The just-as-wild 1974 follow-up to the previous year’s outrageous FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD FOR DRACULA reunited the previous film’s writer-director Paul Morrissey, star Udo Kier (who got above-the-title billing this time around) and much of its Italian crew. That included cinematographer Luigi Kuveiller, composer Claudio Gizzi and assistant director Antonio Margheriti, who, as he did on FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN, unfairly took credit for having directed the film (the subject of a lawsuit against Margheriti and co-producer Carlo Ponti). In another unfortunate comparison with a film that was retitled ANDY WARHOL’S FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD FOR DRACULA was until recently known as ANDY WARHOL’S DRACULA.
Having artfully defiled Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN in his previous film, Morrissey here wreaks what the LOS ANGELES TIMES’ Kevin Thomas called “A Sick Spoof of DRACULA.” This 1920s set film’s Dracula is a sad sack who needs virgin blood in order to keep going. Finding his native Romania bereft of suitable candidates, Dracula and his devoted servant Anton (Arno Juerging) leave for Italy, a country chosen for its Catholic orientation. Anton is tasked with searching out the desired virgins, and finds them (he thinks) in the household of the Marchese di Fiore (Vittorio de Sica), a wealthy man with seriously attractive daughters he’s looking to marry off in order to pay his gambling debts.
Dracula, who suffers twitching fits due to the lack of proper sustenance, compulsively drinks the blood of Saphiria di Fiore (Dominique Darel) after she claims to be a virgin. In fact, she’s been intimate with the Marxist-minded servant Mario (Joe Dallesandro, who makes no effort to disguise his American accent), and her non-virgin blood causes Dracula to go into convulsions and vomit. He moves on to Saphiria’s sister Rubinia (Stefania Casini), who also lies about being a virgin, and the result is the same.
Figuring out Dracula’s true nature, Mario takes the virginity of the youngest of the four sisters, the “14 year old” Perla (23 year old Silvia Dionisio). That leaves the oldest sister Esmerelda (Milena Vukotic), who’s still a virgin, and has an interest in Dracula. It’s up to Mario to make things right in a finale that involves hacked-off limbs, spurting blood and a double vampire staking.
Morrissey’s cinematic treatment will be familiar to viewers of FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN. There’s less gore here—but a great deal more soft-core sex—and pacing that’s much slower than that of the previous film, with lengthy shots of people walking and opening doors, and sex scenes that drag on for interminable periods. The deadpan aura that marked later Morrissey films like FORTY DEUCE (1982) and MIXED BLOOD (1984) was already well established in BLOOD FOR DRACULA.
The acting is fully in keeping with that deadpan style, although Udo Kier does some spirited emoting—or, more accurately, overemoting—that furthers the campy vibe. The female performances tend to be overshadowed by all the nudity on display, as does Morrissey regular Joe Dallesandro, who spends a great deal of his screen time shirtless, yet nonetheless acquits himself well in a finale that achieves a pinnacle of grand guignol excess.
Vital Statistics
BLOOD FOR DRACULA (a.k.a. ANDY WARHOL’S DRACULA)
Compagnia Cinematografica Champion
Director: Paul Morrissey
Producer: Andrew Braunsberg
Screenplay: Paul Morrissey
Cinematography: Luigi Kuveiller
Editing: Jed Johnson, Franca Silvi
Cast: Udo Kier, Arno Juerging, Maxime McKendry, Milena Vukotic, Dominique Darel, Stefania Casini, Silvia Dionisio, Inna Alexeieuna, Gil Cagnie, Emi Califri, Eleonora Zani, Vittorio de Sica