Countess Dracula

Countess Dracula
Film poster
Directed by	Peter Sasdy
Produced by	Alexander Paal
Written by	Jeremy Paul
Starring	Ingrid Pitt
Music by	Harry Robertson
Cinematography	Kenneth Talbot
Editing by	Henry Richardson
Distributed by	Hammer Film Productions Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	January 31, 1971 (1971-01-31)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Countess Dracula is a 1971 Hammer horror film based on the legends surrounding the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Báthory. It is in many ways atypical of Hammer's canon, attempting to broaden Hammer's output from Dracula and Frankenstein sequels.

The film was produced by Alexander Paal and directed by Peter Sasdy, Hungarian émigrés working in England. The original music score was composed by Harry Robertson.

Plot

In 17th-century Hungary, Countess Elisabeth Nádasdy discovers that her youthful appearance and libido can be temporarily restored if she bathes in the blood of young, virgin women. She enlists her steward and lover, Captain Dobi, to help with the kidnap and murder of countless local girls, whilst pursuing further sexual conquests with the likes of Lt. Imre Toth. As a cover for her crimes while in her rejuvenated state, she takes the identity of her own daughter; a plan that spirals out of control when her actual daughter, Ilona, returns home.

Cast

• Ingrid Pitt as Countess Elisabeth Nadasdy
• Nigel Green as Captain Dobi, the castle steward
• Sandor Elès as Lt. Imre Toth
• Maurice Denham as Grand Master Fabio, castle historian
• Patience Collier as Julia Szentes, the Nurse
• Lesley-Anne Down 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
• Andrea Lawrence as Ziza, the whore at the Shepperd's Inn
• Marianne Stone as Kitchen Maid
• Charles Farrell as The Seller
• Anne Stallybrass as Pregnant Woman

Availability

The film is available on DVD from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the USA as a double-bill with The Vampire Lovers, and from Carlton in the UK in a box set with Twins of Evil and Vampire Circus.

Trivia

• Ingrid Pitt's voice was dubbed. Supposedly, she was so furious at director Peter Sasdy that she vowed never to speak to him again.

• Countess Dracula was based on Hungarian Countess Erzsebet Bathory (our modern day Elizabeth) who lived from 1560 to 1614. Countess Bathory was allegedly responsible for the deaths of approximately six hundred virgin girls, all of which involved torture and gruesome methods of killing. Her atrocities are mostly speculation. She is credited for influencing our modern day concept of Dracula as an entity depending on human blood for youth and vitality.

• Countess Dracula is also known as Princess Daria Borisovna Semovsky in Dracula's Return, a sequel to Stoker's original novel by David Logan.

• The picture that appears behind the opening credits is an 1896 painting by Hungarian artist Istvan Csok. It shows the real Countess Bathory enjoying the torture of some young women by her servants. In an inner courtyard of one of her castles, the naked girls are being drenched with water and allowed to freeze to death in the snow.

• Ingrid Pitt replaced Diana Rigg who turned the role down.

• Although cuts were requested by the BBFC, (the film remains listed as edited on their website) the edits were never made following an appeal by Hammer to chief censor Stephen Murphy.

• Ingrid Pitt reprised her role as Countess Elizabeth on the 1998 Cradle of Filth album, Cruelty and the Beast.

External Links

• Countess Dracula at the Internet Movie Database
• Countesss Dracula at AllRovi