"Dracula A.D. 1972" might not be the best Dracula movie ever made, but it is right up there at the top with "Blood Of Dracula" as having some of rock's finer moments in vampiric film history, because how can you go wrong when the music is being supplied by a San Francisco band like Stoneground, that has such a rich and varied history? Oddly enough, English movie, California band!!
Stoneground was a fairly progressive hippie band that is probably better known for the individuals than it is for the band itself. Founding member Tim Barnes has toughed it out for years in various incarnations of Stoneground, and still performs today with drummer Steve Price and a whole new cast of old characters! Bassist Brian Godula, holding down the bottom, appears to still play to this day, as always, in the background!!
Steve Price and Keyboardist Cory Lerios left the band, when Stoneground was in one of it's various states of disintegration, and formed the popular 70's sunshine band Pablo Cruise with David Jenkins and my pal, the amazing Bud Cockrell!
Cory Lerios went on to have an amazing career in 1990's TV music! He wrote the theme to "Baywatch" and his music kept Pam pumping for something like 96 episodes, and he also wrote the music for "The Land Before Time" series in 2007 among other accomplishments! I read on IMDB that in the film "Medicine Ball Caravan" they have Cory listed as playing "
herself!" I think that's probably when he started pondering cutting his hair!
Guitarist John Blakeley was in Surf band "The Sandals" and wrote the music for the surf classic, "The Endless Summer."
Of the female singers Annie Sampson, Lynne Hughes, Deirdre La Porte and Lydia Moreno, seems like only Annie and Lynne kept performing to any degree.
Lead singer Sal Valentino was in the legendary 60's band the Beau Brummels, who had performed in "Village Of The Giants" and also has the notoriety of being animated on "The Flintstones!"
I give Stoneground a lot of credit for having the balls to do a decent cover of Swamp Dog's "Total Destruction To Your Mind," the title cut from one of the greatest LP's of all time!
I don't know why all these freaks are here Mum, I only invited the Stoneground! Just WTF is going on here anyway? What kind of a party is this? We might as well invite Jimmy Weldon and Soupy Sales too!! (Bless their souls!)
Introducing worthless bastard Johnny Alucard, a man going in a backwards direction, beginning in Hell!!
This just might be Christopher Neame's last role in the movies before going on to do a buttload of TV! Chris has got some evil Jack going on for him, don't you think??
This scene just does not look like the kind of place I want to get really stoned and go hang out at!
Things go in the crapper real fast when Johnny breaks out the "Dust Of Dracula!" How bout that, I just came up with a new title, the tale of a poor vampire from Oklahoma!
Are we having fun yet?? I told you not to take that Black Drac Crack!!!
It's always 10 times worse when innocent kids discover the body!
The time and space continuum gets kind of thrown for a loop in this film, but it's psychedelic, so it's all right, you dig? It's crazy to think that there are actually people looking at this image right now that don't know what it is a picture of!
Here's a good shot of Stephanie Beacham as Jessica Van Helsing. She is dressed like that because she is a hippie!!! Stephanie has also had an incredible run of TV shows, and is still quite active today!!
Don't touch that dial! Was it really the crucifix, or just the fact that Stephanie is so smokin' hot?
It's the big standoff between Van Helsing and Dracula! You know Chris is extra-pissed when his hair is just even a little messed up, that's just not cool
or dignifying!!
Hippies and vampires just don't mix well, it's like oil and water, very colourful, but somebody still has got to clean up the mess!!!
Peter Cushing has his hands full defeating Dracula one more time, and it'd be just two years later that he had to go after those "7 Brothers!" That Van Helsing was one busy cat!
A while back, I did a generic write up on "Raumpatrouille" that I pieced together with info I was able to grab off the internet, but now, at long last, because of the overwhelming generosity of one certain madman from Texas, I am able to give it another shot, but this time with a much better sound clip and better quality stills, and that's something this German "Space Patrol" deserves!!
This was the first episode of the seven they filmed, and was entitled "Angriff Aus Dem All" or, that's right kids, "Attack From Space!" So first we had a Japanese attack in 1965, and then a German attack in 1966, so hold on to your flaming bratwurst, cause here we go....!!
Okay, first off, let's establish the fact it's the future! You can tell it's the future because everything looks so spacey and futuristic!! They spent a lot of Deutschmarks to make it look and feel that way!
"Here we come, walkin' down the street, we get the funniest looks from Every one we meet. Hey, hey, we're the Raumpatrouille!"
This is the A+ team, starting on the left, Ursula Lillig as Lt. Helga Legrelle, Wolfgang Völz as Lt. Mario de Monti, Dietmar Schönherr as Major Cliff Allister McClane, Friedrich G. Beckhaus as Lt. Atan Shubashi, and Claus Holm as Lt. Hasso Sigbjörnson!! We salute you!!
I still have not been able to come up with a name to give credit for the weird futureass choreography in these bar scene background dances, but whoever it is, was some kind of genius!!
Maybe some traditional folk or square dancing was the main inspiration, take that and cross it with some "Do The Robot" and you're starting to get the idea! Put your knees together, and your hands behind your neck!
Hook your arms together and do the chicken peck.....
Stretch, sway, stretch, sway...
The ultra hip music was composed by the remarkable Peter Thomas! What can I say? The man was a freakin' prolific genius that you should go out of your way to get your hands on everything he ever wrote! I'm not kidding, every single note!! In the meantime, Major Cliff and Lieutenant Hasso are just drinkin' and talkin' the night away, hey, hey, hey! 
A giant Fabergé egg is the brains behind everything, who came up with that concept??
Not too dang bad for 1966 spacial effects!!
This first episode is mostly about Hasso and Atan who are sent out to investigate an outpost gone quiet, and stumble upon a weird extra-terrestrial squatter of the future.
All's well that ends dead!!
Peace Out!!
