SCARS OF DRACULA breaks the continuity that had been maintained in the previous Hammer Dracula movies and begins in Dracula’s castle in Transylvania. In this opening scene we see the Count’s remains lying on a plinth in a castle chamber… and then a large (model) bat flies in and flaps over the plinth, regurgitating blood onto the Count’s remains! The remains, of course, start to react to the dripped blood and Dracula is once more reanimated!
This film, directed by Roy Ward Baker (who made one of my all-time favourite Hammer films: QUATERMASS AND THE PIT), is disliked by many, but I rather like some of the elements in this flawed, colourful Hammer romp.
The tone veers all over the place: one minute there’s a massacre of women and children by a flock of bats in the church, then there’s a Benny Hill-style moment with the naked Burgomaster’s daughter, then later we get Dracula torturing his servant with a red-hot sword.
One of the real positives with this movie is that Christopher Lee does get more to do in this entry: he stabs his vampire bride (Anouska Hempel) to death with a dagger because she slept with a visitor, he commands big bats, he climbs up a castle wall and, basically, he has more time on-screen, sometimes acting civil & courteous, whilst at other times acting savagely.
But there are quite a few silly moments… such as when Dracula’s eyes ‘glow’ through his eyelids to hypnotise the hero and the scenes with the model bats on fishing lines, which are unintentionally comical, flappy things. These bats were built by Roger (THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT) Dicken and are definitely not the best movie creatures he’s ever created.
Some of these shortcomings can definitely be blamed on the movie’s budgeting problems and a short schedule.
The story is rather repetitious, but Jenny Hanley looks gorgeous, there’s an attempt to add more gore (such as the attack by a bat on a priest), and Patrick Troughton, as Dracula’s servant Klove, plays an interesting role in that he disobeys his master occasionally to help the heroine.
So, my verdict is that this film is flawed but fun.
Here’s a Hammer studios promotional flyer, illustrated by Tom Chantrell, for SCARS OF DRACULA.
And here are some b/w studio photos of posed shots that were used by Chantrell for reference for the flyer…
Some posters…
Cover for a Derann Super 8 home movie…
Okay, here’s a pic of Michael Ripper…
And finally, here’s a publicity photo…
Monster Zone 