Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride (1973) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Cult	Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1973
Running Time	87:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Alan Gibson
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Christopher Lee Peter Cushing Michael Coles William Franklyn Freddie Jones Joanna Lumley Richard Vernon Barbara Yu Ling Patrick Barr
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	John Cacavas

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     A badly injured man escapes from a facility called Pellham House while a satanic rite is being performed involving a naked woman and the blood of a cock. The man is a secret service undercover operator and before he dies he provides his superiors, Colonel Mathews (Richard Vernon) and Torrence (William Franklyn) with evidence that four of the men involved in the satanic rite are wealthy establishment figures; leaders of science, commerce, the armed forces and a Cabinet Minister in the government. Unable to investigate officially, Mathews calls in Scotland Yard’s Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) who in turn calls in occult expert Lorrimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) and Van Helsing’s granddaughter Jessica (Joanna Lumley).

     One of the men identified at the rite was scientist and Nobel Prize winner Professor Julian Keeley (Freddie Jones), an old acquaintance of Van Helsing. Van Helsing visits Keeley’s laboratory, and finds Keeley almost incoherent in speech and manner. However, Van Helsing learns that at the request of a mysterious benefactor Keeley had experimented and rediscovered a potent version of the Black Death virus, so powerful it could wipe out the entire population of the world in a short time. The benefactor had required the virus before the 23rd of the month, two days away. Before Van Helsing can find out more, an intruder shoots Van Helsing. When Van Helsing regains consciousness, the plague virus has disappeared and Kelley’s body is hanging from a rope.

     While Van Helsing is visiting Keeley, Murray, Torrence and Jessica visit Pellham House. Jessica finds her way into the basement of the house and is attacked by a group of female vampires, but is saved by the others in the nick of time. Escaping the house, all parties meet later. It seems that the owner of the house, and financier before Keeley’s laboratory, is the mysterious businessman D.D. Denham, who Van Helsing believes is really Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). As the evening of the 23rd approaches, the team put Pellham House under watch and prepare their weapons against the vampire menace. Before the night is over, some will pay the ultimate sacrifice, and some be placed in grave peril, in their opposition to the unimaginable evil of Count Dracula and his disciples.

     Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride (also released as The Satanic Rites of Dracula) is a Hammer Production, the last to feature the wonderful pairing of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as well as being the last time Lee played Dracula in a Hammer production. Also of interest is the presence of Joanna Lumley, later of Absolutely Fabulous . Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride does not do anything unexpected or unusual, but the cast alone would be sufficient reason to watch this film even if it didn’t add a reasonably taut script, some good visuals and nice tension in some sequences, such as the attack upon Jessica by the female vampires. An entertaining vampire film.

     Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a box set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world, Germany, Spain, Italy and England from 1922 to 1974. The full list is Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932) on disc 1, Atom Age Vampire (1960) and Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) on disc 2 and Vampire Night Orgy (1974) and Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973) on disc 3. The set also includes an informative 8 page booklet.

Video

     Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride is presented in a ratio of 1.78:1, and is not16x9 enhanced. The print is NTSC format. The original theatrical ratio was 1.85:1.

     First, the good news. This is a reasonably sharp print with nice detail, good blacks and good shadow detail. Colours are natural, if a bit dull, and shin tones fine. Brightness and contrast vary occasionally, but nothing serious.

     On the other hand, scratches and both big and small artefacts are frequent. Most are not too distracting but some vertical scratches are obvious (such as during the opening titles) and other frames have quite extensive damage – see the vertical scratches at 32:39 for example. There are also frame jumps, reel change markers and aliasing (at 61:09). Still, the film is quite watchable.

     Four times a yellow circular “Mill Creek Entertainment” logo appears in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and stays there for over 10 seconds (see 13:39, 36:32, 55:19 and 74:58). It was quite distracting.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is an English Linear PCM track at 1536 Kbps. Throughout the film there is a constant hiss and hum, and occasional cracks. In quieter moments it is quite distracting. Given this, the dialogue is fine and easy to understand, the effects robust. There is no surround or sub-woofer use.

     The score by John Cacavas was quite effective in helping to create atmosphere.

     Lip synchronization was fine.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Booklet

     A booklet provides some interesting information and a summary for all the films in this box set.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

     There have been a number of Region 0 releases of the film, but nothing special. For a look at the various versions see the dvdcompare site here. There has also been a single disc version released in Region 4 under the title The Satanic Rites of Dracula which was reviewed on this site here.

     The earlier Region 4 release seems to have had better video and audio and a trailer as extra. However, if you don’t have the film, this Blood Suckers package for a RRP of $19.95 for 6 films is a bargain. Indeed, I cannot find an equivalent of this three disc, six film package in any other region.

     Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride is the last Hammer film to feature the wonderful pairing of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Also of interest is the presence of Joanna Lumley. Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride does not do anything unexpected, but the cast alone would be sufficient reason to watch this film even if it didn’t add a reasonably taut script, some good visuals and a nice tension is some sequences. The video is not too bad, but a constant hiss affects the audio. A booklet is the only extra.

     Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world between 1922 and 1974.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall