The Satanic Rites of Dracula ** (1973, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Michael Coles, William Franklyn, Freddie Jones, Joanna Lumley) – Classic Movie Review 2,855

After the flop of Dracula AD 1972, Hammer Films try for another misguided update of the Dracula legend, and flop all over again in the eighth film in their Dracula series. The final Hammer film with Christopher Lee as Dracula, it is the end of an era. 

After the flop of its Dracula AD 1972, Hammer Films try for another misguided modernisation of the Dracula legend, and flop all over again in the eighth film in Hammer’s Dracula series. The final Hammer Film to feature Christopher Lee as Dracula, it is the end of an era, well almost, as Peter Cushing does return as Professor Van Helsing in Hammer’s 1974 martial arts horror film The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.

In director Alan Gibson’s 1973 horror movie The Satanic Rites of Dracula, Christopher Lee is finally out for the count in his last appearance (his seventh) as the Prince of Darkness in Hammer’s Dracula series. It turned out to be the last Hammer film in which both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing appear, although they reunited a final time ten years later for House of the Long Shadows. It is the third film to unite Cushing as Van Helsing with Lee, after Dracula (1958) and Dracula AD 1972 (1972).

It is a contemporary follow-up to Dracula AD 1972 with Lee and Cushing both returning and Michael Coles also reprising his role as Inspector Murray, but Joanna Lumley replaces Stephanie Beacham as Van Helsing’s granddaughter Jessica.

Sadly, it is a really odd, weary misfire in which the Count is a property developing businessman recluse in a London office block penthouse, who is plotting to unleash a fatal virus on the world. Scotland Yard think they have uncovered a case of vampirism and call in an expert vampire researcher, Peter Cushing’s Lorrimer Van Helsing (a descendant of the original vampire hunter) to root the vampire out.

In London in the 1970s, Count Dracula plans to promote a bubonic plague being developed by Van Helsing’s scientist friend, Professor Julian Keeley (Freddie Jones), who is being brainwashed to make the plague in his laboratory, while comely Joanna Lumley plays Van Helsing’s daughter Jessica, who is abducted Avengers-style by blood-thirsty Dracula to be his vampire bride.

The old legend just doesn’t work in this capitalist setting. Yes, property developers may be modern day vampires, but that amusing enough concept doesn’t make for a whole movie, certainly not in Don Houghton’s thin and struggling screenplay.

Also in the cast are Michael Coles, William Franklyn, Richard Vernon, Patrick Barr, Barbara Lu Ying, Maggie Fitzgerald, Peter Adair, Valerie Van Ost, Richard Mathews, Maurice O’Connell and Lockwood West.

The UK version runs at 87 minutes and the US version renamed Dracula Is Dead and Well and Living in London runs at 84 minutes. It is also known as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (a heavily edited US version).

The Satanic Rites of Dracula was filmed in Technicolor at the EMI/MGM Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, and on location at South Kensington and Notting Hill, London.

The screenplay is by Don Houghton, who wrote Dracula AD 1972, while veteran TV composer John Cacavas writes the original score.

Production began in November 1972 as Dracula is Dead and Well and Living in London. An angry Christopher Lee said: ‘I’m doing it under protest. I can think of 20 adjectives – fatuous, pointless, absurd. It’s not a comedy, but it’s got a comic title. I don’t see the point.’ The film was eventually retitled.

RIP national treasure Freddie Jones.

RIP the greatly admired and much loved British character actor Freddie Jones, who died on 9 July 2019, aged 91. He also appeared in Hammer Films’ Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed and in three David Lynch movies, Dune, The Elephant Man and Wild at Heart, as well as Fellini’s And the Ship Sails On.

The cast are Christopher Lee as Count Dracula / D D Denham, Peter Cushing as Lorrimer Van Helsing, Michael Coles as Inspector Murray, William Franklyn as Peter Torrence, Richard Vernon as Colonel Mathews, Joanna Lumley as Jessica Van Helsing, Valerie Van Ost as Jane, Barbara Yu Ling as Chin Yang, Freddie Jones as Dr. Julian Keeley, Maurice O’Connell as Agent Hanson, Richard Mathews as John Porter MP, Patrick Barr as Lord Carradine, Lockwood West as General Sir Arthur Freeborne, Peter Adair as doctor, John Harvey as the Commissionaire, Maggie Fitzgerald as vampire girl, Pauline Peart as vampire girl, Finnuala O’Shannon as vampire girl, Mia Martin as girl on altar, Marc Zuber as guard, Paul Weston as guard, Ian Dewar as guard, Graham Rees as guard.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,855

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