TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA

UK, 1969, 95 minutes, Colour.
Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Gwen Watford, Linda Hayden, Peter Sallis, Anthony Corlan John Carson, Ralph Bates.
Directed by Peter Sasdy.

Taste the Blood of Dracula is one of several Dracula films made by the Hammer Studios at the end of the '60s: Scars of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave. It once again stars Christopher Lee who reinterpreted the role during the '50s and '60s - and the role became strongly associated with him. Screenplay is by John Elder, writer of a number of the Hammer horror films. There is a particularly strong British cast. Director Peter Sasdy directed a number of the horror films of the period e.g. The Beast Must Die. Effective of its kind.

1. The popularity of the Dracula myth? The various versions - from the '30s and Hollywood to Hammer Studios in the '50s and '60s? The atmosphere of dream and nightmare? The living dead and devil-figure? The sensationalised material for the popular audience?

2. The English setting, period, the country town, homes and estates, the contrast with the bordello in the East End of London? The church, the ruins etc.? Lurid and dark colour, special effects especially for Dracula and for the deaths? Musical score? An authentic atmosphere for this kind of horror film?

3. The conventions of the genre: the evil man who becomes Dracula, Dracula and his symbols. behaviour. murder, lust? The villains? The romantic heroines - some vampirised, some freed? The heroic young man? How well were they put together here?

4. The dreamlike nature of the plot? Plausibility? The respectable English gentleman? Their severity in their homes? Their going to the bordello? The agreement with Lord Courtley? The ceremony? Dracula, his persecutions, killing the three gentlemen? The defeat of Dracula and the conquering of love?

5. Christopher Lee as Dracula: presence, appearance, style? Sinister evil living dead presence? violence and lust? Lord Courtley and his depravity and his deal with the businessmen? His becoming Dracula? The build-up to the confrontation and Dracula's defeat?

6. The characterising of the three men and their households, especially Hargood and his severity with his daughter, his hold over his wife? Paxton and his daughter? His son as the hero? Secker and his final relenting before death? The British character actors and the strength of the drawing of the characters?

7. Paul as conventional hero? Alice as persecuted heroine? In danger from Lucy? mesmerised by Dracula? Her killing her father with a spade? Lucy and Alice and the contrast in fate? Jeremy and Lucy's vampirising him? His killing his father? The symbol of family relationships, love and hatred?

8. The minor characters and their contribution - Martha Hargood, Roy Kinnear's comic style as Weller? The people in the village? The persons in the bordello?

9. The working out of the melodramatics - victims, predators, murders? The violence of the villain's death?

10. The contribution of this kind of entertainment to the perpetuation of the Dracula lore?