Friday, April 23, 2010

DRACULA A.D. 1972 - Sal Valentino/Tim Barnes - "Alligator Hot Pants" (1972)

"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!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

THE 7 BROTHERS MEET DRACULA / Hammer/Shaw Bros. - 1974

In keeping with Eegah's!! week dedicated to the vampire, here's THE 7 BROTHERS MEET DRACULA, aka THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES!

"Deadly Horrors! Dragon Thrills! The First Kung Fu Horror Spectacular!" sez the tagline... Vampires are loose in China in 1904 and Prof. Van Helsing is there to educate the population about the undead!

Considered a difficult shoot from the beginning, (the original director was replaced after a few days) this flick probably suffers the most from trying too hard to be a hit! When mixing Euro gothic horror with Asian martial arts, get ready for something weird, that's for damn sure! Still, the one falls on the plus side for pure entertainment!! It even has some nudity.

The music is by, who else, James Bernard, and you can hear that classic Hammer sound in the soundclip. A few other titles James composed for are THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT, X: THE UNKNOWN, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, QUATERMASS 2, HORROR OF DRACULA, THE DAMNED and more!!

Tabonga pet Ralphie the Tarantula use his small megaphone to say, well, he ready to be pushing that big red 'GO' button and start 'eariffic earclip' for everbloody' listening pleasure. So, here's... THE 7 BROTHERS MEET DRACULA!

Like Tabonga wuz sayin'... Vampire club loose in rural China!

Many years ago, curious Asian Priest go to Transylvania and is confronted by Dracula himself! Obviously, Priest dude is the Asian connection...

He go back to China and recruit new troopers!

The great Chinese chili cookoff!!

Admit it, vampire know how to have good time!

Prof. Van Helsing's lecture is poo-poo'ed by the audience...

But, after the lecture, he is shown proof of a vampire cult by a villager, who is also one of seven brothers and a sister who fight vampires themselves!

Back at Drac's castle, vampires having a great time! Wheeeee!!!....

Van Helsing and the gang show up at the castle, ready to confront evil...

As usual, Peter gets thrown around by Drac, but he always gets the last laugh!!

It must have been a real kick for the Hammer special effect guys, figuring out how to scare the living hell out of kids!!

Yeeeesh!!!..

Monday, April 19, 2010

DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE - James Bernard - "Get Back Drac" (1968)


Well Hell, the way the bodies are stacking up, looks like it's going to be a Dracula Week for me, and why the Devil not? I'm walking on a thin ledge overlooking an alligator pit here, but I'd be willing to bet that as far as genres go, Vampires outnumber any other concept in the history of film making, dating all the way back to the 1922 classic "Nosferatu" and continuing right on up to the current "Twilight" series! Tonight's installment falls right in the middle of the vampire heritage of film, and is called "Dracula Has Risen From The Grave" or "Drac's Back Again!"

There's been a Helluva lot of Damned Vampire flix made, and at least two gentlemen.......

...Bela Lugosi, and Christopher Lee built solid careers on the Dracula character! As a matter of fact, the vampire concept is so popular, I'm working on a script right now for a new blockbuster feature titled "Godzilla Vs Dracula!!" set to be released sometime in 2013 after the end of the world!

Here's part of the deal, Christopher Lee has this magnetic ability to be able to go from one of the nicest and charming dudes on the planet, and then, bam, a complete 180, and he's the most cruel and sadistic bastard in the universe of the living or the dead! Both Bicuspid and Bipolar!! Bite on that!!

It's the old college drinkin' initiation involving balancing a glass of beer on the end of a broomstick! If it was me, I'll tell you one thing, Good F'n Luck!!

Man, those are some good lookin' burritos!! You know you can't have a Hammer Dracula film without a barmaid with no future, unless, of course, you include becoming a member of the "Loyal Sisterhood Of The Undead" as the future!

The musical score by James Bernard is not that exciting by Dungeon standards, but Mr. Bernard has such a rich musical horror history, he can do anything he wants, and it's all right by us! James Bernard composed the soundtracks for the classics "The Creeping Unknown," "The Curse Of Frankenstein," and "The Horror Of Dracula," and the list goes on and on through Hammer history!

Honestly, this isn't the greatest film in the world, but it's directed by Freddie Francis, and so you're going to get a different take, which means it's worth watching, and no matter what, there's going to be some great shots, or something that makes it worthwhile!

Personally, I could sit here and watch Hammer films stunning or mediocre, all day long, if I didn't have to join the ranks of the living dead on the day shift! AAaaahhh!!!

Ewan Hooper as the "Priest" is irritating as all Hell fire, but would have been a shoo-in as Larry if they had ever done a "Three Stooges" bio back in the day!

Think about it! How many times have you seen a vampire appear in some innocent person's bedroom window??


Religious icons in a vampire flick, what the heck?

The David Bowie character meets the Larry Fine character with predictable results!

"On the roof, it's peaceful as can be, and there the world below can't bother me!" - Carole King of the Vampires!

Damn, Chris, WTF, man, Hey, man, you're really choking me.......Can somebody plese help me, this method acting is killing me!!

Right about here you start to get the vibe that Chris is getting really Pissed!!

Have a nice forever, and just to prove it's hard to keep a good man down, I'll be back on Friday with even more of Dracula's madness!!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??