Re-viewing THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA (1973)

Because THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA (1973) was recently bought out on Blu-ray by Warner Archives I decided to revisit it. As the last of Hammer's Dracula films I've always considered this to be the nadir of that studio's run of vampire epics. My memories of it were that it was poor on almost every level with barely any actual Dracula presence in the story. It was only because of the chance to see a cleaned up HD print showing the film at it's best that I decided to rewatch it and I am glad I did!

I remembered only a few things about the film including the one image almost everyone takes from it. This would be the vampire brides rising from their basement coffins to attack potential victims. These sequences are still quite memorable and effective but the things I had forgotten were numerous!

Bizarrely, I had forgotten that Peter Cushing was even in this film! How the hell did I edit Cushing out of this? Was I trying to excuse him from a movie I thought was beneath him? But there he is front and center playing the same Van Helsing character he played in the previous year's DRACULA A.D. 72 and getting involved in the mystery at the heart of this one. And he's great, as always. I had forgotten that the amazing Freddie Jones is in this doing his usual brilliant, brittle loon character who is teetering on the edge of madness. And he's great, as always. I had completely forgotten the entire MI-6 James Bondian style plot of the film and I found myself very much enjoying how well written it is. I was having quite a lot of fun before the supernatural element in the story advanced beyond somebody possibly screwing over old rich people with occult silliness. Watching British spies work off-book to discover if their superiors are doing dastardly things is entertaining enough on it's own.

But the thing I was most surprised that I had completely mis-remembered was the ending of the film. I correctly remembered that Dracula gets caught in hawthorn bushes but incorrectly thought he was killed by this entanglement. No, no! Drac gets stopped by these thorn bushes and then Cushing grabs a convenient piece of wood and stakes that sucker good! And I mean he leans into this action. It is vicious and well done. How could I have forgotten this? It's the end of the movie! And the end for Hammer of the Lee Dracula character. It's a great vampire destruction and I just edited it out or my head. Nuts!

I stand corrected on the qualities of THE SATANIC RITE OF DRACULA (1973). It was not a sad, silly, sloppy ending for the series. It actually quite strong and I'm glad that the Blu-Ray exists.

Trailers From Hell - BONE (1972)

I, like all his fans, was sad to learn of the passing of filmmaker Larry Cohen. Even when his input was only a script that might get messed up by producers and directors I knew the resulting movie would have something of interest. And when Mr.Cohen had control over a picture you were going to get something special. I'm glad he lived long enough to record Blu-Ray commentaries for so many of his films and cool tracks like this one for Trailers From Hell. 

So long, sir! 

The Bloody Pit #83 - TORNADO: THE LAST BLOOD (1983)

John Hudson and I dive back into our years long look at the career of Italian director Antonio Margheriti with a show on one of his early 80's war films. Known under several titles but currently available to stream on Amazon under TORNADO (1983) this is a violent action picture modeled closely on the hit movies THE DEER HUNTER and APOCALYPSE NOW. Like those bigger budgeted affairs this film tries to make statements about the horrors of the Vietnam war while simultaneously bringing exciting action scenes to the big screen. This attempted balance doesn't always play well in any story and we find ourselves differing on the success of this effort. And both of us end up puzzled by TORNADO's odd ending leaving the two of us wondering what might have been the original intent.

Still, we enjoy quite a few things in the film including the regular appearance of the Alan Collins a.k.a. Luciano Pigozzi as an intrepid reporter trying to do his job in combat. He's one of our favorite Italian character actors even if I manage to get his first name wrong at least once in this episode!

We discuss the details of this fast paced tale and spoil the entire film right to the final scene so, if you want to see this without knowing how it ends, you might want to listen to us after a viewing. Luckily this one isn't difficult to find online although, as a warning, Margheriti continues his streak of onscreen reptile deaths with this film. Of course, he dips his lead actor in a pit of pig feces as well so maybe things equal out in the end. Our conversation takes many barely related side roads (Eddie Dezeen?) but we do eventually wind our way back to the main topic each time. And, for the curious, the damned invisible chimp rears his unwanted head again. Why do I record shows with Hudson? 

Questions and comments can be sent to thebloodypit@gmail.com or left on the show's Facebook page. We'd love to hear from your thoughts about the films of Antonio Margheriti or any of the odd things we babble about in this one. Thank you for playing along with our lengthy trip through these films and we hope you enjoy this episode.

Apple Podcast LINK

MP3 Download LINK

Terra Cover Gallery

I'm fascinated by the covers for this German anthology science fiction magazine. 

Poster Art for THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA (1973)

A BELL FROM HELL (1973) - Missing Scenes

After Troy and I recorded our podcast covering this excellent film I was informed by Robert Monell that the DVD we were using as a reference was actually incomplete. He told me that it was missing a few scenes for some reason and I was flabbergasted! A frantic search had me rechecking my sources looking for details with no luck. But then FaceBook friend Eric Cotenas messaged me with a YouTube link to a copy of the (rather dark looking) Unicorn VHS version of the film with the missing footage. It seems that at around 47 minute 25 second mark is where it can be found so you can use this video to either watch the entire film or jump to that spot to see the three short scenes that were trimmed. They take place at the party John throws for his aunt and cousins. After John and Esther dance around the room these scenes have more dialog between the family members that spell out the 'romantic' entanglements that contributed to John's stay in an asylum. This information is missing from the Pathfinder DVD we used which cuts bluntly from the dancing to the dinner table deleting this rather dark discussion as well as the aunt assuring one of the girls that 'After the verdict we'll sell the house'.  This is a shame as this shows how worried the editor of the print used for the DVD might have been about the film's main character being presented as an attempted rapist. This is odd considering that the DVD cut has more gore and nudity than the version with the missing two minutes of intriguing information delivered with dialog. Here's a link to a spot with details of the missing scenes or you can watch them below -



Also, Mr Cotenas had this note - "I think The Bells is the export title as the font matches the rest of the title sequence and the shot is uninterrupted whereas the Bell from Hell title may be a somewhat more accurate translation but appears in a plain font over a cutaway shot. Perhaps the preparers of the English version were thinking of Poe."  This dovetails well with Troy's idea that someone might have been trying to sell this film as another Poe adaptation!

So, as Mr. Monell stated, there is no truly satisfactory digital version of this film. I once again call for a definitive release on Blu-Ray as soon as possible! It's just not acceptable that you have to watch multiple version of a movie to see the complete film.

Thanks to Robert Monell and Erc Cotenas for their help.

Poster and Video Art for A BELL FROM HELL (1973)