Blood of Dracula (1957)

Herbert L. Strock directed this film, another hybrid horror and juvenile delinquency yarn that stars Sandra Harrison as Nancy Perkins, a troubled teenager who is sent to live in an all-girl boarding school by her parents. She then meets evil Miss Branding(played by Louise Lewis) a professor who uses hypnosis and a medallion(Dracula's?) to control her, which results in Nancy becoming a murderous(and ugly) vampire, terrorizing the campus, and some visiting boyfriends of the girls... Silly film with a vague plot has no originality at all, and few scares, though the makeup is striking. Part of the "Teenage" monster fad of this time.

You might as well call this "I Was a Teenage Vampire"; "Blood of Dracula" seems especially made for the teenage drive-in crowd of the 50s. The plot is weird and the ending so abrupt, not to mention, there isn't technically any "blood of Dracula" in the whole movie, strange that this was given such a title. Perhaps the title was a way to appeal to an audience so they would come to the drive-in? The film follows a new student at an all-girls boarding school who becomes the victim of a devious science teacher using an ancient amulet from the Carpathian Mountains that can "inflict vampirism"(?), resulting in murders on campus. Sandra Harrison is Nancy, a disgruntled teen girl angered at her father for marrying after her mother had been dead only six weeks(!), hitching up with a money-grubbing woman who wanted all his attention. Louise Lewis is Miss Branding, a science teacher (with a laboratory for conducted experiments and research), who mentions to her prize pupil, Myra (Gail Ganley) that she had been scorned by the male scientific community for experiments regarding humans and their ability to be a weapon (or this is the best way I could think of to surmise her reasons, strongly influenced by her negative feelings for radiation and its use to destroy). Branding believes Nancy is her key to explaining that we don't need to use radiation to kill that mankind itself is a weapon. Through the use of the amulet, Branding places Nancy under hypnosis and has control over the poor girl. Even worse, Nancy cannot control the vampirism which is a compulsion that leads to multiple attacks at night. The same transformation effects (using dissolves, with applied make-up and fangs) are used for each attack and they are pretty lame. The way the ending is framed, it seems as if the production run out of money and said, "Screw it. Let's just cut our losses." I wasn't satisfied with the ending but did think the premise behind the vampirism was at least different and original if a bit daffy. The real villain here is Branding and her psychopathy seems fueled by a warped philosophy—she believes her experiments will save mankind, taking us away from the use of the atom bomb as a weapon of mass destruction, yet the knowledge of using humans as such seems just as misguided. The song and dance number, "Puppy Love", comes out of nowhere and gave me the giggles, but it seems appropriate for a movie such as this. If this had been about 15 minutes longer with a better finale, I think this could have been a bit better (the police's involvement in the storyline, along with the young coroner's belief that vampirism is the culprit behind the crimes is given much importance yet they factor very little in the final portion of the movie). I do like the idea of a female vampire, controlled by a mad female scientist, so at least "Blood of Dracula" has that going for it—it is just too bad Dracula, despite being named in the title, has nothing to do with this movie at all. From the director of "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein".

This low budget 1957 monster movie is typical of the drive-in fare produced by AIP in the late Fifties to attract the teenage audience. It's a moody, low key story with some nice atmosphere, about a teenage girl embittered by her father re-marrying shortly after her mother's death, and dumping his daughter in a private school at the request of his new wife.The new student makes a good impression on the leader of the secret clique that runs things behind the lines, who advises her chemistry teacher mentor that they've found the ideal subject for the teacher's secret project, a girl filled with barely suppressed anger and violence.Many viewers have commented on the lesbian subtext of the teacher's relationships with Myra, the clique leader, and Nancy, the new girl. Louise Lewis gives probably the best performance of the movie as the feminist scholar determined to prove her thesis to a " world run by men for men". She strikes just the right note as the sinister scientist with a benign exterior, seeming only to want to be a helpful mentor to the girl, polite and efficient with the school dean, spouting her lunatic ideas with reasonable sounding phrases about progress and science.Some night time scenes of terror on the darkened grounds of the school are very effective, and the acting is fairly good. As usual for a Fifties AIP movie, there are lots of pretty girls to look at, some rock and roll music and dancing, and a subversive undertone in which virtually all adults are suspect in their motives.The movie isn't as dynamic as I Was a Teenage Werewolf, from which it's obviously derived, but it works pretty well on its own terms as a spooky little thriller. Definitely worth seeing for Fifties horror movie buffs.

Blood Of Dracula is a typical of the drive-ins that Americain International came out with in the 1950's, aimed at teenagers. I quite liked this one.After her mum dies and dad remarries, a girl is sent to a boarding school where she is hypnotised by one of her teachers as part of an ongoing experiment connected to the supernatural. This turns her into a fanged vampire and she kills several people. The police are baffled by these murders and when she refuses to look at her teacher at the end, tragedy strikes... Includes somebody singing Puppy Love.Blood of Dracula has some creepy music and creepy locations as well, especially the night scenes. The vampire make-up looks pretty good for a low budget movie.The cast is mostly made up of unknowns, lead by Sandra Harrison, her only movie according to IMDb.Blood Of Dracula is a must for B-movie followers out there.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.