WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Dracula A.D. 1972 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:08.520 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is going 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.319 to be an episode that originally published ten twenty seven, 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:17.000 twenty twenty three. The film is Dracula AD nineteen seventy two, 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.960 starring the Great Christopher Lee as the Prince of Darkness 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:25.079 who has risen from the Ashes a century later in 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:29.640 groovy London, where he encounters hippies and also a descendant 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.320 of doctor Van Helsing. So, without further ado, let's dive 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:35.000 right in. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:47.640 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.800 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Limb. 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.680 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.480 Cinema we're going to be talking about the Oh. I 0:00:57.560 --> 0:00:59.760 usually say the year, but now I'm not so sure. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.080 Was it actually released in nineteen seventy two? 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.640 Yes it was, And I want to stress Joe that 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.240 it was released nineteen seventy two of the common era. 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:14.280 Okay, not nineteen seventy two. Bce. Right, this is Dracula 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:18.840 AD nineteen seventy two, the hammer horror movie starring Christopher 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:20.120 Lee and Peter Cushing. 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.039 That's right. So last week we not only did a 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.080 Frankenstein movie. We did one of the best known and 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.240 most beloved of all Frankenstein movies, nineteen thirty five is 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.440 Bride of Frankenstein. And to follow that up, I just 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.640 I have been feeling weeks in advance like we would 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.399 need to do a Dracula movie after that. But which one, right, 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.119 There's so many Dracula films to choose from. We've been 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:47.640 talking about doing nineteen thirty one's Dracula or the Mexican 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.640 Dracula film that came out the same year. Those I 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.920 think are both fine choices. But I found I was 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:57.240 craving not just a drac movie, but a weird spin 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:01.280 on Dracula, which brings us back to the world of 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.600 late franchise ingenuity, which is something I always enjoy. You 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.280 know that point in a film franchise where people realize, 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:10.600 all right, we've done the same thing over and over again. 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:12.720 We need to go in a new direction. We need 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:13.800 to spice it up. 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:18.920 What can we do Dracula goes West or Dracula in 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.440 Space that's actually that's a real movie, Dracula three thousand. 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.359 Yeah, Yeah, these are all valid choices. Dracula in the 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:27.360 Old West has also been done. I just love it 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.320 when a franchise gets maybe a little desperate and starts 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.040 taking some risks. And that's where we are with the 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:38.679 seventh film in Hammer Horror's Dracula series. Kicked it off 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.200 with fifty eighth Stracula the nineteen sixties, The Brides of Dracula, 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.840 then Dracula Prince of Darkness in sixty six, then Dracula 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.200 Has Risen from the Grave in sixty eight, then Taste 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.200 the Blood of Dracula in seventy oh, and then we 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.839 have Scars of Dracula. I think that's the same year. 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.640 And then we get to Dracula AD nineteen seventy two, 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.919 which had the fat working title of Dracula Today. 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:05.720 It sounds almost like the name of a publication, like 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.440 it's a magazine for the modern Dracula connoisseur. 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.040 Yeah, alright. I mentioned it to my wife and she's like, 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.120 it sounds like a morning show, like Dracula hosts the 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.720 morning show. It's Dracula Today, and he's got his hot 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:21.120 mug of blood. So yeah, I think it's so at 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.560 this point in the film franchise, Yeah, we're definitely in 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:25.960 that experimental mode, and it would stay that way for 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.080 the duration. The film to follow this up was seventy 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.960 three's The Satanic Rites of Dracula, which I have not seen, 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.360 but I've definitely flagged it because it's my understanding that 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.240 it's sort of a Dracula spy movie. 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.120 Yes, I have seen this one. I've mentioned this on 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:45.720 the show before, but this was an especially hilarious movie 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:50.000 viewing experience because I watched it with early YouTube auto 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:54.040 generated subtitles with a group of friends, and the subtitles 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.200 were all wrong. There was one point where somebody I 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.880 don't remember what the actual line in the movie was, 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:05.080 but the subtitle took it for the boat carrying general 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:06.320 free balls. 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.120 General freebops. Okay, I don't think he's established in this film, 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.360 though some of the characters from this film will carry 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:15.480 on into the next one. 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.120 There's also a line that the subtitles interpreted as Peter 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.360 Cushing or a Peter Cushing type guy answering a telephone 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.040 and saying saw it on Twitter, and I was shocked, 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:28.160 all right. 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.000 So we've definitely flagged that one for later. The final 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:35.440 Dracula movie from Hammer Pictures was actually a co production 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.599 with Shaw Brothers. It is nineteen seventy four is the 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.240 Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires and East Meets West 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.080 Vampires film. This one's been on the list for a 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.760 long time. I haven't seen it yet, but I mean, 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:50.839 how can you resist such a mashup? 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.480 How could it go wrong? I've got to see that one. 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.240 So yeah, today's movie, Dracula AD nineteen seventy two takes 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.600 the Dracula franchise into modern times. 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:01.400 In a way. 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:03.920 It's kind of a predecessor to nineteen seventy nine's Time 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.600 after Time, which we previously talked about in the show. 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.720 Oh yeah, I can see that. I mean, so in 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.359 that episode we came up with a taxonomy of different 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.800 kinds of time travel movies. This isn't exactly a time 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:22.400 travel movie because nobody actually travels, there is no time machine, 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.520 nobody leaves the time they're naturally in. But it is 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.559 a generation spanning movie where where the vampire is slain 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.839 in one era and resurrected in another. So you might 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.160 expect there to be some I don't know, kind of 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.280 a fish out of time elements, like we talked about 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.359 in that episode, where the character from the past is 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.560 forced to deal with how things have changed in the 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.680 modern world. I must say none of that. There's nothing, 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:50.000 nothing like that at all. 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.839 Yeah, And I've seen some reviewers who come more recent 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.000 reviewers who've commented on that, like saying, why is there 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.240 not like a fish out of water Fish out of 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.279 time plot element to this? And I'm part of my 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:04.200 thinking on that, I'm thinking, Okay, well, you don't want 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:09.080 to make Dracula look foolish. This film takes Dracula's status seriously, 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.719 and Dracula remains like a severe threat. He is just 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.400 hunger and evil. But on the other hand, as we've 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.760 seen in other films, it can be done. You can 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.359 do the Fish out of Time at least a little 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:24.240 bit and have the character that is engaging and it 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:28.880 still be fearsome. The example that comes to mind, just 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.280 off the top of my head would be The Terminator. 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.039 It's not much of a Fish out of Time, but 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.000 there is that one funny moment where he tries to 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.360 go in and buy a plasma rifle from Dick Miller. 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.560 Yeah, just what you see, pal. 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.240 Yeah, And that's a funny moment, But it doesn't make 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.840 the Terminator less terrifying in that film. So there's some 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.320 sort of balance that would have been possible with Dracula 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.640 going out at night and feeding on hippies. But Dracula 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:55.480 just doesn't get out in this movie and do that 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:56.000 sort of thing. 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.360 That's exactly the issue. So the movie is trying to 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.240 be it's trying to be conceptually fish out of time. 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.000 It's trying to say, Okay, we have this monster from 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.760 a different era. You know, he came to London and 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.280 in this movie in the eighteen seventies, and suddenly he's 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:16.680 here in the nineteen seventies and whoa, it's a crazy context. 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.800 There are all these hippies and cars everywhere. This is 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.960 not what we expect to see surrounding Dracula. But Dracula 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.480 is never like, he never meets any of that stuff 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.200 in his resurrected form. He just hangs out in a church. 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.200 So I don't think he ever even sees any of 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.120 the signs of the modern world. 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.960 Right right, He's just ordering like takeout delivery essentially the 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:40.920 whole time. He doesn't get out and see that world. 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:43.440 You know, whether he'd be phased by the changes in 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.200 the world, who can say. I mean, maybe maybe Dracula 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.520 just sees blood at the end of the day and 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.800 so it doesn't matter. He's like, that's doesn't it doesn't 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.120 matter at all, Just bring me the blood. But maybe 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:55.480 you could have had some neat moments. 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.840 The Dracula in this movie does not seem very impressed 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:03.000 or even very reactive to anything around him. He you know, 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.640 there's the part where his lackey raises him from the 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.320 dead and says, master, I've brought you back, and he 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:14.280 just says it was my will. He walks past him. So, 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.440 I don't know. I kind of think that that aloofness 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.040 and high handedness might come through as well if he 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:24.360 were forced to, you know, be around automobiles or something 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:26.120 and be like, you wouldn't even notice them. He just 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.280 walked past them. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:30.400 Yeah, it would have been interesting to see how they 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:34.200 would have handled it. Now, one thing I want to 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.320 mention about this this particular movie is with its elements 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:42.520 of like hippies and groovy London counterculture to the limited 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.880 extent that is that it is explored. As I was 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:47.599 digging on this one, I was like, oh, man, I 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:51.280 wonder if this one is Electric Wizard certified, because the 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.040 themes just seem to fit too perfectly for this to 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.840 not be the case, and so I looked it up. 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:59.600 I grabbed the book Come My Fanatics, A Journey into 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:01.920 the World Electric Wizard by Dan Franklin, which came out 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.400 earlier this year, and it basically is just filled with 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.719 various movies references and movie mentions that line up with 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.319 their work, and it is in fact cited as an influence. 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.400 Dracula eighty nineteen seventy two is cited as an influence 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.240 on the excellent two thousand and seven album which Cult today. 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:22.040 I know the Wizard, and I can see this movie 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.280 being right up their alley. They love some witch Finders 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:27.760 and some hammer horror and all that good stuff. 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.440 Yeah, I mean satanic rites of Drugula obvious. Obviously there's 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.360 a connection there. The title of track on the album 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.080 which cult today reminds one of Dracula today. And then 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.920 they also have that Torquamada seventy one track which also 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.160 has sort of like similarities to the title here. So yeah, 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:47.200 I can see this one as having been a strong influence. 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.400 Now that it's been pointed out to me. 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:51.840 Now here's a question. This is a convention. I can 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:56.880 think of several examples of movies like this where it's Dracula, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:01.800 and then just the number of years Dracula nineteen seventy two, 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:06.000 Dracula two thousand, and Dracula three thousand, which is the 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:07.920 one in space with Casper van Deen. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:10.160 Is that one in the year three thousand. 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.400 I guess it's supposed to be. That one's really really 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:17.200 not good like z Grade, though it does make one 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:19.920 choice that I really like, which is it sets it 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:21.840 in the future, so they're on like a space ship. 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:26.040 I think Casper Vanden's character is Captain von Helsing of 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.240 the USS whatever it is, maybe the Demeter, I don't know, 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.679 but the like they come across Dracula in a derylic spaceship. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:35.960 But then when they wake him up, is he like 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.800 a spacey Dracula. Is he wearing kind of a spooky 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.920 space suit. No, he's just dressed in like a Halloween 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.640 store Dracula costume, with like the cape and the high 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:45.840 collar and the ruffles. 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.199 You know. I doubt they pulled it off and made 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.679 it work, But on paper, I respect the choice. I 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:56.160 do like it when Dracula is like powerful in spite 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.800 of the tropiness of the way he is dressed. And 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:01.640 I think that an example that can be found in 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:05.959 this movie because Christopher Lee, again, his Dracula maybe doesn't 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:07.520 have as much to do, doesn't get to do as 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:11.080 much killing and exploring as we would like, but it 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.440 is still a strong screen presence. It is still like 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.160 a terrifying vision of Dracula. Yeah. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.160 I think Christopher Lee is almost always pretty strong. I 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:22.360 think he's good in the moments he has, though I 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:25.880 do think the movie under uses him. We kind of 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:28.920 don't get enough Christopher Lee, and we don't get enough 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:31.280 of several of the movie's big selling points. 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.080 That's true. That's true. Oh but come back to what 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.600 you were saying. Yeah, Dracula seventy two, but it was 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:41.440 also released as Dracula's seventy three in France and Spain 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:43.960 as it came out in seventy three, so they had 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.640 upgrade the title. Nobody wants last year's Dracula. I mean, 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.440 come on, but it's worth looking up the French poster 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:54.280 for Dracula seventy three because it's absolutely stunning. It's like, 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:56.079 I don't even know how to explain it. It's got 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:58.480 this weird kind of I don't know, almost kind of 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.679 like our deco looking font and then Dracula's head is 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:09.000 like this psychedelic floating visage in the sky gazing hungrily 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:10.120 at bikini women. 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.000 It really doesn't look like Christopher Lee. It's more like 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:18.480 a floating monster mask that is bleeding colors into the stratosphere. 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:23.760 Yes, so look that up. It's good. Now. I want 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:28.040 to stress that this movie is not everyone's favorite. Roger 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:32.480 Ebert only gave it one star, single star. Michael Weldon 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.240 of Psychotronic Film Guide called this one's time jump quote 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.760 a big mistake. And and I even touch base with 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:43.200 Hammer fan and former producer of the show Seth Nichols Johnson, 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.920 who again big fan of a lot of Hammer films. 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:48.160 He says this is not one of his favorites. He 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:49.840 likes it, but is not one of his favorites. 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:52.920 Fair enough. I think it'll make for a good discussion 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.000 on the show. But I say it's not one of 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.680 the best Hammer horror Draculas. I think Horror of Dracula 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:58.360 is much better. 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.240 No, No, I think to enjoy this film, you've got 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.840 to be on board for again late franchise innovation, for 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:11.360 some sort of you know, risky if not completely realized, 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.760 dream of where Dracula could take you, and I guess 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.160 also the further away we are from it in time, 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.640 the more it has been allowed to age, because I 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:24.600 know a lot of these commentators were talking about when 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.480 it first came out. Weldon criticized it as being already 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:31.679 dated when it hit the screen. But we've had decades 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.119 for this film to mature, and now we can appreciate 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:35.360 it for what it is. 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.520 I suspect people might have found the hippie caricatures more 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:45.520 grating in the seventies. I find them delightfully amusing now, yeah. 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.320 Yeah, I think that could be part of it, all right, 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.520 elevator pitch for this one. I would say these hippies 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.439 are such a drain on society. Of course, they resurrected Dracula. 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.480 It's the dope, it's the Devil music, it's the Dracula rights. 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.400 That's right. My other one that came up with his parents. 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.280 Be aware of these warning signs that your twenty five 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.920 year old teenager may be involved with drugs, sex, black masses, 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.199 rock music, and Dracula resurrection. 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.480 We do have several parenting scenes where Peter Cushing is 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.320 trying to exert a positive influence on his granddaughter Jessica. 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:22.360 You know he's trying to figure out, like, hey, are 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:24.960 her friends on the level? But it just doesn't go anywhere. 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:29.160 No, All right, let's listen to some trailer audio. 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:40.120 Yesterday Dracula was the most fearsome being the screen has 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:52.080 ever seen. Today, tonight you you could be Dracula's next. 0:14:51.920 --> 0:15:06.680 Victim, something new yet as old as time. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.360 Come on, Johnny, a date with the Devil. 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:18.760 Are you ready? He's ready, He's waiting to freak you 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:25.320 out right out of this world. Nice September eighteen seventy two, 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:35.040 one hundred years ago to the day. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:38.360 You who witnessed must swear before the name of the 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.200 devil to keep its secret. 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:42.040 Who knows about vampires? 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:43.400 For God's sake, my. 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:49.080 Grandfather died fating about most terrible vers dangelous and of 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:49.600 all time. 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:57.040 The year is nineteen seventy two, a leap year in horror, 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:14.200 a vintage year vampires. Good time for the masters of 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:15.720 horror to meet a game. 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:17.440 In the twentieth century. 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:26.880 Come to me, come pracular. 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:32.040 All right. Well, if at this point you would like 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.560 to go watch Dracula eight nineteen seventy two for yourself, 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.000 well you're in luck, because this one was released through 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.720 Warner Brothers, so it's widely available. It's even currently available 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:43.800 in the States, at least on Max. Looks like they 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.160 have a number of Hammer Horror flicks in there, so yeah, 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.760 go crazy. You can also get it on basically any 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:52.160 physical or digital format you desire. 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:02.640 All right, let's do those connections. 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.679 All right. The director is Alan Gibson, who lived nineteen 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:09.200 thirty eight through nineteen eighty seven. Canadian director who worked 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:11.280 a lot in the UK with TV work going back 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:13.240 to the mid sixties, but it's his horror work that 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.520 most remember him for today. His credits include nineteen seventies 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.400 Goodbye Jim and I, which I believe is some sort 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:24.040 of a you know, scary twin movie, This film, of course, 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.040 and its follow up, nineteen seventy three's The Satanic Rights 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:29.800 of Dracula. He also continued to work in TV and 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.280 directed episodes of the anthology series thriller Tales of the 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.840 Unexpected and Hammer House of Horror. In fact, one of 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.439 the Hammer House of Horror episodes he directed was The 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:44.119 Silent Scream, starring Peter Cushing but also a young Brian 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:45.840 Cox who was actually I think we did the math. 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.120 He would have been like thirty four at the time. 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:52.399 Wow, it's hard to understand that I'm looking at Brian 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:54.400 Cox younger than I am now. 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.560 Yeah. Yeah, he came out with I mean, Brian Cox's 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.679 the augumented career of you know, playing at least you know, 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:08.160 heavies and formidable personalities. Formidable personalities, yeah, not so much, 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.359 you know, leading man type stuff. So yeah, he's one 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.399 of those actors who, perhaps even early on, always looked 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:17.280 like he was in his late forties at least. But 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:19.200 great actor. I haven't seen the episode, but I might 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:19.960 have to seek it out. 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.240 And you said it's also got Peter Cushing. 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:26.159 Yeah, yeah, Peter Cushing. You know, it's just he was 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.080 on speed dial for Hammer. They needed him for something. 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.320 He's like, yeah, is it a movie? Fine? There TV show, great, 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:34.680 I need a flight to China. Great, Let's make it work. 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.160 It's nice to have steady work. Yes, all right. 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:40.400 The screenwriter for this one is Don Houghten, who lived 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:44.719 nineteen thirty through nineteen ninety one, British television screenwriter and 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.320 producer whose writing credits include thirteen episodes of Doctor Who 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.840 from nineteen seventy, The Satanic Rites of Dracula the Seven 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:55.600 Golden Vampires movie, and also another Shaw Brothers Hammer co 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.679 production from seventy four, an action picture titled Chatter. I 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:01.600 believe Peter Cushing is in that one as well. 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.399 Okay, is it about a man who has the power 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:04.959 to shatter? 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:08.879 It looks like it's kind of like crime or act 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.960 crime action, maybe spy. I'm not sure, you know. It's 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.720 one of those non horror Hammer films that perhaps gets 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:19.880 re explored less in the modern era. I see, all right, Well, 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.879 who's playing the title character of Count Dracula. Well, of 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.680 course it's Christopher Lee, who lived nineteen twenty two through 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.040 twenty fifteen. We've talked about Lee before on the show, 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.560 as he's popped up in numerous films we've discussed already 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:32.800 and is just going to keep popping up because he's 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.200 an icon of horror. But here he is in one 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.879 of his most iconic roles, the one that influenced his 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:42.919 casting and presentation in late career hits like this, like 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.720 the Star Wars prequels, like Peter Jackson's Lord of the 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.359 Rings films. He was, I think, rather famously tired of 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:51.840 playing Dracula at this point in his career, or at 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:55.040 least tired of playing Dracula the hammer away. I'm to 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:58.600 understand the nineteen seventy Just Franco picture Count Dracula was 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.239 more in line with what he wanted to do with 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:04.440 the character at that point in his career. But still again, 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:07.240 it's a great screen presence, and one can only imagine 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.399 that he enjoyed working once more with his friend and 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.679 a longtime co star of twenty two films, Peter Cushing. 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:14.960 What is his Do you know what his take in 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:17.520 The Franco Count Dracula is? How's it different? 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:20.720 I haven't seen it in its entirety yet, it's been 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.080 It was actually a film I was considering for this 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:26.760 month on Weird House because it's supposed to be, first 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:29.840 of all, not as sleazy as other Just Franco films, 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.080 like it's a little more mainstream, has a great cast, 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:37.479 you have like Kloskinsky playing Renfield in it. But it's 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.119 supposed to be more of like a sympathetic tragic Dracula. 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:43.320 And I'm to understand it's the first Dracula film in 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.440 which we initially meet an elderly Dracula who has then 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:49.679 made young again through the consumption of blood. 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.280 Oh okay, so this has many things in common with 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.679 what would later happen in Bram Stoker's Dracula, directed by Coppola, 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.280 which we were just talking about in our Core episodes 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.600 earlier this week. Yeah, yeah, that has the at least 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.879 partially sympathetic Dracula. Adds in a love story for Dracula, 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:08.600 which I want to emphasize is not in the book. 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:13.040 Dracula is not in love. He does not romance in 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:15.439 the book. He is just a demon and he's just bad. 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.720 And that also has a Dracula who when Jonathan Harker 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.600 first meets him in Transylvania, he looks very old and decrepit, 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.160 but by the time he reaches London he is young 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:26.200 and rejuvenated and old many. 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:29.320 So yeah, the Dracula that we get in Dracula eighty 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:33.240 seventy two is certainly the demonic Dracula. In fact, they 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:37.160 call him the demon vampire in the prologue to the picture. 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.840 He is just pure supernatural hunger. He has more in 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:44.880 common with the Terminator than some of the more sympathetic 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:50.520 film versions of Dracula that we've seen. In this film's wake. 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:56.920 Yeah, just a mean nasty, vengeful, uncomplicated, demonic vampire. Now. 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.280 I mentioned this earlier, but just to get a little 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.800 bit in deep into it. I feel like Christopher Lee 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.200 is good in this movie, but one of my major 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:07.760 complaints about the film is that it is reserved in 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:10.520 the deployment of its key selling points, one of them 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:14.600 being Christopher Lee. He he's a kind of he's an 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.679 ineffectual vampire. He doesn't have a lot of lines, and 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:20.560 he has limited screen time, and that screen time is 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:24.879 confined to basically just two locations. It feels almost like 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:26.760 they were trying to make sure they could shoot all 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:30.040 of his scenes on the same day and you could 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.199 see how his like the fact that he never leaves 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:36.359 the church he's resurrected in in the modern era unless 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:38.440 he I don't think there's ever a scene of him 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:40.440 going anywhere else, is there. I can't think of one. 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:41.520 I don't think. 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:41.639 So. 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:44.320 Yeah, so he's just there. So you could say, well 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:47.159 that that speaks to his power, right, So you know, 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:49.440 he just stays there and he has his servants bringing 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.000 him victims, so like he doesn't he's so powerful he 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:54.960 doesn't even have to go out hunting. But I don't know, 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:57.160 I feel like this movie would deliver more on its 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:01.040 promise of Dracula nineteen seventy two AD if it had 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.639 both more of Dracula on screen and going out and 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:07.720 doing things in the world and had more of the 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:11.240 world of nineteen seventy two AD, which it's also actually 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:16.560 relatively tame on, save for like one silly party scene. 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:18.960 I think what they should have done is have Dracula 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.280 go to the coffee bar while it's like hoppin' and 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:24.879 everybody's partying, and he goes and I don't know, I 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:27.000 guess he wouldn't dance, but he would at least like 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:29.960 get encounter hippie culture there. 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:34.320 Yeah, like kill Nick Jagger in the street or something. Right, Yeah, 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:36.840 I think just one sequence of him feasting on hippie 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:39.800 blood elsewhere in London would have gone a long way. 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:42.840 And if you were determined to have him not leave 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:45.760 the church yard, maybe just like one scene where he 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:48.359 like looks out the window at night and like sees 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:50.560 what's out there. You could even play it up like, 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:54.199 oh man, if Dracula gets loose in nineteen seventy two London, 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:56.320 it's all over, Like that's why he has to be 0:23:56.359 --> 0:24:00.760 stopped here before he has reached full feasting again. But 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:02.840 they don't really explore any of those ideas. 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:05.280 I mean, it's easy to forget because the book itself 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:07.560 is very old now. But I think one of the themes 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:10.600 in the novel Dracula is the idea of some part 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:14.400 of the old world coming into the new world. It's 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:17.439 that like, you know it, that this you know, figure 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:20.439 from a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains out in 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:23.800 the forest at the at the edge of Europe, as 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:26.440 these people would have thought of it coming to the 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:30.280 biggest metropolis that they knew of coming to modern London. 0:24:31.359 --> 0:24:34.280 Yeah, that's a great point. So it's already built into 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:38.280 the text quite a bit there, that he's traveling across 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:41.960 time and space to something new and yeah, and to 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:43.840 come back to time after time. One of the great 0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:48.480 serious threads in that is that when Jack the Ripper 0:24:48.680 --> 0:24:52.320 arrives in the modern era, he's like, this place is great, 0:24:52.600 --> 0:24:55.639 Like I can really thrive here, like and you know, 0:24:55.680 --> 0:24:57.399 And of course that would come later that film, but 0:24:58.560 --> 0:25:00.520 a similar vibe I think would have gone a long 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:03.480 way here. All right. So that's Dracula. But you can't 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:07.640 have a Hammer Dracula without a Hammer van Helsing, and 0:25:07.680 --> 0:25:10.760 that's where Peter Cushing comes in playing This is technically 0:25:10.800 --> 0:25:12.600 going to be a dual role because he starts off 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:16.119 playing Lawrence van Helsing, but then we'll go on to 0:25:16.160 --> 0:25:19.920 play his descendant, Lauramir van Helsing. 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:22.240 I got some notes on these names. I'll come back 0:25:22.240 --> 0:25:22.440 to that. 0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:28.200 So Peter Cushing lived nineteen thirteen through nineteen ninety four. Again, 0:25:28.240 --> 0:25:30.320 we've discussed Peter Cushing on the show before, and he's 0:25:30.359 --> 0:25:32.800 just going to continue to pop up because he was, 0:25:34.840 --> 0:25:37.520 like Christopher Lee, just an iconic player in horror and 0:25:37.520 --> 0:25:39.919 sci fi cinema of the day, and I think he 0:25:39.960 --> 0:25:43.280 was even more prolific. He's one of those actors that 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:45.520 everyone seems to have had nice things to say about, 0:25:45.560 --> 0:25:48.960 both personally and professionally. Just a consonant pro no matter 0:25:49.280 --> 0:25:52.640 what the material had him doing or saying, he always 0:25:52.960 --> 0:25:56.399 he always brings an air of dignity to most pictures. 0:25:57.680 --> 0:26:01.040 This movie is from the later stage of his after 0:26:01.119 --> 0:26:03.680 the death of his wife in nineteen seventy one. In fact, 0:26:03.680 --> 0:26:07.160 film just eight months after her passing. This is an 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:10.399 event that apparently took a huge toll on him. In fact, 0:26:10.520 --> 0:26:13.720 he was apparently originally intended to be to play the 0:26:13.800 --> 0:26:17.000 father of the character Jessica van Helsing in this movie, 0:26:17.359 --> 0:26:20.639 but he had visibly aged so much since his wife's 0:26:20.720 --> 0:26:23.399 passing that they rewrote the script a little bit to 0:26:23.400 --> 0:26:28.119 make him be her grandfather. Oh okay, So you know, 0:26:28.160 --> 0:26:30.040 I think we might be forgiven for viewing films from 0:26:30.080 --> 0:26:33.600 this era of his career and detecting that loss and 0:26:33.640 --> 0:26:36.879 that distance in his screen presence, especially in the various 0:26:36.920 --> 0:26:39.120 examples of films that cast him as a man who's 0:26:39.200 --> 0:26:42.960 experienced a great loss. But you know that being said again, 0:26:43.080 --> 0:26:47.200 consummate professional. He does a solid job in this and 0:26:47.400 --> 0:26:50.040 I'm to understand he actually does his own stunts in 0:26:50.080 --> 0:26:54.280 the opening, which is which concerns like a thunderous carriage 0:26:55.119 --> 0:26:57.679 based action sequence. So it's you know, it's not just like, 0:26:57.760 --> 0:26:59.800 oh he you know, he fell out of a chair 0:27:00.160 --> 0:27:02.719 like he's on like a moving carriage. It looks kind 0:27:02.760 --> 0:27:05.679 of dangerous, and apparently he does whatever stunts are required 0:27:05.720 --> 0:27:06.240 of him. There. 0:27:06.560 --> 0:27:09.000 Wow, I'm impressed. Well, I was going to say that, 0:27:09.880 --> 0:27:12.280 you know, I love Peter Cushing, but I'll admit sometimes 0:27:12.320 --> 0:27:14.600 he phones it in. Give him a break. He did 0:27:14.600 --> 0:27:17.360 a lot of movies and a lot of very similar movies. 0:27:17.440 --> 0:27:20.960 But strangely, I thought it seemed to me he was 0:27:21.000 --> 0:27:23.679 putting a lot of feeling into this one. This is 0:27:23.960 --> 0:27:26.639 not one of his best written roles, but he really 0:27:26.720 --> 0:27:31.480 exceeds what is required of him, and there was more 0:27:31.520 --> 0:27:33.920 emotion in this performance than I expected. 0:27:35.000 --> 0:27:37.560 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's not just about the man 0:27:37.600 --> 0:27:40.240 who must defeat the monster, but there's like someone in 0:27:40.280 --> 0:27:42.959 his life he's trying to protect as well, and not 0:27:43.000 --> 0:27:45.720 only protect from supernatural threats but also just sort of 0:27:46.080 --> 0:27:48.960 ambiguous social threats as well that he's concerned about. 0:27:49.320 --> 0:27:52.760 Yeah, his protective care for his grandchild comes through as 0:27:52.840 --> 0:27:53.600 genuine emotion. 0:27:53.840 --> 0:27:58.240 Yeah. Yeah. Now playing that grandchild, Jessica van Helsing is 0:27:58.320 --> 0:28:02.800 Stephanie Beacham Moreneteen forty seven. This is our young, prematurely 0:28:02.840 --> 0:28:07.480 white haired descendant of the original Van Helsing. Stephanie Beacham 0:28:07.720 --> 0:28:10.639 is an English actor of stage, screen and television with 0:28:10.720 --> 0:28:14.080 a very long and still very active career. She'd mostly 0:28:14.119 --> 0:28:16.320 done TV in stage at this point in her career, 0:28:16.359 --> 0:28:19.240 but had popped up in some films, including Roddy McDowell's 0:28:19.400 --> 0:28:23.800 tam Lynn from nineteen seventy and The Nightcomers from seventy one. 0:28:23.840 --> 0:28:27.920 After Dracula AD nineteen seventy two, she acted in seventy 0:28:27.920 --> 0:28:31.320 Threes and Now The Screaming Starts, seventy six's House of 0:28:31.400 --> 0:28:35.320 Mortal Sin and Schizo, and nineteen eighty one's Horror Planet. 0:28:35.359 --> 0:28:38.400 Her TV credits include forty nine episodes of The Colby's, 0:28:39.560 --> 0:28:43.200 twenty three episodes of Dynasty, in which she plays Sable Colby. 0:28:43.280 --> 0:28:45.000 I'm not sure how this works, but I'm guessing this 0:28:45.040 --> 0:28:47.440 is the same character. There's some sort of like I 0:28:47.440 --> 0:28:49.680 don't know if this was a spinoff of Dynasty or 0:28:50.840 --> 0:28:53.560 if like a character from The Colby's joined the cast 0:28:53.600 --> 0:28:55.880 of Dynasty. I'm not sure how soap operas really work. 0:28:56.200 --> 0:28:57.240 I don't know either, but. 0:28:57.200 --> 0:28:59.120 Anyway, it was apparently a big role for her. It's 0:28:59.160 --> 0:29:02.520 like the top thing that's mentioned diner on her IMDb page, 0:29:02.760 --> 0:29:04.680 But she was another STI she's like on the Love Boat. 0:29:05.600 --> 0:29:09.160 She apparently played Margaret Thatcher on an episode of alf 0:29:09.680 --> 0:29:13.080 Life Poles. Yeah, so there's that. I could not find 0:29:13.080 --> 0:29:15.200 a screenshot of it. I was really looking for it, 0:29:15.360 --> 0:29:17.120 could not find it. But she's also been on things 0:29:17.160 --> 0:29:21.280 like Star Trek, The Next Generation SeaQuest and Coronation Street. 0:29:22.120 --> 0:29:24.800 I think she's quite good in this, though she has 0:29:24.840 --> 0:29:27.680 the same issue that almost all of the teenagers have, 0:29:27.800 --> 0:29:30.040 which is that none of them seem like teenagers. I 0:29:30.040 --> 0:29:32.680 think I don't know how old they're supposed to be. 0:29:32.720 --> 0:29:34.959 I would guess they're supposed to be like, I don't know, 0:29:34.960 --> 0:29:37.760 eighteen to twenty, but they all come off as about 0:29:37.880 --> 0:29:39.720 thirty or at least late twenties. 0:29:40.480 --> 0:29:43.360 Yeah. I think she was like twenty five at the time. 0:29:44.080 --> 0:29:46.080 Not really a problem. I just think it's funny when 0:29:46.120 --> 0:29:49.800 movies have these groups of all extremely adult teenagers. 0:29:50.360 --> 0:29:53.480 All right. The next actor of note is Christopher Neim 0:29:53.760 --> 0:30:00.360 playing Johnny Alocard. This is the drugish occult enthusias in 0:30:00.360 --> 0:30:04.680 the group of friends that we meet the young Londoners. 0:30:05.240 --> 0:30:08.280 He cares about only one thing, and it is, of course, 0:30:08.320 --> 0:30:11.160 the resurrection of Dracula. He has a Dracula cultist. 0:30:11.680 --> 0:30:13.720 It's interesting that I think there are a lot of 0:30:13.800 --> 0:30:18.360 stories that where people become the servants of a satanic 0:30:18.560 --> 0:30:22.479 entity or demonic overlord so that they can pursue a 0:30:22.520 --> 0:30:26.520 party lifestyle and hedonistic pleasures. Like the powers they acquire 0:30:26.680 --> 0:30:30.200 by serving the demon lord give them the ability to 0:30:30.280 --> 0:30:33.040 party the way they want to. He's the other way around. 0:30:33.160 --> 0:30:37.120 Johnny Alucard parties in order to serve a demon lord like. 0:30:37.200 --> 0:30:41.560 He apparently only does the swing and hippie thing in 0:30:41.720 --> 0:30:45.000 order to attract a group of friends who can be 0:30:45.080 --> 0:30:48.240 brought as snacks to the vampire that he wants to resurrect. 0:30:48.800 --> 0:30:51.320 That's right, Johnny Alickhard just wants to do Dracula stuff. 0:30:51.320 --> 0:30:54.520 That's all he wants in life, and he's going to 0:30:54.600 --> 0:30:56.160 do whatever it takes to get there. 0:30:56.800 --> 0:30:56.880 So. 0:30:57.000 --> 0:30:59.959 Johnny Alickhard is played by Christopher Nien born nineteen five 0:31:00.000 --> 0:31:03.360 forty seven. He has a great look. He brings some 0:31:03.440 --> 0:31:07.040 great hungry energy to this role as a Dracula cultist 0:31:07.040 --> 0:31:09.840 in Vampire Wanna Be. He kicked off his film career 0:31:09.880 --> 0:31:13.000 in the nineteen seventy environmental disaster film No Blade of Grass, 0:31:13.400 --> 0:31:15.880 followed by seventy one's Lust for a Vampire. This is 0:31:16.120 --> 0:31:20.000 These are small roles, I'm to understand, but this role 0:31:20.120 --> 0:31:22.240 in Dracula eighty nineteen seventy two sent it to have 0:31:22.280 --> 0:31:24.440 been a big step up for him. He goes on 0:31:24.480 --> 0:31:26.840 from here to work steadily in all manner of pictures 0:31:26.880 --> 0:31:29.640 and TV shows, including thirty episodes of Days of Our 0:31:29.680 --> 0:31:34.280 Lives nineteen eighty seven, Steel Dawn, a really weird sounding 0:31:34.360 --> 0:31:38.240 nineteen eighty eight sci fi horror film titled Transformations. He 0:31:38.480 --> 0:31:41.800 did episodes of Dynasty episodes of Dallas. He pops up 0:31:41.800 --> 0:31:44.840 in the nineteen eighty nine James Bond film Licensed to Kill, 0:31:45.000 --> 0:31:47.920 in which he plays the agent that is sent to 0:31:48.240 --> 0:31:50.680 collect the rogue agent James Bond. 0:31:51.640 --> 0:31:55.280 Mm. Yeah, okay, this is the one where Bond go 0:31:55.840 --> 0:31:58.080 he like quits I six and he goes on a 0:31:58.120 --> 0:31:59.080 mission of vengeance. 0:32:00.120 --> 0:32:05.200 Yeah, this is the one where oh what's his name? Explodes? 0:32:05.920 --> 0:32:09.360 Robert Davey feeds his friend Felix to a shark and 0:32:09.480 --> 0:32:12.800 leaves a note saying he disagreed with something that ate him. 0:32:13.040 --> 0:32:17.080 And so James Bond goes to kill Robert Dovey. 0:32:17.600 --> 0:32:20.120 Yeah, and Anthony's er explodes, right, I think that's how 0:32:20.160 --> 0:32:21.560 it goes goes maybe? 0:32:21.640 --> 0:32:21.840 Yeah? 0:32:23.120 --> 0:32:26.120 Anyway, Christopher nine was in a bunch of stuff. He 0:32:26.160 --> 0:32:29.360 pops up in Ghostbusters two playing a Nitro d He's 0:32:29.360 --> 0:32:33.200 in the Hulkgan films Suburban Commando from ninety one. He's 0:32:33.240 --> 0:32:36.560 in the nineteen ninety four Chuck Norris film hell Bound, 0:32:36.880 --> 0:32:39.360 He's in Species three from two thousand and four and 0:32:39.680 --> 0:32:41.840 then goes on to be in The Prestige from two 0:32:41.840 --> 0:32:45.680 thousand and six, just a bunch more all the way 0:32:45.760 --> 0:32:46.960 up through twenty nineteen. 0:32:47.360 --> 0:32:52.240 He's perfect in this. He's got a creepy, malevolent, froggy smile. 0:32:52.560 --> 0:32:55.080 He just he looks like he's up to no good. 0:32:55.880 --> 0:32:59.200 Yeah, dangerous youngster. They're very drugish. 0:32:59.520 --> 0:33:02.320 He also just give strong like cult leader. It's like 0:33:02.400 --> 0:33:04.560 you see him and it's like, get this guy a 0:33:04.600 --> 0:33:05.680 cult stat. 0:33:06.040 --> 0:33:10.280 Yeah, all right. We also have the law present in 0:33:10.320 --> 0:33:14.080 this film, investigating manner matters that turn out to be 0:33:14.120 --> 0:33:18.160 Dracula related. We have Inspector Murray played by Michael cole 0:33:18.280 --> 0:33:20.520 So of nineteen thirty four through two thousand and five. 0:33:20.680 --> 0:33:23.640 This is our chief law officer investigating a stream of 0:33:23.680 --> 0:33:27.960 strange murders in London. He's presented as a more progressive 0:33:28.040 --> 0:33:31.080 and sympathetic policeman, but at the same time he's totally 0:33:31.120 --> 0:33:33.760 down to invoke draconian drug laws in order to weed 0:33:33.800 --> 0:33:34.920 out dangerous hippies. 0:33:35.440 --> 0:33:37.719 Yeah, I'm gonna say no offense to Michael Coles. He 0:33:37.760 --> 0:33:41.880 does fine, but this oddly shaggy and in some ways 0:33:41.920 --> 0:33:45.640 sympathetic detective character. Feels like it was meant for David Warner. 0:33:46.080 --> 0:33:48.640 Oh well, yeah, David Warner would have been good. I 0:33:48.640 --> 0:33:51.040 mean David what. You could cast David Warner in anything 0:33:51.080 --> 0:33:54.440 in this film and he would have nailed it. As 0:33:54.440 --> 0:33:57.800 for Michael Coles, he would reprise this role in seventy 0:33:57.800 --> 0:34:00.160 three's The Satanic Rights of Dracula. So I guess that 0:34:00.440 --> 0:34:05.200 the investigation continues. His other credits include nineteen sixty five's 0:34:05.240 --> 0:34:08.120 Doctor Who in the Daleks. All right, we basically as 0:34:08.160 --> 0:34:10.600 far as the cast goes, there are just a couple 0:34:10.600 --> 0:34:13.279 other people of note. These are other members of the 0:34:13.600 --> 0:34:15.560 youth group. Well it's not a youth group. That makes 0:34:15.600 --> 0:34:17.799 it sound like it's church affiliated. These are some more 0:34:17.840 --> 0:34:21.239 of the swing in Londoners the Young People, the first 0:34:21.320 --> 0:34:24.319 of which is the character Gaynor, played by Marcia A. 0:34:24.560 --> 0:34:29.280 Hunt born nineteen forty six. She's an American model, singer, actor, 0:34:29.280 --> 0:34:31.880 and a later author and editor. She only acted in 0:34:31.920 --> 0:34:34.759 eleven films, but they include such titles as nineteen eighty 0:34:34.760 --> 0:34:37.360 two as The Cinder It's like a psychic, sort of 0:34:37.719 --> 0:34:41.800 Scanner esque flick, nineteen eighty three's Never Say Never Again, 0:34:42.040 --> 0:34:45.760 The Bond film Howling II, Your Sister is Aware Wolf, 0:34:46.200 --> 0:34:50.120 which is obviously part of the ups and downs of 0:34:49.920 --> 0:34:58.200 the Howling franchise. Her Her bibliography includes an autobiography, a memoir, 0:34:58.560 --> 0:35:02.239 and the nineteen ninety novel Joy. Her discography includes three 0:35:02.280 --> 0:35:04.920 albums from the nineteen seventies, and she was also famously 0:35:04.960 --> 0:35:07.080 in a relationship with Mick Jagger and the two had 0:35:07.080 --> 0:35:07.760 a daughter together. 0:35:09.000 --> 0:35:11.600 She's one of the more friendly presences in the group 0:35:11.640 --> 0:35:15.280 of London Hippies, though she tragically is eaten by Dracula, 0:35:15.520 --> 0:35:17.000 like several characters are. 0:35:18.360 --> 0:35:23.040 Another doomed character that fits the same description for the 0:35:23.040 --> 0:35:28.160 most part is Carolyn Monroe's Laura Bellows. We've talked about 0:35:28.239 --> 0:35:30.680 Monroe on the show before, because yeah, she was a 0:35:30.719 --> 0:35:33.720 pin up model and actress who stole many a seventies 0:35:33.800 --> 0:35:37.439 film nerds heart, with such genre appearances as The Spy 0:35:37.480 --> 0:35:41.120 Who Loved Me seventy seven, Maniac in nineteen eighty, Slaughter 0:35:41.200 --> 0:35:44.120 High in eighty six, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad earlier 0:35:44.120 --> 0:35:48.200 in seventy three, Captain Crono's Vampire Hunter, Another Hammer Picture 0:35:48.239 --> 0:35:50.799 from seventy four, at the Earth's Core in seventy six, 0:35:50.880 --> 0:35:53.879 and also star Crash in seventy eight. She also has 0:35:53.920 --> 0:35:59.040 a just slight cameo as a picture of Doctor Fib's 0:36:00.239 --> 0:36:03.440 wife in nineteen seventy one's The Abominable Doctor Fivees. 0:36:03.920 --> 0:36:06.640 She is the main character in Star Crash and she 0:36:06.640 --> 0:36:07.640 she's still a star. 0:36:07.680 --> 0:36:10.880 So oh yeah, yeah, yeah, she's right there, she's on 0:36:10.920 --> 0:36:11.360 the poster. 0:36:11.840 --> 0:36:14.640 Yeah. She is also eaten by Dracula in this movie, 0:36:14.680 --> 0:36:19.040 and her character is is just goga for demons. Ever 0:36:19.080 --> 0:36:23.680 since there's like the moment the Johnny Alucard brings up, hey, 0:36:23.719 --> 0:36:26.759 what if we did a black mass, She's like, yes, yes, 0:36:26.800 --> 0:36:27.640 do it, now, let's go. 0:36:29.280 --> 0:36:31.520 It's true. Yeah, she's kind of presented as the Well, 0:36:31.719 --> 0:36:34.319 of course she was killed by Dracula because she was 0:36:34.560 --> 0:36:38.839 a bad hippie, so so yeah, what early victim here. 0:36:39.000 --> 0:36:42.120 But I don't understand, like why is she so into demons. 0:36:42.239 --> 0:36:44.160 There are several characters in this movie who have a 0:36:44.280 --> 0:36:47.000 history of like investigating the occult, so like it's an 0:36:47.120 --> 0:36:51.479 established interest of theirs. She seems like she's never thought 0:36:51.520 --> 0:36:53.920 of it until Johnny Alucard brings it up. But the 0:36:54.000 --> 0:36:57.160 moment he's like, let's summon the Prince of darkness, she 0:36:57.680 --> 0:36:59.799 can't think of anything else. It's like, this is all 0:36:59.800 --> 0:37:00.640 I want now. 0:37:01.000 --> 0:37:02.960 Yeah, I mean, I guess it's you know, I guess 0:37:03.080 --> 0:37:07.000 we're already thinking about it deep more deeply than anyone 0:37:07.080 --> 0:37:09.520 involved in the film, I think. But you know, maybe 0:37:09.520 --> 0:37:11.440 she's supposed to be just sort of like the shallow 0:37:11.600 --> 0:37:14.799 enthusiast of the occult that doesn't realize that there are, 0:37:15.280 --> 0:37:17.600 you know, in the world of this film, real threats 0:37:17.640 --> 0:37:20.440 involved in trying to summon up the spirit of a 0:37:20.640 --> 0:37:24.839 slain Dracula creature from the past, that sort of thing. 0:37:27.320 --> 0:37:28.920 All right, we're gonna skip over the rest of the 0:37:29.600 --> 0:37:32.040 youth in this film and just get right to the music. 0:37:32.280 --> 0:37:35.520 The music is by Michael Vickers born nineteen forty. He 0:37:35.560 --> 0:37:38.280 was a member of the nineteen sixties band Manfred Mann. 0:37:38.920 --> 0:37:42.680 I'm not familiar with, but the scorer and soundtrack for 0:37:42.719 --> 0:37:44.600 this film is widely available, and I have to say 0:37:44.640 --> 0:37:47.200 it's a lot of fun. Most of the score tracks 0:37:47.280 --> 0:37:51.080 are very jazzy, lots of blaring like horn or saxophone 0:37:51.160 --> 0:37:54.200 or whatever is Dracula and Van Helston chase each other around. 0:37:54.880 --> 0:37:58.439 But he also gives us a wonderful black mass track 0:37:58.560 --> 0:38:02.279 titled Devil's Circle Music that is you see it being 0:38:02.280 --> 0:38:04.800 played on screen. It is the soundtrack to the Black 0:38:04.840 --> 0:38:08.160 Mass that is conducted in the picture, and it itself 0:38:08.239 --> 0:38:12.719 is a beautiful, creepy cacophony of Satanic sounds. So part 0:38:12.760 --> 0:38:14.720 of me, which is the whole score for this movie, 0:38:14.760 --> 0:38:17.680 sounded like that. But on the other hand, I really 0:38:17.719 --> 0:38:20.960 like the cheesy content of this film, so I'm glad 0:38:20.960 --> 0:38:32.879 that we have the blaring jazz present as well. All Right, 0:38:32.920 --> 0:38:36.840 with all that behind us, Joe, take us to nineteen 0:38:36.920 --> 0:38:37.680 seventy two. 0:38:38.160 --> 0:38:40.040 All right, we'd be well, no, we don't start in 0:38:40.120 --> 0:38:41.000 nineteen seventy two. 0:38:41.600 --> 0:38:44.520 Oh oh, that's right. We start in eighteen seventy two. 0:38:44.640 --> 0:38:47.040 Right, that's right. I'll take you to eighteen seventy two. 0:38:47.040 --> 0:38:49.480 How about that? How about we start there? Okay, we 0:38:49.520 --> 0:38:53.000 begin with dead leaves blowing in the autumn wind. And 0:38:53.080 --> 0:38:57.439 I noticed I noticed in this opening sequence in some shots, Rober, 0:38:57.480 --> 0:38:59.120 I don't know if you saw this too. In some 0:38:59.239 --> 0:39:03.560 shots the trees are just packed with dense green foliage, 0:39:03.920 --> 0:39:06.640 and in other shots they have orange and yellow leaves 0:39:06.680 --> 0:39:09.799 and fewer of them, and then in a third kind 0:39:09.840 --> 0:39:12.359 of shot they're completely bare. I wonder why that is. 0:39:12.560 --> 0:39:16.160 Could it be the different shots in this, like I 0:39:16.200 --> 0:39:19.200 don't know, minute long carriage chase were shot at different 0:39:19.280 --> 0:39:22.920 months of the year. That seems unlikely, but I don't know. 0:39:23.160 --> 0:39:26.719 Maybe it's just different kind of trees or something. I 0:39:26.760 --> 0:39:28.719 was on guard for this because I saw, like at 0:39:28.719 --> 0:39:31.520 the the very first shot, orange leaves are blowing on 0:39:31.560 --> 0:39:33.920 the ground, but the trees in the background are fully green, 0:39:34.000 --> 0:39:37.400 and it reminded me of John Carpenter's Halloween, which you 0:39:37.440 --> 0:39:39.480 may have never noticed this before, but it's like that. 0:39:39.560 --> 0:39:41.600 I think it was actually shot in the summer, even 0:39:41.640 --> 0:39:45.040 though it's supposed to take place in October in Illinois, 0:39:46.200 --> 0:39:48.160 so I think they had to like bring in bags 0:39:48.160 --> 0:39:50.200 of dead leaves to dress, you know. 0:39:50.239 --> 0:39:52.640 The sets reminds me of the neighborhood that while we 0:39:52.680 --> 0:39:56.000 both live in. Occasionally they're film productions, and there was 0:39:56.040 --> 0:39:58.000 that one I think this was like in the summer 0:39:58.000 --> 0:40:02.200 where they were filming something for Halloween and they decorated 0:40:02.200 --> 0:40:07.919 the whole streak for Halloween, like movie level Halloween decorations, 0:40:07.960 --> 0:40:10.840 and it was pretty fun. Like sometimes film productions can 0:40:11.239 --> 0:40:12.880 you know, they can get in your way and then 0:40:12.920 --> 0:40:15.200 you can be a little grumpy about them disrupting your 0:40:15.400 --> 0:40:19.840 morning commute or whatever. But that film shoot, God bless it. 0:40:20.480 --> 0:40:23.880 Oh good lord, Yes, yeah, Halloween in July. Thank you, 0:40:24.120 --> 0:40:24.719 I'll take it. 0:40:26.160 --> 0:40:26.239 So. 0:40:26.440 --> 0:40:29.879 Yeah, we get the leaves blowing. We see red calligraphy 0:40:30.040 --> 0:40:32.400 letters on the screen. This as a Hammer production. And 0:40:32.440 --> 0:40:35.520 it's that calligraphy font that makes the word bathory look 0:40:35.600 --> 0:40:40.200 like bat Lord. A horse drawn carriage is racing along 0:40:40.480 --> 0:40:44.040 on a parkside pathway goes over a stone bridge under 0:40:44.080 --> 0:40:48.200 an archway of these dead tree limbs, and a narrator 0:40:48.239 --> 0:40:51.399 comes in. Narrator says the year is eighteen seventy two, 0:40:51.800 --> 0:40:55.920 and the nightmare legend of Count Dracula extends its terror 0:40:56.080 --> 0:41:00.120 far beyond the mountains of Carpathia to the Victorian metropolis 0:41:00.160 --> 0:41:05.080 of London. Here in Hyde Park, the final confrontation between 0:41:06.200 --> 0:41:12.719 Lawrence van Helsing and his arch enemy, the demon vampire Dracula. Now, 0:41:12.760 --> 0:41:14.000 I told you I was going to come back to 0:41:14.040 --> 0:41:17.000 the name of Van Helsing in this movie. You did 0:41:17.080 --> 0:41:20.760 hear that, right? It is Lawrence van Helsing for some reason, 0:41:21.280 --> 0:41:25.120 I'm not sure what This movie and maybe at least 0:41:25.160 --> 0:41:28.520 one of the other Hammer horror Draculas calls this character Lawrence. 0:41:28.600 --> 0:41:32.040 Of course, in the novel, Van Helsing's first name is Abraham. 0:41:32.960 --> 0:41:35.279 No offense to all of the wonderful Lawrence is out 0:41:35.280 --> 0:41:37.160 there for what I'm about to say, But this name 0:41:37.280 --> 0:41:41.440 change is not great. A Van Helsing, whose friends call 0:41:41.520 --> 0:41:46.920 him Larry, does not bring the same gravitas as Abraham. 0:41:46.960 --> 0:41:47.160 Yeah. 0:41:47.320 --> 0:41:50.000 Yeah, So why the change? I don't know. Could it 0:41:50.160 --> 0:41:54.320 possibly have to do with intellectual property? That seems I 0:41:54.360 --> 0:41:54.920 don't know kind of. 0:41:54.960 --> 0:41:56.760 I mean, that would be the main reason to change 0:41:56.800 --> 0:41:59.479 up the name of a particular character. And of course 0:41:59.600 --> 0:42:03.120 historically we would have seen movements like that before concerning 0:42:03.160 --> 0:42:04.200 the Dracula property. 0:42:04.600 --> 0:42:07.279 Yeah, but I mean, but it's called Dracula, so it 0:42:07.280 --> 0:42:10.320 would have to be something specific to that one character, 0:42:10.440 --> 0:42:12.919 Like they could use the last name and the rest 0:42:12.960 --> 0:42:15.160 of the plot and Dracula, but not Abraham. 0:42:15.160 --> 0:42:15.520 I don't know. 0:42:15.560 --> 0:42:21.240 It's confusing. So anyway, the movie opens with the ending 0:42:21.280 --> 0:42:24.040 of this other tail. We see Dracula and Van Helsing 0:42:24.239 --> 0:42:26.640 already in the middle of fighting to the death on 0:42:26.719 --> 0:42:30.120 the roof of this carriage as it races through Hyde Park. 0:42:30.440 --> 0:42:34.360 They're sort of wrestling. Dracula is choking Van Helsing, until 0:42:34.360 --> 0:42:38.320 suddenly the harness that's holding the horses to the carriage snaps, 0:42:38.680 --> 0:42:42.359 the horses run off. The carriage veers off the path 0:42:42.520 --> 0:42:46.880 and crashes into a tree. Van Helsing is thrown aside 0:42:46.920 --> 0:42:50.000 into the grass, and Dracula, when we see him stagger 0:42:50.040 --> 0:42:53.520 out from behind the carriage, is impaled on the spoke 0:42:53.640 --> 0:42:57.080 of a carriage wheel, an accidental stake through the heart. 0:42:57.560 --> 0:43:00.440 Dracula and Van Helsing fight a little bit more wild. 0:43:00.480 --> 0:43:03.080 Drac has a wheel stuck to him, so it's just 0:43:03.120 --> 0:43:06.440 kind of poking out of him, but eventually Dracula is defeated. 0:43:07.040 --> 0:43:09.960 Van Helsing kind of shoves the stake into the heart 0:43:10.000 --> 0:43:14.439 further and then he does the classic undead turbo rot. 0:43:14.600 --> 0:43:17.879 So Dracula collapses into a pile of bones and then 0:43:17.920 --> 0:43:21.000 that turns into ash and dust by the riverside. Van 0:43:21.000 --> 0:43:23.000 Helsing also collapses dead. 0:43:23.719 --> 0:43:27.880 So at this point the entire multifilm struggle between Professor 0:43:27.960 --> 0:43:31.880 van Helsing and Count Dracula ends in a vehicular accident, 0:43:33.520 --> 0:43:37.359 which I think would feel mighty underwhelming if this were 0:43:37.480 --> 0:43:39.520 like the end. But this isn't the end. This is 0:43:39.560 --> 0:43:42.320 the beginning, so I guess we'll allow it. A freak 0:43:42.400 --> 0:43:47.759 accident takes both the demon vampire and his chief adversary 0:43:48.160 --> 0:43:49.319 takes them both out of action. 0:43:49.760 --> 0:43:52.760 But wait a second, who's this creep back here watching 0:43:52.800 --> 0:43:56.080 everything go on? There is a young man observing the scene. 0:43:56.200 --> 0:43:59.760 He'd been following the carriage on horseback. He comes galloping 0:43:59.800 --> 0:44:02.640 in wearing a top hat, and he's a little guy 0:44:02.719 --> 0:44:06.840 with a scuzzy mutton chop sideburn set and a toad 0:44:07.040 --> 0:44:11.400 like grin. And he produces a glass vial and scoops 0:44:11.480 --> 0:44:16.160 up some of Dracula's ashes after he turboots Van Helsing's 0:44:16.200 --> 0:44:19.040 just laying there dying. He ignores Van Helsing. He also 0:44:19.160 --> 0:44:23.240 pockets Dracula's special ring. It looks like it's made of silver, 0:44:23.320 --> 0:44:25.160 but I don't think that would make sense for Dracula. 0:44:25.239 --> 0:44:28.000 So it's some kind of pale precious metal ring. 0:44:28.600 --> 0:44:31.080 Yeah, maybe pewter or something. Maybe he can wear pewter. 0:44:31.200 --> 0:44:34.360 I'm not sure Dracula's lead ring. 0:44:35.560 --> 0:44:38.200 That would fit right, he doesn't have to worry about lead. 0:44:39.320 --> 0:44:43.080 So we cut to a funeral scene after that, and 0:44:43.200 --> 0:44:46.160 it's all of Van Helsing's friends and family gathered in 0:44:46.239 --> 0:44:49.600 a churchyard where the good Doctor's body is being committed 0:44:49.640 --> 0:44:52.200 to the earth. And it seems most of the mourners 0:44:52.200 --> 0:44:56.000 are variations on the Monopoly Man, shiny top hats, coats 0:44:56.040 --> 0:44:58.640 with tails, all that. It's mostly dudes at the. 0:44:58.560 --> 0:45:01.440 Funeral, and we're not introduced to any of them. We 0:45:01.440 --> 0:45:04.520 don't know who from the novel Dracula actually showed up 0:45:04.840 --> 0:45:07.520 at the man's funeral. Like, I feel like it would 0:45:07.520 --> 0:45:10.799 be a little bit insulting if Jonathan Harker didn't show 0:45:10.880 --> 0:45:13.160 up at Van Helsing's funeral, right, I. 0:45:13.160 --> 0:45:15.160 Mean, did they really know each other all that? Well, 0:45:15.200 --> 0:45:17.400 they just kind of got together for a work project 0:45:17.440 --> 0:45:17.879 one time. 0:45:17.920 --> 0:45:20.000 Well yeah, the way they work friends, right, So. 0:45:20.200 --> 0:45:24.320 Yeah, okay, so oh another funny thing is the line 0:45:24.440 --> 0:45:26.960 we hear the priests say at Van Helsing's funeral. He's 0:45:27.000 --> 0:45:30.360 quoting the Bible, so we like come in and he's saying, man, 0:45:30.440 --> 0:45:32.839 that is born of woman hath but a short time 0:45:32.880 --> 0:45:36.160 to live and is full of misery. And I know 0:45:36.239 --> 0:45:38.360 that's the Bible, but man, is that really what people 0:45:38.360 --> 0:45:40.440 want to hear at a loved one's funeral. It's like, 0:45:40.560 --> 0:45:43.520 not only do we die soon, it's mostly bad until 0:45:43.560 --> 0:45:44.120 we get there. 0:45:44.960 --> 0:45:47.160 Yeah, yeah, I don't. I don't want that right at 0:45:47.200 --> 0:45:47.720 my funeral. 0:45:48.400 --> 0:45:51.440 Oh but a quick side note related to recent Core episodes. 0:45:51.480 --> 0:45:54.040 You know the next line after that in the Book 0:45:54.040 --> 0:45:57.680 of Job. This is from Job chapter fourteen, after the 0:45:57.840 --> 0:46:01.120 you know it's a short time to live, full of misery, 0:46:01.160 --> 0:46:03.560 the next line is he cometh forth like a flower 0:46:03.600 --> 0:46:07.000 and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow, 0:46:07.239 --> 0:46:12.320 and continueth not anyway, So that funeral is going on. Meanwhile, 0:46:12.320 --> 0:46:15.640 the creepy guy who collected Dracula's ring and ashes, he 0:46:15.719 --> 0:46:18.480 shows up at the funeral. He digs a hole in 0:46:18.560 --> 0:46:22.919 the ground just outside the churchyard, pours Dracula's ashes into 0:46:22.960 --> 0:46:25.560 the hole, and then drives a steak, the same steak 0:46:25.600 --> 0:46:29.719 that killed Dracula, into the soil above the hole. And 0:46:29.760 --> 0:46:34.400 then a marvelous transition, we get jet wipe jet We like, 0:46:34.480 --> 0:46:37.400 look up to the sky and there's a jet plane 0:46:37.440 --> 0:46:40.080 wipe and the and the funky music comes on to 0:46:40.640 --> 0:46:43.919 don't Dawn. We go wow, and the jet comes down 0:46:44.200 --> 0:46:46.840 and we see the title Dracula nineteen seventy two A 0:46:47.000 --> 0:46:50.080 d very good, very good use of a jet plane. 0:46:50.760 --> 0:46:53.680 Absolutely, it's like bam. Now it's modern times. Look at 0:46:53.680 --> 0:46:56.279 the jet plane. The music has shifted from old time 0:46:56.320 --> 0:46:59.480 he got the horror movie to this is thoroughly modern 0:46:59.680 --> 0:47:02.759 jet funky number. And yeah, my only note here is 0:47:02.800 --> 0:47:06.279 that we're denied footage of Dracula flying first class. I mean, 0:47:06.280 --> 0:47:08.480 he's not actually supposed to be in that airplane. But 0:47:08.920 --> 0:47:11.720 you know, again, it's like you want. The movie seems 0:47:11.719 --> 0:47:14.760 to promise this idea of Dracula is in our world now, 0:47:15.080 --> 0:47:16.600 and it never quite gives us that. 0:47:17.200 --> 0:47:19.520 I think they should have done a pong wipe, so 0:47:19.600 --> 0:47:22.160 it's wiped to a screen of people playing the Atari, 0:47:24.400 --> 0:47:27.520 but it's not pong, it's an airplane. And then what 0:47:27.600 --> 0:47:29.400 are they going to use to show We got to 0:47:29.440 --> 0:47:32.799 get like a nineteen seventy two montage, right, show us 0:47:32.840 --> 0:47:36.080 some footage of what it means for things to be modern? 0:47:36.840 --> 0:47:40.880 What does that mean in this film's conception, primarily traffic, 0:47:41.360 --> 0:47:44.680 So we're just seeing like complex highway exchanges teaming with 0:47:44.760 --> 0:47:48.560 cars set to saxophone and whaling guitar solos. 0:47:49.200 --> 0:47:51.239 Yeah, yeah, I guess that's all they really want to 0:47:51.239 --> 0:47:54.440 convey about the modern world, That it's busy, and you 0:47:54.480 --> 0:47:57.360 know that the world's fast, it's in a hurry. But meanwhile, 0:47:57.880 --> 0:48:03.360 Dracula is patient. Racula is long lived and is crossing 0:48:03.400 --> 0:48:07.919 oceans of time to reach the year nineteen seventy. 0:48:07.560 --> 0:48:10.399 Two, and then from here we cut straight to a 0:48:10.480 --> 0:48:13.239 party scene. Now, this is the scene where I think 0:48:13.239 --> 0:48:16.200 they were the movie was trying to pack in all 0:48:16.320 --> 0:48:20.560 of its modern debauchery into like one five to seven 0:48:20.640 --> 0:48:21.440 minute sequence. 0:48:22.239 --> 0:48:25.080 That's right with But their hippies are not like all. 0:48:25.239 --> 0:48:27.520 Is it not like we're dealing with a bunch of 0:48:27.560 --> 0:48:31.560 sort of grind housey like evil hippies or anything. These 0:48:31.600 --> 0:48:36.120 are all like, for the most part, likable, fun goofy kids. Again, 0:48:36.200 --> 0:48:37.560 I think most of them are at least in their 0:48:37.600 --> 0:48:40.800 mid twenties, but still goofy kids having a good time 0:48:41.280 --> 0:48:46.520 enjoying the musical stylings of Stone Ground Stone Ground. 0:48:46.640 --> 0:48:51.160 That's the name of the band they are playing. Let's see, 0:48:51.160 --> 0:48:54.200 how do so? The scene is like hippies versus more 0:48:54.280 --> 0:48:57.320 monopoly men, but monopoly men from nineteen seventy two instead 0:48:57.320 --> 0:49:00.560 of eighteen seventy two. This party is taking place at 0:49:00.600 --> 0:49:05.800 an elegantly decorated apartment or flat belonging to rich people, 0:49:05.840 --> 0:49:09.399 full of breakable antiques. There is a buffet table set 0:49:09.440 --> 0:49:12.320 up with champagne and ice buckets and a bunch of food. 0:49:12.400 --> 0:49:14.840 But I paused it almost all the food appears to 0:49:14.840 --> 0:49:17.240 be fruit. I guess they thought we wouldn't look too close, 0:49:17.440 --> 0:49:20.920 or maybe they just really like fruit. Also, several hippies 0:49:20.920 --> 0:49:25.800 are making out underneath the buffet table. The band stone 0:49:25.800 --> 0:49:29.000 Ground is playing. In the living room, there are go 0:49:29.000 --> 0:49:31.279 go dancers on top of the piano and on the 0:49:31.320 --> 0:49:35.080 sofa table. Hippies are dancing, presumably doing drugs, though I 0:49:35.120 --> 0:49:39.080 don't think we see any drugs being done and getting 0:49:39.120 --> 0:49:42.360 up to sexual behavior, and all of the rich posh 0:49:42.400 --> 0:49:43.880 people are scandalized. 0:49:44.719 --> 0:49:47.880 I can't stress enough that stone Ground as a band 0:49:48.040 --> 0:49:50.760 looks like what might happen if you took the Muppet 0:49:50.760 --> 0:49:55.000 Show band and portrayed them as human beings. Yes, they're 0:49:55.080 --> 0:49:56.600 like a human Muppet Show band. 0:49:56.920 --> 0:50:00.280 Yeah yeah, or like Fraggles, like the Fragle band. 0:50:00.840 --> 0:50:05.320 Yeah. Michael Weldon wrote in his review quote, a party 0:50:05.320 --> 0:50:08.200 sequence with the American band stone Ground is a real 0:50:08.239 --> 0:50:12.000 low point. Oh come on, I would disagree, But then again, 0:50:12.040 --> 0:50:15.480 I'm you know, we I think he was writing this 0:50:15.520 --> 0:50:18.839 a little closer to the original release time. I would 0:50:18.880 --> 0:50:21.800 say that it's a goofy good time that also advances 0:50:21.800 --> 0:50:25.120 the plot somewhat introduces this to a key character, which 0:50:25.160 --> 0:50:27.520 we'll get to in just a second. I think you 0:50:27.560 --> 0:50:31.080 can say, well, perhaps there are some seventies bands that 0:50:31.160 --> 0:50:34.360 would have been better suited to this film than stone Ground. 0:50:34.840 --> 0:50:37.680 I wouldn't say I love the music, but they do 0:50:37.719 --> 0:50:39.880 appear to have been a real band and all, like, 0:50:39.920 --> 0:50:43.640 they don't just exist in this film. Sal Valentino was 0:50:43.640 --> 0:50:46.120 the singer noted for his earlier work in the sixties 0:50:46.160 --> 0:50:49.319 group The bo Brummels. They did the song just a 0:50:49.360 --> 0:50:52.440 Little and I think they had another hit, and various 0:50:52.440 --> 0:50:55.200 members of Stone Ground went on to other things. 0:50:55.560 --> 0:50:58.600 One of the songs they play at this party is 0:50:58.640 --> 0:51:01.399 just very generic lyrical content. It's like, oh yeah, come 0:51:01.440 --> 0:51:05.439 on or something. But the other song is called Alligator Man, 0:51:05.719 --> 0:51:08.279 and all of the lyrics are about how like I'm 0:51:08.400 --> 0:51:11.280 just a by you man, you know you can find 0:51:11.360 --> 0:51:13.319 me and the by you because that's all I do. 0:51:13.480 --> 0:51:16.480 I swim in the water. I'm an alligator man. I 0:51:16.520 --> 0:51:19.759 think he says I come from an alligator clan, and 0:51:20.040 --> 0:51:22.480 I was just looking at the scene, like, these are 0:51:22.520 --> 0:51:25.239 not alligator men, if anything, these are lamprey men. 0:51:26.160 --> 0:51:29.640 Yeah. I mean that's it's kind of a credence vibe 0:51:29.719 --> 0:51:34.280 right where it's like perhaps not authentic swamp music. 0:51:35.600 --> 0:51:37.839 Oh I don't know. I go credence, they're out. They're 0:51:37.840 --> 0:51:40.520 alligator men to me, John Fogerty, Yeah, come on, he's 0:51:40.520 --> 0:51:41.399 an alligator man. 0:51:41.680 --> 0:51:43.759 The credence was great, But did they come from an 0:51:43.800 --> 0:51:44.480 actual swamp. 0:51:44.920 --> 0:51:47.080 I don't know. Maybe I've never looked into it. 0:51:47.440 --> 0:51:50.319 If they don't have a swamp thing origin story, then 0:51:50.360 --> 0:51:52.640 I'm gonna say it's it's a bit of an act, 0:51:52.680 --> 0:51:54.080 but it's a fun act. I always like, I like 0:51:54.160 --> 0:51:55.960 love credence when I was younger. 0:51:56.160 --> 0:51:58.720 I still love Credence. Wait, okay, but in the middle 0:51:58.760 --> 0:52:00.520 of this whole scene we got to expl So the 0:52:00.560 --> 0:52:03.399 hippies are dancing, the band is playing, all the rich 0:52:03.440 --> 0:52:06.600 people are are horribly offended. And in the middle of 0:52:06.640 --> 0:52:11.640 the scene, hey, it's that same reptilian creep that scooped 0:52:11.719 --> 0:52:14.640 up Dracula's ashes one hundred years ago. If anybody's an 0:52:14.680 --> 0:52:18.080 alligator man, it's him. He you know, he's like got 0:52:18.080 --> 0:52:20.400 these creepy eyes. He's staring at everybody. 0:52:20.840 --> 0:52:21.200 Uh. 0:52:21.239 --> 0:52:24.239 And I don't know if he has like not aged 0:52:24.360 --> 0:52:27.080 since one hundred years ago, or if this is supposed 0:52:27.120 --> 0:52:30.400 to be a descendant of that other guy. Either way, 0:52:30.520 --> 0:52:33.319 it's the exact same, dude, It looks exactly the same, 0:52:33.440 --> 0:52:37.279 except he is now I don't know. He's dressed sort 0:52:37.320 --> 0:52:39.960 of for the era. He's wearing a frilly pirate shirt, 0:52:40.280 --> 0:52:45.000 a burgundy velvet suit, and a black, wide brimmed fedora. 0:52:45.320 --> 0:52:47.200 So cool. 0:52:47.600 --> 0:52:50.560 I think he's supposed to be a descendant because Dracula 0:52:50.640 --> 0:52:52.920 later says something to him about his bloodline. 0:52:53.480 --> 0:52:54.840 Ah, that would make sense. 0:52:55.280 --> 0:52:58.520 So like, there's been a long line of Dracula enthusiasts, 0:52:58.560 --> 0:53:01.520 some of whom never got to meet Dracula, which would 0:53:01.560 --> 0:53:03.439 be kind of a bummer, right. Yeah. 0:53:03.520 --> 0:53:07.640 Yeah, they're just, you know, bridging the gap between generations. 0:53:08.120 --> 0:53:08.799 Yeah. 0:53:09.120 --> 0:53:11.320 Oh, and also we learned that his name is Johnny 0:53:11.360 --> 0:53:12.720 Aloucard smooth. 0:53:12.840 --> 0:53:15.719 Ah, we're not going to spoil We're not going to 0:53:15.800 --> 0:53:18.239 spoil it yet. We're not going to tell you what 0:53:18.320 --> 0:53:19.320 alo card means. 0:53:20.200 --> 0:53:22.440 Oh what, We're not going to tell you what it 0:53:22.480 --> 0:53:27.360 is spelled backwards. This is their kingdom. Yeah, Johnny nilbog 0:53:27.440 --> 0:53:29.719 here at the party. He's gazing out from under the 0:53:29.760 --> 0:53:32.399 brim of his fedora while everybody else has a good time. 0:53:32.440 --> 0:53:34.080 He doesn't look like he's having a good time. He's 0:53:34.120 --> 0:53:37.440 just sitting there watching with no expression. Of course, all 0:53:37.480 --> 0:53:40.680 of the fancy rich people are mortified. They're baffled about 0:53:40.680 --> 0:53:44.120 how all of these disgusting partygoers ended up in their flat. 0:53:44.600 --> 0:53:46.760 This old lady who's kind of a little bit Angela 0:53:46.840 --> 0:53:51.080 landsberry ish, she's like, what you know to her son, 0:53:51.320 --> 0:53:54.080 She's like, why did you invite all of these monsters? 0:53:54.560 --> 0:53:57.120 And he says I didn't. They're not my friends. All 0:53:57.160 --> 0:54:01.160 I did was to invite the stone Aground. But that 0:54:01.360 --> 0:54:03.360 just left me more confused. I'm like, why did he 0:54:03.440 --> 0:54:06.480 invite the stone Ground? He invited this band? 0:54:07.239 --> 0:54:10.120 Well, because stone Ground is just a household name. Stone 0:54:10.160 --> 0:54:13.959 Ground appeals to audiences of all ages, the old, the young, 0:54:14.200 --> 0:54:17.400 the hip, the square. Everyone loves stone Ground. That's one 0:54:17.400 --> 0:54:19.240 of the film's early key messages. 0:54:19.520 --> 0:54:22.359 I understand now, yes, oh, but there's one thing in 0:54:22.360 --> 0:54:24.560 this party scene that I think does not make sense 0:54:24.600 --> 0:54:27.640 and did not work at all. It's the bit about 0:54:28.000 --> 0:54:31.560 timing how many minutes until the police arrive. So the 0:54:32.080 --> 0:54:35.440 guy who invited the Stone Ground goes and calls the 0:54:35.480 --> 0:54:38.000 police to get all the hippies out of his apartment, 0:54:38.640 --> 0:54:42.360 and then the hippie the friends all start being like, oh, 0:54:42.160 --> 0:54:45.399 the fuzz will be here in four minutes. No, it'll 0:54:45.440 --> 0:54:48.160 be six minutes, it'll be three and a half minutes, 0:54:48.560 --> 0:54:51.759 eight minutes. And they're arguing with each other, and they 0:54:51.880 --> 0:54:56.200 explained that they have a running practice where I guess 0:54:56.239 --> 0:55:00.840 they party somewhere where they're unwanted until the minute before 0:55:00.880 --> 0:55:04.080 the police arrive, and then they leave. And it's not 0:55:04.120 --> 0:55:06.520 really funny and it doesn't really make sense. It sort 0:55:06.520 --> 0:55:09.480 of lacks very similitude, but the bit just keeps going on. 0:55:10.360 --> 0:55:13.840 It's a rather different relationship between hippies and law enforcement 0:55:13.920 --> 0:55:17.520 in this film versus certainly reality, but also I'm reminded 0:55:17.560 --> 0:55:21.440 of The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, where you know, 0:55:21.520 --> 0:55:26.799 it's firmly established that the man hates hippies, that law 0:55:26.880 --> 0:55:32.120 enforcement just despises them, whereas in this film it's like, ah, 0:55:32.200 --> 0:55:35.839 they're fun loving. It's a fun loving competition, you know. 0:55:36.040 --> 0:55:38.839 It's like, oh, you got me today, hippies, we'll get 0:55:38.840 --> 0:55:40.640 you tomorrow. That sort of thing. 0:55:41.120 --> 0:55:43.680 And then the spirit of that sort of teasingness, like 0:55:43.719 --> 0:55:46.799 when the police arrive to bust up the party, Oh, 0:55:47.200 --> 0:55:50.960 they discover the hippies making out underneath the buffet table, 0:55:51.080 --> 0:55:53.000 and one of the hippies just says to the cop, 0:55:53.080 --> 0:55:57.360 peace man, and the cop smiles. But also there's a 0:55:57.400 --> 0:56:01.120 thing where when Johnny Alucard is about to leave the apartment, 0:56:01.520 --> 0:56:04.760 he takes the time to stop and torture the old 0:56:04.840 --> 0:56:08.600 lady about breaking her priceless antiques. Like he picks up 0:56:08.960 --> 0:56:12.440 this ceramic figurine and is tossing it hand to hand, 0:56:12.520 --> 0:56:15.000 and then just when she thinks, you know, he's setting 0:56:15.080 --> 0:56:17.080 it safely down on the table, he tips it over 0:56:17.160 --> 0:56:18.200 and it breaks on the floor. 0:56:18.920 --> 0:56:23.680 Oh yeah, he's a chaotic youth. He doesn't care about anything. 0:56:24.239 --> 0:56:25.920 But so they split from the party. They go to 0:56:25.960 --> 0:56:28.400 their favorite coffee shop except is it daytime? 0:56:28.480 --> 0:56:28.640 Now? 0:56:28.640 --> 0:56:31.239 I'm a little confused about the timeline. But they go 0:56:31.320 --> 0:56:33.799 to their favorite coffee shop, and the coffee shop is 0:56:33.840 --> 0:56:36.320 called Cavern, and this place is great. I wish I 0:56:36.360 --> 0:56:36.960 could go there. 0:56:37.840 --> 0:56:40.239 Yeah, I kind of have to assume that what we 0:56:40.280 --> 0:56:42.319 see of the interiors as a set. But it's a 0:56:42.360 --> 0:56:45.960 great looking set. We got the like splashes of tile 0:56:46.160 --> 0:56:49.000 and all sorts of cool purple lighting, Like it just 0:56:49.040 --> 0:56:50.840 looks too cool to be a real space. But I 0:56:50.840 --> 0:56:53.160 could be wrong on that. And then they order up 0:56:53.200 --> 0:56:56.000 what at first I thought was like bowls of soup 0:56:56.200 --> 0:56:58.600 and Coca Cola's, But I think this is supposed to 0:56:58.680 --> 0:57:01.480 be coffee and or tea plus Coca colas. 0:57:01.800 --> 0:57:05.239 I think there are Coca Colas in glass bottles. But yes, 0:57:05.320 --> 0:57:09.439 the super bowls are coffee cups. I think. Okay, they're 0:57:09.480 --> 0:57:12.880 just very wide and shallow for some reason. Oh and 0:57:12.920 --> 0:57:15.400 I made a note that cavern is right next to 0:57:15.440 --> 0:57:19.120 a store called Chelsea Mail M A L E. I 0:57:19.160 --> 0:57:20.560 don't know. Maybe that's clothing. 0:57:20.640 --> 0:57:21.040 I don't know. 0:57:21.960 --> 0:57:25.320 Anyway, the coffee hass the hippies sit in a secluded 0:57:25.360 --> 0:57:30.000 booth and Johnny Alucard talks about how everything's just boring. 0:57:30.080 --> 0:57:32.400 I'm sick of it all. It's all stale. We've got 0:57:32.400 --> 0:57:34.560 to find a new way to get our kicks. And 0:57:34.600 --> 0:57:38.480 he says, I want something new yet as old as time, 0:57:39.120 --> 0:57:41.320 and he's got an idea. They all want to hear 0:57:41.360 --> 0:57:44.120 what his idea is. He leans forward and he says 0:57:44.360 --> 0:57:49.320 a date with the Devil, a bacchanal with Beelzebub. So 0:57:49.520 --> 0:57:52.160 they think he's joking around at first. Oh, you're just 0:57:52.320 --> 0:57:55.880 Josh and Johnny Alucard a ha haha. Oija board Spirit 0:57:56.000 --> 0:57:59.520 mediums that stuff's a bunch of funny nonsense. But Johnny 0:57:59.520 --> 0:58:03.080 Alucar is not joking. He's serious. He says, don't knock 0:58:03.120 --> 0:58:07.000 it unless you've tried it, And then Jessica, the most 0:58:07.000 --> 0:58:10.320 intelligent and level headed of the group, comments, well, they 0:58:10.320 --> 0:58:13.000 do say it's dangerous. But at the other side of 0:58:13.040 --> 0:58:16.640 the table, Carolyn Monroe as Laura is here like, yes, yes, devil, 0:58:16.800 --> 0:58:21.000 take me to the devil now. So everybody eventually agrees, 0:58:21.200 --> 0:58:24.240 last of all and reluctantly Jessica, but they're all in. 0:58:24.280 --> 0:58:29.120 They're gonna go to an abandoned London church later tonight 0:58:29.200 --> 0:58:30.880 at midnight to summon Satan. 0:58:31.600 --> 0:58:31.960 I don't know. 0:58:32.000 --> 0:58:33.560 I guess that's just how you have fun. 0:58:35.160 --> 0:58:37.880 This may come later, but I did like the way 0:58:37.920 --> 0:58:41.640 they set up how various members of the friends group 0:58:41.680 --> 0:58:45.000 are going along with this, where I think Jessica's boyfriend 0:58:45.120 --> 0:58:48.320 is like this is you know, It's like, yeah, Johnny's 0:58:48.400 --> 0:58:50.480 enthusiastic about it, but you know what's gonna happen. We're 0:58:50.480 --> 0:58:53.240 gonna show up, somebody's gonna get out of guitar. I'm 0:58:53.280 --> 0:58:55.240 gonna have some food and some drinks. It's like it's 0:58:55.280 --> 0:58:57.160 just gonna be more or less like any other hang 0:58:57.240 --> 0:59:01.560 we do. It's just Johnny's gonna read some weird stuff beforehand. 0:59:01.320 --> 0:59:04.480 Yes, he said there will. It'll just be beer, food, 0:59:04.680 --> 0:59:17.120 guitar and loving in the end. But before we get 0:59:17.160 --> 0:59:19.960 to the summoning of Satan, we see a few little 0:59:20.240 --> 0:59:22.960 there's some interludes. First of all, we see Johnny Alucard 0:59:23.120 --> 0:59:26.760 head home to his sweet flat, which his flat seems 0:59:26.840 --> 0:59:30.320 very cool. It's like well decorated. I don't know, it 0:59:30.360 --> 0:59:33.920 doesn't have that bachelor quality to it. 0:59:34.760 --> 0:59:37.320 Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. It feels like 0:59:37.400 --> 0:59:41.240 this is more space and it's in better shape than 0:59:41.320 --> 0:59:43.720 Johnny should have access to. He should have more of 0:59:43.800 --> 0:59:47.320 a like a little hovel with Dracula posters on the walls. 0:59:47.960 --> 0:59:50.760 Turns out the good guys are the ones with Dracula posters. 0:59:51.560 --> 0:59:54.240 That's right. Yeah, So he goes to his house and 0:59:54.280 --> 0:59:59.600 he opens up a velvet box and inside it's the ring, Yes, 0:59:59.720 --> 1:00:01.880 drag Akila's ring, the one we saw the guy who 1:00:01.920 --> 1:00:05.360 looks exactly like Johnny take off of Dracula's corpse earlier 1:00:05.440 --> 1:00:08.640 on and the vile of ashes, so he's got him. 1:00:09.040 --> 1:00:11.440 We also follow Jessica home and this is where we 1:00:11.560 --> 1:00:16.080 learn that she is Jessica van Helsing and her grandfather, 1:00:16.240 --> 1:00:19.680 who she lives with, is Professor Lorimer van Helsing also 1:00:19.720 --> 1:00:23.560 played by Peter Cushing, again a descendant of Larry from 1:00:23.560 --> 1:00:28.120 the prologue, and grandfather Van Helsing is an expert on 1:00:28.160 --> 1:00:31.280 the occult. He has consulted with the police before to 1:00:31.480 --> 1:00:35.600 solve cases of ritual cult murder, and he comes into 1:00:35.600 --> 1:00:40.360 his office catches his granddaughter reading his book, which is 1:00:40.400 --> 1:00:44.040 called The Treatise on Black Mass. He says, Jessica, this 1:00:44.160 --> 1:00:46.360 is not a subject to mess around with. These are 1:00:46.400 --> 1:00:50.920 scientific works. But she mocks it. She says, you know, 1:00:51.000 --> 1:00:52.960 you can buy that kind of book in any shop 1:00:53.000 --> 1:00:57.440 in soho quote. It's all kinky, you know. She says, 1:00:57.520 --> 1:01:03.200 it's Hobgoblin's black magic. At so she thinks it's all nonsense, 1:01:03.280 --> 1:01:06.240 has no interest whatsoever in the occult, and in fact 1:01:06.320 --> 1:01:09.680 seems to think it's it's not even superficially interesting. She 1:01:09.800 --> 1:01:12.840 like thinks that she can't bring her friends over to 1:01:12.880 --> 1:01:14.880 this place or to meet him because it would be 1:01:15.000 --> 1:01:18.680 interminably boring. But wait a minute, Jessica, don't you know 1:01:18.760 --> 1:01:21.800 that your friends are obsessed with summoning the devil, Like 1:01:21.880 --> 1:01:25.400 they just express this extreme interest in the occult, and 1:01:25.440 --> 1:01:27.680 here she is like, I can't my friends could never 1:01:27.760 --> 1:01:29.840 find out that you're an expert on the occult. It 1:01:29.880 --> 1:01:30.960 would be so embarrassing. 1:01:32.720 --> 1:01:34.960 Yeah, Jessica is a bit of a brat, and I 1:01:34.960 --> 1:01:38.960 think intentionally so, like he has to politely move her 1:01:38.960 --> 1:01:41.560 feet off of his desk when he comes in and 1:01:41.560 --> 1:01:45.520 finds her reading the Book of the Occult. But at 1:01:45.520 --> 1:01:47.960 the same time, it's that they do a great job 1:01:48.480 --> 1:01:51.120 letting us know that, yeah, he really cares about her, 1:01:51.160 --> 1:01:53.600 and she really cares about him. But there is this, 1:01:53.760 --> 1:01:56.480 you know, some awkward generational stuff where, you know, the 1:01:56.520 --> 1:02:00.240 stuff Grandpa's in too, is just lame. And yeah, she's 1:02:00.280 --> 1:02:01.760 kind of blind to the fact that there is this 1:02:01.840 --> 1:02:05.080 strong connection between what's about to happen in her friend 1:02:05.080 --> 1:02:07.720 group and the kind of stuff that grandpa actually knows 1:02:07.800 --> 1:02:08.560 quite a bit about. 1:02:09.080 --> 1:02:12.320 Yeah, he patiently explains that, you know, our family has 1:02:12.360 --> 1:02:15.920 a legacy of research into the occult, and she's just like, 1:02:16.040 --> 1:02:17.360 it's not my bag. Baby. 1:02:17.680 --> 1:02:21.360 It's like the difference between a friend saying like, hey, 1:02:21.400 --> 1:02:24.800 I have this Doobie Brother's album and then your grandpa saying, hey, 1:02:24.920 --> 1:02:27.360 I've got Doobie Brothers albums too, Like, it's not fair 1:02:28.000 --> 1:02:31.120 that grandpa is considered lame because he has this album 1:02:31.520 --> 1:02:34.840 and your friend has a pass because he just discovered it. 1:02:35.200 --> 1:02:39.040 But that is how it works, no accounting for the 1:02:39.080 --> 1:02:44.600 social influences on taste formation anyway. Oh but also he's like, hey, 1:02:45.560 --> 1:02:47.280 what if I was to get to meet your friends? 1:02:47.360 --> 1:02:50.040 You know, I wonder who these people you hang out 1:02:50.080 --> 1:02:52.080 with all the time, who are they? And she's like, 1:02:52.320 --> 1:02:54.280 uh uh, You're never going to meet them because this 1:02:54.360 --> 1:02:56.680 place is boring and dusty and old, and you're an 1:02:56.720 --> 1:02:58.840 expert on the occult, so you will not meet them. 1:02:58.880 --> 1:03:01.840 But she tries to reassure him by saying she has 1:03:01.920 --> 1:03:04.960 never dropped acid, she is not shooting up, and she 1:03:05.040 --> 1:03:07.720 says she is not sleeping with anyone just yet, so 1:03:07.800 --> 1:03:10.680 he has no reason to worry. She is into nothing wrong. 1:03:11.160 --> 1:03:13.200 And then she goes to meet her friends at the 1:03:13.280 --> 1:03:17.880 deconsecrated church to raise the devil. Yep, so this black Mass. 1:03:18.240 --> 1:03:21.200 What can we describe about the scene. Well, first of all, 1:03:21.200 --> 1:03:24.080 there's a thing about the tombstone. On the outside, she 1:03:24.160 --> 1:03:26.880 and her boyfriend Bob are talking before they go into 1:03:26.880 --> 1:03:30.640 the church, they're waiting to meet everybody, and they stumble 1:03:30.800 --> 1:03:34.720 across the tombstone of her ancestor, Lawrence van Helsing, who 1:03:34.760 --> 1:03:36.880 died one hundred years ago to this day. 1:03:37.360 --> 1:03:39.600 Yeah, which they initially think, Oh, this is one of 1:03:39.640 --> 1:03:42.840 Johnny's jokes. This is not funny. They get a little 1:03:42.920 --> 1:03:43.840 disturbed over this. 1:03:44.160 --> 1:03:47.400 It's one of Johnny's jokes. He had a fake tombstone 1:03:47.520 --> 1:03:49.200 made and put in this churchyard. 1:03:50.400 --> 1:03:52.880 I don't know, you know, they're just they're trying to 1:03:52.880 --> 1:03:55.360 figure it out. The other thing I would say is 1:03:56.120 --> 1:03:59.880 that this abandoned church is just is a great set. 1:04:00.200 --> 1:04:04.120 It's a great Gothic setting for what is inevitably going 1:04:04.160 --> 1:04:06.160 to be the resurrection of Count Dracula. 1:04:06.520 --> 1:04:09.480 That's right. So Johnny Alucard is there. He's wearing an 1:04:09.480 --> 1:04:12.280 all black robe. He has everybody sit in a circle 1:04:12.320 --> 1:04:15.240 and listen to music. He says, no fooling around, this 1:04:15.360 --> 1:04:18.640 is for real. And the tape he plays sounds kind 1:04:18.680 --> 1:04:21.480 of like the drum solo in Inegatta Davida, which is 1:04:21.480 --> 1:04:22.440 a thumbs up from me. 1:04:24.120 --> 1:04:27.400 Yeah yeah. It has this kind of like noisy, grimy 1:04:27.600 --> 1:04:29.880 quality to it, which I quite like. And again you 1:04:30.280 --> 1:04:32.640 can hear this track is included on the soundtrack and score, 1:04:32.840 --> 1:04:34.880 along with those Stone Ground tracks. If you need to 1:04:34.880 --> 1:04:35.800 listen to those. 1:04:36.160 --> 1:04:40.120 That must provide an odd contrast. But he's really telling 1:04:40.160 --> 1:04:42.960 them to get into it. He says, dig the music, kids, 1:04:43.080 --> 1:04:46.400 let it flow into you. Give yourself up to the music. 1:04:47.000 --> 1:04:49.919 And this reminds me of Christian tracts that I have read, 1:04:50.960 --> 1:04:55.600 genuinely espousing the idea that rock music will will allow 1:04:55.640 --> 1:04:57.040 a demon to possess your soul. 1:04:57.480 --> 1:04:58.080 Yep, yep. 1:04:58.360 --> 1:05:00.760 Johnny Alucard seems to agree with that point of view, 1:05:01.160 --> 1:05:03.880 and then he starts. He starts naming demons. You know. 1:05:03.960 --> 1:05:07.400 He says, I call upon address the Grand Marquis of Hell. 1:05:07.800 --> 1:05:11.880 He says, Marquis, a provoker of discords, and upon ron Way, 1:05:12.000 --> 1:05:16.240 demon of forbidden knowledge, and upon Behemoth, the arch devil 1:05:16.320 --> 1:05:20.080 of black delights. I call upon as Modius, the destroyer 1:05:20.480 --> 1:05:23.720 and Astroth, friend of all the great lords of Hades. 1:05:24.160 --> 1:05:27.200 I demand an audience with his satanic majesty. He just 1:05:27.320 --> 1:05:29.720 and he goes on and on, names like fifteen more demons, 1:05:30.080 --> 1:05:34.320 and ends with Count Dracula, which, even in the context 1:05:34.360 --> 1:05:35.880 of the movie, for some reason, it just kind of 1:05:35.880 --> 1:05:39.240 sounds funny. In this list of I don't know, biblical 1:05:39.360 --> 1:05:43.120 or at least like apocryphal or hermetic kind of entities. 1:05:43.360 --> 1:05:45.720 Maybe, But at the same time, I don't know. We've 1:05:45.800 --> 1:05:47.760 talked already on the show. I think in listener Mail 1:05:47.800 --> 1:05:51.320 episodes about Marvel's Dracula and how in the Marvel Comics 1:05:51.400 --> 1:05:55.120 universe Dracula will occasionally have interactions with the likes of 1:05:55.160 --> 1:05:59.000 doctor Doom, so you know, Draculas can can hang out 1:05:59.000 --> 1:06:02.080 with Doctor Doom on the Then I feel like it's 1:06:02.760 --> 1:06:05.480 equally okay that his name is mentioned in the same 1:06:06.440 --> 1:06:10.560 prayer as these various other dark and powerful demon lords. 1:06:11.040 --> 1:06:13.000 So he says all these demons, but then he calls 1:06:13.040 --> 1:06:15.840 the name of Jessica van helsing, she's right here in 1:06:15.880 --> 1:06:18.200 the room with us. She's here listening to the music. 1:06:18.240 --> 1:06:21.720 She's digging the music as instructed. And he says that 1:06:21.800 --> 1:06:24.840 the demons have chosen her, but she is afraid, so 1:06:24.880 --> 1:06:27.160 she says, no, she's not going to join him up 1:06:27.160 --> 1:06:31.240 at the altar for whatever comes next. But somebody's ready, 1:06:31.320 --> 1:06:33.600 somebody wants to be to go to the altar, and 1:06:33.800 --> 1:06:38.720 it's Laura played by Carolyn Monroe. She's extremely jealous. She's like, no, me, me, Me, 1:06:38.720 --> 1:06:41.360 me me, And so it looks like it's going to 1:06:41.400 --> 1:06:44.360 be Laura instead for whatever this ritual will be. He 1:06:44.560 --> 1:06:47.400 so she goes up, lies down on the altar and 1:06:47.520 --> 1:06:51.960 Johnny Alucard cuts his hand bleeds into a grail full 1:06:52.000 --> 1:06:55.280 of Dracula's ashes and then pours them out on her 1:06:55.320 --> 1:06:58.840 and it gets really thick and frothy, and this is disgusting. 1:06:58.920 --> 1:07:02.000 She's now covered in a she blood. Everybody gets freaked 1:07:02.000 --> 1:07:04.840 out and runs away except for Johnny and Laura. And 1:07:04.920 --> 1:07:08.240 of course the ritual works it, you know, it resurrects 1:07:08.280 --> 1:07:11.120 Dracula from the earth where his ashes were buried one 1:07:11.160 --> 1:07:15.240 hundred years before. And then Dracula is shown shot from below, 1:07:15.600 --> 1:07:17.360 so we're looking up at him like he is the 1:07:17.440 --> 1:07:21.080 statue of liberty but a vampire, and he's surrounded by 1:07:21.120 --> 1:07:24.800 smoke and quite regal in his well, as Johnny said 1:07:24.800 --> 1:07:27.000 in his Satanic Majesty, and. 1:07:26.960 --> 1:07:28.760 I thought this was pretty effective. Like at this point 1:07:28.800 --> 1:07:31.240 I'm really digging, like, oh, yeah, this is Dracula, this 1:07:31.320 --> 1:07:34.120 is the real deal. You summoned him, and like this 1:07:34.280 --> 1:07:37.160 is an incredibly dangerous situation for everybody involved. 1:07:37.800 --> 1:07:39.760 But this is the part I mentioned earlier where he 1:07:39.880 --> 1:07:43.360 is right off the bat, extremely high handed with Johnny. 1:07:43.440 --> 1:07:46.440 Johnny says, master, I did it. I summoned you, and 1:07:46.560 --> 1:07:49.160 Dracula just kind of scowls at him and says it 1:07:49.240 --> 1:07:52.320 was my will and then holds out the ring for 1:07:52.400 --> 1:07:53.040 him to kiss. 1:07:53.560 --> 1:07:55.680 Well, he's not going to suffer any even if this 1:07:55.760 --> 1:08:00.320 is like, you know, a bloodline of Toady's that are 1:08:00.320 --> 1:08:03.320 supposed to look after Dragula's interest and raise him from 1:08:03.320 --> 1:08:06.240 the grave, Like, he's not going to suffer a wizard 1:08:06.760 --> 1:08:09.080 trying to pull one over him here. He's going to 1:08:09.160 --> 1:08:12.080 establish right from the top that Dracula is the guy 1:08:12.120 --> 1:08:13.600 in charge, right. 1:08:13.680 --> 1:08:16.200 So he goes into the church, Laura's still hanging out there. 1:08:16.280 --> 1:08:19.400 He's like, I guess I'll drink her blood, and he does, 1:08:19.600 --> 1:08:23.880 and meanwhile Johnny is looking on biting his knuckle like 1:08:24.040 --> 1:08:26.679 I wish that was me. And at first I thought 1:08:26.760 --> 1:08:28.600 he was thinking, like, oh, I wish that was me 1:08:28.800 --> 1:08:32.040 drinking her blood, but then I realized no, I think 1:08:32.040 --> 1:08:35.240 he's like, I wish that was me getting my blood drank. 1:08:36.560 --> 1:08:40.160 Because that's what he ultimately wants. He wants the kiss 1:08:40.200 --> 1:08:41.360 of cursed immortality. 1:08:41.640 --> 1:08:44.679 So the next day Laura's body is found by kids 1:08:44.720 --> 1:08:47.759 playing in a construction area. There's sort of the kids 1:08:47.760 --> 1:08:50.120 from the Spirit of Dark and Lonely Waters commercial. 1:08:51.400 --> 1:08:54.840 Yeah, just sort of wild, unparented seventies children running around 1:08:55.040 --> 1:08:58.720 finding dead bodies in the in the rubble. I mean, 1:08:58.720 --> 1:09:00.760 this is just how it went. I was born in 1:09:00.760 --> 1:09:01.639 the seventies as well. 1:09:01.800 --> 1:09:05.400 Yeah, let's go climb on that rebar. The police show up. 1:09:05.479 --> 1:09:08.519 They open a murder investigation and it is led by 1:09:08.600 --> 1:09:11.759 Inspector Murray. This is the detective we talked about earlier. 1:09:12.000 --> 1:09:15.479 Inspector Murray in turn consults with Laura Mr van Helsing. 1:09:15.600 --> 1:09:18.640 I think they have a pre existing relationship because Van 1:09:18.720 --> 1:09:22.840 Helsing knows all about weird occult murders, and the detective 1:09:22.920 --> 1:09:27.520 then reveals that the murder is connected to his granddaughter Jessica, 1:09:28.000 --> 1:09:30.240 because Laura was part of her friend group. 1:09:30.960 --> 1:09:34.080 They do acknowledge at one point, or Inspector Murray does 1:09:34.120 --> 1:09:35.720 talking with somebody else. I think one of the other 1:09:35.720 --> 1:09:38.760 police investigators is like, well, you know, here in the UK, 1:09:38.840 --> 1:09:43.839 we don't really have cult murders like they do in America. 1:09:42.560 --> 1:09:46.719 You know, they're not as complicated as that and as heavy. 1:09:47.520 --> 1:09:50.680 We have some cult murders but it's you know, it's 1:09:50.720 --> 1:09:51.519 more British here. 1:09:51.880 --> 1:09:55.200 So there is a an investigation portion of the movie 1:09:55.280 --> 1:09:59.040 in the middle here that had one scene that had 1:09:59.320 --> 1:10:03.320 Rachel and me rolling. It was the alu card scene 1:10:03.479 --> 1:10:07.360 where man, they really they don't skip over anything. They 1:10:07.439 --> 1:10:09.799 let you see the whole thing come together. 1:10:10.840 --> 1:10:15.240 Spoil it for us, Joe, tell everybody what Alocard means. 1:10:14.880 --> 1:10:18.800 Well, so that you see like Peter Cushing there with 1:10:18.840 --> 1:10:21.640 a card and he has written Dracula out on this 1:10:21.720 --> 1:10:25.200 piece of paper and then he's drawing lines from the 1:10:25.280 --> 1:10:29.519 letters in Alucard to the letters in Dracula and they 1:10:29.600 --> 1:10:34.080 all cross over and he's like, it's it's Dracula spelt backwards. 1:10:34.800 --> 1:10:40.439 The the the Dracula cipher right or Alocard cipher as 1:10:40.439 --> 1:10:43.719 if he just solved like a really complex puzzle here 1:10:44.920 --> 1:10:46.920 when it's just so obvious in the page. But again, 1:10:47.960 --> 1:10:51.160 it just shows you how great Peter Cushing is. Such 1:10:51.160 --> 1:10:55.360 a stupid scene, but he sells it. He patiently brings 1:10:55.439 --> 1:10:56.559 dignity to the scene. 1:10:57.040 --> 1:11:00.040 He draws. He doesn't just like write out Alucard and 1:11:00.080 --> 1:11:02.960 then look at he like draws all the lines. He 1:11:03.040 --> 1:11:03.920 does every letter. 1:11:05.160 --> 1:11:06.720 You know, he's checking his work. And I guess we 1:11:06.800 --> 1:11:11.160 have to remember at this point in in Hammer canon anyway, 1:11:11.400 --> 1:11:14.519 nobody had had solved the Dracula cipher. Yet they didn't 1:11:14.520 --> 1:11:16.240 know what this meant, and so we had to watch 1:11:16.320 --> 1:11:17.280 him do it in real time. 1:11:17.560 --> 1:11:20.400 That's true. It's like one of those math conjectures you know, 1:11:20.680 --> 1:11:21.680 remains unproven. 1:11:22.320 --> 1:11:25.559 Mm. But this is this is also good parenting slash 1:11:25.600 --> 1:11:29.120 grand parenting tip that we're seeing here. Find out who 1:11:29.120 --> 1:11:32.639 your your your your, your child or your grandchild's friends are. 1:11:33.040 --> 1:11:35.240 Write their names on a sheet of paper and just 1:11:35.360 --> 1:11:37.599 check and see if any of their first or last 1:11:37.640 --> 1:11:39.599 name happens to be Dracula spelled backwards. 1:11:40.000 --> 1:11:42.080 I just knew I shouldn't have let my child play 1:11:42.200 --> 1:11:44.719 with eoj niff. 1:11:44.800 --> 1:11:48.720 Ok. Sorry, I don't have any paper out, Joe. I 1:11:48.760 --> 1:11:50.599 can't fact check that one to make sure that's okay. 1:11:51.680 --> 1:11:57.559 Well, then you must be one of the idiots infurial. Okay, 1:11:57.640 --> 1:12:00.599 So what happens that? So maybe I'm to skip more 1:12:00.680 --> 1:12:03.240 lightly over some of the plot points that follow, but 1:12:03.840 --> 1:12:09.120 one sequence is Dracula he really wants to eat Jessica 1:12:09.160 --> 1:12:11.280 van Helsing. Actually, I think he wants to turn her 1:12:11.320 --> 1:12:15.120 into a vampire. Right to really just fully defile the 1:12:15.200 --> 1:12:17.800 name of Van Helsing. He wants to not just kill 1:12:17.880 --> 1:12:20.559 the end of the Van Helsing line, but make her 1:12:20.600 --> 1:12:21.719 a servant of the devil. 1:12:22.160 --> 1:12:24.920 That's right, that's his evil plot for revenge here. 1:12:25.560 --> 1:12:28.280 So the way they're going to make that happen is 1:12:28.360 --> 1:12:32.320 Johnny Alucard. Does he invite Jessica Van Helsing to go 1:12:32.400 --> 1:12:34.640 to the Jazz Spectacular with him? 1:12:34.840 --> 1:12:37.160 Yeah, He's like, hey, I got tickets to the Jazz Spectacular. 1:12:37.360 --> 1:12:40.240 Want to come? And she's like, uh no, no, no, 1:12:40.360 --> 1:12:43.240 thank you for doing something else. And then Gaynor's like, hey, 1:12:43.640 --> 1:12:45.560 I'm looking to go to a concert. 1:12:47.479 --> 1:12:49.559 What's he going to do? Well, he figures out I 1:12:49.560 --> 1:12:51.640 can at least feed Gayner to Dracula. 1:12:52.439 --> 1:12:55.599 Yeah, but this doesn't go over well with Dracula because Dracula, 1:12:56.560 --> 1:12:59.519 rightfully so is like, this is not what I charged 1:12:59.560 --> 1:13:02.840 you with. We have a specific plan for vengeance here. 1:13:03.479 --> 1:13:06.840 I will drink her blood and kill her, but you 1:13:06.960 --> 1:13:10.960 need to bring me the descendant of Van Helsing. And 1:13:10.960 --> 1:13:13.439 then but Johnny Alickhart is like, well, you haven't given 1:13:13.439 --> 1:13:16.240 me any powers, and he basically does kind of like 1:13:16.400 --> 1:13:19.679 there's like a labor standoff. Yes, here in the film 1:13:20.080 --> 1:13:22.720 and Dracula caves. He's like, all right, I'll give you 1:13:22.760 --> 1:13:23.280 the powers. 1:13:23.720 --> 1:13:26.959 So he bites him, turns Johnny Olichard into a vampire, 1:13:27.439 --> 1:13:29.960 and then Johnny Ali Card. Actually before he gets on 1:13:30.160 --> 1:13:34.120 with the business of, you know, of getting Jessica van Helsing, 1:13:34.160 --> 1:13:35.960 he just goes out and gets a snack first, right, 1:13:36.000 --> 1:13:38.600 and he like finds a lady in a laundromat and 1:13:38.640 --> 1:13:39.120 eats her. 1:13:39.800 --> 1:13:42.439 Yep, yep, just starts committing random vampire murders. 1:13:42.880 --> 1:13:46.840 But at some point Jessica's boyfriend, Bob, he comes to 1:13:46.840 --> 1:13:49.240 get her at her house. Now she's been warned about 1:13:49.240 --> 1:13:53.679 things at this point by by her her grandfather Van Helsing, 1:13:54.120 --> 1:13:57.240 but Bob comes and says I think He says, oh, 1:13:57.439 --> 1:13:59.320 you know your grandfather and the police are at the 1:13:59.320 --> 1:14:02.240 cavern there interviewing everybody, and you need to come there now. 1:14:03.080 --> 1:14:04.040 Was that the story? 1:14:04.080 --> 1:14:05.559 I think it was, I believe so. 1:14:05.760 --> 1:14:08.519 Yes, And in this scene he strangely has a ben 1:14:08.640 --> 1:14:13.200 Dana tied around his neck. Yeh did you see this 1:14:13.280 --> 1:14:13.840 one coming? 1:14:14.400 --> 1:14:15.080 Yep, yep. 1:14:15.800 --> 1:14:18.160 So he does take her to the cavern the coffee shop, 1:14:18.240 --> 1:14:21.439 but it's not the uh, it's not the good guys. 1:14:21.479 --> 1:14:22.400 It's the bad guys. 1:14:23.080 --> 1:14:24.880 That's right. It's a game of cat and mouse here 1:14:24.920 --> 1:14:28.120 between the Van Helsings and House Dracula. 1:14:28.800 --> 1:14:32.080 So eventually Jessica is taken to the deconsecrated church I 1:14:32.080 --> 1:14:36.960 think it's Saint Bartholf's and Dracula hypnotizes her but doesn't 1:14:37.080 --> 1:14:39.360 vamp her yet. I think he's waiting for like the 1:14:39.400 --> 1:14:44.280 big midnight ritual or something. In the meantime, we get 1:14:44.400 --> 1:14:47.160 Van Helsing on the case. He's trying to he's trying 1:14:47.200 --> 1:14:50.600 to find out how to rescue his granddaughter, and he 1:14:51.000 --> 1:14:54.200 ends up going to Johnny Alucard's house where they have 1:14:54.400 --> 1:14:56.960 a battle. It is Van Helsing versus a vampire, not 1:14:57.080 --> 1:15:00.880 Dracula yet, but the vamp, the sort of young vamp. 1:15:01.240 --> 1:15:03.080 And I thought this was a good battle. I like 1:15:03.120 --> 1:15:03.759 this scene. 1:15:04.360 --> 1:15:06.640 Yeah, yeah, I mean, to be fair, this is the 1:15:06.680 --> 1:15:10.680 first vampire that this Van Helsing has ever battled. Yeah. 1:15:10.720 --> 1:15:12.760 And they do a good job, yeah, of making it 1:15:12.840 --> 1:15:16.680 a little a little unexpected. Like, for instance, earlier in 1:15:16.680 --> 1:15:19.120 the film, there's a little foreshadowing where they remind us 1:15:19.200 --> 1:15:23.080 that there's an often ignored bit of vampire lore that 1:15:23.240 --> 1:15:27.200 says that moving water or moving fresh water. I think 1:15:27.240 --> 1:15:31.120 they're running waters film, clear running water, will you know, 1:15:31.160 --> 1:15:34.120 destabilize them or slay them or something. So I wonder 1:15:34.160 --> 1:15:35.559 if that'll come into play here. 1:15:36.080 --> 1:15:38.160 Yes, yes, I think he says that at the police 1:15:38.160 --> 1:15:41.800 station or something. He's listing all of the things that 1:15:41.880 --> 1:15:44.400 will harm or won't harm a vampire. Some of it's 1:15:44.439 --> 1:15:47.599 just superstition, but yeah, clear running water and a cross 1:15:47.640 --> 1:15:50.320 in a bible that'll do it. So there's a great 1:15:50.400 --> 1:15:53.200 move he has here where Johnny Alikart like the sun 1:15:53.320 --> 1:15:56.840 is rising in the window and he's trapped. He's got 1:15:56.880 --> 1:15:58.679 to get back to his coffin so he can rest 1:15:58.760 --> 1:16:02.040 during the daylight. But then Peter Cushing throws a bible 1:16:02.080 --> 1:16:07.760 into his coffin. He's like, oh gotcha, now, oh. 1:16:07.400 --> 1:16:10.000 Yeah, sleep on that. And this is like a full 1:16:10.040 --> 1:16:12.000 size one too. It's not one of those little pocket 1:16:12.040 --> 1:16:15.519 ones that you know, you could just maybe like sleep around, 1:16:15.720 --> 1:16:17.800 but no, no, there's no sleeping in that coffin without 1:16:17.840 --> 1:16:18.599 laying on that bible. 1:16:18.600 --> 1:16:23.559 It's ruined, right, that's athunk bible. So they battle, but 1:16:23.680 --> 1:16:27.880 eventually Johnny Alucard falls into the shower. The water starts running, 1:16:27.920 --> 1:16:30.760 and this destroys him. Like the water's running over him 1:16:30.800 --> 1:16:33.639 and he's screaming. He's like, sturn it off, turn it off, 1:16:33.680 --> 1:16:36.880 and Van Helsing's like, where is Jessica? But he won't say. 1:16:36.920 --> 1:16:39.719 He's just getting obliterated by water. 1:16:40.520 --> 1:16:43.800 Yeah. Is it the best vampire death in cinematic history? 1:16:44.000 --> 1:16:44.080 No? 1:16:44.680 --> 1:16:46.679 Is it at least inventive? Does it give us something 1:16:46.760 --> 1:16:49.400 a little bit new? Then? Yes? I think so. Yeah. 1:16:49.479 --> 1:16:51.600 I kind of like this one. It seems actually like 1:16:51.760 --> 1:16:54.680 plausible from a folklore standpoint. That sounds like something that 1:16:54.720 --> 1:16:58.240 could really be believed to harm a vampire in some scenario. 1:16:58.800 --> 1:17:01.200 And uh, yeah, I don't know. It was different. I 1:17:01.320 --> 1:17:01.639 liked it. 1:17:02.200 --> 1:17:04.360 Yeah, I guess there is a bathtub scene in The 1:17:04.400 --> 1:17:06.679 Lost Boys. There's something but that was like a bathtub 1:17:06.720 --> 1:17:07.639 full of holy water. 1:17:07.760 --> 1:17:10.519 I think, ah, okay, I've forgotten about that. 1:17:10.760 --> 1:17:14.559 If memory serves also, Lost Boys came later, Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, 1:17:14.640 --> 1:17:15.080 much later. 1:17:15.360 --> 1:17:17.960 But eventually Laura Mr. Van Helsing does go to the 1:17:18.040 --> 1:17:21.679 church to confront Dracula and there is a great trap 1:17:21.760 --> 1:17:24.720 setting scene. He digs a pit outside the church and 1:17:24.760 --> 1:17:27.640 he fills it full of wooden steaks. He takes his 1:17:27.800 --> 1:17:30.479 trusty silver dagger with him, which he has showed off 1:17:30.520 --> 1:17:34.000 several times before, and there is a showdown, a final 1:17:34.040 --> 1:17:36.400 battle in the church, and there were a couple of 1:17:36.400 --> 1:17:38.880 parts here that I thought were actually kind of scary. 1:17:39.160 --> 1:17:42.320 I don't usually expect to find anything all that frightening 1:17:42.320 --> 1:17:44.519 in a hammer horror movie, but like the part where 1:17:44.680 --> 1:17:48.360 Dracula is chasing Van Helsing up the spiral staircase into 1:17:48.360 --> 1:17:50.719 the tower, I thought was quite menacing. 1:17:51.360 --> 1:17:53.559 Yeah, because really throughout the film they do a great 1:17:53.640 --> 1:17:57.520 job of establishing Dracula as such a threat, and suddenly 1:17:57.560 --> 1:18:00.720 in that stairwell, it's like everything is so close, austrophobic, 1:18:00.760 --> 1:18:03.360 and there's this feeling of just being in an enclosed 1:18:03.439 --> 1:18:07.400 space with something that is just beyond even a vicious animal, 1:18:07.560 --> 1:18:09.320 just pure bloodthirsty hunger. 1:18:09.800 --> 1:18:14.439 Yeah, And so so they have a showdown. There's kind 1:18:14.439 --> 1:18:17.320 of a fake out here. Van Helsing stabs Dracula with 1:18:17.360 --> 1:18:22.720 his silver dagger, but Dracula is aided by the hypnotized 1:18:23.439 --> 1:18:26.160 Jessica van Helsing. She comes up and pulls the dagger 1:18:26.240 --> 1:18:30.280 out of him, and her grandpa is like, no, Jessica. 1:18:30.920 --> 1:18:32.360 This one caught me up in the moment, you know, 1:18:32.600 --> 1:18:34.320 you know the movie's not going to end like that. 1:18:34.520 --> 1:18:37.760 This movie's only ending one way, but getting caught up 1:18:37.800 --> 1:18:39.360 in just the sort of the spirit of the film. 1:18:39.360 --> 1:18:42.479 I was like, oh man, this is bad news. 1:18:42.840 --> 1:18:46.599 But of course we saw him dig that trap earlier, right, 1:18:46.960 --> 1:18:50.080 so the trap comes back. In the end, he throws 1:18:50.200 --> 1:18:53.160 holy water. Van Helsing throws holy water on Dracula. That 1:18:53.240 --> 1:18:55.960 kind of burns him, yow, and he falls into the pit. 1:18:56.479 --> 1:19:00.040 And then to really drive it home, Van Helsing and 1:19:00.160 --> 1:19:05.000 like grabs a shovel and like shoves Dracula down onto 1:19:05.160 --> 1:19:08.559 the wooden stakes with the shovel, and this breaks the 1:19:08.600 --> 1:19:12.439 spell over Jessica. They're all right, and I guess some 1:19:12.479 --> 1:19:14.960 of her friends are still alive or boyfriend's dead. But 1:19:15.120 --> 1:19:16.679 I don't know if you with the hippie group, they're 1:19:16.680 --> 1:19:17.559 still kicking around. 1:19:18.000 --> 1:19:19.879 Yeah, I don't know if they're gonna hang out much anymore, 1:19:19.920 --> 1:19:24.120 but yeah, some survive. I will say, in this movie, 1:19:24.200 --> 1:19:27.120 you had two different scenes with the melting vampires, so 1:19:27.160 --> 1:19:30.479 you end up melting the same vampire twice in the 1:19:30.520 --> 1:19:35.280 same picture. They at least made sure to have the 1:19:35.320 --> 1:19:39.320 second vampire death look even better than the first. I 1:19:39.360 --> 1:19:41.839 have to say that this one looked really good and gnarly, 1:19:42.080 --> 1:19:44.599 and I liked it quite a bit agree. 1:19:45.400 --> 1:19:48.200 So that's all I got for Dracula A d. Nineteen 1:19:48.280 --> 1:19:51.160 seventy two. I enjoyed this one. I'm not gonna I'm 1:19:51.160 --> 1:19:53.960 not gonna say it's the best Dracula movie I've ever seen. 1:19:54.120 --> 1:19:56.760 But if you're looking for those early seventies vibes and 1:19:56.760 --> 1:19:59.040 you want some Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in there too, 1:19:59.120 --> 1:19:59.960 it's perfect. 1:20:00.479 --> 1:20:03.720 Yeah. I'm not gonna recommend Dracula AD nineteen seventy two 1:20:03.840 --> 1:20:07.839 to everyone, but if the title Dracula AD nineteen seventy 1:20:07.840 --> 1:20:12.719 two stirs something inside you, then yes, you must see 1:20:12.720 --> 1:20:14.280 this film, and I encourage you to do so. 1:20:14.840 --> 1:20:16.919 It's way better than Land of the Minotaur. 1:20:18.000 --> 1:20:21.479 Yes, yes, I would agree, but the score for Land 1:20:21.479 --> 1:20:22.960 of the Minataar was better though I don't know. 1:20:23.520 --> 1:20:27.720 Yeah, but Land of the Minotaur didn't have Stone Ground. 1:20:27.920 --> 1:20:30.240 That's right, if they'd only had the musical stylings of 1:20:30.240 --> 1:20:32.760 Stone Ground. All right, we're gonna go ahead and close 1:20:32.800 --> 1:20:35.600 this one out. But as always, we remind you that 1:20:35.600 --> 1:20:39.000 we're primarily a science podcast, Real science, not the Van 1:20:39.000 --> 1:20:43.760 Helsing branch of science, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:20:43.920 --> 1:20:46.200 but on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns to 1:20:46.240 --> 1:20:48.640 just talk about a weird movie here on Weird House Cinema. 1:20:48.720 --> 1:20:50.240 If you want a full list of the movies we've 1:20:50.240 --> 1:20:52.479 discussed over the years on Weird House Cinema, head on 1:20:52.479 --> 1:20:54.320 over to letterbox dot com. It's l E T T 1:20:54.439 --> 1:20:57.200 E R bo x D dot com. Our username there 1:20:57.240 --> 1:20:58.640 is weird House and we have a list and you 1:20:58.640 --> 1:21:00.519 can see all the films we've talked about. You can 1:21:00.560 --> 1:21:02.160 go back through the archives there and see, well, what 1:21:02.200 --> 1:21:05.280 other Dracula movies have they watched? I guess kind of 1:21:05.320 --> 1:21:07.160 sort of two or three other Dracula films. 1:21:07.479 --> 1:21:11.120 Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway. 1:21:11.640 --> 1:21:13.200 If you would like to get in touch with us 1:21:13.200 --> 1:21:15.759 with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 1:21:15.760 --> 1:21:17.800 a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 1:21:17.920 --> 1:21:20.479 you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 1:21:20.520 --> 1:21:28.360 your Mind dot com. 1:21:28.479 --> 1:21:31.439 Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 1:21:31.520 --> 1:21:34.320 more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 1:21:34.439 --> 1:21:37.680 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.