Scars of Dracula

Although Bela Lugosi created the role of Count Dracula in the classic 1931 Dracula (Universal Studios), for most film-goers the part belongs firmly to Britain's Christopher Lee, who first donned fangs, cloak and red contact lenses for Hammer's seminal Dracula in 1958. If Hammer can justly lay claim to having revived the then moribund horror film genre, then Lee himself can certainly lay claim to having revived Count Dracula, a role which he played in several Hammer films. The Scars of Dracula (1970) belongs to Hammer's later period, with director Roy Ward Baker, a late entry in the Gothic stakes, taking over the direction from such classic exponents as Terence Fisher and Freddie Francis. He is lucky not only in having Lee as his vampire Count, but also the services of the brilliant team that did so much to make Hammer the most impressive makers of genre films since Universal in the 'thirties and 'forties. The script by 'John Elder' (in reality Hammer producer Anthony Hinds) makes a satisfying return to Bram Stoker's original novel, with most of the action taking place in Dracula's castle. As always, Moray Grant's atmospheric cinematography, James Need's incisive editing. Scott MacGregor's impeccably Gothic art direction and James Bernard's music serve to showcase Lee's superb creation - and if the overall result tends to dominate the juvenile leads, (here well played by Minder's Dennis Waterman, and Jenny Hanley) it is as it should be. Dracula, after all, is the novel's - and the film's - major character and Baker allows Lee not only to demonstrate the creature's essential power and evil but also to portray the sexual and magnetic side to his personality; that element which director Terence Fisher has described as 'the charm of evil'. The Scars of Dracula emerges as a scary and well-crafted piece of British Gothic cinema that has the power to create creeping flesh and goose pimples time after time. And that is what horror films are all about. ©1970 EMI Productions Ltd