Doctor Omega
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The Satanic Rites of Dracula is a 1973 horror film directed by Alan Gibson and produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is the eighth film in Hammer's Dracula series, and the seventh and final one to feature Christopher Lee as Dracula. The film was also the third to unite Peter Cushing as Van Helsing with Lee, following Dracula (1958) and Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972).
Plot
Introduction
In 1974, a Secret Service agent (Maurice O'Connell) barely escapes from an English country house, in which satanic rituals are celebrated. Before he dies of his wounds, he reveals to his superiors that four prominent members of society – a government minister, a peer, a general and a famous scientist – are involved in the cult, led by Chin Yang (Barbara Yu Ling). Photos of the four dignitaries taken by the agent are developed, and a fifth photo, apparently showing an empty doorway, is assumed to be a mistake. In order to avoid any reprisals by the minister, secret service official Colonel Mathews (Richard Vernon) calls in Scotland Yard's Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) to work on the case independently. Murray (who had appeared in the preceding Dracula film) suggests consulting noted occult expert Professor Lorrimar Van Helsing (Peter Cushing).
Cast
- Christopher Lee as Count Dracula
- Peter Cushing as Lorrimer Van Helsing
- Michael Coles as Inspector Murray
- William Franklyn as Peter Torrence
- Joanna Lumley as Jessica Van Helsing
- Richard Vernon as Colonel Mathews
- Barbara Yu Ling as Chin Yang
- Freddie Jones as Dr Julian Keeley
- Maurice O'Connell as Agent Hanson
- Richard Mathews as John Porter MP
- Patrick Barr as Lord Carradine
- Lockwood West as General Sir Arthur Freeborne
- Peter Adair as Doctor
- Valerie Van Ost as Jane
- John Harvey as Commissionaire
- Maggie Fitzgerald, Pauline Peart, Finnuala O'Shannon and Mia Martin as Vampire girls
- Marc Zuber, Paul Weston, Ian Dewar and Graham Rees as Guards
The film included much of the original cast and characters of Dracula A. D. 1972, the main change being Joanna Lumley playing a more mature version of Jessica Van Helsing, as compared to Stephanie Beacham.
Work began on what was tentatively titled Dracula is Dead... and Well and Living in London in November 1972. The title was a parody of the stage and film musical revue Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, but Lee was not amused. Speaking at a press conference in 1973 to announce the film, Lee said:
I'm doing it under protest... [...] I think it is fatuous. I can think of twenty adjectives – fatuous, pointless, absurd. It's not a comedy, but it's got a comic title. I don't see the point.[2]
The film was eventually retitled as The Satanic Rites of Dracula. The French title, Dracula vit toujours à Londres, remains closer to what was initially planned, as it can be translated by Dracula is still Living in London. In the United States, the film was distributed as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride.
The film itself is a mixture of horror, science fiction and a spy thriller, with a screenplay by Don Houghton, a veteran of BBC's Doctor Who. The original score was composed by television composer John Cacavas. It wrapped on 3 January 1973 – 15 years to the day since the original Hammer Dracula.
This was the final Hammer film that Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing would make together. Lee was offered the role of Dracula opposite Cushing in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires but declined it. The two stars would eventually reunite one more time in House of the Long Shadows 10 years later.
Critical reception
AllMovie called it the "least interesting" film in the Hammer Dracula series.[3] Time Out wrote, "a lot of weak action scenes and weaker lines, but still a vast improvement on Dracula A.D."
