John Stone (Bill Rogers) is your average businessman. He is also a loving husband to his wife, Helene (Elizabeth Lee) and an easy-going boss to his secretary, Hester Avery (Eleanor Vaill). One day he receives a package from England. The package contains two bottles of vintage brandy. Accompanying the brandy is a note from Lloyd and Lloyd, who are solicitors in charge of a British estate. The note informs John that he is the last surviving descendant of Baron Vada Khron of Moldavia.
John is related to the Vada Khron family on his mother’s side. As such, John is now Royalty, the owner of Carfax and has inherited a sizable estate in Purfleet, a suburb of London. The note also states that John should use the brandy to toast to his ancestor. In six months, he will receive a letter written by the original ancestor that the solicitors are instructed to give him.
As instructed John opens the brandy and gives a toast to his ancestor. During the next six months John drinks more of the brandy. His personality and his habits begin to change. He ignores the office and works at home during the night while sleeping throughout the day. He becomes irritable and short with his wife. Helene becomes concerned and asks their friend, Dr. Hank Tyson (William Kerwin) for advice. Hank agrees to talk to John. Before he can, John gives his wife an anniversary party and appears to have returned to his old self. After everyone leaves, Helene realizes that it was a ruse to deceive everyone. John is more abusive than ever.
John goes to England to settle the estate. By this time, he has drunk all the brandy. Unbeknownst to him the brandy was infused with the blood of his ancestors. John transforms into a vampire. In England he finds out that he is the last descendent of Dracula. A letter from his ancestor, Baron Khron, says that the original Dracula was destroyed by having a stake driven into his heart and that he must avenge the family name by killing the ancestors of those who were responsible. John begins killing the descendants of his ancestral enemies and prepares to change Helene into a vampire.
In the meantime, Dr. Howard Helsing (Otto Schlessinger), one of the people on John’s list, having heard about the murders in England, arrives to try to put an end to John’s rampage.
“A Taste of Blood” AKA “The Secret of Dr. Alucard” was released in 1967 and was produced and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It is an American low budget horror movie. Director Lewis has a cameo as a British seaman, with a bad British accent, and is the voice of Baron Khron.
For a low budget “B” movie it’s not bad. It was mostly interesting but longer than it needed to be. There is also a lot less gore here than in other Lewis productions. For some, it could be easy to become bored with the film. There are, of course, the usual plot holes, some bad acting and some strange props. Stone wears a ring that looks like a mini transistor radio instead of a precious family heirloom. When he’s in Vampire mode he looks more like a blue zombie than a vampire.
There are some tie-ins to the Bram Stoker “Dracula” story, the names Harker, Seward, Morris, and Helsing, to name a few. As in the story, Dracula owns a castle called Carfax Abbey in Purfleet, although there is no such place as Carfax Abbey in real life.