''Countess Dracula'' is a 1971 British

Hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Ingrid Pitt, Nigel Green and

Lesley-Anne Down Lesley-Anne Down (born 17 March 1954) is a British actress and singer. She made her motion picture debut in the 1969 drama film '' The Smashing Bird I Used to Know'' and later appeared in films ''Assault'' (1971), '' Countess Dracula'' (1971) a ...

. It was produced by Alexander Paal. ''Countess Dracula'' was inspired by the infamous Hungarian Countess

Elizabeth Báthory Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed (, ; ; 7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the powerful House of Báthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Slovakia). Báthory and fo ...

(1560–1614), a landowner and noblewoman who was accused of murdering dozens of women and girls. Her husband was

Ferenc Nádasdy Count Ferenc II Nádasdy de Nádasd et Fogarasföld (6 October 1555 – 4 January 1604) was a Hungarian nobleman and a distinguished soldier. His family, the Nádasdy family, was one of the wealthiest and most influential of the era in Hung ...

, Nádasdy being the surname given to the Countess in the film.

Plot

In 17th-century

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, recently widowed Countess Elisabeth Nádasdy discovers that her youthful appearance and

libido In psychology, libido (; ) is psychic drive or energy, usually conceived of as sexual in nature, but sometimes conceived of as including other forms of desire. The term ''libido'' was originally developed by Sigmund Freud, the pioneering origin ...

can be temporarily restored if she bathes in the blood of young women. She enlists her steward and lover Captain Dobi and her maid Julie to help with the

kidnap Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

and murder of several local girls, whilst beginning a romance with a young Lieutenant named Imre Toth. As a cover for her crimes while in her rejuvenated state, she takes the identity of her own 17-year-old daughter, Countess Ilona, whom she has Dobi hold captive in the woods by the mute money gambler. However, castle historian Fabio grows suspicious. Eventually, she kills a prostitute called Ziza, but her blood does not restore her like the others. Dobi finds Fabio, who has a book-chapter about blood sacrifices and tells Elisabeth the truth in return for being allowed to live. He reveals that only virgin blood will restore Elisabeth's youth and beauty. Elisabeth then kills a peasant girl bought in the marketplace. Fabio tries to tell Toth the truth about her, but Dobi kills Fabio before he can do so. Dobi then exposes Elisabeth to Toth to steer him away from her. Elisabeth forces Toth into marrying her, but her daughter Ilona arrives home, having been brought by Dobi as a sacrifice, then freed by a repentant Julie who loved her as a daughter. At the wedding, Elisabeth grows old again after the priest pronounces the blessing. She tries to kill her daughter in front of the wedding attendees, but accidentally kills Toth instead. Elisabeth, Dobi and Julie are sentenced to death for their crimes and are last seen awaiting the hangman in their cell. In the final scene, the peasants curse Elisabeth as a "devil woman" and "Countess Dracula".

Cast

* Ingrid Pitt as Countess Elisabeth Nadasdy (voice dubbed by Olive Gregg, uncredited) * Nigel Green as Captain Dobi, castle steward * Sandor Elès as Lt. Imre Toth * Maurice Denham as Grand Master Fabio, castle historian * Patience Collier as Julie Szentes, nurse *

as Countess Ilona Nadasdy, Elisabeth's daughter * Peter Jeffrey as Captain Balogh, chief bailiff * Leon Lissek as Sergeant of Bailiffs * Jessie Evans as Rosa, Teri's mother * Andria Lawrence as Ziza, whore at the Shepperd's Inn * Susan Brodrick as Teri, chambermaid * Niké Arrighi as fortune-telling gypsy girl *

Marianne Stone Marianne Stone (23 August 1922 – 21 December 2009) was an English character actress. She performed in films from the early 1940s to the late 1980s, typically playing working class parts such as barmaids, secretaries and landladies. Stone app ...

as kitchen maid * Charles Farrell as seller * Anne Stallybrass as pregnant woman * Michael Cadman as young man * Ian Trigger as clown * Alex Greenland (uncredited) as choirboy * Hülya Babuş as dancer

Production

The original music score was composed by Harry Robertson.

Release

The film opened at the New Victoria cinema in London on 31 January 1971 before going on general release in the UK on 14 February. It opened October 1972 in the United States. It was released on a double bill with '' Vampire Circus'' (1972).

Critical reception

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

has retrospectively called the film "one of the more underrated films from the latter days of the Hammer Films dynasty." ''The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films'', on the other hand, wrote that the film's "distinctly anemic blood-lettings fail to lift a rather tiresome tale of court intrigue." ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' film critic Howard Thompson considered it "better than most orror moviesin a sea of trashy competition", and called Peter Sasdy's direction "smooth and pointed" with "crisp, cutting edge" dialogue, until the last act of the film where "it runs out of gas, along with the desperate old woman ountess Elizabeth" David Pirie of ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' called the acting "extremely poor," but found that the film "frequently takes on a nightmare quality" and that Pitt "brings to the part a very potent aura of physical corruption that is especially effective in the transformation sequences."

Home media

The film is available on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

from

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

in the US as a

double-bill The double feature is a Film, motion picture industry phenomenon in which theaters would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which the presentation of one feature film would be followed by various short subjec ...

with '' The Vampire Lovers'', and from Carlton in the UK in a

box set A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...

with '' Twins of Evil'' and '' Vampire Circus''. Synapse released a

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

/DVD combo pack in the U.S. in 2014, which featured a new high-definition transfer.

References

External links

* *
''Countess Dracula''
full movie on YouTube
''Countess Dracula''
then-and-now location photographs a
ReelStreets
{{Hammer Horror 1971 films 1971 horror films 1970s biographical films 1970s historical horror films 1970s serial killer films 20th Century Fox films British biographical films British historical horror films British serial killer films Films about kidnapping Films about dysfunctional families Films about infidelity Films about virginity Films set in castles Films set in the 1600s Films set in the 1610s Films set in country houses Films set in Hungary Films shot at Pinewood Studios Hammer Film Productions horror films Cultural depictions of Elizabeth Báthory Films directed by Peter Sasdy 1970s English-language films 1970s British films Films scored by Harry Robertson English-language crime films English-language historical horror films English-language biographical films