The Brides of Dracula
| The Brides of Dracula | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Terence Fisher |
| Produced by | Anthony Hinds |
| Written by | Peter Bryan Edward Percy Jimmy Sangster Anthony Hinds (uncredited) |
| Starring |
Peter Cushing Martita Hunt Yvonne Monlaur David Peel |
| Music by | Malcolm Williamson |
| Cinematography | Jack Asher |
| Edited by | Alfred Cox |
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| Distributed by | Universal-International |
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Release date
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Running time
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85 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | 1,266,561 admissions (France) |
The Brides of Dracula is a 1960 British Hammer Film Productions Horror film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Peter Cushing as Van Helsing; David Peel as Baron Meinster, a disciple of Count Dracula; Yvonne Monlaur as Marianne Danielle; Andrée Melly as her roommate, Gina; Marie Devereux as a village girl; and Martita Hunt as the Baroness Meinster.
The film is a sequel to Hammer's original Dracula (USA: Horror of Dracula) (1958), though the vampires possess abilities denied to vampires in the previous film, much like those in the original novel. Alternative working titles were Dracula 2 and Disciple Of Dracula. Dracula does not appear in the film (Christopher Lee would reprise his role in the 1966 Dracula: Prince of Darkness) and is mentioned only twice, once in the prologue, once by Van Helsing.
Shooting began for The Brides of Dracula on 16 January 1960 at Bray Studios. It premièred at the Odeon, Marble Arch on 6 July 1960. The film was distributed theatrically in 1960 on a double bill with The Leech Woman.
A gloomy wood is seen as a voice is heard, narrating:
Transylvania, land of dark forests, dread mountains and black unfathomable lakes. Still the home of magic and devilry as the nineteenth century draws to its close. Count Dracula, monarch of all vampires is dead. But his disciples live on to spread the cult and corrupt the world...
Marianne Danielle, a young French schoolteacher en route to take up a position in Transylvania, is abandoned at a village inn by her coach driver. Ignoring the warnings of the locals, she accepts the offer of Baroness Meinster to spend the night at her castle. There, she sees the Baroness's handsome son, whom she is told is insane and kept confined. When she sneaks into his quarters to meet him, she is shocked to find him chained by his leg to the wall, and when he tells her that his mother has usurped his rightful lands and pleads for her help, she agrees to steal the key to his chain from the Baroness' bedroom. Discovering this, the Baroness is horrified; yet when her son appears, she obeys him and accompanies him back to his room. Later, Marianne discovers the Baroness' servant Greta, who has also taken care of the Baron since he was a baby, in hysterics: She shows Marianne the Baroness' corpse, and the puncture marks in her throat. Marianne flees into the night upon seeing this, while Greta chastises the Baroness for raising her son on cruelty and cavorting with bad company in the past, which lead to one such being (Dracula) turning him into a vampire and the Baroness having to chain him in his room (while feeding him any girls that she lured to the castle). Despite knowing the evil he intends to the village, Greta remains loyal to the Baron.
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