Scars of Dracula

Infobox_Film
name = Scars of Dracula


caption = "Scars of Dracula" cover
director = Roy Ward Baker
writer = Bram Stoker (character)
Anthony Hinds (screenplay)
starring = Christopher Lee
Patrick Troughton
Dennis Waterman
Jenny Hanley
Michael Gwynn
Michael Ripper
producer = Aida Young
distributor = Twentieth Century Fox/Hammer Studios
released = November 8, 1970
runtime = 96 min.
country = UK
language = English
preceded_by = "Taste the Blood of Dracula"
followed_by = "Dracula AD 1972"
amg_id = 1:43099
imdb_id = 0067713

"Scars of Dracula" is a 1970 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker for Hammer Studios. It breaks continuity with Hammer's previous Dracula vehicle "Taste the Blood of Dracula".

It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, alongside Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Patrick Troughton, and Michael Gwynn. Although disparaged by some critics, the film does restore a few elements of Bram Stoker's original character: The Count is introduced as an "icily charming host"; [David Pyrie, "A Heritage of Horror" (1973)] he has command over nature; and he is seen scaling the walls of his castle. It also gives Lee more to do and say than any other Hammer Dracula film except its first, 1958's "Horror of Dracula".

David Pirie, one of the first critics to take Hammer films seriously, criticized the film for tarnishing the Dracula myth by having him torture a servant with a red-hot sword and stab a woman to death. [Pyrie, "op cit"]

Plot summary

A prologue shows local villagers rising up and, led by the local innkeeper along with the priest, set fire to Castle Dracula. But when they return home, they find bats have swarmed inside the church where their women were waiting. Every single woman in the village is dead...

After being caught with the burgomasters' daughter, libertine Paul Carlson flees by jumping into a nearby coach. This deposits him near Count Dracula's mountaintop castle and there he becomes Dracula's latest victim. His more sober brother Simon Carlson and his fiancee Sarah Framsen come searching for him and end up fighting the Prince of Darkness.

Cast

*Christopher Lee (Count Dracula)
*Dennis Waterman (Simon Carlson)
*Jenny Hanley (Sarah Framsen)
*Christopher Matthews (Paul Carlson)
*Michael Gwynn (The Priest)
*Michael Ripper (Landlord)
*Patrick Troughton (Klove)
*Anounska Hempel (Tania)
*Wendy Hamilton (Julie)

Release notes

*The film was released in some markets on a double feature with The Horror of Frankenstein.

Trivia

*All of Jenny Hanley's dialogue was dubbed in post-production. No credit has been given to the actress whose voice is actually heard throughout the film.
*"Scars of Dracula" is the first Dracula film to attempt to capture the scene in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel where the Count actually crawls out and climbs along a wall in a bat-like manner, the only difference being that in the Stoker novel, Dracula climbs "down", while in "Scars of Dracula" he climbs "up".

Notes and references

External links

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* [http://taliesinttlg.blogspot.com/2006/06/scars-of-dracula-review.html Online Review]