Scars of Dracula (1970)
Dir. Roy Ward Baker
Written by Anthony Hinds, using the name "John Elder"
Starring Chirstopher Lee, Christopher Matthew, Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley
For the last six years, I have been doling out the Hammer Studios DRACULA films at the rate of one-per-October, trying to recreate the experience of being a Hammer fan over the course of 1958 to 1974 as the once-genre-defining series gradually slipped into obsolete mediocrity. But even watching these six films in a sped-up six years rather than the 12 years that would have passed for OG Hammer fans between THE HORROR OF DRACULA and SCARS OF DRACULA, the decline has been less precipitous than I assumed it would be; while none of the increasingly unnecessary sequels (and increasingly frequent; after only producing two sequels between 1958 and 1966, SCARS would be the second DRACULA sequel to premier in 1970 alone*) are anywhere near the level of the superior original, even six movies in the quality has been reasonably consistent. Of the six films leading to this point, last go-round's TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA is probably the weakest, and not only is it still a decently enjoyable time, but its immediate sequel --which we concern ourselves with here-- is actually an unambiguous improvement. Honest to God, even as the studio was floundering into the 70's (the same year they'd try an abortive re-boot of their flagship FRANKENSTEIN series without Peter Cushing) and only six years from their final theatrical horror film, their sixth DRACULA sequel is not obviously any worse than the generally well-liked second sequel DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS.
Of course, the reason that one might feel tempted to compare those two movies is that they're basically identical. Once again, you have Dracula (Christopher Lee, THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN) getting resurrected** and lurking around his (now much more modestly appointed) castle until a handful of clueless pretty young people show up and try to hang out there, while Dracula tries to vampirize the women. That's pretty much the exact plot of PRINCE OF DARKNESS, with a smattering of DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE in that there's also some business revolving around a local pub where Michael Ripper is the proprietor (but a surly innkeeper compared to his cheerful one in RISEN FROM THE GRAVE), and a sympathetic and sexually-frustrated barmaid who is vastly more interesting than the wooden female lead lends some assistance and comes to a bad end. It's a sturdy enough formula to get the job done, but there's no getting around the fact that we've seen all of this before (and audiences in 1970 had seen it just six months earlier, as TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA had premiered in May). And it doesn't help that it's not only the same thing, but a noticeably cheaper version of the same thing, with smaller and chintzier sets and no significant escalation in the sleaze or violence to give it more juice.
That having been said, there are a few details that give it at least a little distinction. For one thing, I like that it begins with a scenario that is part and parcel of the FRANKENSTEIN series but has not yet turned up in DRACULA: the townsfolk, fed up with having their most voluptuous women constantly exsanguinated, gather an angry mob (led by Michael Ripper as an unusually action-prone tavern owner) and storm up to the castle to torch it. This ends up working out poorly for them, but hey, it was worth a try; unfortunately the trauma associated with the fallout from this incident makes them very disinclined to be helpful to anyone else who might want to try to take down the Count. In a long series abundant with surly, suspicious townsfolk, I think this is the first time we actually get enough of their perspective that we sort of understand where they're coming from.
And like DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, this has one of the more tolerable Generically Handsome White Guy Protagonists of the whole Hammer canon; obscure actor Christopher Matthews (IMDB reports his most known role is "radar technician" in a handful of Dr. Who episodes) is actually a lot of fun as good-hearted lothario Paul (oddly, he has the same name as Barry Andrews' similarly tolerable protagonist from RISEN FROM THE GRAVE) who turns the first half-hour into a cheeky sex romp which takes a PSYCHO-esque twist when he discovers he is, in fact, in a vampire movie. Unfortunately this turns out to be a big problem, because SCARS OF DRACULA is one of those perplexingly numerous Hammer movies (see: THE GORGON) which switches protagonists and restarts halfway through, this time abruptly pivoting to Paul's much, much lamer brother Simon (Dennis Waterman, apparently famous for tough-guy roles in The Sweeney and Minder, but a total dishtowel here) and Simon's personality-free fiancé (Jenny Hanley, one of Blofeld's sex cult haram in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE), who basically exactly reenact the film's first 40 minutes but with less charisma.
Still, it wouldn't be the first Hammer film to succeed in spite of an iffy structure and some bland young people as protagonists. Things are much better off in the villain department, with Lee given probably the most screen time and the most active part he's had in the whole series. His take on the character (playing Drac as a predatory force of nature just barely masked by a veneer of regal civility) is much better-suited to this story structure than it has been to the last few sequels, and he seems engaged enough that you would never guess what a huge baby he was about returning again and again to the series that made him a star. He has a few moments of titillating brutality which, while still kind of tame by Italian standards in 1970, would nonetheless be further than Hammer could have pushed the boundaries back when this thing kicked off in 1958 (although for my money, PRINCE OF DARKNESS is more shocking). Oh, and they finally do the thing where Dracula scampers up the castle walls (one of the more memorable images of the novel, and ignored by the franchise thus far), and --even more welcome-- The Count gets what is unquestionably his most awesome death in this series (which, admittedly, is more notable for how lame his deaths have been up til now).
So it's probably Lee's most impactful outing since the original, and he's given a solid assist by the Renfield-like*** "Klove" (Patrick Troughton, the second Dr. Who, and memorably impaled by a lighting rod in THE OMEN), who really leans into the character's pathetic misery in a way that gives the film what little bit of drama it possesses. Plus there's 1000% more bat action than any of the previous sequels, which is admirable but perhaps a bit reckless considering the, um, quality of the bat puppet they procured. And they think of a lot of good excuses to zoom in on Hanley's cleavage, so, you know, obviously these guys know their business.
So really it's not that there's a lot wrong with SCARS OF DRACULA, so much as there's just nothing that justifies returning to this exact same material for a sixth time. On one hand, it feels like a genuine surprise that they were able to maintain the basic quality this long -- I had assumed, based on the next movie, that this series was already a cheap joke by this point. It's not; if this were the third or even fourth sequel, we might even find ourselves in a position to be more kindly disposed to a scrappy little retread with a handful of decent genre beats. But yeah, it's hard to ignore that the sixth sequel --and the second in a single year!-- really needed more of a hook to justify its existence.**** Unfortunately, Hammer seemed to agree with me, and the next sequel has the kind of hook that makes one long for the classical, tried-and-true simplicity of SCARS OF DRACULA.
* And since Lee also appeared as the Count in Jess Franco's non-Hammer DRACULA and as an unnamed but Dracula-like vampire in Jerry Lewis' ONE MORE TIME the same year, 1970 probably marked the high-water mark of any one actor playing Dracula -- or, hell, any specific character-- in terms of pure volume.
** This time a Bat spits blood on his bones before the credits, and that's that; the most "fuck it, whatever, somehow Palpatine returned" resurrection until Renny Harlin had a dog piss fire on Freddy Krueger. Notably, Drac's corpse seems to be back in his castle, which is a significant break in continuity from the preceding TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, where he died in an abandoned church. The series hasn't been huge on continuity up to this point, but I believe this is the first one that doesn't even gesture towards it.
*** Weirdly, none of the Hammer Dracula movies actually have a character named "Renfield." He's completely absent from HORROR OF DRACULA, but similarly shows up as a character named "Klove" (played by a different actor) in PRINCE OF DARKNESS. Was there a copyright issue or something?
**** Actually, this does have a hook that features in one of the series' goriest images. So maybe just a little more ambition would do it.
(see also: Hammer’s FRANKENSTEIN series)