Andy Warhol's Dracula (1974)

   
Directed by: Paul Morrissey & Antonio Margheriti

Written by: Paul Morrissey & Pat Hackett

Starring:


Joe Dallesandro .... Mario Balato, the Servant
Udo Kier .... Count Dracula
Arno Juerging .... Anton, the Count's Servant
Maxime McKendry .... La Marchesa Di Fiore
Dominique Darel .... Saphira
Stefania Casini .... Rubina
Silvia Dionisio .... Perla

Milena Vukotic .... Esmeralda


Release Date: Theatrical: March 1, 1974 (West Germany); November 27, 1974 (USA); Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema: April 5, 1999

*Images courtesy at: www.vampire-world.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rating:

 

The Count (Udo Kier) needs to drink an amount of virgin blood or he would need to move to a permanent coffin.
Him and his assistant Anton (Arno Juerging) travel to Italy with his coffin to find virgin as he is aware that families there are religious and searches for his vigin bride.
He stays in a mansion where there are four virgins ready for marriage. However, they are not as they say they are as an obnoxious male servant named Mario Balato (Joe Dallesandro) fornicates and rapes them.
While the Count spends the night with them and drinks their blood he gets sick and the four sisters behave like sleazy vegetables.
The Count needs to find who the virgin is before he dies or has a stake through his heart by Mario.

 

The film seems to have a nice artsy beginning showing Dracula putting make up on his face. Doing this very carefully and dying his hair which gives it that nice Warhol feel to it. Things looked good and string when there's a serious discussion with Dracula's servent Anton on what he has to do in order on finding a virgin in Italy as well as having what we see a virgin type young lady being introduced to him as this looked pretty impressive. The camera shots on them were well done while discussing this were fabulous and looked very old fashioned like.
A good touch to the story when Dracula is disgusted by the flea bitten motel he's staying in as well as a crucifix being hung on the wall and him throwing it away since we all know that vampire's hate those kinds since it wards them off. Also things seem perfectly twisted when he seems to have a seizure when he's hungry for female blood shaking on his bed. This is certainly something different here and quite bizarre. Also later on in the story Anton hands him a piece of bread with virgin blood soaked in it which looked believeably gross when we spot Dracula sucking out the blood from the bread with good close up shots on this.
Then in another scene things look peaceful in the back yard of a mansion and spotting three wealthy sisters ready to do some yard work which looked pretty crafty. Also it gets really interesting when the two older siblings Saphira and Rubina discuss on how hot it is and are about to pull their tops down along with their younger one Perla neglecting this along with the other two acting rebellious and taunting her. All this was perfectly put in too and grabs your attention big time. Also a great camera shot on our main character Mario Balato, the Servant walking up to them and showing a disgusted attitude which also can be fondly remembered while watching this film.
There's many great artsy shots on Mario fornicating with both Saphira and Rubina in bed which looked nicely lit as well as their discussions with one another and nice sleazy one liners by Mario wanting to rape their younger sister in which was done in a good nasty taste here. Also what's even more twisted is when the tow sisters are making out with one another later on since they are total whores in the film it seems to work well.
There's also a great intense and powerful moment in a shack with Mario talking towards Rubina and smacking her around along with a good intense rape scene in which there's nice close up shots here making you wonder if she will finally give in. This certainly gives the story a nice psychological feel to it and knowing that this guy is definetely bad news big time.
More nice camera shots with the mother La Marchesa Di Fiore introducing Dracula to all his daughters in who he will choose in marriage and are supposedly all virgins in which was put together perfectly.
There's a good moment with Dracula talking towards Rubina asking if she is a virgin in which looked pretty creepy on how strong he was coming on towards her as this leaves an impression that he will bite her neck. Alot of nice close up shots and the moments are very powerful here too and very old fashioned dracula horror like too.. There's also a great shot on Dracula with his face changing after he realises that he wasn't drinking virgin blood and gross out shots on him puking in a bathtub in which I found a bit too long.
There's great sharp discussions with Saphira talking towards Mario in bed having a stuck up attitude as this really draws in very well. Perfectly well done here. Also later on she cusses at him and he smacks her and then pulls her head to his crotch which looked prefectly sleazy and violent too. This is a scene we can't forget since it is a Warhol/Morrisey flick as this looks quite common for their tastes.
There's a great spooky dark shot on Rubina walking in a hallway down some stairs not being herself at all which draws in well to the horror plot here.
A nice moment with Dracula talking towards Saphira which looked spooky as well as her noticing that there's no reflection on him in the mirror since this was done right for a vampire flick. We all know something terrible is going to happen after this and boy was it intense when we see what goes on. The horror starts to pile up more so now.
There's a real creepy moment when La Marchesta tells Anton about her youngest daughter Perla being too young for marriage and a total virgin which I will never forget and done in perfect spooky taste when he hears about this as the close up shots on his face on him looked perfect.
Nice spooky moments with Saphira and Rubina forcing Perla to come into a bedroom in which this looked perectly haunting like.
Then the best moments were yet to come with Mario charging in for the rescue by chasing after Dracula with an axe as alot of what goes on here looked good and graphic. If you have a strong stomach or can't handle exptreme violence you may want to skip this but for die hard horror fans who love horror violence this moment is for you. It looked good and dark by what is happening here along with a nice dark twisted secret on one of the other mysterious sisters and finding out her relationship between dracula in which looked incredibly intense and powerful. This brought on the horror to the story bigf time and the makers saved the best for last here.
Bottom line is that most of Andy Warhol's films are pure crap if you've seen Flesh, Women in Revolt or Trash but this one was a real improvement.
I liked this one as it was considered a take on Bram Stokers Dracula flick plus it has a real feel to those old vampire movies.
Well done and does look believeably old fashioned B&W vampire type of flick with a bit more gore and artsy lust involved but the story drags alot with some pointless dialogues but it picks up afterwards.

The acting is fairly good. Former hustler Little Joe Dallesandro (Mario Balato the Servant) has improved alot more than his past Warhol films as he probably held off doing drugs while being on set and had a great sleazy and nasty aggression to his character but yet his energy is still low many times in the film. He presents himself strongly here. He seems to do well with his sleazy actions along with showing a great inense rage while he acts violent and forceful to the women he rapes in the flick. However there was one scene where he slaps a woman which looke d awee bit slow. He does a great job charging after with an axe to save the day in which his adrenaline looked very high while doing all of this.
Seeing Udo Kier (Count Dracula) in this film almost promises you that he'd be the next Bela Lugosi and shows wonderful character to his role as a weak from blood hunger Dracula. He does well trmebling and shaking when he's hungry for blood and acts weak which all looked believeable. He also shows great wide eyed expressions while he is about to bite someone or showing perfect shocked reactions after drinking some blood. Plus he was incredibly believeable while getting sick too. He does well with his paranoid speaking and freaked out reactions along with his hissing type attitude too. This guy derserves a good pat on the back.
Arno Juerging (Anton, the Count's Servant) was probably considered the best out of all the cast with his perfect looks, sharp speaking and wicked actions along with being a terrific servant to Dracula making all of his actions come to life doing so. He was great with his expressionless behavior and firm attitude knowing on how to portray a great commander. Plus he shows a perfect wicked expression during a certain scene of the film which shows total class here and coming across as someone you shouldn't trust at all. In the end of his performance he has a great anxious behavior in which he looked totally energetic.
Maxime McKendry
(La Marchesa Di Fiore) comes off perfectly with her speech whenever she talks in the film as a strict as nails and snooty rich mother to her virgin daughters in the film. She really went with the flow into what she does here and shows a perfect sternness to a certain moment which looked prefectly done. She was a terrific character actress and knew her role inside out.
Domenique Darrel
(Saphira) does a wonderful job as the stuck up sleazy sister who eagerly wanted to lose her virginity. She was great by acting taunting like as well as playing hard to get which shined off greatly. Also she know on how to act cool with her sleazy speaking. I found her to be one of the best cast members in the film and was believeable with her rebellious actions in it. She was quite arsty in her performance too. Her looks were a plus to top it off.
Silvia Dionisio
(Perla) came across wonderfully as the youngest of the virgin sisters and brought her part by being innocent incredibly realisticly.
She knew on how to act soft spoken with whatever she did in the film as well as just acting light about things. She also does a nice job acting upset in certain moments as it looked fairly natural.
Milena Vukotic (Esmeralda) looked effective in her part as she does well acting mysterious and silent like in her presence of the story drawing your attention making you wonder as to if she has a secret or not. Also she was great during the end of her perfformance screaming hysterically and acting crazy showing a perfect high intensity and rolling in with the punches here. She made her part the most memorable in the film.

Plenty of nudity as both Dominique Darel and Stefania Casini pull down their tops breasts exposed while working in a backyard of their mansion also they fully expose themselves while they are fornicating with Joe Dallesandro's character Mario in bed (Joe has the typical butt shot) as well as him ripping off their clothes in other scenes and they pull down their blouse to expose their breasts during Joe's first scene outside while they're working.
Darel
is fully nude from top to bottom during a few scene's especially when she is standing in a bathtub washing herself.
Darel
and Casini are in bed together after being bitten by Dracula fully breasted.

Lots of blood including Dracula throwing up lots of it.
A bloody bullet shot in the head is revealed.
Dracula's arms and legs are also chopped off during the end of the film with blood gushing out.

The music is wonderfully classically composed by Claudio Gizzi as it does sound like a 20's or 30's type of film along with some great soothing music for the lustful moments with perfect clarinet playing. There's also alot of light piano playing for the still moments too. Plus there's perfect piano pounding during a situation when the character Mario opens up a coffin which adds to the suspense in what we will find out what he spots. In other spots we hear some italian guitar plucking which seems impressive too. There's even the oddstrong organ music when Dracula tries to avoid a room where there's religious settings in there. Great powerful violin chanting during the chase with Mario hacking away Dracula with an axe. Yes the music was very versatile here folks. He did the same for Andy Warhol's other flick Frankenstein.

Mario: Where's your younger sister? I'd like to rape the shit out of her

Count Dracula: The blood of these whores is killing me.