Conde Drácula

Filmed in Spain and Germany, Jess Franco's version of the Bram Stoker classic has Count Dracula as an old man who grows younger whenever he dines on the blood of young maidens. This movie is quite faithful to the novel, unlike so many other Dracula films of the period. Starring screen legend Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, it also features Franco regulars Soledad Miranda, Fred Williams, Maria Rohm, Jack Taylor, Klaus Kinski, and Paul Müller. Franco appears in the film (as he does in many of his movies) as a servant to Professor Van Helsing. Franco contributes great direction and a perfectly eerie atmosphere to this low-budget film, which was one of Soledad's most prominent international roles. The talented cast and direction, as well as a fantastic score by Bruno Nicolai, make this one of the best filmed versions of the Dracula story and a great companion to Francis Ford Coppola's version made decades later.

It is sad that this film is so often overlooked...it's really a gem. Christopher Lee's portrayal of Dracula here is probably his best ever (at least in terms of following Stoker's book) as an aging vampire who progressively gets younger (20 years before Coppola's version). In addition, Klaus Kinski is brilliant as the insane Renfield. Lee's Dracula is given more of a human side that is missing in the Hammer films, where he usually barely speaks at all. There are some weak spots, but overall quite good, and a must for Lee fans really gives a different perspective of the Hammer legend.

Despite some relatively poor production values, this film has the requisite quality of "creepiness" that any good Dracula film really should have. Kinski is fine. This is also Christopher Lee's most accurate performance as the Count. Too bad the editing is so jumpy. It's almost like watching a documentary, or an antique silent film (but with sound). If they had just invested a little more money, this could have become "the" authentic film adaptation of the novel. As it stands, it is only for real devotees of the genre.

"El Conde Dracula" is Spanish director Jess Franco's faithful yet flawed take on the Bram Stoker novel, with Christopher Lee taking a break from his British Hammer series to play the infamous vampire. Lee had high hopes for the film because Franco intended to adhere closely to the book. I think there are things to admire about this version, beginning with Lee's accurate portrayal of an old Dracula who grows steadily younger as he drinks more blood. Many of the Gothic locations are impressive as well, and it's a plus to have Klaus Kinski as Renfield and Herbert Lom as Van Helsing. The problem is that this movie, much like the 1931 Lugosi film, starts out very well and has its best moments in the beginning (say the first half hour) before growing tedious. It's a shame too, because this could have turned out to be the most faithful Dracula adaptation ever done, had Franco tried a little harder. His overbearing need to zoom in to characters' faces becomes so repetitious that you begin to anticipate it after awhile, along with the same ongoing musical cues. It also has a disappointing climax.

It's certainly a Dracula movie worth seeing for fans of the genre, but it is hypnotically draggy at times (then again, so was the book!). It should be mentioned that the print used for the newly released Dark Sky DVD is missing a really effective sequence where a crying woman outside Dracula's castle pleads desperately for the Count to return her little baby to her. **1/2 out of ****

this is an unjustly obscured, great horror film that does more justice to the novel than any of the Hammer versions but maintains their atmosphere perfectly and outdoes "the horror of dracula" by far. christopher lee looks just like the description of the Count in stoker's novel, and far from being 'funny' or 'cheap' as some of the other reviewers here have called it (did they watch the same movie, or what?), you don't doubt it's reality for a moment. the soundtrack is really eerie and appropriate to some of the truly horrifying scenes, such as the poor woman screaming outside the castle at dracula to give her baby back, and the surrealistic scene in which jonathan harker leaps out the castle's window. kinski is superb and utterly convincing (and i'm usually not all that impressed by him) as renfield, and it is really creepy to watch his behavior at times. (especially when he eats bugs and smears the friggin blood on the rubber walls. ick!) in fact, i could find very little wrong with this movie at all, and any true horror fan will revere it. not just a must watch, a must own.