I've been seeking out a bunch of Dracula movies since reading Bram Stoker's novel. After viewing this Spanish B-picture, "The Great Love of Count Dracula," it's clear to me that I've looked too far. I've seen other vampire movies that aren't Dracula movies, per se, but still rework similar themes from Stoker, from the unauthorized adaptation of "Nosferatu" (1922), to the WW2-era "The Return of the Vampire" (1943), to the blaxploitation "Blacula" (1972). "The Great Love of Count Dracula" has a character named Dracula, but nothing else to do with Stoker, and it doesn't do anything interesting beyond blood and nude breasts--and blood on nude breasts. Besides the lesbian licking scene, there's not even that much more nudity than can be found in the mainstream 1992 "Dracula," either, for instance. And, blood splatter hasn't been uncommon in vampire films since the Hammer series began in 1958.
I watched the terribly-dubbed English-language version. It includes a lot of voiceover narration in the later part, to try to explain the nonsense on screen, which includes whipping, using blood as a kind of ready-mix solution for a vampire skeleton (which is similar to Dracula's resurrection in Hammer's "Dracula: Prince of Darkness" (1966)), chained female vampires screaming under sweltering sunlight and other outrageous spectacles. Between this schlock are pathetic artsy attempts with scenes involving black-and-white photography, negative-looking images, slow-motion and reverse-motion photography. At least all of this is preferable to the exposition-heavy opening scenes, where characters tell much of the story rather than showing it. We learn, for instance, that it takes place after Van Helsing and company allegedly killed the Count, and that they're going to a Seward-like sanitarium since abandoned. I'm still not sure why there are four women with one man comprising the travelers... well, OK, I do know why, but I don't recall them explaining it within the story. Anyways, their carriage breaks down, and the film turns into an old-dark-house type of horror movie before the weird voiceover-narrated stuff starts happening.
Dracula is portrayed by a short and stocky man--an oddity that's even pointed out by one of the ladies, who says she prefers her men tall and slender. Apparently, he's weak now, and he needs the voluntary love of a virgin--or something--to regain his powers. Dracula sets animal traps for some reason. Vampires have laughably white-painted faces. Dracula kills all of them, including some drawn-out fist fights with the other male vamps. Then, when the virgin rejects him, he performs hara-kiri on himself with a wooden stake. An exasperatingly-extended crosscutting sequence between sunrises and Dracula's decomposing face/skull, which is essentially a rip-off of Hammer's type of effects, plays us out.
The Van Helsing-authored book in Dracula's library is probably the closest thing to something intelligent in this film, although other vampire films have had a vampire book, authored by Van Helsing or not, within their narratives.
(Mirror Note: Dracula's lack of a reflection is revealed through a mirror shot in one of the film's numerous make-out scenes.)
I watched the terribly-dubbed English-language version. It includes a lot of voiceover narration in the later part, to try to explain the nonsense on screen, which includes whipping, using blood as a kind of ready-mix solution for a vampire skeleton (which is similar to Dracula's resurrection in Hammer's "Dracula: Prince of Darkness" (1966)), chained female vampires screaming under sweltering sunlight and other outrageous spectacles. Between this schlock are pathetic artsy attempts with scenes involving black-and-white photography, negative-looking images, slow-motion and reverse-motion photography. At least all of this is preferable to the exposition-heavy opening scenes, where characters tell much of the story rather than showing it. We learn, for instance, that it takes place after Van Helsing and company allegedly killed the Count, and that they're going to a Seward-like sanitarium since abandoned. I'm still not sure why there are four women with one man comprising the travelers... well, OK, I do know why, but I don't recall them explaining it within the story. Anyways, their carriage breaks down, and the film turns into an old-dark-house type of horror movie before the weird voiceover-narrated stuff starts happening.
Dracula is portrayed by a short and stocky man--an oddity that's even pointed out by one of the ladies, who says she prefers her men tall and slender. Apparently, he's weak now, and he needs the voluntary love of a virgin--or something--to regain his powers. Dracula sets animal traps for some reason. Vampires have laughably white-painted faces. Dracula kills all of them, including some drawn-out fist fights with the other male vamps. Then, when the virgin rejects him, he performs hara-kiri on himself with a wooden stake. An exasperatingly-extended crosscutting sequence between sunrises and Dracula's decomposing face/skull, which is essentially a rip-off of Hammer's type of effects, plays us out.
The Van Helsing-authored book in Dracula's library is probably the closest thing to something intelligent in this film, although other vampire films have had a vampire book, authored by Van Helsing or not, within their narratives.
(Mirror Note: Dracula's lack of a reflection is revealed through a mirror shot in one of the film's numerous make-out scenes.)