O Grande Amor do Conde Drácula

DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE (1972) ** ½ Paul Naschy, Haydée Politoff, Rosanna Yanni, Ingrid Garbo. Four women and a man wreck their stagecoach and must take refuge in a nearby castle. Unfortunately for the travelers, the castle's owner, Dr. Wendell Marlow (Paul Naschy), turns out to be none other than Count Dracula. After Dracula falls in love with one of the women, she must decide whether to live eternally as Dracula's bride or reject him and continue to live as a mortal. Her not-so-surprising choice leads to a strange and surprising ending. Like a lot of '70s European horror movies, the film suffers from slow pacing and a somewhat muddled plot. But there's lots of gothic atmosphere and a few creepy moments here and there to keep things interesting. Worth a look.

Paul Naschy is, of course, famous for his many portrayals of the "hombre lobo", but he has also tried his hand at any number of other classic monsters like Mr. Hyde, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc. with various degrees of success. Here he tries Dracula. Naschy doesn't physically fit the part of the classic Dracula, but then again he doesn't really play the classic Dracula--he turns the traditional bloodsucking embodiment of evil into a tragic, doomed figure much like his "Waldemar Daninsky"/"hombre lobo" character who can only be cured of vampirism by a virgin who truly loves him giving herself freely to him.

In a horribly clichéd set-up a group of attractive young women and their male chaperon have to take refuge in the sanitarium where Dracula lives after a wheel of their carriage falls off and crushes their driver. The group is vampirized so fast that the vampires are soon left fighting each other over the one survivor (and virgin). This is pretty typical Naschy movie really in that it has the style of an old Hollywood or early Italian Gothic horror movie, but with the old 1970's standbys of blood, boobs, and, of course, bloody boobs.

And speaking of boobs, the best way to see this movie unedited today is on the double-feature DVD hosted by Elvira. I'm sure this movie was heavily edited when it featured back on TV's "Movie Macabre" back in the 1980's, but it sure isn't now. And, for the record, the Elvira cutaways are optional on the disc, and hardly necessary--with busty Spanish starlets like Roseanne Yanni and Mirta Miller in the cast, it already looks like a Russ Meyer movie even without the famous cleavage of Elvira/Cassandra Peterson. Recommended to those of you who know who you are.

Oh this was almost a great flick. Firmly placed in the sexploitation Eurotrash genre, it just needed to push the envelope a little bit more. Sadly it is therefore only a 4/10 job.

So blood and guts were only quite good, when they had every ability to be better. Naschy is on form as the villain, but is just a bit wooden. The women are beautiful, but do not take enough of their clothes off to make the film truly sensual etc. We really need a touch of Jean Rollin on this one.

The DVD transfer I saw on Sinema Diable is a woeful effort direct from video. No extras. A bargain basement job that gives the film no chance to redeem itself. In summary, an also ran....

Count Dracula's Great Love (1973)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Four women and their male traveler break down in the forest and must take shelter at a nearby sanitarium, which has a history of evil. Once there they meet Dr. Marlow (Paul Naschy) but what they don't know is that he's in fact Count Dracula. Soon the women begin to be turned into vampires with Dracula needing the virgin to fall in love with him so that his dead daughter can return to life.

COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE was the only time that Naschy got to play Dracula and needless to say he did a very good job with it. As far as the film goes, it's easy to see why it has such a strong cult following because even though there are some flaws to be had the film for the most part is a success thanks in large part to director Javier Aguirre who manages to keep the film moving at a nice pace and he builds up a very good atmosphere.

The film is available in a few different versions but the recent Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome returns the film to its R-rated cut that contains all of the nudity missing from some version. The nudity is certainly a good bonus because it adds a touch of sexuality that is certainly needed. As I had said, the atmosphere is certainly a strong highlight as we get all sorts of fog, a great castle and of course some nice bits of blood and vampire attacks.

The actresses playing the women all do a nice job in their roles and especially Rosanna Yanni. The real star is of course leading man Naschy who got to play all of the legendary monsters in his career. This was his only chance to play Dracula and he did a very good job with it. He was certainly believable in the role but more important he looks the part. The black costume and red cape were a perfect look and there's no doubt that Naschy made good in the part.

In "Count Dracula's Great Love" Paul Naschy plays legendary vampire Dracula.The legend says that he is still lurking in his castle in the middle of nowhere.Four buxom ladies decide to spend the night at the old castle which most recently was used as a sanitarium.Quickly the passengers fall prey to Count Dracula.But Count falls in love with Karen...Javier Aguirre's "Count Dracula's Great Love" is a trashy and sleazy piece of Eurohorror with plenty of nudity and grue.The shots of white mists and dense forests are wonderfully atmospheric and the macabre mood is very sensual.Paul Naschy is memorable as Count Dracula/Dr.Wendell and he plays his evil character with gusto.8 sensual vampires out of 10.