Old Dracula (1975/aka Old Drac/MGM
Limited Edition Collection DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: B-
PLEASE NOTE: This is an on-line only exclusive
from MGM and can be purchased from Amazon.com, which you can reach through the
sidebar of this site while supplies last.
Most Horror
film spoofs fall on their face, a fact that becomes increasingly so as more bad
would-be satires get made. You get
dozens of bad releases, but occasionally, you get a Young Frankenstein or Children
Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things. On
the short list of the few that do work, I would add the underrated and
underseen Clive Donner hit Old Dracula,
a 1975 release made by American International Pictures at the height of their
Blaxploitation productions.
Somewhat
politically incorrect and refreshingly so by today’s standards, David Niven is
great as the title character, still traveling the world in search of ways to
keep his immortality going. He made this
later in his long and distinguished career when he was at the exceptional
height of his powers of comedy and wit, as he would demonstrate again in Murder by Death a year later.
With his
assistant Maltravers (Peter Bayliss of From
Russia With Love, Darling) in
tow, they are back home at the old castle when a great opportunity
arrives. A photographer bringing a bus
load of touring Playboy Magazine bunnies/models want to visit to take pictures
and spend the night. Not only is this a
chance to get fresh blood, it is also a chance to see if they can find the rare
blood type that will revive the long-asleep love of his life, Vampira. Turns out they find it, but a flub on
Maltravers part means they cannot identify which gal is the donor. To make things wilder, the blood makes
Vampira into a black woman!
Teresa
Graves (Get Christie Love!, That Man Bolt, Turn-On) delivers a terrific performance that steals many scenes
and shows she was just more than a sexy woman with a pretty face. She looks great, but the fact that she holds
her own against Niven is amazing and she is a marvel to behold. The more she gets exposed to the new
counterculture around her, the more quickly she adapts. Nicky Henson (The Jokers) is also funny as the photographer who is used to get
the women, Jennie Linden (Dr. Who &
The Daleks) is the passive assistant trying to keep things together and
there are surprises at every turn.
Of course
the ladies playing the Playmates are well-cast, Veronica Carlson (Spyder’s Web, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave), Luan Peters and Minah Bird join
the female cast, while comic character actors Frank Thornton, Freddie Jones and
Patrick Newell have fine comic turns.
There are some serious moments involving sex and violence that will take
some by surprise, but the screenplay by Jeremy Lloyd (Are You Being Served?, ‘Allo
‘Allo!, Rowan & Martin’s
Laugh-In) is one of his rare theatrical film works, but the former actor
delivers what may just be a minor classic of the genre. It is hard to believe this is a Limited
Edition Collection release from MGM, but serious fans of the genre and film
should really see this one.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image can be soft at times, but despite the
disclaimer of only being able to get the best print available, this has some
great shots, some good color and the print is actually a British Columbia
Pictures print as they released it in the U.K., so who knows what happened to
the U.S. prints. However, they are the
same edit as far as we found and it is pretty faithful to the 35mm print I saw
in first release. This was shot by the
great Director of Photography Anthony B. Richmond, B.S.C. (The Man Who Fell To Earth) and looks really good (in the British
and Hammer traditions too) and has its moments.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is good for its age and may have a few
distortion problems, but the score by David Whittaker (Vampire Circus, Dr. Jekyll
& Sister Hyde) is another plus here.
That is good playback for an older film on DVD.
The only
extra is an original theatrical trailer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
