El gran amor del conde Drácula (1973) Reviews

• Count Dracula's Great Love

  Scarecrow-882009-12-12

  The late great Paul Naschy had his chance to step into the role of Count Dracula, and scripted this weird variation on the vampire. Five tourists, one man taking four lovely ladies on a tour through the Carpathian Mountains, when their horse carriage loses a wheel and one of the steeds kicks the driver in the head killing him. They make their way up to a castle once ran as an asylum, and are greeted hospitably by a doctor living on the residence, Dr. Wendell Marlow(Naschy). Before this story's set-up we see two deliverers dropping off a casket to the castle, both falling prey to, we presume, Dracula of the title, one bitten on the throat, another taking a hatchet to the noggin, falling down a flight of steps. The deliverer bitten takes a bite out of Imre(Víctor Alcázar), the man of the group staying with Marlow, and it sets of a chain reaction where by film's end, practically everyone is a vampire. Dracula and the sole survivor, Karen(Haydée Politoff)fall in love and this makes his prospects of using her(..and a village girl virgin)blood to reawaken his dead daughter who has been resting for centuries. Everything seems to go according to plan(..added to the script is the act of flogging the virgin village girl as part of the ceremony!)but Dracula finds it difficult to have Karen sacrifice herself to give life to his beloved daughter once again. The other girls who become Dracula's vampire slaves to do his bidding include, the luscious, voluptuous Senta(Rosanna Yanni), Marlene(Ingrid Garbo), and Elke(Mirta Miller). What Dracula eventually decides when Karen decides whether or not to be his undead bride, is stunning to say the least(..it's certainly unusual for this type of film and rather tragically romantic!). I won't lie, this is very slow to start, hitting it's stride right around the 45 minute mark, as the boobs and bloodletting commence. The script does more than establish the characters and director Javier Aguirre has plenty of time to milk the castle setting and the area around it. Shooting it a lot at night or daybreak, you get a good sense of foreboding, and eventually your patience pays off when the girls go on the attack, fangs expressed, blood slowly dribbling down throats and across the mouths of the vampires. Naschy even gets to evoke Bela Lugosi, doing his best imitation, methodically approaching a girl from her window, closing in like a midnight intruder. There's plenty of devious activity to make up for a leisure first half, with flesh wounds on display including a dagger cutting across skin, and the vampire girls drawing into the bloody gashes on the back of the village virgin girl, bound, after being whipped. You even get a very lengthly 'deterioration" sequence at the end where the sun is shown slowly coming up as a vampire fades into skeletal remains. The print I watched, on the Elvira DVD, was rather ghastly. Taking the liberties afforded to him, Naschy's script allows for vampires to slowly disrobe their female targets, as they enjoy their bloody neck meals, the lips steadily moving down the breasts and chests of the women victims. Such as example is Dracula's major attack scene near the end, where he confronts his female victim, pulling down the sheets to reveal her breasts..a luxury, Lugosi didn't have in his day!

• Worthwhile but rarely seen Naschy film

  aschepler22004-01-24

  DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE (1972) ** ½ Paul Naschy, Haydée Politoff, Rosanna Yanni, Ingrid Garbo. Four women and a man wreck their stagecoach and must take refuge in a nearby castle. Unfortunately for the travelers, the castle's owner, Dr. Wendell Marlow (Paul Naschy), turns out to be none other than Count Dracula. After Dracula falls in love with one of the women, she must decide whether to live eternally as Dracula's bride or reject him and continue to live as a mortal. Her not-so-surprising choice leads to a strange and surprising ending. Like a lot of '70s European horror movies, the film suffers from slow pacing and a somewhat muddled plot. But there's lots of gothic atmosphere and a few creepy moments here and there to keep things interesting. Worth a look.

• Jacinto "Dracula" Molina.

  HumanoidOfFlesh2011-03-05

  In "Count Dracula's Great Love" Paul Naschy plays legendary vampire Dracula.The legend says that he is still lurking in his castle in the middle of nowhere.Four buxom ladies decide to spend the night at the old castle which most recently was used as a sanitarium.Quickly the passengers fall prey to Count Dracula.But Count falls in love with Karen...Javier Aguirre's "Count Dracula's Great Love" is a trashy and sleazy piece of Eurohorror with plenty of nudity and grue.The shots of white mists and dense forests are wonderfully atmospheric and the macabre mood is very sensual.Paul Naschy is memorable as Count Dracula/Dr.Wendell and he plays his evil character with gusto.8 sensual vampires out of 10.

• "There's a strange electricity floating in the air" Entertaining Spanish take on the Count Dracula tale.

  poolandrews2005-04-16

  El Gran Amor del Conde Dracula, or Count Draculas Great Love as it's more commonly know among English speaking audiences is set in 1870 & starts with two hired hands delivering a large heavy wooden crate to an abandoned sanatorium high on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Sensing an opportunity to make some extra money the men open the crate to see what's inside & if it's worth stealing, they discover a coffin & human remains. Not wanting to admit defeat they try searching the sanatorium for valuable items they can steal, before long they are both murdered by a shadowy unknown assailant who obviously doesn't like thieves. Cue opening credits. El Gran Amor del Conde Dracula then introduces the viewer to five companions travelling through the area & passing the old sanatorium by stagecoach. One man named Imre Polvi (Victor Alcazar as Vic Winner) his secret love Marlene (Ingrid Garbo) & three other women Senta (Rosanna Yani), Karen (Haydee Politoff) & finally Elke (Mirta Miller). Unfortunately for them the wheel on their coach becomes loose & flies off down a hill lost forever. More bad luck follows as the coach driver is killed in an accident when a horse tries to bolt. The five friends decide to seek shelter in the abandoned sanatorium, once there they knock the door & an Austrian Doctor named Wendell Marlow (co-writer Jacinto Molina under his usual pseudonym of Paul Naschy) who now owns the sanatorium, answers. After hearing their situation Marlow invites the five travellers to stay as long as they want. As they bed down for the night Karen gets up to close a window blowing in the wind when she is scared by a man watching her from the shadows, Dr. Marlow assures Karen that it was probably a tramp seeking shelter. However the strange, unsettling & unnerving experiences don't stop there as members of the five friends begin to disappear without trace & there is a real air of unease about the whole situation. Why does Marlow only appear at night & never during the day? Why are there so many bear-traps around the sanatorium's grounds? Could the tales & rumour's of Vampirism & Count Dracula that surround the sanatorium really be true? Watch it & find out! This Spansish production was co-written & directed by Javier Aguirre & I thought it was a really enjoyable Euro sex/gore exploitation film that has a stab at some genuine style & depth under the blood & breasts. The script by Aguirre, Molina & Alberto S.Insua is fast paced, never drags or becomes too boring & maintained my interest throughout. The traditional Dracula & Vampire themes are present but El Gran Amor del Conde Dracula adds a few unexpected twists of it's own & tries to be a little different. I liked the idea of Count Dracula setting bear-traps to catch local people who he then sinks his fangs into as they are immobilised but still alive. I loved the ending as well which in my opinion was a brave decision by Aguirre to have things turn out as they did, Count Dracula sacrificing himself because he has fallen in love with Karen works very well & I was pleasantly surprised about how things turned out for everyone without a happy 'hero kills the bad guy & gets the pretty girl' clichéd ending in sight, with better dubbing, dialogue & acting this could have been a really emotional climax. Which brings me the negative points quite nicely. The dubbing is terrible even for a Euro exploitation film, the dialogue is very stiff, unnatural & at times almost comical. This in turn distracts from the original performances which in all fairness might have been good but not when everyone talks & sounds the way they do. Paul Naschy is a little on the short side but still makes for a good on screen Dracula, there is also a nod towards his Werewolf films when howling is heard in the night & he comments on it. The photography in El Gran Amor del Conde Dracula by Raul Perez Cubero is at times beautiful, the way shafts of light streak through the trees during some dawn & dusk shots as mist swirls past, the lighting throughout the film is also very atmospheric & as a whole the film is a pleasure to watch & has a real style about it. The production design is similarly impressive with the lush detailed interiors of the sanatorium, the dark underground catacombs lit by flickering candles, props & costumes rivalling any period piece Hammer made around the same time. Good solid score by Carmelo A.Bernaola, too. Now to the exploitation elements in which El Gran Amor del Conde Dracula doesn't disappoint either, there is plenty of neck biting & dripping blood (usually on naked women's bodies & breasts), whippings, killings, plus there's plenty of naked female flesh & sex as well. I suppose I write this review as a massive horror/gore/exploitation fan myself & I personally found much to enjoy in El Gran Amor del Conde Dracula, having said that if you don't have a strong tolerance or liking for this type of material then I doubt you would be that impressed with it. Overall I unexpectedly really rather liked it & recommend it to anyone who is considering giving it a go but I don't think I could recommend it in the same way to a casual unknowing viewer. A solid Euro horror with more style & depth than most but certainly not for everyone.

• Interesting take on the Count by Naschy

  udar552009-12-12

  With Paul Naschy's passing, I've decided to bust out his features I own but have never watched. This is sort of a semi-sequel to Dracula as the main characters mention the likes of Jonathan Harker and Mina. Dracula (Naschy) moves into an old sanitarium and adopts the geeky name Dr. Wendell Marlow. Dinner arrives at his door in the form of 4 hot young ladies and their male companion when their carriage loses a wheel. This will work out great for ol' Drac because he needs a virgin to resurrect his dead daughter. Pretty atmospheric, this sees Naschy giving another unique turn as a classic monster. Director Javier Aquirre knows how to build the mood with nice slo-mo and smoky passageways in a huge country estate locale (watch for anachronistic water pipes in their pool). Aquirre teamed up with Naschy again a few years later for HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE, one of my favorites. What surprised me the most about this film was the ending, something I don't think has ever been done in a Dracula film before or since. See, Dracula is truly in love and, rather than resurrect his daughter, he commits suicide by driving a stake into his own heart. Now that is truly a tragic romance angle that you won't see in TWILIGHT.