Lady Dracula

Evelyne Kraft first amazed me in Mighty Peking Man. Later, I saw her in Deadly Angels and was further transfixed. After those, I was eager to see her as a female Dracula. Unfortunately, the film is a mess.

I have no idea what Lady Dracula is trying to do. Although there are a few attack scenes, the film is certainly not scary, nor does it appear to be trying to be scary. The only (light) gothic ambiance is in the opening scene set in 1876. There is no mystery or surprise. The film, at times, attempts - and fails - at humor, but the film isn't a farce like Love at First Bite. The best I can figure is that the producers were trying for a Count Yorga style old vampire in a the modern world story, but lighter and with a sexy lady in the role.

So, what does a 19th Century vampire bride of Dracula do as a single lady in 1976? First, she gets a job at a mortuary to be able to steal blood. This is the film's one clever idea, unfortunately, it also leads to the majority of the film's leaden gags, as two idiot mortuary workers keep losing bodies. After a job, the sexy vampire needs a man, so how about the police inspector investigating her crimes? So, we have the supernatural, humor, and a love story, yet somehow Lady Dracula manages to bungle all three of these.

Some examples of the film's laziness. How does the vampire break into a blood bank? Christopher Lee's Dracula would have ripped the lock from the door. Here, the vampire picks the lock with a device from her purse. Not exciting at all. How about the scene where the vampire riding in a taxi attacks her driver. The viewer expects the taxi driver to look into the rearview mirror and see that his passenger has no reflection. Nope, the vampire attacks before the driver knows something is wrong.

Evelyne Kraft looks lovely, but she makes for a weak and unexciting vampire. Eddi Arent, the comic relief of the 1960's German Edgar Wallace adaptations, is the comic relief here and provides the one joke I found funny (about his cane). However, I am sorry to report that one laugh and lovely Evelyne Kraft are not enough. This is a film to skip.

This is a rip of the film Countess Dracula and is not as good. Countess Dracula is the 1971 classic with Ingrid pitt.

This is plain rubbish and not very good even though most european horrors are. - Check out the Roman Polanski movie -'Dance of the vampires' (aka Fearless Vampire Killers, The) instead.

I must admit, I'm a sucker for those sleazy, cheesy Euro-productions of the 70's, especially the film noir and horror production, that would feature one or the other American B-actor (in this case Brad 'The Profile' Harris) and a cohort of cameo appearances of German TV- and cinema-stars.

Where did it go wrong? Well, for one, director Franz Josef Gottlieb is a veteran of shallow teen- and even raunchier adult-comedies. However, the director seems unable to cope with the concept 'horror-film'. The attempt to create a hybrid (to mind comes Roman Polanskis "Dance of the Vampires") fails miserably. The jokes are so flat and outdated that they would have been considered lame in the 1950's and the horror elements are as frightening as a Halloween edition of "The Muppets".

Speaking of veterans: Theo Lingen, Eddie Aren't, Roberto Blanco and Walter Giller are names that viewers of the time were extremely familiar with (they would appear in every second comedy of the period) and would guarantee at least a few uncomfortable giggles. In this case they do appear but none of them delivers.

Evelyne Kraft as the protagonist cannot fill the shoes of anybody called "Dracula". Yes indeed, she's cute like a button, the audience can't wait to see her (semi)-nude but her performance as Countess Dracula is thoroughly unconvincing.

Having spoken of the mandatory American import-actor, let's speak of Stephen Boyd who has a minor appearance as Count Dracula, looking as if they dressed him up for a costume-ball. Remember the Count from "Sesame Street"? Infinitely scarier. Sadly, this would be Boyd's final performance and you'll probably barely be able to recognize this wreck of a man who once was Masalla in "Ben Hur". There could have been a more fitting epitaph.

The films ending is as much a letdown as the rest of the film and comes so sudden, one is almost convinced the crew had run out of film (if it weren't for Eddy Aren't of course, who has ended Edgar Wallace- and countless other German films that way).

There are first Grade vampire-comedies like "Dance of the Vampires", B-grade like Clive Donners "Old Dracula", stinkers like "Dracula – Dead and Loving It" but this film really tops the bad, bad vampire comedies. Not even bad as in "so bad it is good" but simply awful as a comedy and anaemic as a vampire film. Trust a seasoned Horror-flick fan: avoid this like the plague.

More blood than a blutwurst, this camp West German black comedy concerns the long dead last victim of Count Dracula, resurrected by a construction crew one hundred years following her death, destined to upset the unsuspecting local populace.

Harris is in familiar territory playing the alpha-male police chief whose eccentric offsider (Arent) is the subject of frequent sight gags and punchlines at his expense. He soon falls for the eponymous villain whilst simultaneously investigating her ghastly crimes, blind to the obvious culprit right under his nose.

Beguiling Swiss bombshell Kraft is by no means a colour by numbers actress, and the fangs suit her, but the material doesn't always do her character justice e.g. The scene in which she's hit-on by an egotistical dwarf ('so small, yet so pushy' announces the leering bystander) is staged for a laugh although more likely to draw a weak chuckle at best.

Rounding out the talented cast, once an Irish paragon of style, ex-Hollywood star Boyd makes one of his last film appearances before his untimely death in 1977 (this was filmed in 1975). He's only in it briefly at the beginning, and looks to be having fun in spite of the rather camp, ghoulish appearance, quite a contrast to his typical on-screen persona and the earlier roles for which he's fondly remembered.

Beer-hall humour set to the typical kitsch Bavarian soundtrack of the era is more a polizioteschi version of 'Countess Dracula', 'Vampire Happening' and others of the ilk, distinguished somewhat by the eclectic cast, brisk pacing and a high body count (although its PG-grade stuff). There's very little gore on display, and so it's best viewed as an obscurity notable for the appearance of Kraft and Boyd (albeit briefly), and might attract minor cult interest.