Le grand amour du comte Dracula

Paul Naschy authored the story and co-wrote the screenplay for this decent vehicle for himself. He plays Dr. Wendell Marlow, who offers sanctuary to five travelers on their way through the Carpathian mountains. They consist of four gorgeous babes and the studly male Imre (Victor Alcazar); Imre is certainly in enviable company. Of course, there are no prizes for guessing who Marlow REALLY is. He falls in love with one of the woman, and she will ultimately have to make a decision: "live" forever as his bride, or turn him down and live as a mortal.

Only the amusing ending lifts this above average for this genre. It does have a fair bit to offer Euro horror lovers, like the expected sex (some of the ladies bare their breasts), the violence (the camera really loves zooming in on the red stuff), and the sadism (virgin girls are whipped so their torturers can lick up their blood). And, of course, it's a Naschy film, so you can't really go wrong. The thing is, the film just doesn't have that great a story. Other than that ending, there's nothing nuanced or particularly interesting about it.

At least viewers can soak up that atmosphere common to so much Euro horror. Naschy, as usual, has a compelling presence, and it's nice that he was an actor who embraced being a genre star. The other performances aren't as effective, but it's doubtful that people are going to care too much, since it's such an attractive cast.

The opening credits are priceless, though. They play over a scene of a murder victim tumbling down some stairs. This sequence is reversed and then played again numerous times.

Not prime Naschy, but if you're a completist of his works, you'll still want to see it.

Six out of 10.

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.

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.

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...

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.