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Brides of Dracula
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by Universal Studios
Sales Rank: 3398
Price: $14.98
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When Christopher Lee declined to reprise his role as Count Dracula in a sequel to the enormously popular <I>The Horror of Dracula</I>, Hammer went another direction and instead followed the investigations of vampire hunter Van Helsing (Peter Cushing). He doesn't actually appear until the second act, after French schoolteacher Marianne (Yvonne Monlaur, a big eyed, thick-lipped, curvy young beauty in the Bardot mold) inadvertently releases Baron Meinster (David Peel), a young disciple of Dracula, from his castle prison in a cursed mountain village. This handsome vampire bites his way through a bevy of glamorous beauties in low-cut blouses and frilly nightgowns as he woos his sexy savior, while Van Helsing relentlessly tracks him back to Marianne. Director Terence Fisher, working from a rather convoluted (and at times incomprehensible) script, makes his mark through a series of marvelous set pieces. In one of the most memorable, a twisted old woman plays midwife to a reborn undead, coaxing her out of the ground as hands push through the earth. In one harrowing moment Van Helsing sears his neck with a branding iron and treats it with holy water after being bitten. Cushing is his usual dashing self, more than making up for the handsome but hardly commanding Peel, and you might recognize Marita Hunt, who plays the withered Baroness, as Miss Haversham from David Lean's classic <I>Great Expectations</I>. <I>--Sean Axmaker</I>
Viewer Reviews
Brides of Dracula was the first of Hammer's many sequels to their breakthrough hit, and it's not just the best of the series but one of their very best pictures. There's no Christopher Lee this time round - in fact, there's no Dracula at all - but there's a lot of imagination at play here in a beautifully plotted story that sees Peter Cushing's Van Helsing coming up against David Peel's Baron Meinster, a follower of Dracula's vampire cult, after Yvonne Monlaur's schoolteacher ill-advisedly releases him from the shackles his not-as-mad-as-she-looks mother keeps him in.
There's a lot going on beneath the stylish surface here - a psychiatrist could probably have a field day with the curious relationship between Peel and Martita Hunt ("We pray for death, both of us. At least, I hope he prays"), not to mention Van Helsing's visible discomfort in the company of women - but it never overwhelms the plot, and there's no shortage of memorable scenes, from the professor treating a rather nasty bite he just got to the servant silently offering pointers to a newly created vampire on its first outing as one of the undead. Reuniting most of the behind-the-cameras talent from their first Dracula film and throwing in a rather splendid climax in a burning windmill, this is definitely one of Hammer's finest hours.
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