Franchises: Hammer's Dracula Series. Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

This was one of the first Hammer Dracula movies I ever owned, after Horror of Dracula and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. I got it in the summer of 2007, on a double-feature DVD with The Curse of Frankenstein, which was the main reason why I bought it, as I still only had the old VHS of Curse at that time. While I had seen sections of Dracula: Prince of Darkness and just a tiny bit of Scars of Dracula, I hadn't seen one frame of Taste the Blood of Dracula, and though, like all of these movies, I had read reviews of it on the internet and in books like John Stanley's Creature Features, the ploy synopsis didn't stick in my head whatsoever, so I went into it virtually blind. When I first watched it, what stick with me the most was what a complete, despicable asshole the character of William Hargood was, which was especially compounded by how Geoffrey Keen was an actor I'd been familiar with for a long time. In fact, his loathsomeness is so great that it's a large reason why this isn't one I revisit that often, as I often find myself wanting to reach through the screen and choke him. Putting that aside, though, another reason why I don't watch Taste the Blood very often is because it's the first Hammer Dracula that I can say isn't very good. It's well-made on a technical level and starts out promising enough, but about a third of a way into it, it begins to fall apart, as its turbulent development process shows through, with the third act and climax being something a hurried mess. Moreover, the young couple who become Dracula's main targets this time aren't as memorable as those in the previous film, and Christopher Lee has so little to do, as well as such a muddled motivation, that it's small wonder why he was quickly tiring of the role (little did he know that he would more than double the amount of times he'd ultimately play the Count, both for and outside of Hammer, within the next few years).

While traveling through Eastern Europe, Weller, a London-based salesman, ends up getting thrown out of his carriage and is left unconscious in the middle of some creepy woods. By the time he awakens, night has fallen, and after wandering the forest, he's frightened out of his wits by a series of horrific screams from nearby. They send him running in a panic and, as a result, he trips and falls down a slope, where he sees the source of the screaming: a caped man impaled through the back by a large cross. As Weller watches in horror, the man dies and his body disintegrates into a mass of blood that immediately dries and turns to red powder. Approaching the spot, Weller finds, in addition to the cape, several other items, particularly a blood-covered brooch that bears the name of Dracula, making him realize that he literally has the evil Count's blood at his feet and on his hands. Some time later, on a brisk morning after church, William Hargood returns home with his wife, Martha, and their teenage daughter, Alice, whom Hargood harshly and unreasonably admonishes for having flirted with young Paul Paxton in public. He orders her to stay in her room for the rest of the day, while that night, he leaves to take part in monthly "charity work" in London's east end. In reality, however, he joins Paul's father and another man, Secker, in order to indulge themselves in brothels, seeking the most exotic and intense of pleasures. While they're being entertained on this particular night, Lord Courtley, an arrogant and well-off young man who was disowned by his father for having performed a black mass in the family chapel, barges in on them and takes Hargood's woman for himself. Though initially outraged by this, Hargood, upon learning of Courtley's reputation, and having become bored of the usual thrills, meets him outside the brothel and invites him to have dinner with the three of them. At dinner, Courtley zeros in on the men's issue and offers them more intense and incredible pleasures than they could possibly imagine... if they're willing to literally sell their souls to the devil. Despite some initial hesitation, the men agree and Courtley takes them to Weller, pressing them to purchase Dracula's items, including the vial containing his dried blood. The next night, they meet Courtley at an old abandoned church, where he performs a ceremony that involves mixing his own blood with Dracula's, which turns the powder back into liquid. However, the men refuse to drink the blood, as Courtley orders them, and he drinks it himself, only to start screaming and writhing, apparently in pain. Panicked, the three men beat and kick him until he dies and they flee, not telling their families what happened. Count Dracula is then resurrected through Courtley and declares that the men will die for having killed his servant. He promptly begins his revenge, using the men's own children as the means to do so.

Taste the Blood of Dracula is the first entry in either of Hammer's major franchises that wasn't directed by Terence Fisher or Freddie Francis; instead, it marked the feature film debut of Hungarian-born director, Peter Sasdy. Since 1960, Sasdy had worked extensively in British television, directing episodes of well over twenty shows, and would direct a couple of more films for Hammer: Countess Dracula and Hands of the Ripper (his personal favorite). He did several more British genre films in the 70's, such as 1972's Doomwatch, 1973's Nothing but the Night (which gave him the chance to work with both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing), and 1975's I Don't Want to Be Born, which featured Ralph Bates, who plays Lord Courtley here. Also in 1972, he directed The Stone Tape, a television play by Nigel Kneale. However, his theatrical directing career never really panned out, with I Don't Want to Be Born apparently being so bad that it was heavily ridiculed upon release, while his 1983 film, The Lonely Lady, won six Razzies, including one for him as Worst Director. After that, Sasdy went back into television and stayed there until the early 90's, after which he retired.

Given what it took to get him to agree to be in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Hammer made the wise decision to not approach Christopher Lee about playing Count Dracula a fourth time, especially since he was starting to demand larger salaries and a percentage of the gross for him to even consider doing more movies; instead, they decided to go in a direction akin to The Brides of Dracula and create a new antagonistic vampire, namely Lord Courtley. But, Warner Bros., the intended American distributor, refused to release the film in the States without Lee's Dracula (which isn't hard to understand, considering how well Dracula Has Risen from the Grave did), and so Hammer, again, had to persuade Lee to return once more. This time, they had recently appointed producer Aida Young speak with Lee about it and whatever she said to him made him agree to return. And so, rather than Courtley dying and resurrecting as a vampire himself after drinking Dracula's blood, Dracula is instead reborn through him after the three "gentlemen" beat him to death and declares that, for this, they themselves will die. This motivation makes little sense, one, because he's never given that much of a crap about his disciples and servants before, always seeing each of them as an easily disposable means to an end (such a mindset also humanizes him far too much), and two, if it weren't for the men's interest in Courtley, he wouldn't have been resurrected in the first place. But, regardless, he decides to take revenge, only he doesn't kill them directly, but rather, corrupts their children in various ways and has them do it, making his plot even less impactful. Granted, it is satisfying to see Alice kill her abusive father, and also, Dracula didn't directly kill Monsignor Mueller, the man he vowed revenge on in the previous film, either, but that worked better for me because there was more logic and dramatic weight in his vengeance there, especially in his corruption of Mueller's beloved Maria. And finally, as in the previous film, Lee has little to do other than stand around in the shadows and stalk people, occasionally bite a person in the neck, order the children to kill their parents, and speaks maybe thirty words (read "words," not whole lines) in the entire film.

What's crazy is how Dracula is not only far from the most loathsome character in the film but also how, in a way, he's something of a heroic figure in some scenes! In the past films, some scholars and historians have seen Dracula as actually liberating those he either corrupts, like Mina Holmwood in the first film, or completely turns into vampires, like Lucy Holmwood there and Helen Kent in Dracula: Prince of Darkness, from the hypocrisy and sexual repression of the period they're stuck in. Here, that subtext is brought right to the forefront, as Dracula is seeking to destroy these upper-class gentlemen who pretend to do charitable work every month but instead, use it as a front to satiate their appetite for more sleazy indulgences they can't get at home. It's especially true when he first encounters Alice Hargood, who's being chased by her father, whose usual cruelty is now enhanced tenfold by his drunkenness, as he's threatening to whip her for seeing her boyfriend, and through his control, allows her to get back at Hargood for everything he's put her through. But, of course, this "heroic" side of Dracula only goes so far, as he kills the vampiric Lucy Paxton when she becomes an annoyance to him and casts Alice aside during the climax, showing no gratitude for her having disarmed Paul of the cross he was threatening him with.

I wouldn't call Dracula's ultimate death in this film the dumbest in the series but I would say it's the most confusing, as I really don't know what killed him. After he acts dismissively towards Alice, he finds himself trapped when he's faced with a large cross Paul put in the door of the abandoned church and when Alice, in retaliation, throws the other cross right at his feet. He then climbs to the top of the church, goes nuts, throwing things everywhere, and then tries to escape by smashing through a stained glass window... and then, he hears the sound of someone praying, and when he turns around, the place is no longer rundown and old like it was before and is filled with lit candles, fresh cloths and goblets, and the like. Whatever's going on, it weakens him, he falls onto an altar below, and disintegrates back into dried, powdery blood again. Yeah, I don't get it either. It's not as stupidly convenient as his death in the next film, Scars of Dracula, or as lazy and contrived as those in Dracula A.D. 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula, but it's perplexing, to say the least, and really feels like they simply could not come up with an idea of how to kill him this time around.

Alice Hargood (Linda Hayden) is a character you can't help but sympathize with, given what an overbearing, mean asshole her father is. They come home from church at the beginning of the movie and, simply because she flirted with Paul Paxton in public, he demands she apologize for her "behavior," accuses her of acting like a harlot, and banishes her to her room for the rest of the day. Seeing how totally beaten down and submissive her mother is, Alice is determined not to let her father do the same to her. But, that said, she's reluctant to run away with Paul, even when he acquires the money necessary to go into business for himself, as she's afraid of what will become of her mother if she does. And when her father begins drinking constantly after what happened with Lord Courtley, his cruelty only increases, culminating in a moment where, after she returns from a party he forbade her to go to because it was with Paul, he intends to beat her with his cane. Alice manages to get away from him, only to run into Dracula, who uses his hypnosis on her, but is stopped from actually biting her when Hargood comes chasing after her. He does, however, use her to begin his revenge on those who killed his servant, driving Alice to kill her father by putting a shovel into his head. After that, Alice stays by Dracula's side and brings Paul's sister, Lucy, to him and he turns her into a vampire, something that Alice appears to want too, given how disappointed she looks as she watches it happen. Alice also helps Lucy kill her father, and tries to get Dracula to make her a vampire, but he's interrupted again, this time by the approaching dawn. At the end of the movie, when Paul comes to rescue Alice from Dracula's influence, she defends her master when he's face with a cross, taking it from Paul and allowing Dracula to knock him across the room. But then, when she asks for his approval and for him to take her with him, he pushes her aside, saying she's served her purpose, and it's only then when she turns on him, throwing Paul's cross at his feet and forcing him to try to escape through the abandoned church's stained glass windows. That resolution seriously hurts the sympathy that you've likely had for Alice up to that point, as it didn't feel like she was released from Dracula's influence but rather that, after he rebuffed her, she simply settled for Paul, whom she nearly got killed a second ago.

Paul Paxton (Anthony Corlan) is not as memorable a romantic lead as the character of Paul in the previous film, as he doesn't have the interesting dilemma of having to face a demonic creature when he's an atheist. He's mainly just a nice guy who very much cares about and loves Alice, is appalled at the way her father treats her, and wants to take her away now that he has the money to become a businessman and support the both of them, but finds his plan stymied by Alice's reluctance to leave her mother behind. He has a good point when he tells Alice that her mother made her choice by marrying Hargood but she still doesn't want to leave. Despite this, and his bearing the brunt of Hargood's contempt towards him and his relationship with Alice, Paul never stops loving Alice and gets her to accompany him to a party, despite her father having forbade her from going. But then, the next day, Hargood's body is found, Alice is gone missing, and Paul finds himself frustrated at Inspector Cobb's disinterest in searching for her, as he feels that Alice has simply run away, which Paul doesn't believe. He begins spending a lot of time at the Hargood house, looking after Alice's distraught mother, and you also learn that he's gone after the police over searching for Alice so much that he's been told to stop bothering them. It's not until right before the climax, when Paul receives a letter written to him by Secker before his death, that he learns what's become of Alice and what he must do to save her. Armed with the necessary equipment and knowledge, he rides to the old church to face Dracula, finding the completely drained body of his sister, Lucy, in the shallows of a lake along the way. When he arrives at the church, he's faced with both Dracula and Alice, and manages to ward off the former with a cross, trying to persuade Alice that she doesn't have to continue obeying him, but to no avail. Again, it's only when Dracula rebuffs Alice after she helps him against Paul that she turns on the Count and Paul, rather than doing the sensible thing and completely abandon Alice for that, tries to get her to flee while he stays to deal with Dracula. She refuses, but it ultimately doesn't matter, as Dracula's inexplicable defeat immediately follows.

Since her father is not an overbearing tyrant, Lucy Paxton (Isla Blair) is a bit more of a free spirit, albeit not in a sultry manner like Zena the barmaid in the previous film, as she's the girlfriend of Jeremy Secker, the elder Secker's son, and they become engaged to be married. But, before they can make it official, Lucy is lured away by Alice to a black carriage following William Hargood's funeral. Though initially trying to question her about where she's been since her father's murder, Lucy is more intrigued at the idea that Alice may have a secret lover. Lucy soon meets this "lover" when the carriage takes them to the abandoned and she's introduced to Dracula. Though initially frightened of him, Alice stops her when she attempts to flee, allowing Dracula to bite her and turn her into a vampire. She's later found by Secker and her own father as she rests in her coffin in the church, but Paxton, after becoming distraught and forcing Secker to flee by shooting at him, waits too long in working up the gumption to stake her himself. Lucy then rises and, while Alice holds him down, she stakes her own father. She then bites and corrupts Jeremy, having him kill his father with a knife to the midsection, but on the way back from this, she begs for Dracula's approval. He seems to grant it by biting her again, giving her the sensation she loves, but he then completely drains her and kills her, dumping her body in a lake, which is where Paul finds her while on his way to confront the Count.

Geoffrey Keen is an actor who I've known of for quite a while, as he had a recurring as Sir Frederick Gray, the British Minister of Defense, in every James Bond movie from The Spy Who Loved Me to The Living Daylights, so I was quite surprised and interested when I found out he was in a Hammer film. But, as I've already made clear, his character of William Hargood is so deplorable that he makes Count Dracula, the Lord of the Undead, look like a saint! He seems nice enough in the opening, when the families are leaving church and he's seen casually calling for Alice and talking with the vicar, but when they get home, Hargood reveals himself to be a cruel, verbally abusive tyrant of a man who rules his family with an iron fist. He harshly admonishes Alice for "smiling and flirting" with Paul Paxton outside the church, telling her, "You're a young woman, a sexually mature young woman, and I will not have you displaying yourself in that provocative manner!" Alice then notes that he's angry simply because it was Paul, whom she says he's never liked, and that Paul can't help that, to which Hargood snarls, "But you can help behaving like a harlot!... A harlot in God's house!" With that, he banishes Alice to her room for the rest of the day, ordering his wife, Martha, to have both Alice's lunch and supper sent up to her on a tray, and when Martha tries to reason with him, he glares at her in a manner that immediately shuts her down. He then tells her that he himself will not be in for supper, rolling his eyes in contempt when Martha says she asked the cook to make a ham the way he likes it and sneering, "I am never in to supper the last Sunday in the month! Surely you know that by now." He's referring to his "charity work" in London's east end when, in actuality, he, Paxton, and Secker go out to brothels every month, proving that he's a hypocrite as well as a tyrant. And while his comrades still enjoy themselves, Hargood is becoming bored with the same old routine, no matter how how hot and provocative the hookers are (I think this is the reason why he tries to crush the zeal for life out of Alice). Though initially outraged when Lord Courtley pushes his way into their room and takes the woman that he himself had, he becomes intrigued of the young man and the possibilities he could offer them, given his "worldly" experiences and reputation among the women. The three of them take him to dinner, and when Courtley offers them eternal pleasures if they sell their souls to the devil (I know what you're thinking: did Clive Barker see this?), Hargood is the one who's the most intrigued.

When Courtley takes them to Weller and presses them to buy Dracula's cape, ring, and the vial of his powdered blood, Hargood, despite being taken aback at it initially, is still game, and threatens to eject Paxton from their little circle when he hesitates. But, when the three of them head to the abandoned church to perform the ceremony, his resolve dissipates when Courtley mixes his blood with the powder, turning it back into liquid, and tells them to drink it. Unable to go through with it, he angrily demands Courtley drink it himself, and when he does and becomes violently ill from it, acting as if he were poisoned, they beat and kick him to death, and then flee the scene. Hargood returns to his house, pours himself a drink, and tells both Martha and Alice to say that he was there all night if anyone asks, before breaking down crying in his study, refusing to tell them what happened. Being naive, I thought that this might prompt him to repent, for lack of a better word, and become closer to his family, but instead, the traumatized Hargood continues to drink and becomes even more cruel and dominating towards Alice. When Alice is dressed up to go to a party with Paul, her father immediately forbids her from doing so and banishes her back to her room. Then, when he's leaving to go meet with the others, he runs into Paul and lays his contempt for him right out in the open, telling him that Alice isn't going with him and that he may not inquire as to why. Fed up with it, Paul flat-out asks him, "Why do you hate me?! What is it I've done to offend you?!", to which Hargood growls, "You don't have to do anything to offend me, young man." (I decided right then that I would have yanked him out of that carriage and kicked his ass up and down the driveway for that, regardless if I would have been arrested.) And what is he going to meet with the other men for, you may ask? To hear from Secker that they've apparently gotten away with murdering Courtley, as he's made inquiries and learned that virtually nobody goes up to that church.

But, just in case Hargood wasn't enough of a despicable person, he takes his cruelty to appalling new levels, and reveals just how truly depraved he actually is, when he comes home completely drunk and finds that Alice went to the party anyway. Determined to punish her, he tells her he intends to whip her with his cane and, in a creepy fashion where he corners her against the foot of her bed, strokes her arm, and slurs, "I haven't beaten you since you werea little girl, have I, Alice?" When she tries to run away, he actually smacks her across the face, pulls her around, and even after he collapses to the floor from drunkenness when she manages to evade him, he chases after her again when he comes to. Finding her outside, he orders her to come to him, at one point screaming, "Damn you, come here!", when she doesn't, and then walks up to her, insisting that she's going to be whipped. That's when she, now under Dracula's control, puts a shovel in Hargood's face under the Count's direction, to which I'm like, "Yeah, fuck you!"

Martha Hargood (Gwen Watford) does what she can for Alice but is so beaten down by her husband, recoiling whenever he glares at her and not standing up to him when he's unreasonably cruel, that she's not able to offer her daughter more than pity, at one point tearfully telling her, "I'm so sorry for you." Alice is able to see that her father's domineering, controlling personality crushed the youth and zest for life right out of her mother and she tells Martha early on that she's not going to let him do it to her. Soon, Martha not only has to deal with Hargood's excessive drinking following the ordeal with Lord Courtley but, during the second act, finds that her husband has been murdered and Alice is missing, leaving her almost totally shattered. Paul Paxton cares for and keeps her company during this section of the film, but offers little comfort, and the last time you see Martha, she's wondering what she and her family did to deserve such misery, to which I think, "If only you knew."

Though hardly saints themselves, seeing as how they're also cheating on their wives and deceiving their families and friends, the other two men who take part in Courtley's satanic ceremony, Paxton (Peter Sallis) and Secker (John Carson), are not as despicable as Hargood. In fact, of the three of them, Paxton seems to be both the meekest and the most reasonable, as he's the one who's hesitant to take part in Courtley's black mass, only does it when Hargood threatens to expel him from the group (Hargood seems to have a real disdain for Paxton in particular, which would explain why he feels the same way about Paul), and is the most frightened and repelled during the actual ceremony. After their beating of Courtley, Paxton is particularly troubled by it, as both Paul and Lucy mention how distant he's become since that night, that he refuses to see a doctor, and at one point, he's shown tossing and turning in bed; Secker, on the other hand, is shown merely pouring over books. He also reports to Paxton and Hargood that, as far as he can tell, few people go up to the abandoned church, meaning it's very likely that Courtley's body will never be found. Though it seems they've gotten away with it, Secker becomes concerned that Hargood's drinking may loosen his tongue and he tells Paxton to keep an eye on him. After Hargood's death and the disappearance of Alice, as well as Lucy, Paxton becomes concerned that Courtley is has returned and is exacting revenge on them for what they did. Though Secker doesn't really believe it, he decides to go up to the church with him to see that the body is still there, and when they do, they find it's gone. Believing that somebody may have possibly hidden it, they check the coffins and find Lucy, now a vampire, sleeping in one of them. Realizing what's happened to her, Secker tells Paxton what must be done, but when Paxton is unable to do it himself, Secker attempts to stake her. But, just as he's about to, Paxton becomes absolutely distraught and pulls a gun on Secker, shooting him in the arm and chasing him out of the church, after which he passes out in the nearby graveyard. Meanwhile, Paxton finally works up the gumption to do what he must, but he waits too long, as Lucy rises and both she and Alice kill him on Dracula's orders. Secker later regains consciousness and wanders back into the church, only to find that Lucy's coffin is now empty and that Paxton is nowhere to be found. He makes his way back to his home and, in his study, writes a letter that he intends for Paul. He passes out again after writing it, and when he awakens, he tells his son, Jeremy, to take the note to Paul, only to see that Jeremy has been bitten by Lucy. Jeremy then stabs his father in the gut with a knife, completing Dracula's revenge. Paul does get the note, though, and in it, he learns what's happened, how to battle vampires, and is urged by Secker to save Alice from Dracula before it's too late.

While not a significant character by any means, save for the moment where he kills his father, Jeremy Secker (Martin Jarvis) does serve as an example of the hurried and jumbled production of the film, as after that scene, he's never seen or heard from again, with Inspector Cobb simply saying they've locked him up, having written him off as having hated his father. This lack of any resolution, coupled with the fact that he was originally meant to have become a vampire himself after Lucy bit him (which is something you would expect to happen), which was filmed but then discarded so as not to complicate the plot with another vampire, shows just how quickly they had to rewrite the screenplay once it was changed from its original conception.

This was the first of five Hammer movies to feature actor Ralph Bates, a guy who, despite obvious talent and energy, never really caught on and seemed to have bad luck with the films he appeared in, either getting forced out of a lead, as happened here; starring in a movie considered to be a regrettable misfire, as he did in The Horror of Frankenstein (coming next); or appearing in movies that simply didn't do that well financially. In retrospect, despite how awesome Christopher Lee's Dracula may be (or, at least, used to be), it's a shame that Bates' character of Lord Courtley was cast aside in the manner he was, as he plays him with an air of utter confidence and smoothness, seen in how he just strolls into the brothel, completely ignoring the manager's trying to stop him, and looks through the various rooms until he bursts into the one where Hargood, Paxton, and Secker are. When Hargood tells him, "You can't come in here," Courtley comments, "But I have," and with a snap of his fingers, the woman who was entertaining Hargood immediately comes to him. You learn from the manager, Felix, that Courtley was disowned by his father for practicing a black mass in the family chapel and yet, the prostitutes are so taken by him that they pay him for his company, allowing him to live without working. When Hargood confronts him outside the brothel later, Courtley, initially not recognizing him, then confidently says, "Of course, I took your woman from you. If it's to be swords or pistols, I have neither," and when he's instead invited to have dinner with them, he suggests the upper class Cafe Royal, saying it's the only place worth going.

After figuring out what it is the men are after, Courtley's suave, confident manner gives way to a serious intensity when he asks them if they're willing to sell their souls to the devil for eternal pleasures and when he tells them to buy the items pertaining to Count Dracula, including his dried blood, solely on his word alone. When they finally do, he assures them they will be repaid a thousand times over, but when the time comes for the ceremony, wherein he puts on Dracula's cape, says an incantation, and mixes his own blood with the powder, he finds them unwilling to go through with it and drink the newly created blood. He angrily shouts at them, "Don't insult the master! Drink, damn you!", leading Hargood to shout back at him to drink it himself. Courtley does just that, and when he does, he starts screaming, apparently in pain, and pleads with the men to help him. Instead, they beat him until he's lifeless and leave his body there to rot. Afterward, it turns to ash and dust and splits open to reveal the newly reborn Count Dracula.

You'd expect Weller (Roy Kinnear), the salesman who takes Dracula's blood and items at the beginning of the movie, to be a major character, but he only has one scene after the opening. Upon getting thrown out of the carriage he was riding across Eastern Europe in, he comes across Dracula as he dies after being impaled on the large cross that skewered him at the end of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (though, there's no sign of Paul, Maria Mueller, or the priest, all of whom were present there at the end of that film) and watches as the mass of blood he disintegrates into turns to powder. He returns to his shop in London with the blood, as well as Dracula's cape, ring, and brooch, which is where Lord Courtley takes the three men in order to buy them for the ceremony. Weller, initially reluctant to sell them, asks for a price of 1,000 guineas, and when they agree to it, he, having an idea of what Courtley plans to do with them, comments, "And may the devil take good care of you."

One character who's noteworthy simply because of his utter flamboyance is Felix (Russell Hunter), the manager of the brothel, who's always happy to cater to the likes of Hargood, Paxton, and Secker. He's so stereotypical in his gayness, with the way he dresses, talks, and gestures with his hands, that it's almost insulting, and there's one moment where tells Hargood of how he had to get some of the women sent to him cleaned up as he quickly as he could, mentioning how they went into a hot bath and screamed about not wanting to be seen naked, to which he said, "There's no point in being shy in a place like this." He tries so hard to stop Lord Courtley from barging in on the men but to no avail, and after he takes Hargood's woman, Felix tells them of Courtley's history, saying that he believes he may be possessed of the devil himself. And finally, Michael Ripper appears briefly during the latter half of the film as Inspector Cobb, an utterly flippant and dismissive cop who doesn't take Alice's disappearance following her father's death seriously, believing it's just a case of her having run away and telling Paul, who pleads with him to send out a missing person notice, "My dear sir, if we was to do that with every young girl that runs away from home, we wouldn't have time for anything else." Cobb appears again after Secker has been found murdered and is also confronted by Paul again, but doesn't take anything he says seriously, dismissing the contents of Secker's letter to him as the ramblings of a lunatic and believes Jeremy killed his father because he hated him. He gives Paul the letter, and on his way out, tells him, "I shan't need to see you anymore."

Though they'd never been shy about pushing the envelope in terms of violence and sexual content, Taste the Blood of Dracula was made at the beginning of the period where Hammer, in a desperate bid to stay relevant as tastes and audience expectations were changing, really started letting it all hang out as far as the latter was concerned. The nudity and sexuality in this film, which mostly stem from the scene early on at the brothel, are not as explicit as it is in later movies like Scars of Dracula, wherein you see a woman's completely nude backside, or Hammer's "Karnstein Trilogy," consisting of The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, and Twins of Evil, which featured lesbian vampires, but they're much more daring than what had been seen in past Dracula films. A woman is shown doing a provocative dance with a python, similar to the one Maria performed in The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, and there are plenty of shots of it draped around her cleavage, slithering down to where it's dangling around her legs, and moments where she kisses its head, while the three "gentlemen" watch with prostitutes sitting on their laps. When Lord Courtley barges into the brothel, he walks into several private rooms where men are being entertained by the prostitutes and you see two women who are topless. Moreover, some of the things going on behind those curtains are very eyebrow-raising, with one guy sitting on a rocking horse while being seen to by his prostitute, and when Courtley walks in on the three men, if you pay attention, you can see that Hargood is down on all fours while his woman is sitting on him like she's ridinga horse (an early indication that he's fucked up as well as just mean)! Between that, the themes of abuse and cruelty, the implied incestuous interest Hargood may have for Alice, given the way he looks at and touches her while intending to whip her, and the ever-present sexual experience the women seem to have from their intimate encounters with Dracula, and you have a movie that was quite bold for the time. In fact, American theatrical audiences didn't see much of this stuff, as it was heavily edited to get a GP-rating, the prototype of the PG-rating, but the version you can now get on DVD and Blu-Ray is the uncut one, which had to be re-rated as R (yeah, the movies went from a G, in the case of the previous movie, to an R here).

For his first feature film as director, Peter Sasdy handles himself quite well, as the movie certainly looks good, having that nice late 60's, early 70's sort of gloss about it, and is skillfully shot, with the exterior scenes that were actually shot at night often having a detectable, misty glow about them that looks very lovely, while the interiors have a definite feeling of blackness when the need arises. There are some notable standout moments regarding Arthur Grant's cinematography, such as a well-organized shot where, after Alice has been banished to her room by her father, you see the reflection of her mother entering the room through a mirror behind Alice, possibly acting as a subtle warning of what she'll become if she's unable to escape her lousy home-life. Though the actual effect of it isn't that great, the staging of Dracula's resurrection is very well executed. There's an overhead shot of Lord Courtley's body lying on the floor that pushes in towards it in a rhythmc manner that mimics the sound of a heartbeat you begin hearing. And when Dracula is first seen following a dicey special effect that reveals him, he opens his eyes to reveal that they're completely red, the camera pushes in towards one of them until the screen itself is totally completely, and then, through a dissolve, it goes from that to a closeup of the red inside of his cape, with the camera pulling back to reveal him in all his glory. In fact, Dracula is often shot very well in this movie, particularly when he's standing in the dark, looking almost like a silhouette, and when you see closeups of his face following the death of each of the men, with his eyes being the only part that's lit. But, all those compliments aside, and even though it should be expected by now, the day-for-night photography here is so blatant in some spots that it feels like they're not even trying. Morover, when Secker is forced to flee the church when Paxton shoots at him, he collapses to the ground outside while it's still daytime, and then Lucy rises from her coffin, she and Alice kill Paxton, and Secker is shown regaining consciousness, after which he enters the church, finds that Lucy is no longer in her coffin, and rushes back to his house... all while it's still obviously daytime! Plus, they don't use the day-for-night filters, and you can even hear birds chirping! Day-for-night photography isn't great but is expected from low budget movies, but this comes off as just laziness and I find it to be.

Though he was still alive when it was shot, Bernard Robinson did not work on Taste the Blood of Dracula and, in fact, he died just a month after its release in the UK, likely making it the last Hammer horror film to be released during his lifetime. Scott MacGregor, a former theater designer who was no stranger to Hammer, was selected to be Robinson's replacement at the studio (though he himself would die in 1971, making his tenure rather short), and like him, he was able to bring a sense of high production values and class to a fairly low budget film with the sets he built at Elstree Studios. Good examples include the interiors of the Hargood home, particularly Hargood's study, which has both a fireplace and a piano, and Alice's bedroom; the backyard of said house, which has a nice, lovely garden with a fountain and a small tree that allows Alice to climb down from her bedroom window; the study at Secker's home (the only room in his home you ever see), which has bookshelves on either side of the fireplace that are filled to the brim with old books, and a desk next to French windows leading into his backyard; and the high-class interiors of the Cafe Royal. But, MacGregor also proves he was adept at creating sets of a more seedy and rundown atmosphere, like the section of London street that's full of kids clamoring for money from anyone wealthy who shows up, and is outside what appears to be a soup kitchen, but turns out to merely be a front for the brothel in the back. As you might expect, said brothel is as sleazy and tacky-looking a place as you could hope to see. It has a main room with a chandelier containing ugly pink lights and curtains that are a tacky yellow, a hallway with more pink lights lining the walls and red drapery lining the small rooms where the men go to have their time with their women, and a Far East-themed room where Hargood, Secker, and Paxton go to be entertained, one with incense burning and exotic-looking drapery and furniture decorating it. Weller's shop in London is a small, claustrophobic building, with shelves full of all sorts of strange items up for sale, decorations such as a stuffed condor on the wall, and an office for him separate from the main shop that's separated by a curtain. And finally, you have the old, abandoned church that figures heavily in the story, with creepy, fog-filled exteriors and a large interior made out of stone, with cobweb-covered chandeliers, old stained glass windows lining the upper area, big stone coffins around the entrance, and an altar that Lord Courtley covers with drapery pertaining to a black mass. At the end of the movie, when Dracula begins having his bizarre hallucinations, you get to see a vision of the the church restored to its former glory.

The film also made extensive use of location work, such as lovely Aldenham Country Park, Tykes Water Lake, and Scratchwood, all in Hertfordshire, for many of the outdoor scenes involving horse-riding, as well as scenes that take place in the woods period. You also see St. Andrew's Church in Totteridge for the scene after the prologue where the main characters are introduced as they depart after the Sunday services, and for the old cemetery outside the abandoned church, I believe they used an actual one: Highgate.

As you'd expect from a movie called Taste the Blood of Dracula, there's quite a bit of gore to be found here, though the actual violence isn't that bloody (regardless, the men's beating of Lord Courtley is rather hard to watch in how brutal it is). You see the mass of blood that Dracula's body disintegrates into following his impalement at the end of the previous movie, and there's a lot of blood to be seen during Courtley's ceremony, as he cuts the palm of his hand open and mixes it with Dracula's powdered blood in the gentlemen's goblets, causing it to turn back into liquid and fill the cups up until they run over. You also see Courtley drink some of the blood from his own chalice and a bit of it gets smeared around his mouth. That, and Paxton's staking at the hands of Lucy and Alice, which has shots of his shocked, blood-splattered face as he dies (there was originally more to that death but the BBFC made them cut it back) are really the bloodiest moments seen in the film, as William Hargood's death at the hands of his daughter isn't that graphic, despite his getting a shovel in the side of his face, and the same goes for when Secker gets shot in the arm by Paxton and is ultimately stabbed in the gut by his son. While it's not an actual gore effect, like I said earlier, when Dracula is first resurrected and opens his eyes, you see that they're totally red, as if they're filled with blood, and it's a pretty skin-crawling image, as is the long-dead corpse he removes from a coffin in order to use it for himself.

The film also has some slightly ambitious physical and visual effects work, but not all of it is successful. The most notable one is Dracula's resurrection through Courtley, wherein, as Courtley's body lies on the church floor, you see what looks like dust or ash blown in and cover him (his body is a very obvious dummy in that shot), and once he's covered completely, he splits open to reveal Dracula. Sadly, that latter visual is not as cool as it sounds, as the splitting and parting of the section of dirt that was meant to be Courtley's head looks really awkward, like it was done through crappy stop-motion animation (that said, the great transition to the first major shot of Dracula himself that I mentioned earlier really makes up for it). By contrast, Dracula's disintegration at the end of the movie is more of a simple lap dissolve, as you see his body decompose into a skeleton before everything disintegrates completely, again leaving only his powdered blood behind. However, the matte painting of the exterior of the abandoned church looks really good, even better than the one for Castle Dracula in the previous film.

The film's opening is... interesting. It starts with Weller, the salesman, traveling through Eastern Europe in a carriage that he's sharing with two other men. He makes small-talk with them, talking about how less than ideal their traveling conditions are, mentioning his trade and how he's based in London, and shows off a tiny snowglobe, which he says he got on his last stop in Karlsberg. The item gets the attention of the younger of the two men he's riding with and, mentioning that it cost him six crowns, offers it to him for three and then two, saying he can't go any lower. Getting no response, he puts the globe away and the one man, who's obviously mentally challenged, reaches his hand out and exclaims, "Give! G-give! Give me!" The older men suggests that Weller best do what he says and Weller shrugs his shoulders and asks, "One crown, then?" The man then comes at Weller, grabs him, and tosses him out the back of the carriage, throwing his satchel and bag of items out with him. Weller is knocked unconscious when he hits the ground and, by the time he awakens, night has fallen. Getting to his feet and gathering his things, he wanders through the woods, not knowing what he's going to do, and when he leans up against a tree trunk, he's taken aback when he hears an ungodly yell, followed by pained moaning that echoes through the night. Terrified, he takes off running through the woods, at one point running into a tree, as the moans and yells continue. He reaches a small drop-off and trips and falls down the side of a rocky slope, landing on a ledge. When he looks up, he sees a caped man who has been impaled on a large cross, struggling to free himself, but unable to do so before his strength gives out and he dies right then and there. Weller is further horrified when the man's body disintegrates into a mass of blood that oozes down the side of a large stone in the ground, and then gradually dries until it's nothing more than red powder. Approaching the spot, Weller picks up the man's brooch and wipes away the blood to reveal the name: Dracula. He then gasps, "Dracula's blood!", as the title comes up, leading to the opening credits.

As they roll, the film transitions to an English church that's just letting out after Sunday services. The Hargoods are introduced, along with Secker and his son, Jeremy, and the Paxtons, as they all leave church together. On the edge of the churchyard, Lucy Paxton has a brief meetup with Jeremy, while Paul meets up with Alice, asking when he'll see her again. With her father calling for her, Alice is unable to give him a definite answer at the time and quickly rushes to join her parents as they board their carriage and are driven back to their home. When they arrive, the veneer of a typical, happy family is dropped, as that's when Hargood shows his true colors by demanding that Alice apologize to her mother and him for her "behavior," much to her confusion. He then lays into her about smiling and flirting with Paul, saying he will not have her acting in such a "provocative manner," and proceeds to say she was acting like a harlot in God's house. Aghast at this, Alice says, "Oh, my God!" and rushes up to her room, as her father yells, "Blasphemy will only make it worse!" Hargood then heads into his study, and his wife, Martha, tries to reason with him, saying, "It's only natural that a young girl, William..." but he glares at her in a way that immediately makes her stop. He sits down to read the newspaper, telling Martha to have Alice's lunch and dinner sent up to her room on a tray, and reminds her that he's never in for dinner the last Sunday of the month because of his charity work in London's east end. Martha then goes upstairs to try to console her daughter, asking her not to judge her father too harshly, and says she knows how she feels, saying, "I was young like you once, you know? Young and excited by the prospect of my life before me." Alice then adds, "Until you met him... He crushed you, didn't he? He crushed the life right out of you... Well, he's not going to do it to me." Martha, not exactly denying what she said, continues trying to comfort her, as Alice asks her why her father hates Paul so much, asking if it could be because of his own father. Martha answers, "I don't see how it can be. They scarcely know one another."

The next shot shows Hargood's carriage picking up Paxton from his home. Paxton mentions that he's a bit late and Hargood grumbles, "I am exactly on time, Paxton." Paxton checks his watch and, given his expressions, doesn't see it that way. They next pick up Secker at his home and, when he climbs into the carriage, he looks at his watch and comments, "Exactly on time as usual, gentlemen." Paxton comments that he thought they were a little late, while Hargood looks at him with a contemptuous expression. They then arrive in a seedy part of London and their carriage is swarmed with children demanding money. While Hargood and Paxton simply disembark and push their way through the kids, Secker smiles, takes out some coins, and tosses them up into the air, prompting the kids to scatter after them. The men then enter the building, which appears to be a soup kitchen for the poor, but they head into the back, to a section of the building separated by a curtain, and knock on a door. They're then led down a corridor and through another door that opens up into a very tacky, sleazy-looking brothel, where they're greeted by a number of eager young women. Felix, the man who runs the brothel, is especially happy to see them, saying he has their "usual room" ready, when Hargood remarks, "I hope the entertainment isn't too usual, Felix... We're getting a bit bored with it." Felix assures him that what he has planned for them that night won't leave them feeling bored, and as he leads them down to their room, he tells Hargood to simply leave everything to him. Entering the room, the men take off their coats and Felix takes Hargood's personally, only for Hargood to remove his wallet from the pocket before Felix walks off with it. Felix then pours some champagne for the men and goes to get everything ready. After Hargood and Paxton add some flavor to their individual glasses, the three of them toast and drink. Felix comes back in through a beaded curtain and happily says, "Ready when you are, gentlemen."

The men are then entertained by a woman doing a provocative dance with a python draped around her shoulders, all to the sound of an exotic drum, while each one of them has a girl sitting in his lap. The dancer allows Secker to remove stockings from her legs, gives Hargood the opportunity to remove the veils from around her neck, though he merely brushes them away from him, and finally, she gets Paxton to remove a good number of them. She then gets down on her knees and dances even more suggestively, putting the python's head to her mouth, and then drapes him back around her right shoulder, keeping his head right above her cleavage. Throughout this whole display, Secker and Paxton are really enjoying themselves, whereas Hargood is obviously bored with it all. Meanwhile, outside, Felix has an uninvited guest drop by, as Lord Courtley barges in, makes his way into the heart of the place, ignoring Felix as he tries to get rid of him, and starts pulling back the curtains of the private rooms where men are enjoying their women. He interrupts one man who's wearing nothing but a towel while washing his face, as his woman lies splayed out on a cot, does the same to a shirtless man who's kissing all over a topless woman, and, after removing his gloves and giving them to Felix, walks in on something weird going on with a man sitting on a rocking horse while a dark-skinned woman rocks him back and forth (I wish I could show you that image, but the woman's being topless makes it ill-advised). Felix steps in front of him as he heads towards the door to the room where the gentlemen are, telling him he's not going in there, but Courtley literally lifts him up, puts him aside, and walks through the door. The music and everything stops dead when he does, as he scans the room and sneers at what he sees. Hargood admonishes him for walking in on them but Courtley, ignoring him, snaps his fingers and the woman who was seeing to Hargood runs to him. Felix demands to know who's going to pay for this but Courtley ignores him again and leaves the room with the girl. Angered, Hargood orders Felix to get rid of all the women and once they've left the room, he tells the men of Courtley and his sordid backstory, as well as how the women actually pay him for his company. Felix adds that, were he a religious man, he'd say that Courtley was, "Possessed of the devil," which fascinates Hargood.

On his way out, Courtley is stopped by Hargood, whom he initially doesn't recognize but, when he does, he thinks he's come to fight him for having taken his girl. Instead, Hargood tells him that he and his friends want to take him to dinner to talk with him about something. Courtley accepts the offer, telling the driver of their coach to head to the Cafe Royal, commenting, "It's the only place." A cutaway back to the Hargood home shows Martha going up to see Alice as she prepares for bed. Breaking down crying after she sees that Alice barely touched her dinner, she tearfully tells her, "I'm so sorry for you." Alice tells her mother not to worry and gets into bed. Martha tucks her in and, after she leaves with her tray, Alice tries to get some sleep. Meanwhile, at the Cafe Royal, Courtley tells Hargood that he's figured out their dilemma: "You and your two friends here have formed a little society with the objectives of enjoying the more unusual aspects of... this life... at the same time, keeping up a facade of respectability in front of your families and local community... And having tried everything that your narrow imaginations can suggest, you're bored to death with it all, right? And now, you want someone with infinitely greater experience than yourselves to suggest... alternatives." When Hargood confirms that he's exactly right, Courtley asks them how far they're willing to go, asking if they're literally willing to sell their souls to the devil, and tells them that if they did, their experience and pleasures would be extended for all eternity. He goes on to tell them they'll need money to buy something necessary for the ceremony they're to perform, adding that he'll show it to them personally. Back at the Hargood home, Alice gets a nice surprise when Paul drops in outside her bedroom window. She climbs down to him and he tells her that his uncle will give him the money necessary for him to go into business for himself, telling her that there's now nothing to stop them from leaving everything behind. But, unfortunately, Alice is hesitant to go, fearing what will become of her mother, and the two of them can only embrace, neither knowing what to do.

Courtley takes the three men to see Weller at his small store, telling him that he intends to buy. When Weller, surprised that he would buy anything, asks him what exactly it is he wants, Courtley answers, "You know what," to which Weller responds, "It's not for sale." Weller tries to duck back into his office but Courtley grabs him, telling him he'll sell anything for money. While Hargood demands to know what's going on, Courtley tells Weller that the gentlemen will pay any price for whatever it is. Hargood confirms that they might, provided they knew what they were buying, and Weller, who chuckles when he realizes Courtley hasn't told them, is told to show them. He walks over to a shelf, removes a couple of items and a small cloth from a box, which he then takes out, clears away a shelf for, and unlocks with a key. Opening the lid, he removes Dracula's cape, ring, brooch, and a small vial containing the red powder that was once his blood, placing them all beside the box. Courtley reaches for the brooch with Dracula's name on it and intones, "The master!" The men, still not understanding what's going on, are told by Weller, "These pieces belonged to the most evil man of all time: Count Dracula." They're taken aback when they hear that, and Weller describes the items, ending with the vial of blood. Looking at it, Paxton notes how the blood is only powder, and Weller tries to go along with that, but Courtley insists that the items will enable them to perform the ceremony and asks them to buy them solely on his word. Weller names the price as 1,000 guineas, and Courtley assures them they won't regret paying such a hefty fee, adding, "I swear in his name." Hargood asks Secker if he's up for it and he nods, but when he asks Paxton, he hesitates. But when he threatens to remove him from the circle, he clams up and Hargood says they'll pay the price. Courtley tells them, "You will be repaid a thousand times," while Weller remarks, "And may the devil take good care of you."

The next night, the three of them again gather together in Hargood's carriage, now bringing several boxes with them, including the one containing Dracula's items, while Secker refers to a map for where they're supposed to meet up with Courtley. The carriage driver directs his horses off into the woods and they stop at a specific spot. The men disembark and follow the directions on Secker's map, heading off deeper into the woods. They eventually go through a gate, walk along the side of an old building, and head around to the front, entering a graveyard and coming upon a long flight of steps leading up to a creepy, long abandoned church. They walk up the stairs and head inside to find several burning candelabras, and the altar up at the front covered in tapestries with satanic symbols on them. But, there's no sign of Courtley, and Hargood gets no response when he calls for him. The men walk further into the church, stopping when they hear something, and Paxton whispers, "My God, I don't like this." Hargood, again, asks him if he wants to leave, and when he says he doesn't, he tells him to be quiet. They then hear the sound of someone laughing evilly and, when they look off to their left, Paxton makes out someone lying atop one of the stone coffins. It turns out to be Courtley, who jumps down and walks towards them; Hargood tells him, "That was a damn fool thing to do," to which he says, "Possibly, but it amused me." He then has them bring the boxes up to the altar, telling Hargood to place the one containing Dracula's possessions to the right of it, and he opens it. He removes the vial containing the powder, placing it on the altar, and then puts Dracula's cape on, before instructing Paxton to place his box, which contains goblets, on the other side of the altar. Opening that box and removing the goblets, he's quite pleased when he inspects them. He gives one of them to each of the men, before walking back up to the altar.

He begins the ceremony, chanting, "Oh, ye timeless ones, ye elementals of the earth, and of the air, and of fire, and of water. And the most aghast dread of the supreme prince of darkness, and of his archangels and angels of darkness, and his legions, draw near and do my bidding! I command! I command! I command!" That done, he takes the vial of red powder, sprinkles some of it in a chalice on the altar, and then does the same for each of the goblets the men are holding. Returning to the altar, Courtley unsheathes a knife and cuts open the palm of his left hand, much to the men's confusion and shock, especially Paxton, who winces at the sight of it. He walks over to Hargood and allows the blood from his wound to drip down into his goblet, and when it mixes the powder, it turns completely back into blood and starts to fill up the cup. Hargood's hand trembles at the sight of this and he looks up at Courtley, who proceeds to do the same with the other two men's goblets. By this point, all of the men are clearly wondering what they've gotten themselves into, especially Paxton, who grimaces in disgust as the blood completely fills up his goblet until it starts running over and covering his fingers. Courtley walks back to the altar and does the same with his chalice. As lightning flashes and thunder crackles, he asks them, "Now, will you believe?", before ordering them to drink. Secker actually goes to do so but is unable to bring himself to put it to his lips, let alone swallow it. Becoming impatient and angry, Courtley yells at them to drink, telling them not to insult "the master," but neither Secker nor Paxton, the latter of whom is on the brink of tears, can stomach it. Courtley then orders Hargood specifically to drink but, like his comrades, he recoils in disgust from the goblet of blood. Courtley calls them "pathetic, spineless fools," and Hargood yells, "You drink then! You drink it! You drink the filth!"

Courtley does just that, chugging down a good bit of the blood from his chalice, further disgusting the men. As he lowers the cup, he begins making choking sounds and convulses before letting out a yell that's obviously one of pain. He falls to the floor and then, getting up on his knees, with blood dripping down from his mouth, and wheezing, he begins yelling, "Help me!" He crawls towards Hargood and grabs onto his pants leg, continuing to plead for help. Hargood kicks him off and begins kicking him repeatedly, leading to the other two men doing the same. Courtley tries to crawl away but they begin beating him with their walking canes and keep on doing it until he rolls over onto his back and expires. When it dawns on them what they've done, the men rush out the door and close it behind them, leaving Courtley lying lifeless on the floor.

Returning home, Hargood staggers through his door, physically and emotionally exhausted. He puts his hand to face, only to then see that there's blood around his thumb and index finger on his right hand. Horrified, he takes a handkerchief and frantically wipes it clean, before removing his coat and hat and ducking into his study. However, his arrival doesn't go unnoticed, as Martha comes downstairs and sees him walk into his study. Calling to him, she then follows after him, and finds him having a drink to try to calm his nerves. When he sees her, he tells her that, should anyone ask, he was at home all evening. She asks who would ask and he frantically yells, "Anybody, anybody!" Deciding not to push the issue further, she agrees to say it if it comes up. Taking another drink, he instructs Martha to tell Alice the same thing, but becomes impatient and is about to storm out to tell her himself when Martha mentions her being a headstrong girl. However, before he can open the door, Alice opens it from outside, asking her exactly what it was he was about to tell her. Like Martha, he tells her, "I was at home here all evening, do you understand me?", and seeing her mother standing behind Hargood, motioning for her to comply, she says, "Yes, I understand." Hargood then sends her back to bed and tells Martha to do the same, snapping angrily at her when she tries to say something else. He walks over to his chair by the fireplace and breaks down crying. Closing the door, Martha walks over to him and tries to get him to say what happened but he hysterically exclaims, "No! Never! Never! Never!" Meanwhile, back at the abandoned church, something begins to happen as Courtley's body continues lying on the floor. The sound of a beating heart fills the church, a large gust of wind blows in soot and dirt that completely covers the body, and the form of the body splits down the middle, to reveal not Courtley but a totally reborn Count Dracula. Dracula's eyes slowly open and, after a transition, he's standing in front of the satanic altar, declaring, "They have destroyed my servant. They will be destroyed."

The next day, Alice and Paul are out having fun with Lucy and Jeremy, the latter two having a riding contest, and Lucy shows off a ring that Jeremy gave her. She says that they're engaged but they haven't told Paxton, as he hasn't been very approachable lately. After they ride off, talking about an upcoming party that Friday, Alice asks Paul about his father and he says that he came home the other night, has become a recluse, and won't see a doctor or anyone, for that matter. Alice then mentions that her father has been acting strange as well, and that he's been drinking, which Paul knows makes it harder for both her mother and the two of them. Time passes, and the man are shown dealing with what happened in their own ways: Paxton tosses and turns in bed, bolting up with a start; Secker sits at his desk, working; and, come Friday night, Hargood sits in his study, drinking. Alice walks in, thinking her mother was in there, and tries to go back out, but Hargood stops her and asks her to come back in. She does, and he comments, "I see from your dress you intend going out." Alice says she's going to a party at the Alan household and her father says he wasn't told about it. That leads to this exchange: "I would have told you, only..." "Only what?" "Well, you haven't been very approachable lately, have you? I mean, you haven't been quite yourself." "You think I've been drinking too much, is that what you mean? Is that it?! Is that what you mean?!" "Yes. Yes, father." "I see. And who is taking you to this party?" "Paul." "I forbid it! I forbid it. Go and get those things off." Crushed, Alice rushes upstairs, while her father downs another glass and, checking his watch, prepares to head out, grabbing his coat and hat. When he opens the door, he finds Paul standing there, leading to this heated exchange: "Good evening, Mr. Paxton. My daughter will not be coming to the party, so you can go." "May I ask why not, sir?" "No, you may not." "Is she ill?" "No, she's perfectly well, thank you. It is just my wish that she should not go out this evening." He pushes past Paul and climbs into his carriage, which is when Paul asks him why he hates him and Hargood basically tells him he hates him because he exists, before telling the driver to go on.

Undeterred, Paul goes around to the back of the house, behind Alice's bedroom window, and whistles for her. She opens the window and he asks her if she's coming to the party. At first, she tells him that her father won't let her, but Paul asks her again, with a more emphatic voice, and this prompts her go with him anyway, as she ducks back inside, saying, "Just give me a moment." Meanwhile, at the abandoned church, Dracula, who's been sleeping in one of the old coffins, having removed the corpse that was in there before, awakens and ventures out to begin his revenge. His targets have all convened at Secker's home, where he tells them he's learned that the church is almost never visited by anyone and thus, short of them returning there, which none of them are willing to do, the body of Lord Courtley will probably never be found. Hargood, getting up and pouring himself another drink, says that it looks as if  they've gotten away with it and Secker concurs, saying they must now establish that none of them were away from home that particular evening. Secker then comments, "Well, if there is nothing else, then I shall declare that, not only is this meeting closed, but that it never occurred." Hargood and Paxton prepare to leave, but Secker speaks to Paxton privately before he goes, telling him to keep an eye on Hargood, saying his drinking might loosen his tongue. Later that night, Paul brings Alice back home, both of them giggling happily and acting very playfully, having had a good time at the party. After sharing a warm kiss, Alice climbs back up into her bedroom through the window and they say their good nights to each other.

Once she's back in her bedroom, Alice gets an unpleasant surprise when she finds her father standing in the doorway. After gasping at the sight of him, she admits that she went to the party, as he drunkenly staggers in and closes the door behind him. She admits that she knows it was wrong and she apologizes, but he tells her that she's going to be punished for it. He raises his walking cane and threatens to whip her with the leather strap on the handle. He corners her at the head of her bed, ignoring her pleading for him not to touch her, and commenting on how he hasn't beaten her since she was a little girl. She tries to flee but he backhands her and grabs around to her front to make her face him. She warns him, "If you touch me, father, I'll never forgive you," but Hargood is beyond reason, and attempts to come down on her with his cane. She manages to dodge the blow and escape out the window, while Hargood collapses to the floor from drunkenness. Climbing down to the garden via the tree, she runs to a figure whom she thinks is Paul, but it turns out to be Dracula. He calls her by her name and, as she asks him who he is and how he knows her name, he approaches her and entrances her with his stare as he holds his hands out to her. She slowly walks towards him and into his arms, while up in her room, Hargood manages to get to his feet and yells for her out the window, before running downstairs. Dracula goes in to bite Alice's neck, but stops when he hears Hargood yelling for Alice as he walks out into the garden. He stumbles to the other side of the fountain, yelling for her, while Dracula turns Alice back around to face her father, as he retreats into the darkness. Seeing her, Hargood angrily screams at her to come to him, stomping towards her, and at one point falling to the ground, telling her that she's going to be whipped. When he gets up to her, and prepares to do his dirty work, Dracula commands Alice, "Now," and she raises up a shovel she was hiding behind her back. Hargood slightly backs away but she brings the shovel's edge down on the side of his face, knocking him right to the ground. Alice gives Dracula a satisfied smile, and his figure in the dark is the last thing Hargood sees before he dies. Dracula intones, "The first."

The next day, after Hargood's body is found, Inspector Cobb orders his man to clean things up and enters the house, sneaks into the study, and goes to help himself to some of the brandy on the table. Paul then walks in on him and introduces himself, telling him that his sister is with Martha, who's suffering from shock. Cobb, who said he came to talk to Martha, decides to come some other time, saying they can't do much for Hargood except remove his body. Paul then brings up that Alice is missing but Cobb is not at all concerned about it, especially when Paul tells him of the trouble she's been having in the home, saying it's often an explanation for teenagers who run away. He goes to leave and Paul tells him he should issue out a description of Alice and make her picture to all available police stations, but Cobb infers they don't have the time or the manpower to do such a thing for every teenage girl who runs away from home. Paul insists Alice didn't run away but that's not enough to convince Cobb, who even turns down an offer for a drink from Paul, saying he's not going to have one when he's on duty. Cobb walks out of the room and Paul angrily slams his hand on the keys of the piano in the study. Some time later, Hargood's funeral takes place, with Paul and Lucy accompanying Martha, while Paxton and Secker watch from afar, exchanging glances with each other, before Paxton flees the graveyard in a panic. Once the service is over, Paul decides to see Martha home. Lucy follows after them, when she hears and then sees Alice, who's standing at the edge of the cemetery. She runs to her, asking her what's happened with her, and she asks her to come to her house that night and she'll tell her. She also asks her not to tell anyone and Lucy promises, before running to join Jeremy, who calls for her.

That evening, Paul leaves just as Secker comes by to see Martha, but is told by the maid, Betty, that she's not well enough to see anyone. After asking Betty to notify him if there's any change in Martha's condition, Paul walks out onto the doorstep as Secker is preparing to leave. He formally introduces himself to him and Secker merely comments that he and Hargood had met before. Paul then tells him of Alice's disappearance and Secker asks if anything is being done about it. Paul vents about the uselessness of the police, saying that he's been asked to stop bothering them at the station, and then says that he can't stand the idea of Alice being somewhere in need of help and no one's doing anything about it. Secker warns him, "Be careful, Paul. Don't do anything... that you may be sorry for," to which Paul replies, "I couldn't be any sorrier than I am now, Mr. Secker." The two of them leave the grounds, Paul on foot and Secker in his carriage, neither of them seeing Dracula watching them from nearby.

Meanwhile, Lucy meets Alice in the garden, just as she asked her to, amazed at the dress she's wearing in such cold weather. She has Lucy follow her through the woods on the edge of the property to a country road beyond them, where a carriage is waiting for them. Lucy asks Alice whose carriage it is but Alice presses her to climb in. When they do, Lucy asks if Alice has eloped, but Alice starts laughing rather crazily, when the carriage suddenly takes off, now being driven by Dracula. While Alice laughs, Lucy doesn't find it amusing, yelling and fretting about how fast and recklessly they're traveling. It reaches a point where she can take no more and yells for the driver to stop. She's surprised when the carriage does so as soon as she yells, and she disembarks, intending to chastise the driver, only to find that there's no one in the seat. Alice, still laughing, asks Lucy to follow her again, this time leading her deeper into the woods and through the path to the abandoned church. As they go, Lucy becomes uncomfortable and creeped out over how eerie their surroundings are becoming, but allows Alice to lead her through the church's door. Once inside, Alice tells Lucy that she wants her to meet someone. Asked if it's her lover, Alice points behind Lucy and turns to see Dracula. Smiling and beckoning to her, holding out his hand, he initially intrigues her, and she even approaches him. But then, as he tries to take control of her, she finds herself becoming frightened and attempts to run away, but Alice stops her, ordering her to do as Dracula says. She pulls her back towards the Count and forces her to face him, allowing him to work his spell on her. He puts his hands on her shoulders, then turns her head, bearing her neck to him, and bites her. Lucy clearly relishes the sensation of it as he gnaws at her, while Alice watches with an expression of longing at having not experienced it herself.

Paxton goes to see Secker at his home and tells him that he believes the death of Hargood and the disappearances of Alice and now Lucy are the work of Lord Courtley, who's come back for revenge. Secker tells Paxton to pull himself together and pours him a small glass of brandy, making him drink it. He then tells Paxton that they'll see for sure if his theory is true by going up to the abandoned church and checking to see if the body is still there. Paxton isn't thrilled about doing it but Secker tells him, "You can and will, now!" In the next scene, the two of them head up to the church and carefully walk through the door. They slowly make their way up to the front and are shocked when they find that Courtley's body isn't there. Secker concedes that Paxton is apparently right, but then suggests that someone may have simply hidden the body. They search every nook and cranny of the back of the church, when Secker finds that one of the stone coffins has been recently disturbed. He and Paxton push the heavy stone lid off and then remove the wooden lid of the casket within it. They're shocked when they see Lucy lying in the coffin. Paxton believes she's dead but Secker disagrees, noting the marks on her neck. Confused and distraught, Paxton lunges down at Lucy, yelling her name, but Secker grabs him and pulls him back up, yelling, "Paxton, listen to me! The marks on her neck! She's a vampire!" As that information sinks in, Paxton asks what they could do and Secker tells him of the method of driving a wooden stake through Lucy's heart, saying that if they don't, she'll forever live as an undead, wandering the night and feeding on the blood of animals and people. With Paxton unable to even consider such a thing, Secker says he'll leave the decision up to him. When Paxton says he's unable to do it himself, Secker opts to do it for him, and gives him the chance to leave, but he decides to stay. Secker then rips off a large piece of one of the wooden seats and grabs a chunk of stone. But, just as he puts the point of the stake above Lucy's heart and is about to drive it in, Paxton pulls a gun on him, shouting at him to get out. Secker tries to reason with him, but Paxton shoots him in the left arm and he recoils from it. Paxton threatens to shoot him again and makes good on his threat when he fires at him twice more as he flees the church. Bleeding from his arm, Secker runs outside and collapses in the graveyard, immediately losing consciousness.

As the sun goes down and the light in the church gets dimmer, Paxton cries over the body of his damned daughter, reaching out and touching her forehead, before finally getting enough nerve to take the stake and stone and prepare to do it himself. But, just as he's about to stake her, Lucy's eyes snap open and he jumps back with a horrified yell, leaning up against a pillar. He looks to his right as Dracula steps out of the darkness, and turns back to his left to see Lucy standing by her coffin, while Alice joins them from nearby as well. Alice picks up the stake, gives the stone to Lucy, and, when Dracula commands them, "Now," they prepare to stake Paxton. He backs away in a panic but falls on his back on one of the seats and is set upon by Alice, as she wields the stake. Paxton begs Lucy to help him but she smiles evilly, showing her fangs, and when Dracula motions for them to do it, she plunges the stake into his chest with the stone. Blood gushes out of Paxton's chest and his head darts around the room as the life is drained out of him and, like Hargood, Dracula is the last thing he sees before dying. Dracula intones, "The second." Some time later, Secker comes to out in the graveyard and wanders back into the church, calling for Paxton. He gets no answer, and when he sees that Lucy is not in her coffin, and still gets no response when he calls for Paxton twice more, he figures what happened and quickly heads out of the church. Despite his wounded arm, he manages to make his way back to his home, walking through the gate and front door, and entering his study. He painfully removes his coat, sits down at his desk, and begins to write a note.

That night, Paul visits Martha again, and tells her that he and Jeremy have searched everywhere they can think of but haven't found any trace of Alice. Martha, horrified when Paul mentions they've searched every field and ditch, taking it to mean they believe Alice to be dead, asks, "Why has this happened to us, Paul? What have we ever done?" Paul can only tell her, "God knows, Mrs. Hargood," and she asks, "Does he, Paul?" Meanwhile, Jeremy arrives back at home to find his father has fallen asleep at his desk. He's about to wake him, but then hears a tapping at the French windows behind him and sees Lucy there. Excited and relieved, Jeremy heads for the windows, only for Lucy to motion for him to be quiet and beckon him outside. There, Lucy begs for Jeremy to kiss her, and then flashes her fangs at him. Jeremy only manages to get out, "Oh, God!" before she sinks her fangs into his neck, as Dracula watches from nearby. Secker then awakens with a start and looks to his left to see Jeremy standing there. He quickly gets to his feet, grabs the note, goes around the desk, and instructs him to take it to Paul immediately, when he then sees that his soon has fallen victim to the vampires. In his shock, he's unable to defend himself when Jeremy stabs him in the stomach, and is only able to lightly touch the side of his face before he collapses to the floor, a knife sticking out of him. Jeremy turns and looks behind him, and his father, like those before him, sees Dracula standing in the doorway of the French windows before he dies, the Count intoning, "The third." He then heads back to his lair through the woods, with Lucy walking after him, eager for him to show her his approval. She gets in front of him, puts her hand on his shoulder, and he seems willing to reciprocate, as he leans down and gently bites her again. But then, he pulls back, his eyes blazing red, snarls, and bites into her hard, causing her to gasp and cry out before she expires in his arms.

Following the discovery of Secker's body and the note addressed to Paul, Inspector Cobb calls him in to receive it. Having read it himself, he says it was nothing more than the ramblings of a madman, and believes it's a simple case of a young man hating his father and killing him when they got into an argument. Cobb also comments that they've locked Jeremy up where he won't hurt anyone else. Paul, however, insists that Jeremy didn't hate his father, but Cobb isn't eager to hear what he has to say and simply gives him the letter and leaves, telling him not to touch Secker's body. While Paul sits down to read the note, Dracula returns to the church and finds Alice eagerly waiting for him. He decides to make her a vampire now, parting her hair from her shoulder and going in to bite her, when he hears a rooster crow and sees daylight coming through one of the stained glass windows. He then bolts for his coffin, leaving Alice dejected. Back with Paul, the note tells him, "You have the courage to do what has to be done, and, above all, your love for Alice will act as your strength and your protection. And you must believe me. You must arm yourself with knowledge, Paul. So you will see that, while there is little hope for your dear sister, Alice may have escaped." Paul is shown looking through a book titled Vampires and Vampirism and loading up a satchel with essential items, including candles and a crucifix. The note continues, "Find her, Paul, and find her before nightfall. Only then will you know the truth. We know that she is under his influence. But she may not yet be his sister in blood. Not yet." Alice is shown lying atop the lid of Dracula's coffin, waiting for him to awaken again. And, as Paul is seen riding through the woods, following the directions on Secker's map, the note finishes, "So find her, Paul! Find her! Find her before it is too late." He reaches the spot where he can no longer ride and gets off and continues on foot, and when he passes by a lake, he finds Lucy's body floating in it, having been completely drained of blood. He removes her from the water, lays her on the bank, and tries to rouse her, but he soon realizes that she's dead and mournfully kisses her hand and puts her hands together on her front, before continuing on.

Paul reaches the church and makes his way up to and through the entrance. The first thing he does is close the door behind him and stick a large cross on it. Grabbing his satchel, he walks up to the front of the church and removes the satanic tapestries from the altar, placing the appropriate white cloth back across it. He takes out two of the candles from his satchel, places them in holders in front of the altar, lights them, places them atop it, and puts a crucifix in-between them. That done, he walks back towards the entrance, calling for Alice, when it suddenly becomes darker inside the church, as the sun goes down outside. The sound of demonic growling and screaming fills the church, forcing Paul to clamp his hands over his ears, when it stops just as suddenly as it began. Dracula then emerges from the darkness and steps in front of Paul, with Alice appearing to his right. Before Dracula can attack, Paul grabs the crucifix from the altar and holds it in front of him. Dracula immediately recoils and shields his face against a pillar, growling for it to be taken away. Alice demands Paul do as Dracula says but Paul tries to convince her that, because she's not a vampire yet, she still has a choice to serve good or evil. She insists she must obey Dracula, as he turns around and lets out an angry yell at the light from the cross being shined on him. The sound of his yell causes Paul to wince from it and Alice takes the opportunity to grab his hand and take the cross from him, while Dracula lunges at him and tosses him aside, slamming him against a pillar. Dracula prepares to flee the church, as Alice follows him, asking him to take her with him. Instead, he growls, "I have no further use for you!", and wrenches his arm free from her hand. It's only then that Dracula sees the cross on the door and backs up against one of the seats, as Alice throws the crucifix she was holding near his feet, effectively trapping him.

A gust of wind blows out the candles on the altar, giving Dracula the opportunity to remove himself from the crosses in the darkness. As Paul comes to, he sees that Dracula has made his way up to the landing on the church's second floor. He yells for Alice to run, as Dracula rips a long, wooden spire out and tosses it at them, but Alice refuses to leave without Paul, warning him that Dracula will kill. Dracula throws more projectiles at them, at one point throwing something that smashes into one of the cobweb-covered chandeliers, as Alice tries to pull Paul towards the entrance. Desperate to escape the holy building, Dracula smashes through the stained glass window up top and is about to climb through, when he hears the sound of someone saying a prayer. He turns around to see that the church is no longer the rundown, abandoned place it was but is now restored to its former glory, full of lit candles, spotless stained glass windows, and shiny statues of figures like the Virgin Mary, the altar totally covered in various holy objects, and the disembodied prayer and the sound of organ music filling the place up. Looking at it all causes him to weaken, and as the voice says, "Amen," he falls to the altar below, lifts up his arms, as blood runs down his hand, as lightning flashes, and as he lies there, his body disintegrates and decomposes until, like at the beginning of the movie, there's nothing left of him but his cape, brooch, and the red powder that was once his blood. With that, Paul places the crucifix from before on the floor of the church and both he and Alice leave the building. They run down the steps, look back at the church one last time, and head off together. The movie ends on a shot of Dracula's cape and powdered remains lying on the altar, red dust billowing in the air, amid the still lit candles.

Although he'd created a totally new them for Dracula in the previous film, James Bernard brought back his original motif here, this time orchestrating it to sound less overbearing and bombastic, instead often going for a much larger and more sweeping sound, as well as using it in a more subtly effective atmospheric form in some scenes and a completely monstrous manner in others. Similarly, Lord Courtley's satanic ceremony is set to an evil-sound church organ; when Alice is being chased by her father when he tries to whip her, Bernard comes up with a loping, brutish piece that goes well with his now irredeemable character; and the buildup to and the event of Paxton's death is played to some very horrific violins. As he did in the previous movie, Bernard also composes some very lovely music to act as a counter-balance to the horror, with the opening scene playing to a beautiful flute piece that then transitions into a full-on string motif that is absolutely breathtaking. But, when the Hargoods reach their home after leaving the church, the end of the notes becomes a far more uneasy, sinister sound, hinting at the cruelty we're about to see William Hargood inflict upon his daughter. This theme becomes something of a love motif for Alice and Paul, playing softly whenever the two of them are together, often with a sad sound to it due to the seeming hopelessness of their relationship. It's only during the end credits, after Dracula has been defeated and Paul and Alice have been reunited, that their love theme is able to blossom with no sinister undercurrents or sad touches to it, and right before that, there's a holy-sounding motif signifying the defeat and banishment of Dracula's evil from the church.

While the previous Hammer Dracula movies were all genuinely good, despite what cons they may have had, Taste the Blood of Dracula is the first one where the flaws outweigh what's done right. It's still a mixed bag, as it's competently directed, well-shot, there is some good acting, the production design and location work is fairly solid, there's a good amount of blood and violence to satisfy gorehounds, and the music score is quite good, but the film truly suffers from how the filmmakers were forced to divert from their original plan and force Christopher Lee's Dracula into a story that wasn't meant to feature him. As a result, his motivation makes little sense, Lee has barely anything meaningful to say or do, and his revenge against the gentlemen itself isn't that impactful, as he himself doesn't carry it out. On top of that, the younger characters are just kind of "meh," the character of William Hargood is so despicable that his scenes are almost unwatchable, there are some truly awful special effects in some parts, and the third act comes off as rushed and clunky, with some loose ends that aren't tied up and a final defeat for Dracula that makes zero sense. In conclusion, this is the first film in the series that I can only recommend for Hammer purists or Christopher Lee aficionados; casual viewers may want to skip this one.