Nocturna

My review was written in October 1983 after viewing the film on a Media Home Entertainment video cassette.

Made in 1978 and released the following year by Compass Pictures International, "Nocturna" is an oddball vampire comedy in home video distribution. Designed as a vanity production for dancer-actress-producer Nai Bonet, picture never hits its stride, though there are amusing moments.

As with several other horror comedies of its period, especially the hit "Love at First Bite", "Nocturna" capitalizes on the swing in fashions which made decadence and "evil" part of the disco/nightlife scene. Nai Bonet toplines as Nocturna, granddaughter of Count Dracula (John Carradine), who at age 126 is last in the family line. She falls in love with rock guitarist Jimmy (Tony Hamilton) and leaves Transylvania to be with him on tour in New York Film's romantic theme is that Nocturna can become a human by sharing a mortal's love. Main emphasis is on comedy and music, however, with many numbers allowing Bonet to display her body and brand of belly-dancing adapted to disco.

Director Harry Hurwitz (using the nom-de-film Harry Tampa he's also adopted on exploitation assignments) provides some laughs, with stand-up comic Adam Keefe reprising his Boris Karloff vocal impression and Brother Theodore commiting to celluloid snippets of his funny "angry at the world" monologs.

John Carradine's old-age version of the Count is a throwaway, as is Yvonne de Carlo's turn at a different vampire styling than she used in tv's "The Munsters".

Bonet is a sexy vamp, with plenty of skin footage for her fans, but her flat dialog readings are amateurish. Best scene for her, which indicates a better film could have been built, has Nocturna strolling down the tough streets of Manhattan at night, bubbling "I love it" to what appear to be real-life extras (derelicts, etc.).

The allure and inverted glamour of the sleazier aspects of the BIg Apple is viable subject matter for filming, heretofore left to the domain of unwatchable punk-new wave features and cornball drugs-prostitution exposes.

NOCTURNA stars the ubiquitous John Carradine as Count Dracula. He's ancient, wearing false fangs now, and being cared for by his Granddaughter Nocturna (Nai Bonet). Drac's castle has been turned into a hotel.

This is obviously meant to be a comedy, but the godawful "acting" and humorless "jokes" sink this movie fast. Also, since it came out in 1979, it's filled to the gills with bubblegum disco music! This is especially annoying when it blares during the simulated "love" scenes.

Nocturna herself is a definite dancing queen. Disco fans will flip over her blazing moves! It's too bad that Ms. Bonet can't act at all, or she'd be perfect. However, her clothing does tend to fly off at regular intervals, including the "heavenly bubble bath" and "oil is my friend" sequences.

"Brother" Theodore Gottlieb is a perverted riot as the horny / creepy desk clerk. Watch for Yvonne de Carlo as Nocturna's friend Jugulia Vein. She's excellent and looks fantastic. She's the only other reason to watch this silly movie...

It's a shame this movie never made it to video. Hell, you never even see it on cable! I remember seeing it at a drive-in in the summer of '79 and thinking it was great cheesy fun. If they released it on video today, it would be seen as a lost campy relic of the disco/drive-in age. It's hampered somewhat by an extremely low budget (check out those groovy cartoon transformation effects) and a few dry stretches here and there, but there's plenty of gratuitous nudity and sex (Nai Bonet may not be a great actress but she is NOT shy about showing off her terrific body!) and the script is occasionally inspired, with some great one-liners. John Carradine as an aging Dracula is a particular hoot! Worthy of cult status.

This is one of two films released in 1979 that attempted to combine vampires and disco (the other being the German sex comedy "Dracula Blows his Cool"). I actually don't know why there weren't even more films than this since disco and vampires have a lot in common (i.e. they both suck). This one was produced by and stars Nai Bonet, who made quite an impression belly-dancing naked while rubbing oil all over herself in Charles Band's sexpoitation/musical "Fairy Tales". Bonet was kind of more voluptuous version of 70's sex star Laura Gemser, but she really made the latter look like Meryl Streep when it came to acting. (To be fair though Bonet is acting here in what is obviously her second language while Gemser had the advantage of being dubbed). Once again, Bonet has some nice nude scenes in this movie, but I would strongly recommend turning the sound down during them because the music is SO bad it might end up like the "Clockwork Orange" Ludvico technique where ever afterward the sight of beautiful naked women will remind you of this music and make you violently ill.

Then there's the disco dancing. There's WAY too much of that here. There's also very little blood and gore, and the special effects are so bad they pass good several times before finally alighting back on bad. Oh yeah, then there's the "plot". Bonet plays Nocturna, an ancient bloodsucker and "grandaughter of Dracula", who comes to New York City from Transylvania, falls in love with a mortal man, and loses the urge to kill (which is odd because the blonde male douchebag playing her boyfriend greatly INCREASED my urge to kill).

The real saving grace of this movie though is the supporting cast. John Carradine doesn't give one his better performances as Nocturna's grandfather (aka Dracula), but he certainly doesn't embarrass himself either like he did in "Vampire Hookers" that same year. And speaking of vampire hookers, Sy Richardson has pretty good cameo as a vampire pimp whose stable of sexy vampire hookers serve him the blood of their johns in wine glasses. Yvonne DeCarlo has a rather pointless role as an older female vampire who give Nocturna tips on surviving in the big city, but she's not bad. The best by far though is Brother Theodore who plays Nocturna's manservant, who is madly in lust with his mistress. His inimitable scenery-chewing monolgues are definitely the closest this movie comes to genuine hilarity. This is certainly not good, but it's pretty hard to totally dislike.

Universal's 1979 "Dracula" remake has been called the Disco Dracula, which I'll agree with in a derisive sense that the filmmakers, including the director of "Saturday Night Fever" (1977), lacked an appreciation for period atmosphere--importing late 1970s fashion into the story's early-20th-century setting. There was also a disco dance scene in another 1979 Dracula film, the parody "Love at First Bite." But, the real Disco Dracula of '79 is this one, "Nocturna." It's chock-full of musical interludes and disco dancing, which is welcome if you like the music, and it's a welcome relief from what is otherwise, at best, a so-bad-it's-good type of film--or, maybe, it's just the music that's good and the rest that's bad.

Dracula, himself, however, only has a supporting role here, as the grandfather of the titular Nocturna. Played by John Carradine in his fourth and last film in the role, it's a rather embarrassing part even for an actor whose last appearance as the Count was in "Billy the Kid Versus Dracula" (1966). When not complaining about his granddaughter, the old master is either complaining about how he has to earn money in the modern world (by running Hotel Transylvania), about his dentures or about the malfunctions related to his genitals common to one of advanced age, apparently, even for vampires. The rest of the cast is no better and, frequently, worse. Star, producer and writer Nai Bonet's delivery is horrendously awkward. Meanwhile, Brother Theodore, as the disgruntled werewolf servant, mumbles much of his monologues, although he does deliver my favorite bad line of the script, "If only I could get in her coffin." The acting, however, couldn't be expected to be much better with a script so heavy on exposition and characters expressing their every feeling out loud and repeatedly, even when alone, lest the stupidest person in the audience barely paying attention gets lost. The wolfman's mean-spirited monologues and Nocturna's internal narration are the worst examples. Fortunately, much of the movie is spent with only the soundtrack to listen to. Early on, there's also a nude make-out session and a bath scene complete with a werewolf peeping tom.

The actual story concerns Nocturna as a lovesick vamp longing to be human, a formula that was trite even by 1979. "Blacula" (1972), its sequel "Scream Blacula Scream" (1973), and "Dracula and Son" (1976), just among the Dracula films I've seen, had already done it. And, the lovesick part alone also polluted "The Great Love of Count Dracula" (1973), the 1974 TV-movie Dracula, as well as the 1979 remake of "Nosferatu." I believe this is the first instance, however, of a vamp discovering disco as the solution for their conversion from vampirism to humanism. By comparison, I can more easily tolerate the film's flimsy animated bats synchronized with ridiculous sound effects during transformations and the mostly misfired gags concerning stereotypical gangster and pimp vamps and the BSA: Blood Suckers of America meeting where the vamps complain about diabetic blood being on the rise. Regardless, you never need to wait long for the film's next disco track.

(Mirror Note: Nocturna sees her reflection and then its vanishing in a mirror on the disco floor. This convinces her that she can convert from vampirism to humanism.)