Jess Franco's version of "Count Dracula" (1970) is one of those film versions of Dracula where one can't help but feel like we've seen all this before in the sense that it doesn't offer too many new things to the table. Despite being pitched as a faithful version of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", the film makers took a lot of liberties with the story, such as Jonathan Harker being put into a mental institution under the care of Van Helsing and then having Mina and Lucy live in the spare rooms of the institution which, it just so happens, is located across from Carfax Abbey. Another liberty that was taken includes the writers completely omitting Arthur Holmword and instead having Quincy Morris as Lucy's fiancé. One thing that they do get right from the book is having Dracula as an old man when we first meet him and then as a younger man upon draining the blood of Lucy, this being the first time we see this on film. Other positive aspects include some great set designs, such as Dracula's castle, a decently creepy music score, Klaus Kinski's great performance as a completely insane Renfield, some beautiful eye candy in the form of Soledad Miranda as Lucy (such a shame she died so young) and some bits of good dialog from Christopher Lee as Dracula. Sadly, like the Hammer movies, Mr. Lee is not given nearly as much dialog as he deserves, something that is a travesty since Christopher Lee has a wonderful, almost god like voice. And unfortunately, despite having some good set designs, there are instances where you can clearly see that this was made on a low budget, such as the part with Harker in Dracula's carriage where, instead of wolves running through the woods, we can clearly see that they are German Shepards. Umm, I'm not a filmmaker but couldn't they have at least tried to film the dogs when it was darker out so that their shadows would have looked like they might have been wolves? Its little things like that that damage the film. To sum it up, Franco's "Dracula" is one of those films that would not hurt to check out if you had some time to kill, however, its not one that you should desperately seek out.
Review of Count Dracula
