Taste the Blood of Dracula is a British horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions filmed in 1969 and released in 1970. It was directed by Peter Sasdy (Countess Dracula) based upon a script by Anthony Hinds.The film stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, Linda Hayden, Anthony Corlan, Geoffrey Keen, John Carson and Peter Sallis (The Ghosts of Motley Hall, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit). Glamour model June Palmer (Flesh and Fantasie (sic) aka Nightmare at Elm Manor) has an uncredited minor role as a redhead dancer.
Plot teaser:
A businessman named Weller is travelling through Eastern Europe when he is thrown from his carriage during a struggle and is knocked unconscious. After coming to and wandering some way, he comes across the mortally injured Dracula as he is dying from the wound he received at the end of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. Weller watches in amazement as the Count gradually disintegrates, leaving only a few objects behind. Fascinated, Weller collects a handful of Dracula’s dried-up blood in a test tube, his cloak and finally the Count’s ring before hurriedly fleeing the scene…
Three English ‘gentlemen’ - Hargood, Paxton and Secker - have formed a circle ostensibly devoted to charitable work but in reality they indulge themselves in brothels. One night they are intrigued by a young man who bursts into the brothel and is immediately tended to after snapping his fingers, despite the brothelkeeper’s objections. The gentlemen are informed that he is Courtley, who was disinherited for celebrating a Black Mass.
Hoping for more intense pleasures, Hargood meets Courtley outside the brothel. The younger man takes the three to the Cafe Royal and promises them experiences they will never forget but insists that they come to see Weller and purchase from him Dracula’s ring, cloak and dried-up blood. The three meet with Courtley at an abandoned Church for a ceremony during which he puts the dried blood into goblets and mixes it with drops of his own blood, telling the gentlemen to drink. As they refuse, he drinks the blood himself, screams and falls to the ground. As he grabs the gentlemen’s legs, they kick and beat him with increasing vigour - not stopping until Courtley dies, at which they flee in disgust at what they have done. While the three return to their respective homes and get on with their lives, Courtley’s body, left in the abandoned church, transforms into Dracula, who vows that those who have destroyed his servant will be destroyed…
Reviews:
“Though the film never quite lives up to the brilliantly staged opening scenes, its variation on the idea of the decadent, aristocratic Dracula’s threat to the sanctity of the Victorian middle-class family highlights an intriguing aspect of Hammer’s vampire mythology.” Nigel Floyd, Time Out Film Guide
“Not only is it an intelligently written, beautifully filmed tale which takes the Dracula idea and expands on it, but it actually follows on from the last one (Dracula Has Risen from the Grave) - and not in a crappy “Don’t go there, that’s Castle Dracula - where once, terrible things happened” kind of way, either. Even the rather lurid title makes sense.” British Horror Films
“This is pretty silly stuff, though it does give rise to one of Lee’s most frighteningly feral moments as he moves in on Lucy to inflict the fatal puncture. The ending is also somewhat confused, with Dracula climbing into the upper reaches of the church and flinging giant organ pipes at the young lovers… But the film has an even-more-distinguished-than-usual cast.” Jonathan Rigby, English Gothic
playing in Hackney, May 1970. cant make out what the co-feature is http://photos.cinematreasures.org/production/photos/161306/1457622044/large.jpg?1457622044