Searching round for Peter Cushing movies to watch for the upcoming October Challenge taking place on IMDb's Horror board,I was delighted to spot that a DVD seller had recently tracked down a French Horror that Cushing had made,which led to me getting ready to find out how tender Dracula could be.
The plot:
Expecting to be sacked,two scriptwriters are given a lifeline,when the studio boss tells them to pay a visit to retiring Horror actor MacGregor,in the hope of persuading him to take a lead role in an upcoming Romantic Drama TV show.Picking up their girlfriends,the writers head to the castle that MaGregor lives in.Arriving at the castle,the writers soon discover that MaGregor may have gone "method" for his role as Dracula.
View on the film:
Skipping over the option of making the title a straight-run Gothic Horror,co-writer/ (along with Hal Brav and Justin Lenoir) director Pierre Grunstein instead takes things in an eerie avant-garde direction,with Grunstein covering the rooms with white masks and having each of the characters dress in pre-French Revolution clothes.Along with Grunstein's peculiar directing style,the writers cover the film in a spooky psychedelic atmosphere,as the characters go from randomly breaking out into strange songs,to there being strong suggestion's that MacGregor is either Dracula playing an actor,or an actor playing Dracula!
Surfing the films wave of weirdness,Peter Cushing gives a deliciously flamboyant performance as MacGregor,with Cushing showing MacGregor to give everyone the shivers by chewing every piece of scenery in the film.Joining Cushing, Alida Valli gives a good performance as old dame Héloïse,who soon reveals how tender Dracula can be.
The plot:
Expecting to be sacked,two scriptwriters are given a lifeline,when the studio boss tells them to pay a visit to retiring Horror actor MacGregor,in the hope of persuading him to take a lead role in an upcoming Romantic Drama TV show.Picking up their girlfriends,the writers head to the castle that MaGregor lives in.Arriving at the castle,the writers soon discover that MaGregor may have gone "method" for his role as Dracula.
View on the film:
Skipping over the option of making the title a straight-run Gothic Horror,co-writer/ (along with Hal Brav and Justin Lenoir) director Pierre Grunstein instead takes things in an eerie avant-garde direction,with Grunstein covering the rooms with white masks and having each of the characters dress in pre-French Revolution clothes.Along with Grunstein's peculiar directing style,the writers cover the film in a spooky psychedelic atmosphere,as the characters go from randomly breaking out into strange songs,to there being strong suggestion's that MacGregor is either Dracula playing an actor,or an actor playing Dracula!
Surfing the films wave of weirdness,Peter Cushing gives a deliciously flamboyant performance as MacGregor,with Cushing showing MacGregor to give everyone the shivers by chewing every piece of scenery in the film.Joining Cushing, Alida Valli gives a good performance as old dame Héloïse,who soon reveals how tender Dracula can be.