Le grand amour du comte Dracula

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....

Paul Naschy's version of the notorious character Dracula , it turns out to be an acceptable picture compellingly directed by Javier Aguirre with a good cast plenty of Eurobabes . A stagecoach is crashed when the carriage loses a wheel while traveling over the Borgo Passa , then passengers stop at a creepy sanitarium in the mists of eastern Europe . A man (Vic Winner) along with four women (Ingrid Garbo , Mirta Miller , Rosanna Yanni , Haydee Politoff) spend the night in an old deserted and rundown mansion on a mountain of a far country , Los Carpatos , Romania . They each in turn fall into the the evil hands of a physician (Jacinto Molina) who forces them to suck each others blood and to whip innocent village virgins so they can lick the oozing cuts clean . As Dracula starts a reign of seduction and horror, draining the life from four girls .

This thrilling as well as terrifying film contains horrifying scenes , chills , lots of gore and red tomato was used for the blood . The picture contains a crazy love story , but also nudism , lots of blood and gore as when Dracula stabs enemies and bites women . It is a passable and average-budgeted version with gorgeous actresses , functional set design and brilliant costumes . It's a delirious story about ¨amour fou¨ with multiples literary references and Hammer elements ; all of them thrown in . It results to be a strong tale as well as sensitive flick with melodramatic touches in which Dracula falls in love with a gorgeous young played by Haydee Politoff . Beautiful and naked actresses along with brief appearance two actors who performed several Spaghetti/Paella Western : Alvaro De Luna and Jose Luis Martin . Good performance from Naschy as a doctor with dark secrets . The picture was shot at the same time to ¨Hunchback of Morgue¨ with same director , cameraman , musician and actors that deals with a below average intelligence hunchback who works at the morgue. Both of them shared a similar theme , as a lone being , Hunchback and Dracula, who fall in love with a virginal maid . Naschy deservedly won the prize George Melies the best performance in Fantastic Festival of Paris and other several prizes . Naschy's success started in 1967 when Paul played and wrote the script for ¨Mark of wolfman¨ . He was forced out of necessity to play the lead role of tormented werewolf Waldermar Daninsky after Lon Chaney, Jr. turned it down . He reprised this character in over a dozen subsequent sequels . Naschy's portrayals of the anguished and sympathetic werewolf Daninsky became his signature part and consolidated his enduring cult status as a bona-fide horror icon. Other significant horror figures Paul played were the Mummy, Jack the Ripper, the Hunchback, the Frankenstein Monster, the Phantom of the Opera, the Devil and even Dracula , his performance as the Prince of Darkness in this "Count Dracula's Great Love" it was one of his personal favorites.

Atmospheric cinematography by Javier Pere Cubero though would have been necessary a photography similarly to Hammer Films , glamorous gowns and regular production design , including evocative sets . Flawed but interesting screenplay by Jacinto Molina and the same director Javier Aguirre who blends diverse themes ; however , the picture contains a silly finale . Thrilling and frightening musical score by Carmelo Bernaola . Appropriate sets and production design by Cubero and Galicia who worked in many Spaghetti Western . The motion picture was professionally directed by Javier Aguirre . Rating : Good , it will appeal to mad-cults movies and Naschy fans ; it's one of the best films .

The inimitable Paul Naschy stars as the eeevil character of the title, living high in the mountains in his crumbling castle of solitude.

Uh oh!

Drac's serenity is interrupted when a carriage full of nubile lasses arrives. It's not long before these unexpected guests take a nice, naked dip in the castle pool. When one of the Count's vampire henchmen bites the lone male of the group, a bloodsucking plague begins.

Much nudity ensues as the Prince of Darkness attempts to resurrect his dead daughter.

A lot of this film is rather muddled, making little sense. Still, as Naschy films go, it's not bad. His fans will want to see it no matter what...

Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy's take on another traditional monster (making for the blood-sucking Count's beefiest incarnation since Lon Chaney Jr.'s turn in SON OF Dracula [1943]) results in one of his more enjoyable efforts, albeit given the "Euro-Cult" style's trademark languid approach and with a few weird touches all its own. This begins with the shot illustrating a man falling down the cellar steps of Dracula's castle after having his head split open with an axe being repeated ad nauseam all through the credit sequence! As the film opens, Dracula is hiding under the guise of a Dr. Kargos (presumably a play on the meshing of Karloff and Lugosi a' la our very own Joe Karlosi ) at an abandoned nearby sanatorium while also assuming the duties of butler at his own castle! Soon, his quest for peace and solitude is interrupted with a vengeance by the arrival of no less than five strangers – one man and four(!) women; the latter ostensibly serve the function of duplicating the count's three brides featured in Bram Stoker's original novel (and a handful of its myriad screen incarnations), with the remaining girl filling in the requirements of the title. Anyway, following some bed-hopping antics (the nudity being crudely inserted since the Spanish censor's repressive hand would only allow such fare to be released in "clothed" versions!), the cast of characters rapidly starts joining the ranks of the undead – leaving only the heroine (gorgeous, doe-eyed Haydee' Politoff whom I was recently impressed by in the obscure but fairly good erotic giallo INTERRABANG [1969]). Also in the cast are Rosanna Yanni (from Jess Franco's two "Red Lips" films from 1967) and others bearing such dubious names as Vic Winner and Ingrid Garbo (her character is named Marlene to boot)!; on a personal note, it was nice to see character actor Jose' Manuel Martin (who had been one of the beggars in Luis Bunuel's VIRIDIANA [1961]) as Dracula' first victim – subsequently 'residing' in his house, he notches up victims of his own and is even killed by the master (oddly enough, all vampires here contrive to dispose of one another) for daring to attack his beloved! Other unusual ideas, then, include: the fact that Dracula's prowlings occur on full-moon nights (as if he expects to turn into a werewolf?!); his having a dead daughter, which he intends to revive by mixing the blood of a virgin (Politoff, who rather than being vampirized has a knife driven through her throat in the manner of a conjuror's act) and an innocent (a village girl his brides abduct and present before him to be whipped)!; and, perhaps most baffling of all, Politoff's rejection of Dracula's offer to live eternally by his side throws him into such a dejected state (apparently, he has fallen hard for her) that not only is he willing to give up on his daughter's revitalization but actually commits suicide by piercing his own heart with a wooden stake! As I said, the film is certainly among the better of the star's vehicles that I have come across (though still not adding up to a completely successful work) and, in fact, this viewing inspired me to acquire another Spanish variant on the theme i.e. THE Dracula SAGA (1972), directed by frequent Naschy collaborator Leon Klimovsky but not involving the redoubtable Jacinto Molina himself

This is a strange version of Dracula with Paul Naschy as Dracula. Four women in gorgeous outfits travel by stagecoach through a forest, when the accident happens, and a wheel comes off and rolls away. They're all left with a random stud and a driver, who is then killed by one of the horses. And when it gets darker, wolves howl, scaring off the horses but then magically return to the carriage in the next clip! It seems editing didn't do well here. The horses should've bolted right after the scene when all of them walked away to look for the castle. When they find it, its soon clear that they end up spending more than a night in the place! Quite good, with over-the-top blood, bosoms and screaming. Sorry to disappoint fans of Spanish horror but it's just too 70's and weird.