Thu 25 Feb 2010
Movie Review: DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1966).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[8] Comments
DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS. Seven Arts / Hammer Films, 1966. Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir, Francis Matthews, Suzan Farmer, Charles Tingwell, Thorley Walters, Philip Latham. Screenwriter: Jimmy Sangster. Director: Terence Fisher.
Although there were, I believe, other Dracula films in between, Prince of Darkness is the one that’s a direct sequel to The Horror of Dracula (1958), also with Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, and one of the films that put Hammer Films on the map.
The means by which Dracula is brought back to life is one of the key scenes in this second movie, and so while I of course will say no more about it, it is (no surprise) rather a gruesome one. There are two scenes which caused a shiver down my back, and one of them is the one that occurs soon afterward, as an unwary character in the story stumbles across the scene.
And Dracula’s first appearance in the flesh (so to speak) was the other. Christopher Lee doesn’t get a lot a screen time himself, surprisingly enough, and no dialogue (only hissing, I believe), but seeing him quietly appear in the shadows as he does for the first time is enough to make anyone jump.
Unfortunately, this is also one of movies in which the participants are warned, and explicitly so by the no-nonsense Father Sandor (Andrew Keir), to stay away from the castle, but do they listen? You needn’t ask. So that I found disappointing, and after his grand plan to rescue himself from oblivion succeeds in such fine fashion (and in this I am not exaggerating), he seems to flail around rather ineffectively thereafter.
As a vampire hunter, Father Sandor is both a realist in terms of the evil he’s facing as well as an implacable foe, and I think this makes Andrew Keir, a giant of a man himself, the star of the movie.
Following immediately after the events chronicled in Prince of Darkness came Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968), a movie I saw about a year or so ago. For some reason, I do not seem to have written a review of it, but I recall it as having more plot to it than this one.
This one, though, most reviewers seem to regard as a classic. It’s good but not that good, if you were to ask me, and there is of course no reason that you should. If you’re a fan of horror films, you’ll have seen this one already, and you’ll already have formed your own opinion.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Lee has little dialogue in any of the Hammer films. His longest speech is in DRACULA AD 1972, and that’s not much. Like the book the Hammer films largely kept him out of the picture save for a few sudden horrific appearances.
Keir is good here, but I admit I missed Peter Cushing’s athletic Van Helsing. Dracula’s finish in this one though is particularly good and true to Stoker’s vampire lore. Hammer did better by Keir as Professsor Quatermass in FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH.
Francis Matthews played Francis Durbridge’s Paul Temple in a British television series.
I don’t hold this as highly as HORROR OF DRACULA or the non Lee BRIDES OF DRACULA, and would even rate the non Dracula KISS OF EVIL a bit better, but this is classic Hammer with all the virtues that suggests — including garish color, blood, sudden violence, and heaving bosoms. Also the romantic leads here, Matthews and Shelley, are stronger than those in later Hammer Dracula’s.
Lee remains the most physical of Dracula’s and to me the most frightening. His presence and grace always seemed to imbue the character with a menace that — pardon — had real bite to it. He is the closest to Stoker’s concept of the character, suggesting instead of the bloated romanticism of Lugosi or the Byronic doom of Langella, a rampant beast filled with carnal hungers and pure ego unleashed.
Most actors play Dracula as human turned monster. Lee plays him as a monster who became a vampire.
February 26th, 2010 at 12:30 am
For admirers of Christopher Lee and readers of actors’ autobiographies, Lee’s 1999 autobiography “Tall, Dark And Gruesome” is well worth reading.
I haven’t read his 2004 autobiography “Lord Of Misrule”. I have no idea if it’s a continuation of the 1999 book, or a rewrite.
I very much enjoyed “Tall, Dark And Gruesome”. (And that title makes me smile.)
February 26th, 2010 at 12:41 am
Checking at Amazon, it looks like the 1999 book was an updating for the U.S. of a book originally published in the U.K. in 1977.
Both it and “Lord Of Misrule” are supposed to have written by himself, but who really knows…
(Other than Peter O’Toole’s multiple volume autobiography which is clearly O’Toole’s own work.)
February 26th, 2010 at 1:51 am
Picking out celebrity autobiographies actually written by the celebrity can be tough. Errol Flynn and Sterling Hayden wrote their own stories as did David Niven, Dirk Bogarde, and Ray Milland, but with many others it’s hard to tell.
February 26th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Lee definitely wrote his own autobiography. If you’ve ever heard one of his DVD commentaries, you’ll know that is not a man who finds it difficult to find the words…
February 26th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Lee is certainly one of the more literate actors. He’s one of the few to actually read the books his characters are drawn from.
Jesus Franco tells a story on Lee of one of the films they were doing. It was at some island location and Lee only took the part so he could stay at a local hotel that had a famous golf course. The rest of the cast and crew were staying at much cheaper places, so no one at the hotel really knew who Lee was.
According to Franco one day when they had filmed a scene where Lee was blown up and covered in blood Lee left the set still in costume to get back to the hotel in time for his tee time.
It wasn’t until he reached the desk and asked for is key that he realized that everyone was staring and had no idea that he was in costume.
Deadpan, and in his best stage voice, he announced: “I must say, that 18th hole is a killer.”
February 27th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Normally Christopher Lee plays a victimizer, but if you’d like to see him as a scared-to-death victim watch ‘The Alfred Hitchcock Hour’ episode “The Sign of Satan” (1964):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394086/
I’m still not sure if everybody concerned with the production didn’t have his/her tongue firmly in cheek.
February 27th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Lee has a good part as an indignant Spanish captain whose ship is captured by Gregory Peck who doesn’t know Spain is now England’s ally in CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER. And he is a good pirate in Hammer’s PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER.
He gets to play hero in HORROR EXPRESS and THE GORGON and male ingenue in THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH, but he will be remembered longest as one of the great screen villains from Dracula to Star Wars to James Bond and LORD OF THE RINGS.
One of the finest performances of his career is in the British mini series of Mervyn Peake’s GORMENGHAST.
And I’ve been told by those who have heard it he does a killer W.C. Fields impression.