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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968)

Starring Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, Veronica Carlson, Barbara Ewing, Barry Andrews
Directed by Freddie Francis
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A fearful priest accidentally releases Dracula from a watery grave and restores him to power, leading the undead Count to use the priest to find him new victims to stalk.

Not bad, but not great, this is a middle-of-the-road entry in Hammer Films' Dracula series, which benefits from Christopher Lee again portraying the famed villain, but affords him little dialogue to make this portrayal memorable.  The actor still impresses with icy stares and evil snarls, and has a beautiful victim to play off in Veronica Carlson, but has little else to do.  The victimized priest, who surely must have been a controversial character at the time, is well-played by actor Ewan Hooper, who brings forth believable angst and terror, and Rupert Davies is good as well, as the priest's superior.  However, the plot disappointingly plays fast and loose with vampire lore to come up with a new demise for the Count, and not one that particularly satisfies.

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