Review of Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) by Van R — 09 Oct 2010

The resurrection ritual to restore Count Dracula becomes very complicated in the fourth Hammer Film with Christopher Lee as the eponymous vampire, Hungarian director Peter Sasdy's "Taste the Blood of Dracula," co-starring Geoffrey Keen, Linda Hayden, and Ralph Bates.

Remember, the notorious fangster died when he fell upon a large cross at the end of "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave." Like previous "Dracula" epics from Hammer, "Taste the Blood of Dracula" opens with the count writing in agony on the point of a cross.

Nothing that he can do will free him from the cross. A traveling salesman tumbles out of the stagecoach that he was riding in and stumbles aimlessly into sight of the dying vampire. The salesman watches in horror as Dracula dissolves into a heap of dessicated blood.

The black, red-lined cape and a signet ring remain all that is left of Dracula. Naturally, Lee returns in top form as Bram Stoker's immortal evildoer. Scenarist John Elder takes a different route to the resurrection than he took in "Dracula, Prince of Darkness.

" A trio of well-heeled, Victorian business men, who appear to be devout and pious churchgoers, grow bored with their extracurricular activities in a brothel and turn to Black Magic for a thrill, only to discover murder and mayhem.

Dracula reappears about a half-hour later in this atmospheric 91-minute chiller and exacts revenge on the thrill seekers for killing his servant. Like the earlier Dracula movie, "Taste the Blood of Dracula" has an illicit, forbidden romance between the heroine and her lover.

Ralph Bates makes quite an impression as Dracula's latest incarnation of trusty old Renfield. The sexual scenes of excess primarily consist of the husbands enjoying a woman as she dances with a huge snake.