BLOOD FOR DRACULA

BLOOD FOR DRACULA

(A.k.a. ANDY WARHOL'S DRACULA)

Count Dracula (Udo Kier) is ailing. His Romanian homeland just isn't providing the virgin blood he needs to thrive anymore. So his servant Anton (Arno Juerging) organises a trip to Italy, where he believes a strong Catholic faith will ensure that well-to-do families have kept their daughters pure. His thinking is to advertise locally the fact that the Count is in search of a bride.

Anton spreads this news around a local tavern and it soon filters through to a member of Italian nobility, Il Marchese Di Fiore (Vittorio De Sica). Behind this patriarch's veneer of a stately home in the countryside and his aura of wealth, we learn that he's flat broke - with no less than four daughters to provide for.

Of these, Saphiria (Dominique Darel) and Rubinia (Stefania Casini) are, unbeknownst to their aged parents, sexually precocious young women. When they're not having sex with surly muscle-bound handyman Mario (Joe Dallesandro) they're getting it on with each other.

Esmeralda (Milena Vukotic) is an odd sister, quiet and intense. Finally there's 14-year-old innocent Perla (Silvia Dionisio). Mario admits he'd love to "rape the Hell out of" her.

Before you know it, their father and his wife (Maxime McKendry) are conniving to marry off one of their daughters to the presumably affluent Count. They invite him to their chateau and insist he stays as their guest, affording him the chance to get to know their offspring better. Such is their greed, they don't even stop to question the coffin that travels with him or the fact that he's in such ill health.

As the Count gets more familiar with the girls one by one, he inevitably sets his sights on the promiscuous ones first. Saphiria is the first to be courted by Dracula, and lies through her teeth when asked if she's a virgin. He soon discovers the truth though when he sinks his teeth into her neck, drinks her blood ... and becomes violently sick moments later.

Will the Count find the pure blood he needs to rejuvenate himself? Or can randy Mario deflower the entire household first?

Made back-to-back with former video nasty FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (literally, DRACULA began shooting an hour after the principal photography for FRANKENSTEIN was completed), this film far outclasses its more notorious companion piece.

While the performances are of the high camp variety - particularly those of Kier and Juerging - the cinematography is surprisingly pretty and austere. The Italian countryside looks beautiful and fine use is made of some beautiful buildings. The interiors of the family's home alone are at times breathtaking, especially in HD.

Deviant humour runs throughout director Paul Morrissey's screenplay, but is underpinned by an unexpectedly effective sense of melancholy that presents Dracula as a victim of circumstance - he's less the monster of old, more the underdog on this occasion. It's an interesting spin on an old legend, as Morrissey's decisions on the Count having aversions to sunlight, garlic and crucifixes instead of being wholly vulnerable to them.

The women are effortlessly sexy (it's weird now seeing Casini totally nude, after years of associating her more with SUSPIRIA); Dallesandro is a handsome, virile lead complete with the only anachronistic accent in the production (unlike the rest of the European cast, he speaks with a naturally thick Brooklyn twang).

The healthy, thriving physicality of Mario is an important contrast to Dracula's pale, weak demeanour. Morrissey's plot is set in the 1920s, shortly after the Russian revolution - something that idealistic Mario refers to frequently - and a changing in social climate is felt throughout the film. The Count, a figure of nobility who has fed off the poor for years, a figurative vampire as well as a literal one if you will, is now seen as a crumbling mess - symbolic of how his class had become a dying breed at the time. Likewise, the family home is decaying and run-down, its servants having deserted their once-rich employers' out-of-pocket abode. Only the daughters, with their fresh liberalism at loggerheads with their parents' stuffy traditions, show any sign of vibrancy in the household.

With such politics to consider alongside the opulent architecture, sumptuous landscapes, exaggerated performances and erotic sex scenes, BLOOD FOR DRACULA really does add up to an unusually rich viewing proposition.

It has flaws. The pace is best described as languid; a scene in the tavern starring Roman Polanski (who turned up on the shoot for one day) is fun but contrived and out-of-place; Carlo Rambaldi's gory FX work is underused, only really coming into play during the over-the-top finale.

But along the way there are enough pleasures to ensure any shortcomings can quickly be overlooked: the artful opening scenes of Kier painting his hair and eyebrows - getting into character for the film, or the Count preparing himself for a public outing?; an exquisite piano-led score; incestuous lesbianism; out-there scenes such as Dracula lying on the floor to lick up the produce of a teenager's broken hymen ...

Australian distributors Shock DVD bring BLOOD FOR DRACULA to region B blu-ray in a fully uncut presentation that adheres to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Naturally, it's 16x9 enhanced.

Presented as an MPEG4-AVC file, the transfer benefits from 1080 resolution and is interlaced rather than progressive. Even so, it's a very nice proposition on the whole and motions flow smoothly. What's immediately apparent as the opening scene of Kier applying make-up before a mirror, is that the film hasn't undergone any restoration here. Debris and scratches are there on the print, along with minor but visible grain.

The onscreen debris does settle down quite quickly and as events progress it turns out that the print utilised here is an agreeably clean one. In the first few minutes, I did think that colours were going to be disappointingly muted. However, that's not the case - colours do quickly become vibrant, especially in daylight and exterior scenes. Detail is fine, a keen sense of depth is enjoyed during wider moments and the clarity in close-up scenes can sometimes be remarkable. There are a few moments of over-exposure, but these may well be symptomatic of how the film was shot.

In fact, as the film goes on, this transfer impressed more and more. Landscapes look more beautiful than ever; paintings and architecture are more striking than before; the climactic gore scenes have never seemed so vivid.

On balance, the transfer proffered here is very comparable to Redemption Kino's initial run of Jean Rollin blu-rays: natural, filmic, impressive - despite bearing trace of warts and all.

English 2.0 audio gets the lossless Master DTS-HD treatment and is reliably clean throughout. There's no hiss, no dropout - literally the only 'pop' I encountered was at the very last second of the end credits, just as the film expired. So if that concerns you, you need to see a doctor.

The disc opens to a static main menu page. A pop-up scene-selection menu allows access to the film via 12 chapters.

Bonus features are ported across from previous Laserdisc and DVD releases.

The first and most substantial of these is an excellent audio commentary track from Morrissey, Kier and historian Maurice Yacowar (a cut-and-paste job). Morrissey even announces at the start of this that it's being recorded for the Criterion Laserdisc release...

In it, Morrissey talks about how DRACULA was brought into production very swiftly after the producer of FRANKENSTEIN suggested the same crew make a partner film at short notice. Themes - such as the then-popular concept of Communism - are mulled over, as is Morrissey's preferred approach of improvisation. He's gracious about his cast too, as well as being honest enough to discuss how the film was meant to be more serious in tone.

This latter fact is reinforced in the next extra, 5 minutes of archival screen test footage, where Morrissey's commentary highlights how Srdjan Zelenovic (the male monster in FRANKENSTEIN) was originally set to play a far more sombre Count in this film. He was replaced at the 11th hour because he was wanted by the police at the time...

We also get an immensely generous, handsomely prepared 25-minute photo gallery - a mix of colour and monochrome - which are also accompanied by further anecdotes and trivia from Morrissey's continued narration.

The disc is housed in a keepcase packaging, with an additional outer card slipcase for good measure.

FRANKENSTEIN has also been released on blu-ray by Shock.

BLOOD FOR DRACULA is an undisputed classic of 70s horror, as weird as it certainly is. Until someone goes to the effort of restoring it fully, it looks very nice - the best it ever has - in this surprise blu-ray release.

By Stuart Willis


 
Released by Shock DVD
Region B
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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