BY TIM GREAVES
(The following pertains to the UK Region B release)
Utilising
more than a smidge of poetic licence, Countess
Dracula is the 1971 Peter Sasdy/Hammer offering that recounts the true-life
visceral misdemeanours of Hungarian murderess Countess Erzsébat Bathory. The
late Ingrid Pitt, who portrayed the titular harridan, was quite outspoken in
her disdain for the results, one of her key grievances being director Sasdy’s overly-restrained
approach to blood-letting. Given the subject matter’s potential for sanguinary
splatter, one has to concur that it’s a fairly coy production, more romantic
costume drama with an insidious undercurrent than your traditional Hammer
horror fare. Yet, that said, a cleaving aura of doom coupled with some efficient
injections of nastiness prevent the film from being a wholly anaemic affair.
When,
in a fit of ire, the ageing Countess Elizabeth (Ingrid Pitt) lashes out at her
inept maid, she inadvertently discovers that the virginal girl’s blood harbours
properties able to restore her youthful beauty. Slaying the girl and bathing in
her blood, Elizabeth deigns to assume the identity of her own daughter, Ilona
(Lesley-Anne Down), who has not been seen at the castle since being shipped off
to boarding school as a child. But no sooner has Elisabeth met and fallen in
love with handsome soldier Imre Toth (Sandor Eles), than she realises that the
regenerative effects of the maid’s blood are far from permanent and she is only
able to sustain her façade by seeking fresh donors to fend off her true, haggard
appearance. Finding a willing accomplice in her faithful companion, Captain
Dobi (Nigel Green), the slaying begins.
The
shortcomings of Jeremy Paul’s slightly lethargic and excessively talky Countess Dracula script can be all but
forgiven due to a magnetic performance by Ingrid Pitt, who overcomes
questionable post-synch dubbing to be both sensuously provocative in her
younger incarnation and frighteningly sadistic (under the increasingly
unpleasant layers of Tom Smith’s crone make-up) in her foul, older guise. If there’s
less engaging input from Sandor Eles and Lesley Anne-Down, that too is
compensated for by excellent character work from Nigel Green (in his
penultimate big screen role) and Maurice Denham as a scholarly elder whose
discovery of Elisabeth’s secret pegs him for an early exit.
In
spite of a few failings – not least its outrageously misleading title, which
would certainly have had audiences anticipating some fanged action – Countess Dracula is a lush fairy-tale
accompanied by a silken Harry Robinson score which in summation, though not
perhaps as worthy of frequent revisit as some of the Hammer classics, is estimable
enough evidence of their Gothic cinema supremacy.
Countess Dracula is now
available in the UK as a Region B Blu-Ray release as a constituent of Network
Distributing’s “The British Film†collection. The hi-definiton transfer is
pleasing if not perfect, with occasional minor damage and a fair amount of
grain in evidence during darker scenes. It is, however, still a marked improvement
on Network’s earlier DVD release. The generous supplementary features are
carried over from said DVD, specifically comprising a commentary track
featuring Ingrid Pitt, Kim Newman and Stephen Jones, a TV interview with Pitt
and a news item on a Bray studios open day back in the late 90s, an episode of
the 1970 TV show Conceptions of Murder (starring
Nigel Green), an episode of the recently deceased Brian Clemens’ excellent TV series
Thriller (showcasing yet another fine
Pitt performance) and a number of stills galleries.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON UK
NOTE: IN THE U.S, SYNAPSE FILMS HAS RELEASED A VERY IMPRESSIVE BLU-RAY/DVD COMBO PACK OF "COUNTESS DRACULA"
Special features include:
- Commentary track with Ingrid Pitt, Peter Sasdy, screenwriter Jeremy Paul and film historian Jonathan Sothcott.
- Vintage audio interview with Ingrid Pitt
- A featurette about Pitt's life and career
- Stills gallery
- Original trailer.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON USA