The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1973
Running Times: 87 mins
Format: Technicolor     35mm
Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Hammer Films
Producer: Roy Skeggs
Associate Producer: Don Houghton
Production Manager: Ron Jackson

SCRIPT
Script: Don Houghton

DIRECTION
Director: Alan Gibson
Assistant Director: Derek Whitehurst

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Brian Probyn
Camera Operator: Chic Anstiss
Labs: Technicolor

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Chris Barnes

MUSIC
Musical Supervisor: Philip Martell
Music: John Cacavas

SOUND
Sound Recording: Claude Hitchcock
Sound Editor: Terry Poulton
Dubbing Mixer: Dennis Whitlock
Sound System: RCA Sound Recording

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: George Blackler
Hair: Maud Onslow
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rebecca Breed

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Les Bowie

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Lionel Couch
Assistant Art Director: Don Picton
Construction Manager: Ken Softley

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Elizabeth Wilcox

LOCATIONS
Locations: EMI/MGM Elstree Studios, Boreham Wood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

CASTING
Casting Director: James Liggat

CAST
Christopher Lee (Count Dracula)
Peter Cushing (Professor Laurimer Van Helsing)
Michael Coles (Inspector Murray)
William Franklyn (Torrence)
Freddie Jones (Professor Keeley)
Joanna Lumley (Jessica)
Richard Vernon (Mathews)
Barbara Lu Ying (Chin Yang)
Patrick Barr (Lord Carradine)
Richard Mathews (Porter)
Lockwood West (Freeborne)
Valerie Van Ost (Jane)
Maurice O'Connell (Hanson)
Peter Adair (doctor)
Maggie Fitzgerald, Pauline Peart, Finnuala O'Shannon, Mia Martin (Vampire Girls)
John Harvey (commissionaire)
Marc Zuber (guard 1)
Paul Weston (guard 2)
Ian Dewar (guard 3)
Graham Rees (guard 4)

PLOT SUMMARY

Dracula is now passing himself off as D.D. Denham, a property developer operating out of offices built on the site of the now demolished St Bartolph's church. Meanwhile, government security agency SI7 is investigating the mysterious PERGE (Psychical Examination and Research Group) and the presence at its headquarters, Pelham House, of prominent industrialists, politicians and scientists. When one of their agents gets out of Pelham House, albeit fatally wounded, with tales of Satanic rituals, Special Branch officer Murray calls in Lorrimer Van Helsing as a consultant. Together they learn that one of the men, Professor Julian Keeley has developed the aforementioned strain of bubonic plague for Denham, whom Van Helsing of course reveals to be Dracula. Van Helsing deduces that Dracula has finally grown tired of his endless cycle of deaths and rebirths and plans to destroy every human on the planet...

Satanic Rites of Dracula is an unholy hybrid of Hammer Horror, James Bond and The Avengers, but without the wit, panache or style of any of them. Houghton's script throws in some clever twists on vampire lore (the vampire brides in Dracula's basement are killed by a sprinkler system!) but his best ideas are simply thrown away - the notion that Dracula, a parasitic bloodsucker, is a property developer has a certain subversive charm, but Houghton abandons this neat idea in his rush to get into the action movie shenanigans. Lee and Cushing are visibly upset throughout, their performances being easily the worst of his time at Hammer, though as they're given so little to do one can hardly blame them if he simply didn't bother.

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Warner Bros.
Video Distributor: Warner Bros.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Dynamite Entertainment
Video Distributor: Anchor Bay Entertainment Inc; Liberty Home Video; UAV
DVD Distributor: Diamond Entertainment; Anchor Bay Entertainment Inc (DV 10503 - includes: the World of Hammer episode Dracula and the Undead)

Australia
Rating: M

Norway
Rating: 16

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: 18
UK video cut by a further 1 second

USA
Rating: R
Theatrical version, released as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride, was cut by 4 minutes

1974
January
13: UK - theatrical release

February
9: Sweden - theatrical release

1978
November
Day Unknown: USA - theatrical re-release

1979
August
18: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

1983
November
19: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)

1985
July
5: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

1990
July
11: UK - television broadcast (on ITV (Thames Television))

1992
September
9: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)

1996
December
20: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)

1998
September
4: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)

October
20: USA - DVD release (Anchor Bay Entertainment Inc (DV 10503))

2001
December
31: UK - television broadcast (on Channel Four)

The Masters of Menace Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. They're dead but they're alive...

There Is No Hope Left...

Evil begets evil on the sabbath of the undead!

The King of the Undead marries the Queen of the Zombies

Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride
Dracula braucht frisches Blut - German title
Dracula Is Alive and Well and Living in London
Dracula Is Dead... and Well and Living in London
Dracula och djävulsdyrkarna - Swedish title
Dracula vit toujours à Londres - French title
Rites of Dracula
Los ritos satánicos de Drácula - Spanish title
I satanici riti di Dracula - Italian title

SEQUEL TO
Dracula (1958)
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966)
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
Scars of Dracula (1970)
Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

MAGAZINES

CinemaTV Today no.10007 (18 November 1972) p.10 (UK)
credits

Dark Terrors no.17 (2000) p.45 (UK)
illustrated video review

Flesh and Blood no.3 (1994) p.38 (UK)
illustrated credits, review

Hollywood Reporter vol.224 no.5 (1 December 1972) p.17 (USA)
credits

The House That Hammer Built no.8 (April 1998) pp.449 - 456 (UK)
illustrated credits, synopsis, review

Monsters From the Vault no.2 p.12 (USA)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.41 no.482 (March 1974) p.51 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review

Photon no.27 (1976) pp.9-10 (USA)
review

Samhain no.62 p.32
review

Variety 6 December 1978 p.42 (USA)
credits, review

Video Junkie no.1 pp.25-26
review

Video Watchdog 19 p.7 (USA)
review

BOOKS

Creature Features Strikes Again p.334
credits, review (by John Stanley)

Elliot's Guide to Films on Video (3rd edition) p.701
credits, review

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Fantasy and Horror Movies 1991 - 1992 p.176
credits, review

The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide p.90
credits, review

cults, dracula, sequels, vampire slayers, vampires

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008