CUSHING/LEE RETURN IN HAMMER'S 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLj6wsNMvmOObbLjC4P1KaZdU3v2CbQeM-op0_xy4s3Mb3q43cx0jF2nTEZFQBsv-B6e8JP_ZhOczoF6rX7TyWZECWL0K9xfd4zx6SK9nLVMXj8UHrjMlNPUIG6xlNrgrCcBEWEgiocPjuRC-8EzogmKi1fuRXzfHmKIsEnyY3Hw-8IJA3y4UB9HQJO5J/s1984/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%207.56.07%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="1984" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLj6wsNMvmOObbLjC4P1KaZdU3v2CbQeM-op0_xy4s3Mb3q43cx0jF2nTEZFQBsv-B6e8JP_ZhOczoF6rX7TyWZECWL0K9xfd4zx6SK9nLVMXj8UHrjMlNPUIG6xlNrgrCcBEWEgiocPjuRC-8EzogmKi1fuRXzfHmKIsEnyY3Hw-8IJA3y4UB9HQJO5J/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%207.56.07%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA shouldn't be considered Christopher Lee's seventh Dracula but his 2nd... after <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/drac72.html">DRACULA A. D. 1972</a>, which brought the famous vampire from the signature Victorian-era into the 20th Century including hippies, nightclubs, night parties and one important seance...<br><br>But that was then... and now, two years later, there's a reclusive billionaire inside a spooky corporate building shot in murky wide angle lenses... actually looking more antique Gothic than Dracula's awakening church from 1972...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

body-count, christopher lee, dracula, franchise, freddie jones, hammer films, joanna lumley, michael coles, peter cushing, thriller, vampire, william franklyn

CUSHING/LEE RETURN IN HAMMER'S 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA'

Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2 Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA shou...

HAMMER'S SWINGING LONDON COMEBACK OF 'DRACULA A.D. 1972'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7qOR0zD_28WY4P1xpRjVH_o6hAdjsh8XSzI5EjFQ8ha496EIdQlRlZt8g37HnKWqDb9oBnkM0EJDWKoXZ4NwtSnIlFhod9JuZBVojt1Am7mscTe-5WJO-KgXvADiptu0twbFTU24BHQg_FqjGDUdNp_VgpyJK4Oobgk0bk7fg_V_JPeZZuUv4orK2uKm/s1644/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-31%20at%204.28.15%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="1644" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7qOR0zD_28WY4P1xpRjVH_o6hAdjsh8XSzI5EjFQ8ha496EIdQlRlZt8g37HnKWqDb9oBnkM0EJDWKoXZ4NwtSnIlFhod9JuZBVojt1Am7mscTe-5WJO-KgXvADiptu0twbFTU24BHQg_FqjGDUdNp_VgpyJK4Oobgk0bk7fg_V_JPeZZuUv4orK2uKm/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-31%20at%204.28.15%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Peter Cushing scolds Christopher Neame in Dracula A.D. 1972 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A year after Hammer's progressively-sexual <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/karstein">Karstein Trilogy</a>, thrusting the classic vampire-horror into the counter-culture sensibilities while remaining in their signature Victorian Era, they finally skipped to the present, built right into the DRACULA A. D. 1972 title...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And while Peter Cushing's college professor Van Helsing heir has several long bouts of exposition and two third-act vampire battles, Christopher Lee basically hangs around at the same gothic church where he was reawakened by a young British swinger, who's basically the main character here, or at least, technically speaking, the most important...</p><span></span>

caroline munro, christopher lee, christopher neame, dracula, exploitation, hammer films, janet key, marsha a. hunt, michael coles, peter cushing, pip miller, seventies, stephanie beacham, vampire

HAMMER'S SWINGING LONDON COMEBACK OF 'DRACULA A.D. 1972'

Peter Cushing scolds Christopher Neame in Dracula A.D. 1972 Rating: ****1/2 A year after Hammer's progressively-sexual Karstein Trilogy ...

NIGEL PATRICK IN 'UNDERWORLD INFORMERS' AKA 'THE INFORMERS'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrybRA8NXnlNJbiFZSquxhA1SWXAo6xaTVAim9zunO32CZN1ZMRJLhU2pQiRXVdA9MeqUrFhyphenhyphenS6ySzPs4xsWlRwipCHbQMynCvwG6yfxyDc4_ARM-k8pFkcKViluIKM1bID3ychBt_Dmji/s1287/0+8.52.46+PM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="1287" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrybRA8NXnlNJbiFZSquxhA1SWXAo6xaTVAim9zunO32CZN1ZMRJLhU2pQiRXVdA9MeqUrFhyphenhyphenS6ySzPs4xsWlRwipCHbQMynCvwG6yfxyDc4_ARM-k8pFkcKViluIKM1bID3ychBt_Dmji/w400-h373/0+8.52.46+PM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>No matter what title's used, UNDERWORLD INFORMERS or simply THE INFORMERS, it's right up front about those shady <i>characters</i> desperate enough to run to the law and name names: Only here it's Scotland Yard's Nigel Patrick who takes foot after <i>them</i>... actually one particular snitch/<i>snout</i> in a newly-slain informer's ex-con brother Colin Blakely, so intensely energetic he needed far more screen time...</p><p></p><p>But it's pretty boy criminal <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/09/strongroom.html">Derren Nesbitt </a>on the freewheeling forefront, strutting his wealth as he and more cautious partner Frank Finlay hang out in a crowded nightclub while their planned bank/safe heist (after several previous knockoffs) happens simultaneously elsewhere... <br></p><p>And so Nigel Patrick's Chief Inspector John Edward Johnnoe... vulnerable to strict chief Harry Andrews since he cuts corners to begin with... dives into a dog-eat-dog plot saturated enough for three crime flicks while curbed by two dames that, like any Noir, has one naive the other wicked. Unfortunately the gorgeous <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/08/TPO.html">Katherine Woodville</a> is benign and underused as the cop's wife, leaving the good stuff to bad girl/moll Margaret Whiting who, despite framing our hero, is equally sympathetic as a single mom mentally and physically abused by that rich pompous crime lord Nesbitt... And yet <i>he</i> really has the most fun since, unlike everyone else... dizzy from all the complicated bedlam... he's grinning till the end, and with an unapologetic villainy that — possibly inspired by the likes of Robinson and Cagney — becomes downright infectious. </p><span></span>

british neo noir, british new wave, colin blakely, crime, derren nesbitt, faye craig, frank finley, katherine woodville, margaret whiting, michael coles, nigel patrick, sixties

NIGEL PATRICK IN 'UNDERWORLD INFORMERS' AKA 'THE INFORMERS'

Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2 No matter what title's used, UNDERWORLD INFORMERS or simply THE INFORMERS, it's right up front about those...