the latter, just reread the plot description above.

Some viewers gripe that this one doesn't fit the chronology of the series for a couple of reasons, yet these supposed conundrums are easily explained: Dracula was reduced to dust at the end of the prior film, "Taste the Blood of Dracula" (1970), but Klove had instructions to seek out and acquire the Count's ashes if he was ever slain and bring them back to the castle in Transylvania where one of his creatures of the night would supply the blood necessary to resurrect the Prince of Darkness. As for the differences in the look of the castle, Hammer had moved to a different studio and so of course it looks different than it did when they made "Horror of Dracula" thirteen years earlier.

Although marred by the cheesy bat sequences, "Scars of Dracula" is one of the more entertaining installments due to the spirited Paul, a bit o' genuine amusement in the first act and a generally compelling story (hey, it worked for "Psycho," why wouldn't it work here?). The female cast doesn't hurt, particularly the lovely Hanley as Sarah, but also Anouska Hempel (Tania), Delia Lindsay (Alice) and Wendy Hamilton (Julie).

For those interested, Hammer did nine Dracula-themed films from 1958 to 1974 as follows:

Horror of Dracula (1958); The Brides of Dracula (1960); Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966); Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968); Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970); Scars of Dracula (1970); Dracula AD 1972 (1972); The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973); and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974). Lee plays Dracula in all of them except "Brides" and "7 Golden Vampires" while Peter Cushing appears in five of them as a Van Helsing.

The film runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot at Elstree Studios & nearby Scratchwood, just northwest of London.

GRADE: B.

1970's "Scars of Dracula" topped the only Dracula-Frankenstein double bill ever offered by Hammer, Christopher Lee's 5th performance in the series coupled with the already completed "The Horror of Frankenstein" for a brief run on the drive-in circuit by American Continental Films (along with "Lust for a Vampire"), quickly sold to television and popping up in record time before disappearing from the airwaves. "Scars" began shooting only five months after the previous Hammer entry "Taste the Blood of Dracula," seven months after Jesus Franco's adaptation "Count Dracula," and actually returns to Stoker for many plot devices that had never been done in films. The climax of "Taste" had Dracula destroyed in a London church, kicking things off here back in Transylvania with his ashes revived by dripping blood from a very large and rather phony rubber bat (the only previous entry that employed bats was 1960's "The Brides of Dracula," the one without Lee). The torch bearing villagers decide to storm Castle Dracula for a proper burning, only to return to their loved ones at the church mutilated by vengeful bats in their absence (the same set reused in Jimmy Sangster's "Lust for a Vampire"). The philandering Paul Carlson (Christopher Matthews) escapes the clutches of the law only to find himself arriving at Castle Dracula, welcomed by the beautiful Tania (Anouska Hempel) and her master, introducing himself with three simple yet familiar words: "I am Dracula." With no possible escape, Paul tries to make himself comfortable, receiving a visit from Tania as willing bed warmer, having just been bitten by Dracula (only the second time we see Lee perform the actual bite). The approaching dawn has Tania ready to sink her own fangs into her lover's neck, an enraged Dracula emerging to stab her repeatedly in an unexpected and illogical demise for a vampire. Paul discovers an opening some yards below his room, making his way down the wall to find himself hopelessly trapped in the Count's private sanctuary, later found impaled on a meat hook. Director Roy Ward Baker was proud of restoring the Count's ability to use creatures of the night to perform his bidding, either as winged angels of death or like carrier pigeons, as well as having doors open and close by themselves whenever Dracula requires. By far the most notable idea from Stoker was the sight of Dracula crawling down the castle wall (recreated for Frank Langella), seen here as walking up the wall from his hidden coffin location. Lee also receives more screen time than in any other Hammer entry, over 11 minutes for a more balanced approach that keeps him involved right from the start. Simon Carlson (Dennis Waterman) and girlfriend Sarah (Jenny Hanley) search for his missing brother, barely escaping Castle Dracula through the help of the Count's manservant Klove (Patrick Troughton), who keeps a framed photo of the lovely Sarah and only defies his master in her defense. Klove was introduced in Lee's second entry "Dracula - Prince of Darkness," earning forgiveness by bringing new blood in the shapely form of Wendy Hamilton as Julie, instantly killed by Dracula's bite. The idea of a church desecrated by evil previously appeared in "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave," the ineffectual priest played by the distinguished Michael Gwynn, Peter Cushing's creation from 1958's "The Revenge of Frankenstein." Despite the savage critical backlash upon release (even cofeature "The Horror of Frankenstein" was received with greater leniency), Lee himself was surprised at how well it turned out during his 2000 commentary track, perhaps mollified by the numerous Stoker touches that he was usually calling for and, for once, accepted by screenwriter Anthony Hinds, under his regular pseudonym John Elder. This turned out to be the final Gothic sequel, two modern era vehicles to close out Lee's participation, "Dracula A. D. 1972" and "The Satanic Rites of Dracula."