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Released by: MGM Limited Edition Collection
Released on: 4/18/2011
Director: Clive Donner
Cast: David Niven, Theresa Graves, Peter Bayliss
Year: 1975
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The Movie:
Alternately known as Vampira, Old Dracula is very much a product of its time. Distributed by AIP and directed by Clive Donner in 1975, the film stars David Niven as Count Dracula, a kindly old vampire whose beloved wife, Vampira, has been in a comatose state for fifty years. The count has passed the time in his Transylvanian castle by hanging out with his manservant, Maltravers (Peter Bayliss) and reading Playboy, commenting on the models' necks. Dracula has also made his castle into a bit of a tourist trap, so when Playboy wants to rent the place for a photo shoot, he gladly obliges them, playing host to a photographer, a token male model, Marc (Nicky Henson), and of course, a handful of beautiful women. Before the dinner party starts, however, the Count gets a little overzealous and mistakenly transforms a beautiful blonde (Linda Hayden) into a vampire by drinking too heavily from her neck.
The party more or less goes off without a hitch, and the Count and Maltravers are smart enough to drug the models so that they can drain some of their blood to use in a transfusion they hope will awake Vampira from her slumber. It works, but it doesn't quite have the results the Count expected when pale faced Vampira transforms, right before his very eyes, into a foxy black chick (Teresa Graves). The Count wants to turn Vampira back to her old self and he figures the only way to do that is to track down the models and try again, so off the three of them go to London (they bring foldable portable coffins with them to sleep in!) to do just that. Vampira's last memories being of the roaring twenties, she is resurrected as a flapper but after a trip to the theater and a screening of the Jim Brown/Martin Landau movie Black Gunn, soon enough she's a jive talking party machine. The Count coerces Marc into helping him get the girls, all while trying to keep Vampira in check and not blow his cover.
Goofy, silly and showing complete disregard for political correctness, Old Dracula is a pretty odd comedy. Originally shown as Vampira in Europe, AIP decided to cash in on Mel Brooks' success and retitle the film Old Dracula for the American market but the film was never the blockbuster that the Brooks picture was. Niven does his best to make the picture work and succeeds more often than not - he's a charming old vampire here, as debonair as you'd expect him to be, essentially a class act in a classless movie. Teresa Graves is beautiful as the female lead, she and Niven obviously meant to be polar opposites, while Nicky Henson's droll performance as the butler is consistently funny. A small supporting role from Frank Thornton as a real estate agent makes sense, as the film was written by Jeremy Lloyd, best known for Are You Being Served, the British television comedy for which Thornton is best remembered as Captain Peacock. Hayden is as foxy as ever in her part but isn't given much to do and she's out of the film before it even really gets going (this in spite of the fact that she's featured prominently on the cover). Pretty British actresses Veronica Carlson and Jennie Linden, known for Hammer's Dracula Has Risen From The Grave and Nightmare respectively, also appear.
Nicely shot (and featuring some fleeting topless nudity!) the film doesn't overstay its welcome and does successfully entertain right up to and including its completely ridiculous conclusion. The film makes great use of some interesting locations (the house the trio rent in London has an odd horoscope themed ceiling) and is set to a pretty quirky score from David Whitaker that alternates between twenties era jazz and more traditional horror-tinged instrumental and which accurately reflects the film's tonal shifts from dopey comedy to its more macabre elements rather nicely.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Old Dracula looks pretty good in this 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Colors are reasonably bright and bold and detail isn't bad for an older drive-in style movie. Skin tones look okay and while there doesn't seem to have been too much re-mastering done, the print used looks to have been in pretty good shape leaving only minor print damage worth complaining over.
The only audio option on the disc is a Dolby Digital Mono track, in English, with no alternate language or subtitle options provided. The quality of the track is fine, if a bit flat in spots - in short, it pretty much sounds like you'd expect it to. Dialogue is audible enough and the score sounds good - but this doesn't have a whole lot of range to it despite some left to right channel separation in a few spots.
Extras include a static menu and the film's trailer.
The Final Word:
While this isn't likely going to wind up at the top of the list of films which David Niven is remembered for, it's a fun and surprisingly screwy skewering of the more traditional vampire films that companies like Hammer had been churning out and quirky to be worth revisiting.
