Blood for Dracula (1974)

An ailing vampire count travels to Italy with his servant to find a bride.

Director:

Paul Morrissey

Writer:

Paul Morrissey

Stars:

Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, Vittorio De Sica

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Joe Dallesandro	...	Mario Balato - the Servant
Udo Kier	...	Count Dracula
Vittorio De Sica	...	Il Marchese Di Fiore
Maxime McKendry	...	La Marchesa Di Fiore
Arno Jürging	...	Anton - the Count's Servant
Milena Vukotic	...	Esmeralda
Dominique Darel	...	Saphiria
Stefania Casini	...	Rubinia
Silvia Dionisio	...	Perla
Inna Alexeievna	...	Old Woman in Tavern
Gil Cagne	...	Townsman (as Gil Cagnie)
Emi Califri
Eleonora Zani

Storyline

Udo Kier is without a doubt the sickliest of vampires in any director's interpretation of the Bram Stoker tale. Count Dracula knows that if he fails to drink a required amount of pure virgin's [pronounced "wirgin's"] blood, it's time to move into a permanent coffin. His assistant (Renfield?) suggests that the Count and he pick up his coffin and take a road trip to Italy, where families are known to be particularly religious, and therefore should be an excellent place to search for a virgin bride. They do, only to encounter a family with not one, but FOUR virgins, ready for marriage. The Count discovers one-by-one that the girls are not as pure as they say they are, meanwhile a handsome servant/Communist begins to observe strange behaviour from the girls who do spend the night with the Count. It's a race for Dracula to discover who's the real virgin, before he either dies from malnourishment or from the wooden stake of the Communist!

---

Plot Keywords:

virgin | servant | italy | vampire | blood | 

---

Taglines:

He couldn't live without a virgin's blood..... ...So a virgin had to die! [UK]

---

Genres:

Horror

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for horror violence and sensuality

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 November 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Andy Warhol's Dracula

Filming Locations:

Villa Parisi, Frascati, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Compagnia Cinematografica Champion, Yanne et Rassam, Andy Warhol Presentation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Unlike the controversy over Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) the film suffered very minor cuts for its initial UK cinema release and was never listed as a video nasty. It was passed fully uncut for video in 1995 on the First Independent label.

---

Quotes

Mario Balato, the Servant: I don't see why someone like me couldn't marry you, or one of your sisters.
Rubinia: Are you crazy?
Mario Balato, the Servant: Yeah... your mother'd never hear of such a thing. Had a good look at him in that wheelchair, almost about to die. That's the way it is with all that rich trash. They're all sick and rotten. The only future's in socialism.
Rubinia: Don't start talking about that again! You know how it bores me.

---

Alternate Versions

After premiering at 106m, film was cut to 93m; some of the cut footage was edited to earn an "R" rating, replacing than the original "X".

---

Connections

Referenced in Memories of a Young Pianist (2009)

User Reviews

Watchable

Not nearly as disgusting as its closely made forerunner Flesh for Frankenstein, Blood for Dracula has some nice, stylistic moments, excellent period piece settings and costumes, wild overacting from Udo Keir as Dracula(subdued though when compared with his performance as Dr. Frankenstein) and a non-performance by Joe Dallesandro, a sluggish pace at times and, of course, lots of gratuitous sex scenes. Dracula must go south for his health and find a virgin(for he can only drink the blood of a virgin girl). He chooses Italy and finds a family with three beautiful, unwed daughters all professing innocence of man. A swarthy gardener(Dallesandro) works there. Add two and two and you have the basic premise of the film. For me, and let me say that I get what camp is and what the filmmakers were trying - TRYING - to do, the best part of this film is easily the brief cameo of Roman Polanski as a man in the pub playing a game of do-what-I-do. Polanski has brilliant comic timing, and he reinforces my opinion that he was and could have been a very good actor. I am thankful he still directs though. As for Blood of Dracula, it will definitely take a bite out of your time.