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Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1969
Running Times: 95 mins
Format: Technicolor 35mm
Ratio:
Sound:
CREDITS
PRODUCTION
Production Company: Hammer
Films
Producer: Aida Young
Production Manager: Christopher Sutton
SCRIPT
Script: John Elder (real name: Anthony Hinds)
Characters: Bram Stoker
DIRECTION
Director: Peter Sasdy
Assistant Director: Derek Whitehurst
PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Arthur Grant
EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Chris Barnes
MUSIC
Musical Supervisor: Philip Martell
Music: James Bernard
SOUND
Recording Supervisor: Tony Lumkin
Sound Recording: Ron Barron
Sound Editor: Roy Hyde
Dubbing Mixer: Dennis Whitlock
Sound System: RCA Sound Recording
MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Gerry Fletcher
Hair Supervisor: Mary Bredin
Wardrobe Master: Bruno Owen-Smith
SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Brian Johncock (real name: Brian Johnson)
DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Scott MacGregor
Construction Manager: Arthur Banks
MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Geraldine Lawton
LOCATIONS
Locations: Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, England, UK
STUNTS
Stunts: Peter Brace, Eddie Powell (both uncredited)
CAST
Christopher Lee
(Count Dracula)
Geoffrey Keen (William Hargood)
Gwen Watford (Martha)
Linda Hayden (Alice
Hargood)
Peter Sallis (Samuel Paxton)
Isla Blair (Lucy Paxton)
John Carson (Jonathan Secker)
Martin Jarvis (Jeremy Secker)
Anthony Corlan (Paul Paxton)
Ralph Bates (Lord Courtley)
Roy Kinnear (Weller)
Shirley Jaffe (maid)
Michael Ripper
(Cobb)
Russell Hunter (Felix)
Keith Marsh (father)
Peter May (son)
Reginald Barratt (vicar)
Maddy Smith (Dolly)
Lai Ling (Chinese girl)
Malaika Martin (snake girl)
Amber Blare, Vicky Gillespie (bordello girls - uncredited)
June Palmer (prostitute - uncredited)
PLOT SUMMARY
Three jaded, middle-class and outwardly respectable Victorian hedonists,
seek for a regular fix in the brothels of London's East End. On one
such trip they encounter the arrogant Lord Courtley who entices them
to an antiques shop where he cajoles them into buying the ring, cloak
and powdered blood of Dracula. In a deconsecrated church, Courtley revives
the Count by mixing his own blood with the powder and drinking the resulting
liquid. When Courtley starts to choke on the blood, the three men beat
him to death and, after they leave, Dracula is reborn in Courtley's
body, swearing vengeance on the three murderers.
CAPSULE REVIEW
The 70s began well for Hammer with the excellent Taste the
Blood of Dracula, which saw Peter Sasdy making his debut for
the company. It's a complex and intelligent film that played on many
of the social concerns of the day, one of the last times that Hammer
was to so successfully plug into the prevailing zeitgeist. It deliberately
plays to a youth audience in a way that subsequent attempts failed to
do - it captures both the cynicism and the sense of betrayal in the
air at the end of the 60s and was an early example of a theme that was
to dominate much of British horror in the early years of the 70s, the
representation of the family unit as a dysfunctional breeding ground
for sexual and social repression, incubators of unrest and psychoses.
AVAILABILITY
UK
Theatrical Distributor: Warner-Pathe Distributors Limited
USA
Theatrical Distributor: Warner-Seven Arts
CENSORSHIP HISTORY
Australia
Rating: M
Finland
Rating: banned in 1970
Norway
Rating: 16
Sweden
Rating: 15
UK
Rating: 15
USA
Rating: PG
TIMELINE
1970
May
7: UK - theatrical release (on double bill with Crescendo
(1970))
September
16: USA - theatrical release
1971
February
1: Sweden - theatrical release
1972
January
Day Unknown: Norway - theatrical release
1975
August
9: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)
1987
September
23: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)
1991
September
28: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)
1993
January
30: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)
1994
September
30: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)
1995
December
15: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)
1996
December
20: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)
1998
August
22: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)
POSTER TAGS
They taste his blood and the horror begins!
ALTERNATIVE TITLES
Blodsmak - Swedish
title
Una messa per Dracula - Italian title
Paholaisen lähettiläs - Finnish title
El poder de la sangre de Drácula -
Spanish title
Wie schmeckt das Blut von Dracula? -
German title
LINKS
SEQUEL TO
Dracula
(1958)
The Brides
of Dracula (1960)
Dracula:
Prince of Darkness (1966)
Dracula
Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
SEQUELS
Scars of Dracula
(1970)
Dracula A.D.
1972 (1972)
The
Satanic Rites of Dracula
(1974)
REFERENCES
MAGAZINES
Cahiers du Cinema no.225 (November /
December 1970) p.63 (France)
review
Dark Terrors no.6 (March - June 1993)
pp.14-15 (UK)
illustrated article
Dark Terrors no.9 (November 1994) pp.40-41
(UK)
illustrated credits, production notes
Films and Filming vol.16 no.10 (July
1970) pp.47-48 (UK)
credits, review
Hollywood Reporter vol.208 no.27 (7 November
1969) p.13
credits
Hollywood Reporter vol.213 no.1 (23 September
1970) p.12 (USA)
review
The House That Hammer Built no.7 (February
1998) pp.368-376 (UK)
illustrated credits, synopsis, review
Kine Weekly no.3266 (16 May 1970) p.10
(UK)
review
Midi-Minuit Fantastique no.24 (Winter
1970 / 1971) pp.66-67 (France)
review
Monthly Film Bulletin vol.37 no.437 (June
1970) p.132 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review
Today's Cinema no.9753 (24 November 1970)
p.21 (UK)
credits
Today's Cinema no.9756 (1 December 1969)
p.8 (UK)
credits
Today's Cinema no.9804 (15 May 1970)
p.8 (UK)
review
Variety 20 May 1970 p.26 (USA)
credits, review
BOOKS
The Hammer Story pp.130-131
illustrated article, review (by Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes)
English Gothic (2nd edition) pp.166-167
illustrated credits, review (by Jonathan Rigby)
KEYWORDS
vampires; dracula; sequels; revenge; brothels
Last Updated:
1 January, 2009
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