Count Dracula's Great Love (1974)

In "Count Dracula's Great Love" Paul Naschy plays legendary vampire Dracula.The legend says that he is still lurking in his castle in the middle of nowhere.Four buxom ladies decide to spend the night at the old castle which most recently was used as a sanitarium.Quickly the passengers fall prey to Count Dracula.But Count falls in love with Karen...Javier Aguirre's "Count Dracula's Great Love" is a trashy and sleazy piece of Eurohorror with plenty of nudity and grue.The shots of white mists and dense forests are wonderfully atmospheric and the macabre mood is very sensual.Paul Naschy is memorable as Count Dracula/Dr.Wendell and he plays his evil character with gusto.8 sensual vampires out of 10.

A bunch of beautiful women get stranded near a castle one night. Naturally Count Dracula (Paul Naschy) lives there and attacks them all. However he falls in love with one and gives her a choice to live as his lover for all eternity...or death. At least that's what I could make out.I saw the dubbed American print. To make it even worse I caught it on TV late at night so it was edited to pieces. Naschy (an old pro at this) was good and there were a few good scenes--Dracula and his female vampires walking down a hall ready for a night out and the ultimate fate of the female vampires. But, aside from that, this was VERY confusing, made next to no sense and all the violence and sex was completely cut out! Also Naschy was showing his age when he made this one. He looks far too old (and heavy) to play Dracula. I've heard the uncut print is MUCH better so try to seek that out. This version gets a 1.

Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy's take on another traditional monster (making for the blood-sucking Count's beefiest incarnation since Lon Chaney Jr.'s turn in SON OF Dracula [1943]) results in one of his more enjoyable efforts, albeit given the "Euro-Cult" style's trademark languid approach and with a few weird touches all its own. This begins with the shot illustrating a man falling down the cellar steps of Dracula's castle after having his head split open with an axe being repeated ad nauseam all through the credit sequence! As the film opens, Dracula is hiding under the guise of a Dr. Kargos (presumably a play on the meshing of Karloff and Lugosi a' la our very own Joe Karlosi ) at an abandoned nearby sanatorium while also assuming the duties of butler at his own castle! Soon, his quest for peace and solitude is interrupted with a vengeance by the arrival of no less than five strangers – one man and four(!) women; the latter ostensibly serve the function of duplicating the count's three brides featured in Bram Stoker's original novel (and a handful of its myriad screen incarnations), with the remaining girl filling in the requirements of the title. Anyway, following some bed-hopping antics (the nudity being crudely inserted since the Spanish censor's repressive hand would only allow such fare to be released in "clothed" versions!), the cast of characters rapidly starts joining the ranks of the undead – leaving only the heroine (gorgeous, doe-eyed Haydee' Politoff whom I was recently impressed by in the obscure but fairly good erotic giallo INTERRABANG [1969]). Also in the cast are Rosanna Yanni (from Jess Franco's two "Red Lips" films from 1967) and others bearing such dubious names as Vic Winner and Ingrid Garbo (her character is named Marlene to boot)!; on a personal note, it was nice to see character actor Jose' Manuel Martin (who had been one of the beggars in Luis Bunuel's VIRIDIANA [1961]) as Dracula' first victim – subsequently 'residing' in his house, he notches up victims of his own and is even killed by the master (oddly enough, all vampires here contrive to dispose of one another) for daring to attack his beloved! Other unusual ideas, then, include: the fact that Dracula's prowlings occur on full-moon nights (as if he expects to turn into a werewolf?!); his having a dead daughter, which he intends to revive by mixing the blood of a virgin (Politoff, who rather than being vampirized has a knife driven through her throat in the manner of a conjuror's act) and an innocent (a village girl his brides abduct and present before him to be whipped)!; and, perhaps most baffling of all, Politoff's rejection of Dracula's offer to live eternally by his side throws him into such a dejected state (apparently, he has fallen hard for her) that not only is he willing to give up on his daughter's revitalization but actually commits suicide by piercing his own heart with a wooden stake! As I said, the film is certainly among the better of the star's vehicles that I have come across (though still not adding up to a completely successful work) and, in fact, this viewing inspired me to acquire another Spanish variant on the theme i.e. THE Dracula SAGA (1972), directed by frequent Naschy collaborator Leon Klimovsky but not involving the redoubtable Jacinto Molina himself

With Paul Naschy's passing, I've decided to bust out his features I own but have never watched. This is sort of a semi-sequel to Dracula as the main characters mention the likes of Jonathan Harker and Mina. Dracula (Naschy) moves into an old sanitarium and adopts the geeky name Dr. Wendell Marlow. Dinner arrives at his door in the form of 4 hot young ladies and their male companion when their carriage loses a wheel. This will work out great for ol' Drac because he needs a virgin to resurrect his dead daughter. Pretty atmospheric, this sees Naschy giving another unique turn as a classic monster. Director Javier Aquirre knows how to build the mood with nice slo-mo and smoky passageways in a huge country estate locale (watch for anachronistic water pipes in their pool). Aquirre teamed up with Naschy again a few years later for HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE, one of my favorites. What surprised me the most about this film was the ending, something I don't think has ever been done in a Dracula film before or since. See, Dracula is truly in love and, rather than resurrect his daughter, he commits suicide by driving a stake into his own heart. Now that is truly a tragic romance angle that you won't see in TWILIGHT.