OK Hammer horror film. Three Victorian gentlemen (through some VERY convoluted circumstances) beat to death a servant (Ralph Bates REALLY chewing the scenery) of Dracula. This somehow revives Dracula (Christopher Lee) who vows vengeance on the men. He either hypnotizes or turns their children into vampires who kill their fathers.Not a bad film. It's handsomely produced and (with the sole exception of Bates) has good acting...but why is Dracula in it? He doesn't pop up until 50 minutes in and is hardly in it thereafter. He seems like a mere afterthought. The movie mostly concentrates on the romance between Alice Hargood (Linda Hayden) and Paul Paxton (Anthony Higgins). Still it's not bad with few bitings and bloody killings. However a bigger role for Lee could have only helped. So it's OK. Try to see the R rated 95 minute version. Avoid the edited 91 minute PG version.

I didn't think Dracula needed a revenge motive to do his dirty work but it's the basis on which this story rests, with Christopher Lee's vampire utilizing a pair of buxom maidens to ultimately destroy his enemies. Actually, it seemed like the character Lord Courtley (Ralph Bates) reincarnated as Lee's Dracula when the whole soul selling deal went South, so that created a bit of a disconnect for me. Come to think of it, there were a lot of disconnects here. Like how is it that the shady businessman Weller (Roy Kinnear) managed to accumulate Dracula's effects after having the bejeezus scared out of him when thrown out of the coach? And what's to account for Dracula spinning around on a wooden stake when Weller finds him in the first place? How did all that happen? Oh well, by this time it probably wasn't supposed to make much sense. As usual though, Hammer Films kept pace with their ornate and colorful Victorian sets, absolutely chock full of furniture, photos, cabinets and glassware of all kinds that one has a difficult time absorbing before the next scene occurs. Lee himself is not in the film all that much, an apparent concession to his unwillingness to reprise the role once more, but absolutely demanded by Hammer fans.Anyway, the whole business with the dried blood of Dracula used to reanimate the Count was a novel enough idea; there's only so many ways one can go back to the well and keep things interesting. I didn't feel too bad for Hargood, Paxton and Secker since they were utterly contemptible in their hedonism, especially Hargood the way he treated his daughter Alice (Linda Hayden). Surprising though the way Secker was up on his vampire lore the way he was, after seeing the bites on Lucy Paxton's (Isla Blair) neck, and knowing how a wooden stake through the heart would put Dracula's victims to rest. You would think his brothel buddies would have been more surprised about his knowledge of the vampire game.

"Taste the Blood of Dracula!" Now that's a title that doesn't mess around! Anyway, the plot: Picking up minutes where the last one left off, a British businessman wanders by just as Dracula is dying. Taking his cape, broach, and a vile of his blood, the man returns to England. Meanwhile, a group of four idle old men spend their nights in brothels. Looking for further experiences, they team up with young Lord Courtley, a budding Satanist. All four get together to revive Dracula, who Courtley is seemingly a big fan of. After the other men refuse, Courtley drinks the Count's blood and dies. Dracula is reborn through his corpse. Alive again, the Count goes after the four men in a poorly defined quest for revenge."Taste the Blood of Dracula" was released in 1970. By that point, Hammer was starting to loose ground to more explicit horror films. The film is a good example of how the loosening censors of the time and the studio's need to catch up with other companies. "Taste" is sexier, bloodier, and darker then previous Dracula films. The thrill seekers' late night visit to a brothel provides plenty of titillation and some briefly glimpsed female nudity. When Dracula bites a female victim, the sexual subtext of the act is more obvious then ever before as the girl seems to have an orgasm. As for the violence, aside from the dripping goblet of bubbling Dracula blood, we see a shovel wound to a head in close-up detail, shootings, stabbings, and easily the most graphic impalement ever seen in one of these films. For extra points, a living human is staked, proving that procedure works just as well on the living as it does the dead.The movie is darker in tone too. While Dracula's always been the Prince of Darkness, this is the first in the series to explicitly reference the Count's Satanic roots. Actually, quite a lot of attention is paid to Satanism and the dark arts. Predicting what would happen in the eighties with the famous slasher villains, "Taste the Blood of Dracula" is obviously on the vampire's side. The four men he's hunting down are a despicable lot. Geoffrey Keen's William Hargood is a hypocrite who spends the night in whore houses but forbids his daughter from going out. He's also an alcoholic who, in one drunken scene, attempts to whip his daughter with a riding crop. The other two are cowardly jerks who are more then willing to let a murder just happen. The audience is rooting for Drac to take these a-holes out.As is commonplace by now, the script was written so that Christopher Lee would have as small a role as possible. Originally, he wasn't even supposed to be in the movie. The first half of the film focuses on the wicked old men and how they eventually resurrect the Count. Even if the thrill seekers are unpleasant folks, this part of the film packs in enough cheap thrills to keep you watching. More over, Hammer assembles another great cast. Ralph Bates, especially, tears it up as the wicked Courtley. Keen is seriously hate-able while Peter Sallis and John Carson are slightly more sympathetic as the other two members. After all that build-up, it's a blast watching the Count work his way through the cast.After the Thriller Seekers are eliminated, "Taste the Blood of Dracula" falls into a less interesting pattern. As is the way by now, Dracula targets young women. In this case, he hypnotizes Alice, the daughter of Hargood, and bites another girl named Lucy, this one being the daughter of Peter Sallis' character. Instead of getting his hands dirty, Dracula has the girls do his work for him. (Linda Hayden and Isla Blair both look nice in the low-cut gowns, providing the required amount of heaving bosoms.) Once the fathers are gone, Alice's boyfriend – another guy named Paul – sets about saving her from the Count. This leads to one of the lamest endings in the Hammer cannon. Dracula had set up camp in a desecrated church, which was maybe not the best decision. Paul adds all the crosses back to the church, re-blessing the place, all under Dracula's nose. Upon realizing that his crib is covered with Christian symbols, Drac freaks out, falls off a balcony, and turns to dust. Not the most dignified way for the greatest vampire in the world to go.The film was directed by Peter Sasdy, a minor Hammer director who also handled "Countess Dracula" and "Hands of the Ripper." (In addition to Brit-horror cult classic "The Stone Tape," which I keep meaning to check out.) Sasdy is not as good at building tension as Terence Fisher nor as flashy as Freddie Francis. Indeed, Sasdy's direction is probably why "Taste the Blood of Dracula" is the first Hammer-Drac flick to lack any scares what so ever. But Sasdy has his moment. The guy throws in some British fog. The graveyard and old church sets all look fantastic. Sasdy shows a decent use of shadow and I like how he shines a light on Lee's face, bringing the Lugosi film to mind."Taste the Blood of Dracula," awesome title and all, is probably the weakest of Hammer's Dracula films thus far. After getting off to a decent start, the film really falters in its second half and wraps up on a seriously disappointing ending. Yet it still maintains the Hammer house style and provides the fun viewers are looking for.

"Taste the Blood of Dracula" marked Christopher Lee's fourth incarnation of Bram Stoker's irrepressible Transylvanian vampire. Previously, Hammer Films had confined Dracula to the European continent. Anthony Hinds' screenplay brings the Count to England and focuses on the outrageous hypocrisy of three respectable British gentlemen who like to walk on the wild side. They engage in an act of black magic and bring doom down on their heads as a consequence. This is the first "Dracula" epic to take a social commentary angle. Furthermore, director Peter Sasdy and Hinds refrain from mentioning the word 'vampire' until 72 minutes has elapsed.An English merchant named Weller (Roy Kinnear of "The Three Musketeers") is unceremoniously pitched out of a coach when he upsets a retarded man. Weller sprawls out unconsciously on the ground and doesn't awaken for some time after the coach has gone. He gathers up his goods and sets off into the woods. The howl of a wolf and then several eldritch screams assail his ears and he flees in panic for nowhere in particular until he loses his footing and plunges down a slope. When he looks up, Weller spots the infamous Count Dracula writhing in agony on a golden crucifix. Dracula (Christopher Lee of "Horror of Dracula") dies on the crucifix and his body dissolves along with his blood. Indeed, "Countess Dracula" director Peter Sasdy's "Taste the Blood of Dracula" picks up where "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave" concluded. Dracula fell from his castle and landed on the crucifix. Impaled, he bled blood from his eyeballs as he struggled and Weller watched in horror as the infamous Count vanished, leaving behind his stylistic black cape, his ring, and a buckle with the name 'Dracula' on it.The narrative shifts to Victorian England as wealthy William Hargood (Geoffrey Keen of "Dr. Zhivago") and his wife Martha (Gwen Watford) are leaving church. Their comely teenage daughter Alice (Linda Hayden of "Old Drac") is infatuated with handsome Paul Paxton (Anthony Higgins of "Raiders of the Lost Ark"), but Alice's father disapproves of the shameless fashion with which she is carrying on and confines her to her room for her behavior. After church, stuff hypocritical William joins his comrades Samuel Paxton (Peter Sallis of "Wuthering Heights") and Jonathon Secker (John Carson of "The Plague of the Zombies") as they head out to perform charity work in London's East End. Well, Martha Hargood believes her dutiful husband William is helping the destitute. Little does she know that the trio of businessmen are indulging in carnal pleasures. Specifically, they are huddled around a woman dancing with a python wrapped around her shoulders. In the midst of their pleasure, the threesome notice Felix (Russell Hunter) trying to dissuade a young gentlemen from barging in on them.Lord Courtley (Ralph Bates of "Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde") invades their company. Courtley has been disowned by his wealthy father, and he convinces the thrill seeking trio to do something really terrible. He inquires if they would like to sell their souls to the devil. He takes them to see Weller and the merchant sells the dried blood of Dracula to them for a thousand guineas. Later, they meet in a cathedral, and Courtley gives them each a goblet and distributes a portion of Dracula's dried blood in it. He slashes his hand and squeezes his own blood into each vessel and the stuff bubbles up with thunder and lightning accompanying it. When Courtley commands them to drive, they shrink in revulsion at his demand. Meanwhile, Courtley drinks from a chalice. He screams out them in agony and collapses himself in front of them. As he begs them to help him, the three old men strike him viciously with their canes and kick poor Courtley to death. They flee from the church. Hargood returns home and orders Martha to tell anybody who asks that he spent the evening at home. Not long after the three have gone, Courtley's supine body is covered with dust and Dracula emerges from it. Dracula reappears at 45 minutes into the action. "They have killed my servant," he observes and then vows. "They will be destroyed." Meantime, in the country somewhere, Alice and Paul celebrate the occasion of Lucy Paxton's engagement to her lover Jeremy Secker (Martin Jarvis) while they cavort about on horseback. Of course, Alice's father would be livid with indignation at the thought that Alice would disobey him and ride with Paul. Hargood meets with Secker and Paxton and they discuss their alibi. Later, after Hargood returns home, he catches Alice fresh from the party with Paul. He slaps her around and she flees right into Dracula's arms. Hargood pursues Alice into the garden and Dracula hypnotizes her into killing her abusive father with a shovel. "The first," utters Dracula solemnly. After Hargood's funeral, Alice entreats Lucy to meet her and they take a ride in a coach to the church where Dracula was resurrected and he turns Lucy into a vampire. Eventually, Secker and Paxton return to the premises to see if Courtley's body has been discovered. Imagine Paxton's surprise when they find Lucy with bite marks on her neck in a crypt! Secker calls her a vampire.Ralph Bates excels as the upstart Courtley, Dracula's servant, who arranges for his return. Christopher Lee is his usual dignified self in his red-lined cape and fangs. "Taste the Blood of Dracula" differs from previous "Dracula" films with the fiendish bloodsucker exacting revenge on the trio that murdered his servant. The camera work is excellent.