Thursday, October 04, 2012

31 Days of Dracula | Christopher Lee (1958)



It makes me sad to admit that I've never seen the Hammer Dracula films as an adult. I used to catch them on TV every once in a while as a kid, but I keep waiting for someone to release a definitive DVD collection and it's just never happened.

Starting with Dracula in '58 (renamed Horror of Dracula for US release), Christopher Lee combined the suave handsomeness of Bela Lugosi with the ugly horror of Max Schreck. He was a tall, seductive vampire, but Hammer was known for blood as much as bosoms and Lee's time as the Count introduced the sanguine side of the story in all its gory glory.

The series was a hit and turned eight sequels: The Brides of Dracula (1960), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969), Scars of Dracula (1970), Dracula AD 1972 (1972), The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974).

3 comments:

Wings1295 said...

One of these Lee as Dracula films is a favorite of mine, but for some reason the title is escaping me. Doh!

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

I hear you about waiting for a box set. It seems like a day doesn't go by were I don't see an ad for the Universal Monsters Blu-ray collection and how I would have eaten that up as a kid.

If you're looking for a drive-thru of Lee's take on Dracula, James Rolfe has done video reviews of each movie. Just click on the titles to get to the videos.

http://cinemassacre.com/2011/10/16/hammer-dracula-roundup/

Also, I discover today that Dracula and Zorro once battled in a comic book miniseries:

http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2012/10/longbox-of-damned-dracula-vs-zorro.html

Michael May said...

I remember those Topp comics!

Thanks for the Rolfe link. I'll dig into that.

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