BLOOD FOR DRACULA

Considering that so many campy adaptations of Bram Stoker's most celebrated novel had cluttered the screens, it's perhaps no surprise that director Paul Morrissey - of the Warhol stable - turned toward all things camp and kitsch for this amusing and oddly moving film. Made back-to-back with the essentially similar FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (1973), this movie also kicks the other '70s versions of the Dracula tale (the Jack Palance TV movie DRACULA and the polished version, by the same name, directed by John Badham) into a cocked hat.

Leaving his home of Romania, Count Dracula (Udo Kier) travels with his assistant Anto (Arno Juerging) to Italy. Sick and pallid, Dracula must feast on "wirgin blood" if he is to survive much longer, and so plans to marry one of the four daughters belonging to the Marquis Di Fiore (Vittorio De Sisa). Staying with the family, Dracula has a good taste of the teenaged Saphiria (Dominique Darel) and Rubinia (Stefania Casini, who featured in SUSPIRIA with Udo Kier), only to belatedly realise that they have been having sex with Marxist servant Marco Balato (Morrissey regular Joe Dallesandro). Falling even more ill, the Count must get to the two remaining daughters - the youngest being only 14 years old, the eldest having trained to be a nun - before the oversexed Marco does.

Beginning with an extended scene in which Dracula applies make-up and hair dye (Dracula making himself more presentable, or Kier getting ready to play Dracula?), and featuring a huge amount of broken English spoken by its international cast, BLOOD FOR DRACULA truly draws attention to the processes by which it was constructed. A self reflexive film if ever there was one, this DRACULA not only forces us to question the archetypes that have been force fed to audiences from one vampire film to the next, but also totally subverts all that has come before it. With tongue in check acting, bizarre dialogue ("Get me wirgin"), and strange depictions of blood drinking (after a girl is run over, Anto absorbs her blood into a load of bread, taking it to Dracula, who ecstatically sucks it dry!), the film will be hard to swallow for those who buy into such fallacies of 'realism' in film and who feel the need to be constrained by the safety of genre, but those of an open minded disposition will enjoy it, amused, from an ironic distance.

Taking scenes that we are familiar with and turning them on their head, Morrissey, then, succeeds in creating a film that is truly anarchic. Despite this, as well as the silly storyline and some bawdy diversions (as when the girls are gardening, Saphiria and Rubinia suddenly strip off, only to be branded "sluts" by odd job man Marco - with Dallesandro speaking in a broad New York accent!), BLOOD FOR DRACULA is also an evocative and moving experience. From the beginning, there is a potent air of melancholy, with Dracula as the last of his bloodline, forced to leave his starving sister behind as he journeys to Italy. Wasting away in his bed or in a wheelchair, Kier portrays the Count as a pathetic figure, an anachronism who cannot survive in more promiscuous times, attached as he is to notions of submissive femininity. Dracula, of course, is typically a sexual predator in film adaptations - perhaps done no better in John Badham's 1979 version starring Frank Langella - and here Morrissey reverses sexual roles, with the portrayal of sexually assertive women and men that are frankly out of sorts. It also adds a strange layer of innocence to the story that is not at all unappealing.

Beautifully and elegantly filmed, BLOOD FOR DRACULA is thankfully given a flawless anamorphic transfer by Tartan, a far sharper-looking release than the outdated Criterion disc. Fully uncut, this DVD release unites director and star for a classic archival commentary. The director's involvement in this superb release is both commendable and insightful, giving us some of the personality behind this quite radical film, with Morrissey doing commentaries on the screen test footage and production still montages that also are presented as extras. According to Tartan, the transfer is director-approved, and considering the truly sparkling image - the real key feature of this essential DVD release - it's not hard to see why.

Review by Matthew Sanderson