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 shouldn't be considered Christopher Lee's seventh Dracula but his 2nd... after DRACULA A. D. 1972, which brought the famous vampire from the signature Victorian-era into the 20th Century including hippies, nightclubs, night parties and one important seance...

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...

From Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Herein returning director Alan Gibson made a body-count horror in which random investigators, including one unlucky male spy and a female secretary, get picked off or, in her case, are turned into a rabid vampire... combined with elements that feel somewhat science-fiction...

As Dracula, now the corporation's unseen leader... appearing thirty-minutes in and ultimately given only two speaking scenes with Cushing... is backed by contrasting henchman from chase-sequence motorcycle thugs to stealthily snipers to dire computer programmers to otherwise sophisticated middle-age devil-worshiping businessmen...

From Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Meanwhile Peter Cushing and Scotland Yard inspector Michael Coles (aided by Hammer veteran William Franklyn) have some more terrific expository dialogue, leading to a backroom sacrifice/showdown vs Christopher Lee's title character in a basic seek-to-destroy premise that ultimately feels like two acts instead of three...

Framed by doomy aesthetics looking equally dark and foreboding whether inside that ominous building or outside in a grass/woody field (where Black Sabbath could have posed for an album insert-sleeve), it's like everything is cursed — fitting since, like any James Bond flick, this time Dracula's going to destroy the world (by reinventing The Black Plague)... 

From Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

So SATANIC RITES, with one anticipated sequence involving sexy attacking vampire-girls (led by their cunning Asian queen) going after Cushing as Van Helsing's granddaughter played by Joanna Lumley instead of Stephanie Beacham from the original...

Actually making sense since, instead of the deliberately oblivious, free-style hippie chick, this Jessica Van Helsing's a Nancy Drew type, more snoopy and investigative than granddad, seeming like an entirely different person anyway...

From THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

As sometimes this DRACULA plays-out like a high-octane crime-thriller with its funky cop-genre soundtrack including jazzy horns and those famous wah-wah peddle guitars... 

And beside the far superior and more complete DRACULA (feeding on swingers in Swinging London) A. D. 1972, director Alan Gibson did most of his work on British television — and if this were a TV-pilot that included big-screen exploitation violence and nudity, it might have had a chance: just imagine VAN HELSING: THE NIGHT STALKER following THE SWEENEY every Wednesday night. 

Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Christopher Lee in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Christopher Lee in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Christopher Lee and Joanna Lumley in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Michael Coles in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Barbara Yu Ling in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Barbara Yu Ling in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA with Freddie Jones

William Franklyn and Maurice O'Connell from THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA with Christopher Lee

Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA with Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee and Joanna Lumley in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Valerie Van Ost in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Valerie Van Ost in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Joanna Lumley in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Valerie Van Ost in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA

Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA