Vampire Flicks: Count Dracula's Great Love (El Gran Amor Del Conde Dracula) (1973)

Jacinto Molina Alvarez, better known as Paul Naschy, is a major cult figure to horror fans, especially lovers of European B-movies, but I'm not well-versed in his work at all. It's no exaggeration to say that I can count the number of his movies I've seen at this point on just one hand; in fact, this is only the second one I've ever watched. Like a lot of people, the first one I ever saw was one of his "El Hombre Lobo" movies, specifically The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman, or Walpurgis Night, which seems to have been the most common one in the U.S. for a long time. I saw it on a double-feature VHS, where it was packaged along with The Screaming Skull, that I got as a birthday present in 2001, when I was fourteen. I don't remember watching it that much, although I do know the print was so dark that it was often hard to tell what was going on (that said, while hardly a difficult task, I did think it was a better movie than The Screaming Skull). Subsequently, I slowly but surely learned who Naschy was and how he was a big cult figure best known for a series of movies where he starred as that same werewolf character, but that's as far as it went for a long time. In fact, it wasn't until his movies began to be released on Blu-Ray that I learned he played just about every popular Gothic horror character and archetype, including Frankenstein's monster, a Quasimodo-like hunchback, and a Mummy, as well as Fu Manchu and his own original warlock character, Alaric de Marnac. More to the point, I had no idea he appeared in a vampire movie, let alone as Dracula himself, until this was mentioned, along with an image from it, in John Landis' book, Monsters In The Movies. Landis didn't go into any further detail, though, except to note that Naschy not only continually played a werewolf character but, also, "Any other horror icon that was laying around." But, since I was still looking around for movies to fill up the month, and also because, spoiler alert, I will do an October Fest dedicated to werewolf movies at some point, I figured I'd might as well break Naschy in here.

Having now watched Count Dracula's Great Love twice, I can say that, on the one hand, it does do some things and takes some turns you might not expect, and also attempts to make Dracula into something of a complex, conflicted character ("attempts" being the operative word). Also, like a lot of European horror movies from this period, you can count on lots of blood and gore, some very lovely women who get naked more than once, and some nice Gothic trappings. But, that said, the direction and editing often come off as rather poor and even nonsensical, while the biggest issues, by far, lie with the characters and story. While Naschy is fair enough, the other characters are vapid and virtually interchangeable, with the ultimate female lead being so dull in and of herself that it's a shocker she even falls into the role, and the pacing is very slow, with long stretches where the characters do little more than wander about the old sanitarium setting and its surrounding grounds. And while it starts out simple enough, during the second half, especially the third act, the story becomes convoluted and hard to keep straight in regards to what Dracula wants and what his ultimate plan is. Thus, during the last thirty minutes, I find myself really getting antsy and wishing it would just end.

In the Carpathian Mountains, two men arrive at the Klinik Dr. Kargos, a long abandoned sanitarium. They're to deliver a large, heavy crate, under the instructions of a mysterious Austrian aristocrat and doctor, who's bought and plans to reopen the establishment. Under his instructions, they carry the crate down to the basement without opening it. As they sit and talk, one of them, Krakos, decides to open it to see if there's anything inside worth stealing, only to find a coffin housing a woman's skeleton. He then decides to search the place for other valuables, only to come upon a man wearing a black cape. Krakos is attacked, while his partner attempts to flee, only to be killed with an axe to the head. Some time later, a stagecoach makes its way through the notorious Borgo Pass, carrying five travelers from Bistritz: a young man, Imre Polvi, and four women, Karen, Marlene, Senta, and Elke, who have been lifelong friends. Along the way, Imre tells them they are near the spot where Count Dracula was destroyed by Jonathan Harker and Dr. Van Helsing; then, as they pass near the sanitarium, he adds that it has a bad reputation, as all its patients died from mysterious cases of anemia, supposedly the result of evil experiments conducted by its director, Dr. Kargos. Suddenly, the coach loses its left, rear wheel, which goes rolling off into the woods. Imre volunteers to go search for it, and is accompanied by Marlene, whom he's developed a love affair with. But, not only do they not find the wheel, but the coachman is killed when one of his frightened horses strikes him in the head with its hoof, and the sound of a howling wolf then sends both horses running off in a panic. With both sunset and a storm approaching, the group now have no choice but to seek refuge at the sanitarium. Upon arriving, they meet Dr. Wendell Marlowe, the man who has bought the place, and he offers to let them stay for as long as they need to. However, a series of sinister events begins to take place, as the group, one by one, fall victim to the curse of the undead, until only Karen is left. And Marlowe, who is actually none other than Count Dracula himself, has a horrific plan in store for her.

As with a lot of the movies he made during his period as a major horror star, Paul Naschy had a hand in writing Count Dracula's Great Love, albeit using his real name. He was one of three people involved in the screenplay, which included the film's director, Javier Aguirre. He made three movies with Naschy during this period from 1972 to '73, with the others being Hunchback of the Morgue (which they made during a hiatus in filming on this when one of the actors was recovering from an injury) and The Killer is One of the Thirteen. However, those were only a small part of a career that spanned over forty years and encompassed 45 feature films, as well as numerous shorts and documentaries. Moreover, his daughter, Arantxa, is also a filmmaker, specializing in documentaries. Aguirre's last film was 2009's Sol, based on the Greek myth of Apollo. He died in 2019, at the age of 84.

For much of the movie, Naschy's Count Dracula is under the guise of Dr. Wendell Marlowe, an Austrian aristocrat and doctor who's bought the long abandoned Klinic Dr. Kargos and says he plans to reopen it. When the five travelers appear on his doorstep in the middle of the night, he's very accommodating, allowing them refuge from the approaching storm. Though he tells them he has no carriage they can use, he permits them to stay as long as they need to, saying they can leave when the man who's delivering his supplies arrives within the week. The women are afraid they may be an inconvenience (or, in Elke's case, just plain afraid), but he assures them it's no bother, though he also admits he can't offer them much in the way of accommodations. Naturally, things gradually become sinister, though for much of the movie, it's not Marlowe's direct doing. The first night, Karen runs into Krakos, who's now a vampire, but Marlowe stops him from attacking her and later assures her that she probably saw a tramp, saying they tend to take shelter in the long abandoned building. He's conspicuously absent the next day, leaving a note for his guests claiming he's checking the traps he has out in the woods. When he returns that night, he finds Karen wandering about, saying she can't sleep. He offers to take a stroll with her through the garden, and when they do, they talk about the sanitarium's past, as well as the legend of Count Dracula, which he tells her he doesn't completely dismiss, despite being a "scientist." Karen says that, if Dracula were real, the price he would pay for his immortality would be great, and Marlowe agrees, "You're right. The cost is horror and eternal loneliness." She then says that she can't understand what compels Marlowe to live out at the sanitarium by himself, suggesting that he must live a lonely life as well, while he simply says he likes the country. She jokingly asks if he's ever whipped up a love potion, and he admits that he's never been in love. The following night, Senta gets caught in one of the traps, and Marlowe later cleans the wound, wiping away the blood. However, the sight of it obviously tempts him and he has Karen finish it, under the pretense of going to get some disinfectant. When he returns, he also assures the girls, who are worried about Imre and Marlene, who've disappeared, that he will wait up for them. However, during the night, while Marlene, now a vampire, turns Elke, Senta manages to get Marlowe to hit the sheets with her. Once they're done, though, he regrets the act, saying, "Love is much more... for me, anyway."

Marlowe then has to save Karen, who's attacked by the vampire Imre, ultimately throwing him out the window, causing him to be impaled on a fence down below. He comforts the terrified Karen, who's sure that the others have been turned into vampires as well, assuring her that he had no idea about any of this and insisting leave as soon as possible. After saving her from the vampiric Krakos, and staking him, Marlowe shows what appears to be genuine concern and affection for Karen, who tumbled down

some stairs during the struggle. He says, "What'll happen to me? I need you, Karen." While seeing to her afterward, he says they'll leave as soon as she's well enough, and promises he'll be by her side until they do. As they talk while walking in the garden again, Marlowe tries to admit something, and Karen, assuming he's going to say he loves her, admits the same. He seems to reciprocate, saying they'll leave the next day, after which they end up sleeping together. But Karen wakes up the following morning to find herself alone in the sanitarium, and wanders 

down to the cellar, hearing Marlowe's voice calling to her. There, she's confronted by her three friends, who are now all vampires, and Marlowe, who drops the pretense and reveals that he's Count Dracula. He also tells her of his plan for her: to use her as a means to be fully reborn to the world, as well as to resurrect his daughter, Radna, whose skeleton is in the crate the deliverymen brought to the sanitarium, during the next full moon.

This is where things get overly complicated and confusing. Early on, when the girls are exploring the sanitarium, they find Dr. Van Helsing's memoirs, wherein he says that Dracula can continually reincarnate himself after his physical body has been destroyed, and the same goes for Radna. However, he can only be restored to full power when a virgin falls in love with and freely gives herself to him, as Karen unknowingly does when she sleeps with "Marlowe." After this, he intends to use her blood to nourish

himself, forever tying her to him, as well as mix it with that of Helga, a young virgin whom his brides abduct from a nearby village to resurrect Radna. This is already more complicated than necessary, and hard to wrap your head around, since it's never explained how Dracula's own physical body was recreated, or why a virgin's love and blood is necessary to restore him to full power, seeing as how he already has the typical vampire traits: being able to appear and disappear, sprouting fangs, a hypnotic stare, and having to avoid sunlight. Resurrecting Radna, a

character they made up solely for this movie, proves to be just as hard to understand. Despite Dracula saying they will perform the ceremony to revive her on the next full moon, when they do, they actually only recreate her physical body. Then, after Dracula drinks Helga's blood after Senta gathers it in a chalice (this act may be part of the ceremony, as that's when Radna's body is restored, but I'm not sure), he proclaims that, on the next full moon, Karen will renounce her existence as a human, and then, Radna will be resurrected. Confused, yet? Well, just you wait.

What's especially frustrating is how, when the next full moon comes around, Dracula, after all the trouble they've gone through to enact the ceremony, decides not to restore Radna to life! He claims it's because of his newfound love for Karen, and even goes as far as to have Radna's coffin dumped into a river, while he sheds a tear as he watches. Yeah, as is often the case, they're attempting to make Dracula into a complex, conflicted figure, rather than just an evil monster, and even though I don't care for that approach in general, 

the way they go about it here is so poor. For one, the supposed connection between Dracula and Karen has no emotional weight whatsoever, due to both the performances and how, during the first half, they barely spend much meaningful time together, save for that stroll in the garden. For another, given how much he uses and deceives her, feigning ignorance about the vampires in the sanitarium, as well as what became of her friends, it's hard to believe that he really feels anything for her. And in these long 

diatribes, where he speaks to her in a booming, echoing voice, constantly referring to himself in the third person (with his mouth never moving), the stuff he says, both in the English dub and the original Spanish version, tends to be confusing, dense, and even contradictory. Before he takes Karen to enact the first part of the ceremony to restore Radna's body, he says, "For you, Dracula has been a different being during this time. Because of you, he has been restored his human existence, that was lost many centuries ago." I'm guessing he means the time they spent 

together while she thought he was Dr. Marlowe, but it's so vague that I'm not sure. Regardless, he continues, "But no one can escape his destiny. Dracula will always be horror and loneliness. It is you who must exchange your existence for that of his, if you really love him." Keep in mind that she seems to be under his hypnotic control during all this time, despite his saying she must do this and that of her own free will. And following that first part of the ritual, Dracula saves Karen from Senta, who attacks her and tries to feed on her blood. After he kills 

Senta, he says, "It's not the first time that a vampire has loved a daughter of man. I love you, but I can't obligate you to share my destiny." (You mean, like you just attempted to a few minutes ago?) "For your love, I'll renounce the restoring to life of my daughter, Radna." Again, kind of hard to take that seriously, considering how he seems to be controlling her, and is also keeping her imprisoned down in the cellar.

After he's had Radna's coffin dumped, he goes to meet with Karen, who briefly tries to repel him with a makeshift cross. He manages to make her drop it, then says, "Everyone, including Radna, have disappeared, and once more, Dracula asks you to share his destiny." He takes her to her bedroom, where you see the two of them make out, and though it cuts away, I'm guessing they had sex again. But, not only did he lie to her about Radna "disappearing" along with the others, but you then find that he imprisoned Marlene 

and Elke in the cellar so that the rising sun would destroy them. The following night, Dracula, yet again, asks that Karen renounce her humanity and be with him, but she says she can't (one of the few times she's actually spoken since learning the truth about him, I might add). He then declares, "For the first time, love brings a finish to the life of Dracula," and he commits suicide by staking himself! Again, I'm sure this is meant to be emotional and profound, but I'm mostly just glad the movie is over.

Despite all these issues I have, I think Naschy makes for a decent enough Dracula. He's definitely not among the best, due to his confusing and contradictory portrayal, and acting, which ranges from wooden to melodramatic (the expression on his face when he sees Karen's makeshift cross is just goofy), but he looks good in the classic suit and red-lined cape, and does manage to come off as fairly suave, both in the guise of Dr. Marlowe and as the Count. He has to be one of, if not the first, Draculas 

to ever be shown having full-on naked sex with a woman. He also proves to be quite cruel and monstrous when he has to, such as when he whips Helga's back in order to spill her blood, how he preys on this random woman during the third act, and leaves Marlene and Elke to be exposed to the rising sun (though, like I said, that also hurts my ability to buy his claims that he loves Karen). Speaking of which, I can definitely say that Naschy's Dracula is the first version I've seen who stakes another vampire through the heart, as he does when he saves Karen 

from Krakos and kills Senta when she attacks Karen. The closest equivalent is in Hammer's Scars of Dracula, where Christopher Lee's Count stabs a woman to death with a knife like a slasher villain, but this right here is an absolute first for Dracula, or possibly any vampire, for that matter. And this is definitely the first movie I can think of where Dracula stakes himself at the end.

While he never becomes a bat or a wolf, many of the familiar tropes do apply to this Dracula: aversion to sunlight, sleeping in a coffin, hypnotic stare, no reflection in a mirror, and needing to be staked through the heart. He's also able to suddenly materialize, which is first suggested during the opening, when he seems to teleport offscreen to kill the second deliveryman. One interesting aspect is how, not only do the other vampires under his sway, including his brides, sometimes overstep their

bounds, but some of them, like Krakos and Imre, are completely out of control and can be tough for him to subdue, like when he fights them to protect Karen. Another noteworthy thing about this portrayal of Dracula is that it's one of the earliest attempts to make a solid connection between the fictional Count and Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler. It's only briefly alluded to, during the opening, when, as they're traveling through Borgo Pass, Imre brings up Dracula and Karen notes, "According to another legend, he was the descendant of a man who was of great 

historical importance. He was a killer prince who fought against the Turks in 1445." Though they don't say his name, and the dates are off, they're clearly referring to Vlad the Impaler, and since this movie suggests that Dracula will continually reincarnate, even if his flesh-and-blood form is destroyed, it's interesting to think that was one of his identities. The same is also suggested about Dr. Kargos, the mad former director of the sanitarium, given his experiments with blood and the like, with Karen saying she's heard that Kargos and Dracula were believed to be the same person. But that's left even more vague.

Among the women, Karen (Haydee Politoff) is initially fairly interested by the stories of vampires and other legends of the Carpathian Mountains, and even adds to the story of Dracula by mentioning his connection to Vlad the Impaler. Unlike Elke, who's frightened to death, she keeps her wits about her when they get stranded in the woods and when they have to stay the night at the sanitarium. But, during their first night , she's drawn out of the bedroom she shares with Senta by a shadow outside the door, and runs into the now vampirized Krakos. Marlowe stops him from attacking her and takes her back to the bedroom, assuring her that what she saw was just a tramp taking refuge from the storm. Despite this encounter, when she, Elke, and Senta find Van Helsing's memoirs the next day, Karen is interested in hearing what they say. Later, she's seen reading the book in bed, learning about how a virgin must love and willingly give herself to Dracula in order for him to be fully reborn. This causes her to have a dream about him preying on a woman in her bedroom and, some time later, she wakes up and goes downstairs to find Dr. Marlowe. The two of them proceed to take a walk in the garden, where they talk about the sanitarium's previous owner, as well as about Dracula, the legend's validity, and the lonely existence the Count would feel if he were real. Karen also shows interest in Marlowe, finding him to be rather eccentric, and teasingly asks if he ever thought about making a love potion, only to feel bad when he admits he's never been in love. After that, Karen is mostly a passive character until she's attacked by the vampiric Imre the following night, with Marlowe coming to her rescue and killing him. Knowing ir was Imre, and worried about her other friends, Karen is insistent that they find them, but becomes distraught when they're unable to. The two of them attempt to leave, only for Krakos to attack them and try to make off with Karen. Again, Marlowe is able to slay the vampire, and though Karen tumbles down the stairs in the attack, he's able to nurse her back to health. While recovering, she tells him that she loves him, and he seems to reciprocate, as they plan to leave the next day. But, after Karen spends the night with him, she learns that he's Count Dracula, and that, by giving herself to him, she's become the virgin he intends to use to be completely reborn.

However, I don't believe any of this for a second. For one, I never buy stories about two people falling in love when they've only known each other for a few days, and, furthermore, before the two of them get really close after he saves her from Imre, Karen and Marlowe only have one scene where they're alone and have a meaningful conversation. It doesn't help that Paul Naschy and Haydee Politoff have zero chemistry, probably because it's been said they didn't get along. And, among the four women, Karen is the

most bland and uninteresting (while writing this, I got her mixed up with Elke more than once), so it doesn't make sense why Dracula would fall for her enough to renounce his evil intentions and ultimately stake himself. Plus, like I said, I find it hard to believe that he really does love her, or that she's willingly going along with what he intends to do, as she seems to be in a trance for almost the entire third act, save for when she screams for help out her cell's window. Thus, Dracula staking himself and Karen being distraught over it has no impact whatsoever, nor does her begging her "beloved" to come back, or the final scene of her sadly walking away from the castle, heading into the wilderness.

For me personally, the most memorable of the group is Senta (Rosanna Yanni), as she has two distinct personality traits (plus, I think she's the hottest one). One, she often has little on her mind aside from sex (Karen tells her, "You'd flirt with a broom if it had pants,"), and often dresses provocatively. She's immediately taken with Marlowe when they meet him, going on afterward about how good-looking he is, and the next day, when she and Elke are skinny-dipping in a pool, she comments about what would happen if Marlowe happened upon them. And it's her idea to snoop around his living quarters, saying that, because he has such an air of mystery about him, he has to be "hiding something in this house," which leads to their finding Van Helsing's memoirs. But, she's also a very jealous person, coming off as sneering and disdainful over Imre and Marlene's budding romance, and because of her infatuation with Marlowe, she's not happy when she looks out the window and sees him and Karen walking in the garden. Thus, she intends to seduce him the following night. While she, Karen, and Elke are out looking for Imre and Marlene after they suddenly disappear, Senta steps in one of the animal traps Marlowe has set up in the woods. The others help her back to the sanitarium, and Marlowe sees to her wounds, which do nothing to weaken her resolve. When Karen allows her to have their bedroom to herself, while she keeps the jittery Elke company, Senta makes her move and has sex with Marlowe. However, afterward, she senses that something is wrong, and figures he knows she's not a virgin and feels cheated. She tries to stop him from leaving her, but he then hears Karen getting attacked by Imre and rushes to her aid. While that's going on, Senta is abducted by the now vampiric Marlene and Elke, who turn her into one down in the basement, in a very sensual manner. After that, the three of them become Dracula's brides, abducting and torturing Helga, and assisting in the ceremony to resurrect Radna, with Senta being the one who actually spills the blood. However, near the end, Senta enters Karen's cell and tries to attack her, chasing her to the staircase outside. Even when she sees Dracula storming down towards them, she still tries to feed on Karen, leading him to stake her as punishment.

Elke's (Mirta Miller) one defining personality trait is that she's a big scaredy cat. Due to Imre's tales about both Count Dracula and the sanitarium itself, she's immediately scared out of her mind when their stagecoach loses one of its wheels and they get stranded, and it's compounded by the coachman getting killed. And then, when they have no choice but to stay in that very sanitarium, she's a nervous wreck, saying the place has bad vibes about it. She's terrified at the prospect of sleeping the alone and, the following couple of nights, somebody has to stay with her. Furthermore, she doesn't understand why Senta is so attracted to Marlowe, as she continually quizzes her about it, and seems to be the one among them who doesn't trust him. She becomes all the more frightened when they find Van Helsing's book and Senta reads about Count Dracula's potential reincarnation, and later worries about Imre and Marlene when they go missing. However, that night, the vampiric Marlene lures Elke out of her room and bites her, transforming her. Afterward, when she, Marlene, and Imre are down in the cellar, Elke sees Krakos and, seemingly not recognizing that he's also a vampire, attacks him. He tries to return the favor, as he bites at her, but she then runs off, and does little afterward except obey Dracula.

There's little to say about Marlene (Ingrid Garbo) other than to note her love affair with Imre (Victor Alcazar), which has been developing since he met them all in Bistritz. Marlene wants to keep it a secret from the others for as long as they can, unaware that Senta already knows, but Imre is getting tired of it, as well as not being able to have Marlene to himself. Not surprisingly, the two of them sleep together during their first night at the sanitarium, and go off alone the next day, while the others are at the pool. Marlene

tells Imre that she's actually kind of glad they got stranded, since it gives them time to be together. However, she breaks it to him that, when they return to Bistritz, they'll have to go their separate ways, as she has to go back home and determine her future, which involves facing her father. Though they decide to spend as much time together as possible, it doesn't last as long as they'd hope. Speaking of Imre, he initially comes off as a Jonathan Harker figure, and that includes being about as bland as most portrayals. Other than his giving the girls a history lesson about Dracula, as well as the sanitarium and the stories about Dr. Kargos, and his love affair with Marlene, there's nothing to him at all. Still, he's set up to be the story's young hero but then, that night, he's attacked and bitten by Krakos. And Imre, in turn, goes into Marlene's room and turns her into one as well. But, while Marlene, as a vampire, does nothing but follow Dracula's commands, Imre tries to attack Karen in her room the following night, prompting Dracula to fight and kill him.

The only other characters worth mentioning are the two deliverymen (Jose Manuel Martin and Alvaro de Luna) who become Dracula's first victims at the beginning. Initially, their only purpose is to sort of be comic relief, as they complain about the heavy crate they have to carry inside the sanitarium, and also how they have to take it down to the cellar. Once they've taken it down there, they sit and talk about the guy who hired them, with Krakos saying he creeped him out, while the other says he was only interested in the

large amount of money he offered. Then, Krakos gets the idea to open the crate, thinking there may be something valuable inside it, like medical instruments. When they open it, they instead find the coffin housing Radna's corpse, which thoroughly freaks out the other deliveryman, but his greedy friend is undeterred. Krakos then suggests they look around for the building for anything valuable to steal, only to run into Dracula, who lunges at and bites Krakos. His friend stumbles out of the room and tries to make a run for it, only to get an axe to his head, before tumbling back down the stairs. Because he was bitten, Krakos is later seen loitering around the place as a vampire, and he not only attacks and turns Imre into one, but also tries to get a hold of Karen. He even fights and momentarily incapacitates Marlowe to do so (and also possibly out of revenge for turning him into a vampire to begin with), before picking Karen up and trying to carry her down to the cellar. However, Marlowe attacks him from behind and, while he manages to put a fight, he ultimately gets stabbed in the heart.

Again, it's interesting how some of Dracula's vampire minions are completely loyal to them, while others, like Krakos, Imre, and Senta, are willing to step out of place and attempt to attack Karen, despite likely knowing what he intends for her. In fact, other than turning Imre into a vampire (possibly), Krakos in particular never seems subservient to Dracula. Though he doesn't attack him when Dracula takes Karen from him the first time, he doesn't seem intent on listening to him either, and Dracula, in turn, never

directly commands him. Later, Krakos decides to rebel and attack Dracula, as well as try to take Karen away. Interestingly, while the women look the same as vampires as they did as humans, save for the fangs and slightly paler skin, the men, aside from Dracula himself, come off as more monstrous, as both Krakos and Imre have cloudy eyes (I actually thought Krakos was blind when I first saw him), the former has a nasty throat wound from where he was bitten, and Imre's facial features seem to become a bit more 

menacing. Like Dracula, the other vampires have hypnotic powers, as Imre entrances Marlene before he bites her, and she, in turn, manages to call Elke into the hall, where she bites her with no struggle (Elke clearly enjoys it). The female vampires also especially prove to be very animalistic in their agility and ferocity, as Marlene and Elke manage to bound up to the bit of roof outside of Helga's window, and when her father tries to stop them from abducting her, they viciously attack, snarling and growling the

whole time. That's another thing: save for that moment between Marlene and Elke, none of the other vampires ever talk. And they sometimes don't seem to be able to recognize other vampires, given how Elke attacks Krakos down in the cellar shortly after she's been turned.

From a filmmaking point of view, Count Dracula's Great Love is quite the mixed bag. On the plus side, when you see a good, HD print, it does look pretty good, with many lovely shots of the countryside in Madrid where they filmed, such as the wooded mountains during the opening sequence in Borgo Pass, the wide shots of the sanitarium up on the mountain, and the forests that surround. The movie doesn't have much in the way of atmosphere, but there are some nice touches here and there, like when the camera follows Marlowe around as he silently

extinguishes the candles in the sanitarium during the first night, a storm raging outside, a shot of a shadowy hand reaching for the exterior doorknob to Marlene's room, some shots of the full moon up in the sky, and the classic use of mist, such as outside the sanitarium during the opening and in some scenes down in the cellar. In terms of camerawork, the most ambitious example comes near the end, when Dracula is making out with Karen in her bed, and the camera pans away from them and to a mirror, showing that only she's being reflected, as she kisses and touches 

someone who seemingly isn't there, before it then quickly pans back over to them. Speaking of which, the vampires themselves are often filmed effectively. Sometimes, they're partly in shadow or surrounded by mist, like in the scene where you see them wandering around the cellar or when the brides follow Helga and her father back to their home, and other times, they use some slight slow-motion or possible reverse photography to make their movements look strange and unnatural. There are also some choices on the 

part of the filmmakers that, if nothing else, are interesting, such as how Karen's nightmare about Dracula preying on a woman in her bed is done in a negative image (at the start, the camera zooms in on some kind of cloth, but it's impossible to tell what it is because of that effect), or how the opening credits play over a continuous loop of the one deliveryman tumbling down the stairs after getting axed to the head (it actually might've been more effective if the credits played out over the close-up of his dead face,

which we get once they're over). And, while Dracula suddenly appearing through jump-cuts is likely due to the low budget (although, at $1.5 million, it's bigger than I would've suspected), short schedule, and a possible lack of technical knowhow, I think I'd take that over some really crappy-looking fake bats.

However, there are other instances where the technical filmmaking is just plain lousy, and nowhere is that more apparent than in some of the day-for-night shots. In scenes like when Marlowe and Karen are walking through the garden, it's about par for the course for this kind of low budget movie, but you can tell much of the sequence where the brides attack Helga's was actually done at night, and there's a day-for-night shot of Dracula walking across the horizon that, I must say, looks quite good. However, scenes like Marlowe walking through the woods and 

checking his traps, him and Karen walking down through the woods, Karen telling Marlowe that she loves him, Dracula attacking an old man who got caught in one of his traps, and the brides following Helga and her father, look as though they didn't even try. In fact, during that first scene where Marlowe checks his traps and releases a rabbit that got caught in one, I thought they were possibly doing something different and going with the Bram Stoker novel's idea that vampires can move around in the daytime... until it cut to a shot of the full moon, which only 

compounded the error. Seriously, scenes like this rival the pathetic day-for-night work in The Crater Lake Monster, and there, they really didn't even bother to apply a filter. Similarly, near the end of the movie, they show Dracula lying down back into his coffin, but it's really an earlier scene of him getting out of it, just played in reverse. This is far from the only instance of poor editing here, as there are others that are just done in a clumsy manner, like when the coachman is killed by one of his horses (it just barely 

looks like the horse whacked him with its hoof), and Dracula kills the old man in the trap. Plus, sometimes, scenes end abruptly, when you're expecting them to go on for just a little longer. And it's not just the film editing that's clumsy. When Senta sees Marlowe and Karen walking outside her window, in both the original Spanish version and the English dub, their dialogue consists of some lines they said earlier. (Once again, I gave the movie too much credit, as I thought maybe this was an instance of non-linear 

editing, and that Senta saw them when they first started walking in the garden. But since the setting doesn't match the background in that first scene, I knew that wasn't it.) Speaking of the Spanish version, there are some major audio issues there, with a lot of crackling in spots. Early on, I thought it was meant to be the storm outside during the first night, but I soon realized that wasn't the case. And finally, I'm still not sure if Dracula talking so much without moving his

lips, which is also in both the Spanish and English versions, was intentional and meant to be some sort of telekinesis, or just another screw-up (since the dialogue doesn't match Paul Naschy's mouth the few times he does actually talk during the third act, I'm inclined to think it's the latter).

Despite there not being much in the way of atmosphere, I do like the isolated setting of the old, abandoned sanitarium in the Carpathian Mountains, with nothing but forests and mountains as far as the eye can see. There's a sparseness to the woods that make up Borgo Pass, with large spaces between trees, and the dirt paths and mounds, that I find kind of appealing, as it reminds me of some spots near where I live in Tennessee. As for the Klinik Dr. Kargos, it's a classic Goth-style old building and may as well be Castle Dracula, especially when you see its exterior.

There's a definite beauty about it, with the lush forest all around it, and the garden that Marlowe and Karen walk through, with its stone arches, statues, and the granite pool, and the building's interior is rather elegant, with the richly-decorated foyer, the girls' bedrooms, and the dining room, with its large table (in fact, there's nothing that suggests this place was once a sanitarium). There are also the expected trappings, like the candelabras that Marlowe and Karen carry around in a few scenes, the curved staircase leading up to the second floor landing, the

cobweb-covered, unused room that's filled with old furniture that the girls find, and the old library and study where they find Van Helsing's memoirs. But there is a more sinister touch to it as well, like the traps Marlowe has set up in the woods, the dark hallway on the second floor landing, and the entire basement area, which, as expected, is the most overtly creepy section. Specifically, there's an area behind a large, steel door to the left of the bottom of the stairs that leads to a large, torch-lit chamber, which houses

the vampires' in and around a spot with red drapes and curtains (the latter of which has a small podium where Dracula's coffin rests). As expected, this is also where Dracula performs the ceremonies to resurrect Radna, as well as where Senta is turned into a vampire by Marlene and Elke. And when she's not being used in the ceremonies, Karen finds herself locked in a barren cell, and there's a similar chamber where Dracula chains up Marlene and Elke so the rising sun's rays will come and destroy them.

While they're easy to forget, there are a few other locations outside of the sanitarium. One is Helga's home, which is a fairly large house, behind a large stone wall and gate, with a stone bridge leading towards them on the outside. Behind the wall and gate is a fairly large front yard (which may actually be the square of a small village we don't see the rest of), and there's a stable near the house's actual entrance, where the vampires attack and kill her father with farm implements. All we see of the house's interior is Helga's bedroom, but its size suggests that she and 

her family do have some means to their name. Elsewhere, Dracula sneaks into a woman's bedroom, and the look of it also suggests that she's fairly well off. And when Dracula decides not to resurrect Radna, he and the other vampires take her coffin to some place out in the country featuring stone structures such as pillars, as well as a fountain feeding a small river that's flowing alongside it.

If you like your vampire movies with a lot of blood and sensuality, Count Dracula's Great Love has you covered. In fact, less than six minutes in, you've already gotten your first look at Radna's skeleton, a close-up of Krakos' neck after Dracula ripped his jugular out, and two close-ups of his partner with an axe buried in his head, and shortly afterward, despite the wonky editing, the coachman receives a bloody head-wound from his horse's hoof. Many of the vampire neck bites feature a lot of running and dripping blood. Case in point, though it's in negative, 

you can make out the blood dripping from Dracula's fangs in Karen's dream, after which Imre is bitten by Krakos, and he, in turn, does the same to Marlene. Throughout the second and third acts, Senta gets a nasty wound from one of the traps in the woods, and we get to see it in close-up; Marlene bites Elke's neck; Imre is tossed out a window and impaled on the spires of a metal fence down below; Senta is fed upon by both Marlene and Elke; Krakos is stabbed through the heart; Karen gets a knife put all the way through her neck, allowing Dracula to feed on her blood (because

of her connection to him, she doesn't die or even feel pain); and Senta uses a scythe to slice open the neck of Helga's father. The ceremony meant to resurrect Radna features many grisly and wince-inducing moments, like Helga getting whipped from behind by both the women and Dracula, after which you see a close look at the bleeding scars on her back as the vampire brides feed on them; and Senta drawing blood from Karen's wrist and dripping it onto Radna's skeleton (when she's back in her cell, you get a

close-up of the red wounds on her wrists, which hurt just to look at), before doing the same to Helga's neck, dripping more of it onto the skeleton and into a cup, which Dracula drinks from. Then, in the last ten to fifteen minutes, Senta is staked through the heart and Dracula commits suicide by staking himself.

Not that you'd expect any, but there are no great special effects sequences, even when the vampires are destroyed or resurrected. For instance, when Radna goes from a skeleton to the body of a flesh and blood woman, the camera goes out of focus on a close-up of her blood-covered skull, and following an obvious cut, returns to focus to reveal her lying there. The scene where Marlene and Elke are destroyed by the rising sun has even less to it, as you just see a lot of steam coming from their bodies and an increasingly bright light, as the film cuts back and forth to an 

exterior shot of the sun. And after Dracula stakes himself, it, again, cuts back and forth from a shot of the rising sun to a close-up of an obvious dummy of Paul Naschy, which looks more and more decomposed until it's been reduced to nothing but a fanged skull.

Like many of the European movies made during this period, this is one flick that dives full on into the sensual side of the vampire with no apologies. Not only are there several scenes of passionate love-making, some of which include Dracula himself, and lots of bare breasts, such as in a skinny-dipping scene in the pool with Senta and Elke, and a shot of the former undressing before she and Marlowe hit the sheets, the scenes where the vampires bite and feed on their victims' blood are often portrayed in a sexual manner. In a macabre version of a moment that 

occurred between them the night before, Imre bites Marlene's neck and licks a trail of blood down between her breasts and across one of them. Later, as Marlene bites into her neck (after tossing her own hair back), Elke tilts her head and moans very passionately. The scene where the two of them do the same to Senta is very sensual, with lots of moaning, heavy breathing, and back-arching on Senta's part, as the vampires bite into her neck, as well as nip and claw around her breasts, often as they moan as well 

(stuff like that definitely puts you in mind of lesbian vampire movies being produced at the time). Dracula's random blonde victim, who happens to be sleeping naked, gives some more passionate noises of her own when he feeds on her, and after Helga has been whipped, the female vampires suggestively lick the bloody wounds on her back. And finally, Senta's attack on Karen, leading Dracula to stake her, is most definitely a sexual assault.

Going back to the movie's cons, I can easily overlook the technical aspects, as distracting as they can get. But what really sinks Count Dracula's Great Love for me are some of the most crucial aspects: the story, the writing, and the characters. For many years, the horror movies that were made in Europe, particularly in Italy, as well as Spain, weren't known for being strong in any of those departments, instead often concentrating on visuals and mood. However, even by those standards, this is pretty low-rent. I've already gone on in great length about how I don't buy the

"love" that supposedly develops between Dracula and Karen, how convoluted and contradictory Dracula's ultimate plan is, what Karen's role in it is meant to be, and how bland and forgettable the characters are in general. As I said before, when I was thinking back on the movie while doing this, I sometimes got Karen mixed up with Elke and, more to the point, when Karen ended up becoming Dracula's lover during the third act, it felt random and sudden, and I found myself thinking, "When did she become the lead?!"

She was so forgettable, in fact, that it didn't register after the first viewing that she was the one who took that moonlit walk with Dracula early on. And again, I only remembered Senta and Marlene because of the former's sensual nature and jealousy (as well as how, admittedly, hot Rosanna Yanni was), and the latter's love affair with Imre, whom I found to be so bland and was glad when he bought it early on.

The very slow pacing doesn't help, either. Much of the movie's first half consists of these boring characters doing little more than roaming around the sanitarium and its grounds, or standing around and talking, with some sensual love scenes, bloody and/or sexual vampire attacks, and feeble attempts at atmosphere sprinkled throughout. Then, just after the halfway mark, we get a couple of so-so fight scenes, with Marlowe first saving Karen from Imre and eventually tossing him out the window, and then, after she fruitlessly searches the building for her friends, 

she and Marlowe attempt to leave, only for him to have to save her from Krakos. Interspersed amid these scenes are more vampire moments that are especially bloody and sensual, like the one with Senta, but it gets bogged down with more flat scenes between Marlowe and Karen, the latter telling him that she loves him. Of course, right after that is when she learns he's Count Dracula, leading into the third act, which I find especially excruciating. I shouldn't, given how it features some nice-looking, classic shots of Naschy as Dracula, the abundance of blood, and 

the sequence where Dracula's brides abduct Helga and kill her father, while Dracula himself, after killing the old man caught in one of his traps, preys on a woman, all of which give me major Hammer vibes. But, by this point, I'm so not interested in what's going on, and completely confused by Dracula's plan, as well as frustrated when he suddenly decides not to resurrect his daughter, that I'm wishing the movie would just end. Also, just to slightly add to my irritation, this is another instance where I can't tell 

how much time is passing. Dracula says that each part of this elaborate ceremony will take place during "the next full moon," but it's unclear if he means the next night in the cycle, or the next time it's completely full, as in the following month. And man, do the last ten minutes drag, as you watch Dracula staking Senta for attacking Karen, Radna's coffin being tossed into the river, Karen attempting to ward Dracula off with a makeshift cross, only for the two of them to make love in one of the bedrooms, Marlene and Elke being 

left chained up so the sun will destroy them, and Dracula staking himself, after which the movie ends with Karen walking off into the wilderness, I guess back towards Bistritz. Instead of feeling like it's building to anything, this last stretch is more like a series of random events that are strung together, with no great resolution to any of it.

The music score was composed by Carmelo A. Bernaola, who, during that period, also scored Paul Naschy's movies Hunchback of the Morgue and Horror Rises from the Tomb. He had quite an eclectic career as a composer, scoring over a hundred films and television shows, so I'm guessing he was a pretty talented man. However, his music for Count Dracula's Great Love is very lackluster and forgettable, with the only piece I can even slightly remember offhand being the opening credits, and even then, I'm struggling to remember what it sounded like. The same goes for the rest of the score, which is rather sparse in its use, and even when it is played, it doesn't leave any significant impression.

As you've probably guessed, the English dub is pretty lousy. Granted, it does fix those scratchy audio issues found in the original Spanish version, but the voices, for the most part, come off as dull and indifferent, including the voice for Paul Naschy himself. For example, in those scenes in the third act where you hear Dracula's voice echoing as he speaks to Karen, the original Spanish version sounds infinitely more menacing, while the English just drones on and on. Imre's English dub job is even worse, making that character come off as duller than he was originally, if that's conceivable. The women fare a little better, but not by much, with Karen coming off as flat as anyone else, and Elke's frightened nature being horribly overplayed. I do enjoy the over-the-top voices given to the deliverymen at the beginning, especially Krakos, and the coachman, inexplicably, is given a voice that you'd expect to hear in a western, as do the old man in the trap and Helga's father! Of course, nowadays, all of the latest home media releases come with both versions, and it's also the international version, with all the boobs and blood, rather than the alternate one where the scenes containing nudity were done while the actors either kept their clothes on or were only partially nude.

If you're a diehard fan of Paul Naschy and love Count Dracula's Great Love, then you're welcome to it. But, while I'm unclear on its overall reputation among his fans, it's hard for me to believe that this would be considered among his best films. It does have good cinematography and location work, some well done and fairly unique instances of direction, lots of blood and tits, some unexpected moments, and some classic Gothic horror moments and images that I can commend it for. However, aside from Naschy's decent performance as Dracula, the characters are bland and forgettable, it's impossible to get invested in Dracula's supposed love affair with Karen because of how thinly-developed it is and how his actions contradict his words, his ultimate plan is hard to follow, there are some other instances of technical filmmaking and editing that are just plain bad, the music score is generic and forgettable, and the movie really tends to drag, especially in the third act, which was such a slog for me. Maybe when I go through his Hombre Lobo series, I'll find a Naschy movie that works for me, but I can easily say that this isn't it.