Countess Dracula

After the death of her husband, the aging Countess Elizabeth Nadasy (Ingrid Pitt) inadvertently discovers that the application of blood to her skin can restore its youth and beauty. Masquerading as her kidnapped daughter Ilona (Lesley-Anne Down) – whom no one has seen since she was a small child – the Countess embarks upon an affair with the dashing young Imre Toth (Sandor Eles).

The Countess's joy is to be fleeting, however, as it emerges that the restorative power of blood – and it must be virgin's blood – is only temporary. Aided by her servants, she embarks upon a campaign of murder…

Meanwhile, the Countess's former lover, castle majordomo Captain Dobi (Nigel Green), who had anticipated inheriting both the Count's stables – which went to Toth – and his wife's affections, schemes against the young soldier and his mistress…

Like the earlier Rasputin the Mad Monk this 1970 Hammer entry presents an often awkward amalgam of conventional horror and historical drama, the Countess Dracula title misleading the casual viewer into expecting another lesbian vampire romp a la the Karnstein trilogy for what is really a comparatively straight retelling of Countess Bathory story.

The substantial Hungarian involvement in the production, in form of director Peter Sasdy, co-writer Alexander Paal and actor Eles, looks to have been a mixed blessing.

Taking the downside first, the film-makers fail to convey the true gravity of the Countess's crimes. 600-plus murders and a reign of terror lasting years transmute into a bodycount of half a dozen or so and a month of madness. On the upside, the film has a more authentic European feel than many of Hammer studios products, with historical references to the Turkish threat, Bulls Blood rather than generic wine and – best of all – Harry Robinson's evocative score with its use of the cimbalon to provide local colour.

Yet, it is always only local colour. The viewer never forgets that they are watching a low-budget Hammer horror where commercial considerations dominate over artistic authenticity, as illustrated by the fact the Hungarian sets were redressed from the decidedly non-Hungarian Anne of a Thousand Days.

Then again, Hammer also had the knack of making films that were better than their budget would suggest and, in particular, of getting the best from people. In Pitt's case this means getting her kit off, though in fairness the dubbing of her voice makes it difficult to properly assess her performance qua actress. Green delivers some truly awful lines with a gusto that makes them sound almost Shakespearean. Sadsy, meanwhile, clearly seems to have had an affinity with twisted family scenarios, with Taste the Blood of Dracula, Hands of the Ripper, Doomwatch and I Don't Want to be Born all essaying a "sins of the father" (or mother) motif.

The less said about Lesley-Anne Down's "ooh you beast" performance the better…

Countess Dracula is available on R1 and R2 DVD. The R1 NTSC disc on MGM's Midnite Movies imprint comes as a double feature, with The Vampire Lovers on the reverse side. The R2 PAL disc on Carlton comes as part of the Vampire Collection with Twins of Evil and Vampire Circus.

The dilemma facing the prospective buyer is which to go for. The transfer on the R1 disc is pretty bad, being soft and full of artefacting. It also appears to be cropped, at closer to 1.66:1 than the R2's 1:85.1. In terms of audio there is little difference, both releases having only mono English audio. The R1 wins out on the extras front. Whereas the R2 only offers a trailer, the R1 has a full-length audio commentary from Sasdy, writer Jeremy Paul and star Pitt, moderated by Jonathan Sothcott, author of The Cult Films of Christopher Lee

The commentary is a worthwhile listen, with all three participants proving animated conversationalists and Sothcott having to prompt and steer the discussion somewhat less than on The Vampire Lovers.

Sasdy explains how he and fellow Hungarian emigré Alexander Paal came up with the basic idea of a film based on Countess Bathory and provided the Hungarian detail, relying on Jeremy to do the dialogue and ensure that the film was not too insular. Paul, meanwhile, is critical of his writing at times, suggesting that some of the lines he gave the characters were too Victorian and flowery and that something more modern sounding perhaps actually being easier and – surprisingly – more historically accurate. Pitt is, well, Pitt, always ready with an amusing anecdote or fond memory. All three recall the film and the Hammer experience with fondness, identifying the quality of the cast and production values as major assets, while Sothcott intervenes from time to time to add a bit of background detail from the Hammer scholar's perspective or correct a misapprehension, as when Sasdy can't remember whether Nadasy gets called "Countess Dracula" or "Devil woman" at the end.

For the Hammer fan, then, my advice would be to get both discs, the R2 for the film and the R1 for the extras and for its version of The Vampire Lovers, which is superior to the stand alone release of that film, with a better transfer that is in the original OAR rather than panned and scanned to 4:3.