Oh dear, dear, dear.
When I read the synopsis of this comedy, and then managed to find a Director's Cut version, English language to boot, I thought I might have stumbled upon a lost little gem of a movie. Alas, it is not so.
Dracula and Son, which was apparently butchered for its US cinema release, re-edited, chopped and dubbed into a travesty, started out as a droll French vampire comedy. If what I saw was indeed a restored reprint of the original, complete with the original English language track - it's certainly Christopher Lee's voice - then I'm sorry to say that this is a movie that belongs in obscurity, buried in a coffin and dropped into the Channel.
Dracula (Lee, obviously) acquires a new bride and baby momma, Herminie/Hermione (Catherine Breillat, later a famous/tiresome feminist) and she gives birth to a son, Ferdinand (Bernard Menez). Eventually father and son are forced to vacate their castle in Transylvania and seek new accommodation. Sounds a lot like that film starring George Hamilton, doesn't it? But at least Hamilton's was funnyish. Anyway, Drac. Arrives in London and Drac jnr arrives in France, and so on. Drac. Gets a job in the movie industry, whilst the son is treated shabbily and exploited as a worhtless immigrant. If there's some social satire at work then I'm sorry to say it is rather toothless.
So inept is the comedy and so slow the pace of this movie that I honestly can't believe the US botched version could have been any worse. Maybe what I'm watching is that version, mislabelled? I think I'd be game to see the messed-up version on the off chance it is so-bad-it's-good. Whatever the version, Lee is not really up to playing comedy. He's too sepulchral an actor to get laughs. The actor playing the son is just plain annoying. At least Breillat's Herminie provides a smidge of sex appeal. The conceit of having a real vampire find work playing a vampire in a movie could have some merit but the overarching film story still has to function effectively and this one doesn't. Pity.
If you want to see a vampire comedy from the analogue era then I suggest you try Polanski's 1960s opus, The Fearless Vampire Killers. It has infinitely more flair than this drivel and does manage to generate a few titters even if it isn't bwaha funny.
When I read the synopsis of this comedy, and then managed to find a Director's Cut version, English language to boot, I thought I might have stumbled upon a lost little gem of a movie. Alas, it is not so.
Dracula and Son, which was apparently butchered for its US cinema release, re-edited, chopped and dubbed into a travesty, started out as a droll French vampire comedy. If what I saw was indeed a restored reprint of the original, complete with the original English language track - it's certainly Christopher Lee's voice - then I'm sorry to say that this is a movie that belongs in obscurity, buried in a coffin and dropped into the Channel.
Dracula (Lee, obviously) acquires a new bride and baby momma, Herminie/Hermione (Catherine Breillat, later a famous/tiresome feminist) and she gives birth to a son, Ferdinand (Bernard Menez). Eventually father and son are forced to vacate their castle in Transylvania and seek new accommodation. Sounds a lot like that film starring George Hamilton, doesn't it? But at least Hamilton's was funnyish. Anyway, Drac. Arrives in London and Drac jnr arrives in France, and so on. Drac. Gets a job in the movie industry, whilst the son is treated shabbily and exploited as a worhtless immigrant. If there's some social satire at work then I'm sorry to say it is rather toothless.
So inept is the comedy and so slow the pace of this movie that I honestly can't believe the US botched version could have been any worse. Maybe what I'm watching is that version, mislabelled? I think I'd be game to see the messed-up version on the off chance it is so-bad-it's-good. Whatever the version, Lee is not really up to playing comedy. He's too sepulchral an actor to get laughs. The actor playing the son is just plain annoying. At least Breillat's Herminie provides a smidge of sex appeal. The conceit of having a real vampire find work playing a vampire in a movie could have some merit but the overarching film story still has to function effectively and this one doesn't. Pity.
If you want to see a vampire comedy from the analogue era then I suggest you try Polanski's 1960s opus, The Fearless Vampire Killers. It has infinitely more flair than this drivel and does manage to generate a few titters even if it isn't bwaha funny.