Sorry for missing yesterday's Countdown, but I was away from home and without internet connection. To make up for it, today's update is a Dracula Double Bill!
First up is 1973's The Satanic Rites of Dracula. The British Secret Service is investigating a cult that has ensnared several important citizens, including a top virologist and a prominent government minister. When a shocking series of "vampire murders" seems to connect to the cult, Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing is brought into the investigation at the suggestion of Scotland Yard. The combined team of secret agents, coppers, and vampire hunters uncover a plot by the King of the Undead to... well, that would be telling!Satanic Rites is a direct sequel to the previous entry in the Hammer series, Dracula AD 1972, a woefully misguided attempt to update the Count to the Swingin' Seventies. Luckily, having established the famous bloodsucker in the modern era (however clumsily), the studio was free to tell a cracking good yarn with this sequel. Instead of bothering with way-out fashions and groovy slang, Satanic Rites adds a dash of science fiction and espionage intrigue to the standard Hammer formula, with excellent results.
This was only the third time that Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing squared off as Dracula and his nemesis, Van Helsing. Satanic Rites was also the last of the Hammer series to feature Lee as the Count. Cushing would reprise his Van Helsing role one last time in the following year's Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. And yes, that is Absolutely Fabulous' Joanna Lumley as Van Helsing's granddaughter, Jessica.
By the way, you need look no further than this movie for proof that the US theatrical posters for Hammer films sucked. I mean, which movie would you rather go see, this one:
or this one?
Note that the US title is different. The American distributors cut about five minutes of footage to get a PG rating and changed the name of the film for reasons known only to them. The name change created a bit of a loophole for grey-market video sellers to try and exploit. The claim is that while The Satanic Rites of Dracula is protected by international copyright, Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride is not. Some of these sellers had the nerve to copy Anchor Bay's nicely restored DVD of Satanic Rites, splice in a cheap new title card, and sell the result as their own product!
Ah, well. It's also that loophole that has enabled me to share this film with you here. The movie should show up in a viewer just below this paragraph. You can click on the little diamond symbol to go full screen, or head over to the movie's page at the Internet Archive and download it directly to your hard drive (but only in mp4 or mov format, unfortunately).
Also offered for your pleasure is the complete run of Marvel's Dracula Lives! magazine, all thirteen issues and the 1975 Annual. Dracula Lives! was a sister publication to the fantastic Tomb of Dracula. However, so as not to interfere with the modern-day saga Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan were weaving in the color series, Dracula Lives! featured stories set in various points in the Count's long and bloody past.
The series features stories by the likes of Doug Monech, Steve Gerber, and Roy Thomas (who adapts Stoker's novel in a serial running through several issues). Colan, Dick Giordano, Russ Heath, and the usual gang of Filipinos provide the artwork. There's also the obligatory reprints of short strips from old Atlas horror comics, and several articles on the Hammer film series and other batty topics.
The run has been split up into three groups. Each can be unzipped on their own, but you will need to down load all three groups to get the complete run.
One! One group! Hah hah hah!
Two! Two groups! Hah hah hah!
Three! There are three groups! Hah hah hah!
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