Vincent Price’s Dracula (aka Dracula: the Great Undead) is a 1982 American documentary directed by John Muller and Jerry Fijalkowski from a script by Kate Lonsdale and Ted Lonsdale.
Vincent Price presents this ‘historical’ horror documentary. There’s stock footage of battles that vaguely relates to Vlad the Impaler‘s bloody reign and his doomed fight against the incursions of the Islamic Turks into Wallachia.
This is followed by an apparent overview of various screen incarnations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula character, though its more specifically vampires in general, if they are public domain and the rights, are not owned by Universal or Hammer. Films covered are Murnau’s Nosferatu; Vampyr; Mark of the Vampire; a fuzzy clip from Return of the Vampire; small-town science fiction addiction nightmare The Vampire (1957); and The Return of Dracula (1958). Yep, that’s Dracula’s outings on-screen fully covered!
The final section is folklore orientated and mondo-style with wailing women “peasants” at graveside locales. The obvious poverty in Communist Romania in 1982 is presented with a satisfyingly smug sneer.
Unsurprisingly, Price’s delivery is thoroughly engaging, typically camp and definitely worth 50 minutes of any horror fan’s time. He ends with a salutary “Good morning” and the wee hours is perhaps the perfect time to enjoy one of the horror legend’s later performances, albeit via this opportunist cheapo documentary.
Adrian J Smith, MOVIES and MANIA
