Jonathan Harker (Fred Williams) travels to Transylvania to close a real estate deal with Count Dracula (Christopher Lee), an elderly man living in a rundown castle. Dracula is purchasing an old mansion in England called Carfax and Jonathan was sent to seal the deal. Once he arrives at the castle he is greeted by Dracula and shown to his rooms. During the night Jonathan hears a woman crying. He wanders the castle and is attacked by three female vampires and is rendered unconscious. Dracula chases them away. Harker eventually wakes up and finds that he has two bite wounds on his neck and Dracula is sleeping in a coffin. Still wounded, Jonathan escapes the castle and ends up floating down the river in Budapest.
Jonathan is eventually taken to a sanitarium near London run by Dr. John Seward (Paul Muller). At the sanitarium he slowly regains his health with the help of his fiancé, Mina Murray (Maria Rohm) and her friend, Lucy Westenra (Soledad Miranda). Dr. Seward brings in Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Herbert Lom) to consult on Jonathan’s case. Van Helsing recognizes the work of Dracula.
Before anything can be done about Dracula, he seduces Lucy and drinks her blood. Lucy eventually succumbs to her wounds dies and becomes a vampire herself. Lucy’s fiancé, Quincy Morris (Jack Taylor) arrives but he is too late to help. Van Helsing instructs Jonathan and Quincy on how to destroy Lucy and Dracula; however, Dracula proves to be more elusive.
“Count Dracula” AKA “El Conde Dracula” was released in 1970 and was directed by Jesus Franco. It is an Italian horror movie. The film was based on the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker. For the most part, the film is considered true to the novel.
One of the interesting aspects of the film is that it looks and feels quite a bit like a Hammer style film. The film itself was mostly good and was even better than some of the later Hammer Dracula films. As Dracula films go, it’s not bad.
Although Sir Lee played the notorious vampire ten times in his career, this is the only film where the character had facial hair. This is also the only one where Dracula grows younger as he feeds on people. Lee did seven Hammer films as the count. The other three films were this one, an un-credited cameo in the film “One More Time” 1970 and “Dracula and Son” 1976, his last time playing Dracula.
Klaus Kinski has a small part at Renfield. I believe he only says one word in the whole film. Director Franco stated that Kinski ate real flies as part of his character. Most of Kinski’s role is blood curdling screams and wild-eyed looks. His role was small and mostly insignificant, but he always plays maniac to the hilt.
Director Franco has a small part as Van Helsing’s servant.