Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Count Dracula Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 27, 2020

For better or worse, Christopher Lee’s now legendary reputation rests at least in part on his many memorable portrayals of Dracula (Lee himself was evidently not all that happy to be so firmly associated with the character). Beginning with Hammer’s 1958 Horror of Dracula (also known simply as Dracula), Lee would play the fanged anti-hero for the studio six more times, though rather interestingly (and perhaps saliently in terms of the film currently under discussion), it took a few years for Lee to reprise the role. That was in 1966’s Dracula: Prince of Darkness, which was followed two years later by Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, which was itself followed another two years later (in 1970, for those who have lost count) by Taste the Blood of Dracula and also by Scars of Dracula (the fact that this Count Dracula was also also released in 1970 may suggest Lee could have understandably been suffering at least this particular year from overkill, so to speak). The biennial release tradition continued with Dracula A.D. 1972, which came out in its titular year and which perhaps mistakenly sought to “modernize” the character, something that continued with The Satanic Rites of Dracula in 1973, the last time Lee would essay the character for Hammer. While Lee had a cameo as Dracula in the little remembered Jerry Lewis helmed One More Time and also starred in an equally little remembered 1976 French comedy called Dracula and Son (a film that in at least some ways presages the better known Love at First Bite), this 1970 Count Dracula is the one non-Hammer horror outing where Lee plays the Count in a traditional historical setting in a context that is arguably at least as close if not closer to some of Bram Stoker’s original formulations than some of the Hammer outings.

At least a couple of other names should probably be taken into consideration in evaluating this version, including co-writer (one of many) and director Jesús Franco, and Klaus Kinski (a future Nosferatu the Vampyre himself, of course), cast here perhaps somewhat surprisingly as Renfield, in a performance that may confirm certain preconceptions about Kinski's often freewheeling style, while also providing perhaps a surprise or two along the way. Both some of the supplements and even the German trailer get into the ostensible fact that this version hews more closely to Stoker's original story, or at least more closely than the average Hammer adaptation, which of course may be setting the bar kind of low, all things considered with regard to how fanciful some of the Hammer Dracula films were. And this version does in fact pick up many of Stoker's original plot points, but kind of curiously without a ton of suspense or perhaps even more surprisingly, given the suave proclivities of Lee and the somewhat sensationalistic tendencies of Franco, kind of sexlessly.

One of the supplements gets into the fact that this version reportedly appealed to Lee because he'd finally have dialogue, including some of Stoker's original verbiage from the novel, but even he seems oddly withdrawn at times in this film. Franco's stylistic excesses are certainly on display, and I kind of only half joke when I say he must have gotten some kind of deal on a zoom lens which required him to use it a certain (high) quotient of the time in the film as a trade off.

Count Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Count Dracula is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.36:1. That aspect ratio may seem odd for a film of 1970 vintage, but the IMDb lists 1.37:1 as the original aspect ratio, and nothing looked off in the framing to me here. That said, the German trailer included on this disc looks closer to 1.66:1, and so I'm assuming it's quite possible this could have been exhibited in at least a slightly wider aspect ratio in some global markets. If the aspect ratio doesn't turn out to be a big deal, the soft, virtually grainless appearance of this presentation may well be. There's a kind of curious "video-esque" look here, and at certain moments, edges of things like fingers can almost look upscaled, with what look like just hints of stairstepping. The palette is generally pretty well suffused, but reds looked like they were drifting toward orange. The brief scene with a distraught mother trying to get her baby back from Dracula (yeah, right, you know how he is) which has been excised from some versions is here, but was obviously sourced from a smaller millimeter with considerable damage and a noticeable skewing toward blue (see screenshot 19, and that's actually one of the better looking moments from this sequence).

Count Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Count Dracula features an LPCM 2.0 mono track that supports dialogue reasonably well, but which has just some very slight distortion in some of the music cues, as in some supposed live music performances that show up at various points. It's obvious everything was post-looped, and so sync can be loose, as they say, but that said, it looked to me like most of the major players must have been speaking English during the actual shoot, since lip movements are at least reasonably close to what's being said much of the time.

Count Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Cuadecuc, Vampir (1080p; 1:06:18) is described as an "expressionistic" behind the scenes film.


• Audio Commentary by David Del Valle and Actress Maria Rohm is a very enjoyable listen (it sounds like maybe they were teleconferencing) full of anecdotes and production information. The "Harry" Rohm refers to is her husband, producer Harry Alan Towers, whom some trivia fans may remember made The Face of Fu Manchu and other Fu Manchu films with Lee, and who is also notable for having made three different versions of a legendary story by the venerable Agatha Christie, as I get into in our Ten Little Indians Blu-ray review.


• Beloved Count (480i; 26:24) is an interview with director Jess Franco, speaking in English (there are no optional subtitles for those who may have a hard time understanding his accent).


• A Conversation with Jack Taylor (480i; 10:00)


• Handsome Harker (1080p; 26:14) is an interview with Fred Williams, who gives a bit of introductory material in English, but who then moves on to German, with English subtitles.


• Stake Holders (1080p; 7:32) is an appreciation of Count Dracula by French filmmaker Christophe Gans. In French with English subtitles.


• Christopher Lee Reads Bram Stoker's Dracula (480i; 1:24:08) plays to stills and illustrations.


• German, French, Italian and Spanish Alternate Title Sequences (480i; 1:36, 1:23, 1:35, and 1:35)


• German Trailer (1080i; 3:08)

Count Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Considering this was a Jess Franco film, I frankly was expecting something considerably more salacious than Count Dracula turned out to be, and in fact a lot of this film is kind of weirdly distant and emotionless. Production values are generally okay, but Franco's incessant use of zoom lenses may give some viewers motion sickness. Video is definitely on the soft, grainless side, and audio has a few passing issues with regard to some of the music, but the supplemental package is quite interesting, for those considering a purchase.