La fille de Dracula (1972)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writer:

Jesus Franco (writer)

Release Date:

14 December 1972 (France)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery

Plot:

A young woman visits her gravely ill grandmother at the family estate. On her death bed, the old woman...

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Lesbian | Beautiful Woman | Lesbianism | Piano

Cast

Britt Nichols	...	Luisa Karlstein
Anne Libert	...	Karine
Alberto Dalbés	...	Inspector Ptuschko
Howard Vernon	...	Count Karlstein (Dracula)
Daniel White	...	Count Max Karlstein
Jesus Franco	...	Cyril Jefferson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Luis Barboo
Fernando Bilbao	...	Charlie, the reporter
Carmen Carbonell	...	Baroness Karlstein
Conchita Núñez	...	Margot, the waitress
Lina Romay
Yelena Samarina	...	Ana Kramer

Also Known As:

A Filha de Dracula (Portugal)
Daughter of Dracula

Runtime:

Argentina:89 min | France:87 min

Country:

France | Portugal

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:18

It's what I expected

I first started watching Jess Franco movies because I noticed on the IMDb lists that Klaus Kinski was in many of them. The I heard that legendary Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M) considered Succubus a good movie and I was even more intrigued as to who this Franco guy is. And then I found out that he worked with Orson Welles as assistant director for Chimes at Midnight and Don Quixote being also responsible for the butchered 1992 DVD release of the latter film. And I said that no matter what I have to see some of his movies even though their titles gave me quite a clear idea what they were all about and the total of 187 and growing number of movies meant that they were a very sloppy job.

La Fille de Dracula certainly feels sloppy and unable to keep itself focused on one genre, as the IMDb lists it as horror, mystery and even romance, though I failed to notice either of these genres on screen. What you see, instead is a poor attempt at drawing the viewer's attention. The initial use of voyeurism that wants to engage the viewer in the forbidden acts that are explored is dropped for no reason and replaced with a meaningless plot "built" around a mystery that you don't really care to solve. The actors are given no substantial identity and the "leading lady" vampire although is admirable for her physical qualities lacks any skill to draw you into drama. It appears that she is just a sweet cuddly girl who sometimes likes to suck blood. There is also some gratuitous nudity that makes absolutely no sense the "story" but which is also not enough to make this a proper soft-core movie.

Why a four then? Because the movie looks very good, apart from the annoying zooms and pulls. As with other Franco movies that I have recently seen I am surprised that he could work so well on limited budgets and that he found those beautiful locations to shoot his movies in. The man obviously had some taste, and I think many directors of erotica could learn some tricks from him in terms of set design and also the use of music and extreme closeups.