Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

Director:

Alan Gibson

Writer:

Don Houghton (writer)

Release Date:

17 November 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

The Count is back, with an eye for London's hotpants . . . and a taste for everything

Plot:

Johnny Alucard raises Count Dracula(Christopher Lee) from the dead in 1972 London. The Count goes after the descendents of Van Helsing.

Plot Keywords:

Good Versus Evil | 1970s | Sequel | Vampire | Cross

Cast

Christopher Lee	...	Count Dracula
Peter Cushing	...	Professor Van Helsing
Stephanie Beacham	...	Jessica Van Helsing
Christopher Neame	...	Johnny Alucard
Michael Coles	...	Inspector
Marsha A. Hunt	...	Gaynor (as Marsha Hunt)
Caroline Munro	...	Laura Bellows
Janet Key	...	Anna
William Ellis	...	Joe Mitcham
Philip Miller	...	Bob
Michael Kitchen	...	Greg
David Andrews	...	Detective Sergeant
Lally Bowers	...	Matron Party Hostess
Constance Luttrell	...	Mrs. Donnelly
Michael Daly	...	Charles

Also Known As:

Dracula '72 (UK) (working title)
Dracula 1972 (International: English title) (informal title)
Dracula 1972 D.C. (International: English title) (poster title)
Dracula Chases the Mini Girls (UK) (working title)
Dracula Chelsea '72 (UK) (working title)
Dracula Today

Runtime:

USA:96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

West Germany:16 (VHS) | UK:18 (re-rating) (1988) | UK:X (original rating) | UK:15 (re-rating) (1995) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | West Germany:16 | Singapore:PG | Finland:(Banned) (1972) | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Aldenham Country Park, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

The music used in the church resurrection scene is "The Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell" from the 1969 album "An Electric Storm" by White Noise. The group themselves were an experimental space-age rock combo formed by David Vorhaus and featuring Delia Derbyshire & Brian Hodgson from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Quotes:

Gaynor: Is this your place, Johnny?
Johnny Alucard: Come in for a bite.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Wicker Man Enigma (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

Alligator man

A decent comedy--too bad it was intended to be a drama!!

The idea of bringing Dracula to contemporary times isn't bad--after all, it might revive the series a bit by injecting a new story element into a series that Hammer has all but exhausted in a long series of generally excellent movies. However, because the present day turned out to be the crappy early 1970s, the results were pretty silly and looked more like LOVE AT FIRST BITE (a deliberate comedy). Seeing Christopher Lee in a film filled with 70s hip lingo and electric guitar chords and laughable rock music just seemed beyond stupid. To make matters worse, the acting is much more over-the-top here--with an intense and silly performance by "Johnny Alucard". I also thought it was really funny that it took Van Helsing's grandson to notice that "Alucard" is "Dracula" spelled backwards--no one else figured this out for themselves! Wow, what cunning!!

So because so much of the movie was bad, why did it still earn an almost respectable score of 4? Well, when the story came to the expected showdown between Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) and Drac (Christopher Lee), it was exciting and ended very well. Additionally, and I know this will sound very sexist, but if I had to watch a bad film, at least Stephanie Beacham's character wore some really nice outfits that revealed her ample...."talents", so to speak. So at least it was a pretty film to watch.

By the way, the film ends with the phrase "may he rest in FINAL peace" at the end, though this was not the final Hammer Dracula film with Lee. He returned for "The Satanic Rites of Dracula" just a short time later and it was in many ways even worse than this dud of a monster film.