Nige Burton & Jamie Jones, through Classic Monsters of the Movies, honors one of Hammer Studios' most interesting sequels: Taste the Blood of Dracula.
Directed by newcomer Peter (Countess Dracula/Hands of the Ripper/The Devil Within Her) Sasdy and written by Hammer veteran John Elder (aka Tony/Anthony Hinds), Taste bleeds with style (thanks in substantial part to cinematographer Arthur Grant), so much so that some Hammerheads rank the 1970 chapter right alongside the studio's vampiric breakthrough, (Horror of) Dracula.
As Burton and Jones explain, Christopher Lee was reluctant to revive his Count, and early on, the script catered to a surrogate to replace him (rather in the vein of Brides of Dracula's Baron Meinster), that being Ralph (Horror of Frankenstein/Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde/Lust for a Vampire/The Devil Within Her) Bates' Lord Courtley. Bates' character does, in fact, dominate the first phase of the dark exploit, but he's later made a vessel from which the Dracula manifests.
The authors detail how Elder's script switched antagonists, while maintaining its Faustian theme, centering on a Hellfire Club knockoff. The setup, therefore, is different than other Hammer/Dracula movies. Taste's club-of-debauchery twist is unexpected, and though Lee may have been wary (and weary) of Hammer's tried-and-true formula (reinstated by Warner Bros-Seven Arts' insistence), this submission established a memorable, guilt-ridden parable.
The cast helps, of course (its members detailed by pleasing, pictorial bios), headlined by the always regal Lee (who donned, for a portion of this movie, consuming-red contacts to emphasis his ravenous resurrection), and Bates enacts Courtley's immoralist with chilling condescension. They are accompanied by Linda (Blood on Satan's Claw/Madhouse/House on Straw Hill) Hayden; Martin (Titanic 1997/Eragon/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) Jarvis; Anthony (Vampire Circus/Young Sherlock Holmes/Sherlock Holmes Returns/Raiders of the Lost Ark) Corlan; Ilsa (A Hard Day's Night/Dr. Terror's House of Horrors/Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) Blair; Geoffrey (The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh/Cromwell/Doomwatch) Keen; Michael (The Brides of Dracula/Dracula Has Risen from the Grave/Scars of Dracula) Ripper; Peter (Wallis & Gromit/Last of the Summer Wine/A Night to Remember) Sallis; John (Captain Kronos/Plague of the Zombies/Doomsday) Carson; Roy (Scrooge 1970/The Three/Four Musketeers) Kinnear; Madeline (The Vampire Lovers/Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell/Live and Let Die) Smith; Russell (The Brave Don't Cry/Doctor Who: "The Robots of Death") Hunter; ... and Gwen (Never Take Sweets from a Stranger/Fall of the House of Usher 1950) Watford: indeed, as classy an ensemble as any Hammer production could deliver.
The Classic Monsters "Ultimate Edition" is all the more impactful for its scrumptious stills and publicity imagery, tied by Burton & Jones' "Quotable Quotes" and revealing trivia.
Please Note: Supplies of Classic Monsters' first-run printing for the Taste the Blood of Dracula are now low, so move fast while they last.
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