Taste the Blood of Dracula
| Taste the Blood of Dracula | |
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Promotional poster
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| Directed by | Peter Sasdy |
| Produced by | Aida Young |
| Written by |
Anthony Hinds Bram Stoker (character) |
| Starring |
Christopher Lee Geoffrey Keen Gwen Watford |
| Music by | James Bernard |
| Cinematography | Arthur Grant |
| Edited by | Chris Barnes |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Warner-Pathé (UK) Warner Bros. (US & Worldwide) |
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Release date
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Running time
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91 min (cut, USA) 95 min (uncut, UK) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Taste the Blood of Dracula is a British horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions and released in 1970. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, and was directed by Peter Sasdy based upon a script by Anthony Hinds. The film was released as a double bill alongside fellow Hammer production Crescendo.
A businessman named Weller is travelling through Eastern Europe when he is thrown from his carriage during a struggle and knocked unconscious. After regaining consciousness, he discovers it is night time. After wandering some way, he hears a deathly scream. Terrified, Weller runs and falls into a grassy slope. Looking up, he sees a caped figure screaming in agony with a large crucifix impaling him from the back. Weller watches in amazement and fear as the figure dies and disintegrates from blood to reddish dust. Examining the remains, Weller finds a ring, a cape and a brooch with dried blood on it. Dusting away the dried blood, Weller is petrified by the name on the brooch: Dracula.
Three English gentlemen - Hargood, Paxton and Secker - have formed a circle ostensibly devoted to charitable work but in reality they indulge themselves in brothels. One night they are intrigued by a young man who bursts into the brothel and is immediately tended to after snapping his fingers, despite the brothelkeeper's objections. The gentlemen are informed that he is Courtley, who was disinherited for celebrating a Black Mass.
Hoping for more intense pleasures, Hargood meets Courtley outside the brothel. The younger man takes the three to the Cafe Royal and promises them experiences they will never forget but insists that they go to see Weller and purchase from him Dracula's ring, cloak and dried blood. Having done so, the three meet with Courtley at an abandoned church for a ceremony during which he puts the dried blood into goblets and mixes it with drops of his own blood, telling the men to drink. They refuse, so he drinks the blood himself, screams and falls to the ground. As he grabs their legs, they kick and beat him, not stopping until Courtley dies, at which they flee. While the three return to their respective homes and return to their lives, Courtley's body, left in the abandoned church, transforms into Dracula, who vows that those who have destroyed his servant will be destroyed.
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Wikipedia