Scars of Dracula
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Scars of Dracula is a 1970 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker for Hammer Studios.
It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, alongside Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Patrick Troughton, and Michael Gwynn. Although disparaged by some critics, the film does restore a few elements of Bram Stoker's original character: The Count is introduced as an "icily charming host"; he has command over nature; and he is seen scaling the walls of his castle. It also gives Lee more to do and say than any other Hammer Dracula film except its first, 1958's Horror of Dracula.
This film breaks continuity with the previous film in the series. Though a resurrection scene was added to the opening at the insistence of the distributor, the film was intended to inaugurate a new series.
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Plot summary
A prologue shows Dracula is brought back to life from blood dropped on his "remains" by a bat. Local villagers rise up and set fire to Castle Dracula, which does not reach the Count who is asleep in a solid stone crypt. When they return home, they find bats under the control of Dracula (though still sleeping) have swarmed inside the church where their women were waiting. Every single woman and child in the village is dead.
Because of the lies of the spurned burgomasters' daughter, libertine Paul Carlson flees by jumping into a nearby coach which though driverless heads off at great speed. This deposits him near Count Dracula's mountaintop castle. Initially welcomed, he sleeps with a woman. Later she tries to bite his neck but Dracula enters and casually throws off Paul's efforts to strangle him, then Dracula savagely stabs the woman to death. His servant dismembers her and dissolves the pieces of her body in a bath of either holy water or acid. Locked in, Paul uses a line to climb down to a lower window but the line is withdrawn and he is trapped there.
His more sober brother Simon Carlson and his fiancee Sarah Framsen come searching for him. A maid at the tavern points them at the castle and they visit but manage to escape as brutal looking manservant Klove who has fell in love with Sarah (having taken the locket which Paul carried) helps them by refusing to remove Sarah's crucifix, but the servant pays a terrible price with his back terribly mutilated by Dracula's punishment for this betrayal.
Simon goes back to the castle to look for brother Paul while the priest who helped him is attacked by a large bat and killed. He is betrayed by Krove and ends up in the same room as his brother, but having lost his crucifix on the way down when his rope was cut. He hesitates too long to kill Dracula who is sleeping in his coffin and the vampire's power reaches through his closed eyelids to cause Simon to collapse. When he recovers, Dracula is awake and climbs up the outer wall to go after Sarah, knowing that Simon is trapped since the only way in and out is up a sheer wall which Dracula can almost walk up. Meanwhile, Simon finds his brother's body, impaled on a metal spike.
Sarah has made her way back to the castle and is confronted by Dracula and this time he gets a bat to remove the crucifix. Krove has let a line down to Simon and goes up to the battlements and attacks Dracula to try and save Sarah, but is hopelessly outmatched and thrown over the sheer drop. Simon arrives and grabs and throws a heavy iron railing at Dracula. It pierces him but he pulls it out, unharmed and lifts it to impale Simon with. But it is struck by lightning and we find out that vampires are highly inflammable as Dracula catches light and when burning well, falls over the sheer drop. The end, for now.
Cast
- Christopher Lee (Count Dracula)
- Dennis Waterman (Simon Carlson)
- Jenny Hanley (Sarah Framsen)
- Christopher Matthews (Paul Carlson)
- Michael Gwynn (The Priest)
- Michael Ripper (Landlord)
- Patrick Troughton (Klove)
- Anouska Hempel (Tania)
- Wendy Hamilton (Julie)
- Bob Todd (Burgomaster)
Release notes
- The film was released in some markets on a double feature with The Horror of Frankenstein.
Trivia
- All of Jenny Hanley's dialogue was dubbed in post-production. No credit has been given to the actress whose voice is actually heard throughout the film.
- Scars of Dracula is the first Dracula film to attempt to capture the scene in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel where the Count actually crawls out and climbs along a wall in a bat-like manner, the only difference being that in the Stoker novel, Dracula climbs down, while in Scars of Dracula he climbs up.
- This is the second Hammer Dracula film to feature a servant to the count named "Klove" (the first was Dracula: Prince of Darkness, though the role was played by a different actor).
