Count Dracula's Great Love

Count Dracula's Great Love (originally El gran amor del conde Drácula) is a 1974 Spanish film directed by Javier Aguirre.

Count Dracula's Great Love
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJavier Aguirre
Produced byFrancisco Lara Polop (producer)
Written byJavier Aguirre
Alberto S. Insúa
Paul Naschy (story and screenplay)
StarringSee below
Music byCarmelo A. Bernaola
CinematographyRaúl Pérez Cubero
Edited byPetra de Nieva
Release date
1974
Running time
85 minutes (U.S.)
72 minutes (U.S. edited version)
CountrySpain
LanguageSpanish

The film is also known as Cemetery Girls (American reissue title), Dracula's Great Love (American promotional title), Dracula's Virgin Lovers (UK and Canadian theatrical title) and The Great Love of Count Dracula (international English title). Contrary to some sources, this film was never released under the title Vampire Playgirls.

Plot
Even after restoration, Posición Jaca, the bunker under Parque del Capricho in Madrid, still has rests of the black paint that was spread during the filming.[1]

Count Dracula's Great Love opens outside a creepy old sanitorium in the Carpathian Mountains as two delivery men arrive with a large, heavy man-shaped crate. The owner, Doctor Wendell Marlowe (Paul Naschy), has just purchased the sanitorium, but has not yet moved in. Realizing that these rich castle-owning types have money and jewels just lying around, they decide to wander about and see if there is anything they can steal. One is struck in the head with an ax and the other gets his throat ripped out by a man in a black cape with velvet lining.

The opening scene is repeated over and over again as the opening credits roll.

Meanwhile, a stagecoach loaded with four young women - Karen (Haydee Politoff), Senta (Rosanna Yanni), Marlene (Ingrid Garbo), and Elke (Mirta Miller) and Imre Polvi (Vic Winner), a strapping young male who is really nothing more than an extended cameo - loses a carriage wheel in the infamous Borgo Pass. When the stagecoach driver is killed in a freak accident, the five passengers seek shelter from an oncoming storm in the nearby sanitorium, where they are welcomed by Doctor Marlowe. Their host invites them into his home and lets them stay for as long as they need to, willingly providing food and shelter.

Of course, Marlowe is really Count Dracula. It is not before long that the new guests are bitten one by one, rounding out Dracula's new army of the undead - save for the virginal Karen. Dracula seeks the rebirth of his daughter Radna and in order to bring about that resurrection, Dracula must complete a blood ritual and convince Karen to voluntarily join him as his immortal bride in eternal darkness forever.

He seduces all of the girls but Karen and then chains them in his dungeon. Afterwards, he kills them by exposing them to sunlight. When he seduces Karen, he knows he has found love. He tells Karen that he loves her and he cannot let her be what he is. So he thrusts a wooden stake into his heart and before he dies, he utters "Karen...".

Cast

References
  1. El búnker de El Capricho, refugio militar de la Guerra Civil, abre al público, Irene Sanz Duva, La información, 14 June 2014,. Mentions Count Dracula's Great Love as one of the films shot in the bunker.
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