Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Leofwine_draca It was inevitable that the Spanish king of horror, Paul Naschy (real name Jacinto Molina) would get around to making a Dracula film sooner or later, and this bizarre outing is well worth a look for fans of traditional vampire movies. Indeed, while the rest of the world had moved the vampire into modern times with Dracula A.D. 1972 and COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE, Naschy's entry is a fine old-fashioned piece, yet kept exciting with added gore and nudity.The spooky opening is highly reminiscent of a film Hammer might have made, and indeed for the first half of the film this strongly resembles a fine Hammer Horror piece, complete with picturesque countryside and stirring music. Things kick off with two incompetent workmen carrying a large crate into a deserted castle. Their curiosity gets the better of them, and they peek inside to discover a skeleton within a coffin. Soon something nasty in the darkness has attacked and killed both the men! (bizarrely, the opening credits play as footage of a man being attacked is played repeatedly).Predictably enough, we then meet five aristocrats in a horse-drawn carriage who have the double bad luck of losing a wheel and then having their driver kicked to death by a frightened horse. They visit the local castle, where they meet the odd yet courteous Dr. Marlow who asks them to stay. Soon, however, they begin to be picked off one by one and become vampires. So far, so good, you might think, and things happen just as you might expect.However, around the halfway point, the character of Dr. Marlow disappears and Naschy becomes Dracula himself, complete with pale visage and widow's peak (though admittedly not your first choice when thinking of Dracula, Naschy's appearance is passable). Here, the plot vanishes and there's some talk about a black magic ritual to revive Dracula's daughter, Rosanna (!). Meanwhile lots of isolated attacks take place in the vicinity, the culprits being the new vampires. In the end, Dracula's love for one of the girls proves to be his downfall. It certainly makes for original viewing! The acting from the cast is fine, especially from some of the women who prove to be quite adept at being spooky/sadistic vampire ladies. The dubbing isn't too noticeable, although some of the dialogue is unintentionally amusing. There are some gory moments, such as a splattery staking of a female vampire, but nothing too strong (at least not in the version I saw...). Of course, as it's a Naschy film, there's a lot of nudity and the former wrestler has his way with a number of his leading ladies (a regular occurrence in his films, as it happens).The main problem with this film is the evidence of heavy cutting it displays - not just of the gore, but of some plot moments too. This is especially true in the final half hour, which is extremely dream-like as it is anyway, and tends to make things confusing. Ten minutes appear to be missing from the print that I viewed, so I would say the 85 minute version is the one to watch. This one just feels too disjointed and difficult to understand at points (some characters suddenly disappear for no apparent reason). Cutting aside, COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE is a fine vampire yarn which takes things in a different direction from that of tradition, has plenty of fetching leading ladies to watch and some exciting action. It won't make you want to rewind and watch again immediately but it's a solid entry into the genre nonetheless.

accattone74 Though all the available prints pretty much suck, and Naschy's dubbed voice is one of the worst in his oeuvre, I can still make out a truly fine film underneath all the muck (the whole film is on YouTube, but with commercials). Naschy had a very specific body type, so it's great to see those films where he didn't let his shorter, stockier physique get in the way of playing characters that are traditionally tall and/or gaunt. And this is a great little spin on the Dracula story too, with an ending even I did not see coming. The plot of Count Dracula's Great Love concerns ye olde sanguine's attempts to procure the blood of virgins and innocents so as to revive his dead daughter (which is a great twist from the usual lost-love pining). Rosanna Yanni is simply fantastic as the lusty Senta, and in fact, all four of the female co-stars really shine here. This film has atmosphere in spades, much like Aguirre's previous film with Naschy, The Hunchback of the Morgue. Dracula still lives in an old Gothic castle, and the surrounding area is fog-shrouded, but the art direction is so superb that it elevates the film far beyond the assumed banal. And Naschy proves that he can play a romantic lead without the crutch of Waldemar, though his Count Dracula is more akin to Barnabas Collins than the manic blood-junkies one normally has to endure in a vampire film (though there's nothing wrong with the occasional manic blood-junkie). Unfortunately Dracula's heart is too big to fit through the needle of his immoral deeds, and so we're left with one of the most striking and shocking endings in the entire canon of vampire movies. What can I say? Like Naschy's Dracula, I'm a sucker for a/the romantic.

HumanoidOfFlesh In "Count Dracula's Great Love" Paul Naschy plays legendary vampire Dracula.The legend says that he is still lurking in his castle in the middle of nowhere.Four buxom ladies decide to spend the night at the old castle which most recently was used as a sanitarium.Quickly the passengers fall prey to Count Dracula.But Count falls in love with Karen...Javier Aguirre's "Count Dracula's Great Love" is a trashy and sleazy piece of Eurohorror with plenty of nudity and grue.The shots of white mists and dense forests are wonderfully atmospheric and the macabre mood is very sensual.Paul Naschy is memorable as Count Dracula/Dr.Wendell and he plays his evil character with gusto.8 sensual vampires out of 10.

MARIO GAUCI Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy's take on another traditional monster (making for the blood-sucking Count's beefiest incarnation since Lon Chaney Jr.'s turn in SON OF Dracula [1943]) results in one of his more enjoyable efforts, albeit given the "Euro-Cult" style's trademark languid approach and with a few weird touches all its own. This begins with the shot illustrating a man falling down the cellar steps of Dracula's castle after having his head split open with an axe being repeated ad nauseam all through the credit sequence! As the film opens, Dracula is hiding under the guise of a Dr. Kargos (presumably a play on the meshing of Karloff and Lugosi a' la our very own Joe Karlosi ) at an abandoned nearby sanatorium while also assuming the duties of butler at his own castle! Soon, his quest for peace and solitude is interrupted with a vengeance by the arrival of no less than five strangers – one man and four(!) women; the latter ostensibly serve the function of duplicating the count's three brides featured in Bram Stoker's original novel (and a handful of its myriad screen incarnations), with the remaining girl filling in the requirements of the title. Anyway, following some bed-hopping antics (the nudity being crudely inserted since the Spanish censor's repressive hand would only allow such fare to be released in "clothed" versions!), the cast of characters rapidly starts joining the ranks of the undead – leaving only the heroine (gorgeous, doe-eyed Haydee' Politoff whom I was recently impressed by in the obscure but fairly good erotic giallo INTERRABANG [1969]). Also in the cast are Rosanna Yanni (from Jess Franco's two "Red Lips" films from 1967) and others bearing such dubious names as Vic Winner and Ingrid Garbo (her character is named Marlene to boot)!; on a personal note, it was nice to see character actor Jose' Manuel Martin (who had been one of the beggars in Luis Bunuel's VIRIDIANA [1961]) as Dracula' first victim – subsequently 'residing' in his house, he notches up victims of his own and is even killed by the master (oddly enough, all vampires here contrive to dispose of one another) for daring to attack his beloved! Other unusual ideas, then, include: the fact that Dracula's prowlings occur on full-moon nights (as if he expects to turn into a werewolf?!); his having a dead daughter, which he intends to revive by mixing the blood of a virgin (Politoff, who rather than being vampirized has a knife driven through her throat in the manner of a conjuror's act) and an innocent (a village girl his brides abduct and present before him to be whipped)!; and, perhaps most baffling of all, Politoff's rejection of Dracula's offer to live eternally by his side throws him into such a dejected state (apparently, he has fallen hard for her) that not only is he willing to give up on his daughter's revitalization but actually commits suicide by piercing his own heart with a wooden stake! As I said, the film is certainly among the better of the star's vehicles that I have come across (though still not adding up to a completely successful work) and, in fact, this viewing inspired me to acquire another Spanish variant on the theme i.e. THE Dracula SAGA (1972), directed by frequent Naschy collaborator Leon Klimovsky but not involving the redoubtable Jacinto Molina himself