Bezenby Imagine a Latin, less animated Bob Hoskins playing Dracula and you've got Paul Naschy in this film. Even one of the victims wishes he was a bit slimmer and taller! Two dodgy guys are delivering a mysterious crate when one of them gets his throat ripped out and the other gets an axe to the face and fall down a flight of stairs over and over again while the credits roll. Funnily enough, the picture is cropped just enough so the credits read that this is an 'Anus' production. A group of four women and one guy are crossing through Romania by carriage and as the guy is explaining about Dracula and what not the wheel falls off the carriage and a horses kicks the driver right in the head and kills him, which isn't the best form of criticism. Now this lot are stuck in the mountains with only a creepy sanatorium for shelter, and the only guy there is Paul Naschy! Well, him and the guy who got bit on the neck at the start - in vampire form. Paul gives it the old 'you're all welcome to stay here' jive and makes excuses for why he's only around at night. One of the girls takes a fancy to him, but she a bit on the dirty side for Drac I mean Dr Wendel and he starts eyeing up the virginal one. We later get an explanation (from a narrator or Naschy, I'm not sure) that Drac needs a virgin to bleed onto the corpse of his daughter to bring her back to life and only true love etc etc zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.Luckily this is a Spanish Vampire film and not a Hammer vampire film and things shortly get underway with the neck biting and the staking and naked boobs and the blood and the vampire chicks in nightgowns and more boobs and the slaughter of the villagers and even more boobs, so you've not got much time to get bored. The ending as well was quite different to what I expected* and these films are rather short and sweet so don't try your patience. Naschy plays Dracula with a hint of regret and the only bit that confused me is that for a large part of the film it seemed Dracula was talking but also wasn't moving his lips. I look forward to seeing the next six hundred films Naschy made in the seventies.

Michael_Elliott Count Dracula's Great Love (1973) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Four women and their male traveler break down in the forest and must take shelter at a nearby sanitarium, which has a history of evil. Once there they meet Dr. Marlow (Paul Naschy) but what they don't know is that he's in fact Count Dracula. Soon the women begin to be turned into vampires with Dracula needing the virgin to fall in love with him so that his dead daughter can return to life.COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE was the only time that Naschy got to play Dracula and needless to say he did a very good job with it. As far as the film goes, it's easy to see why it has such a strong cult following because even though there are some flaws to be had the film for the most part is a success thanks in large part to director Javier Aguirre who manages to keep the film moving at a nice pace and he builds up a very good atmosphere.The film is available in a few different versions but the recent Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome returns the film to its R-rated cut that contains all of the nudity missing from some version. The nudity is certainly a good bonus because it adds a touch of sexuality that is certainly needed. As I had said, the atmosphere is certainly a strong highlight as we get all sorts of fog, a great castle and of course some nice bits of blood and vampire attacks.The actresses playing the women all do a nice job in their roles and especially Rosanna Yanni. The real star is of course leading man Naschy who got to play all of the legendary monsters in his career. This was his only chance to play Dracula and he did a very good job with it. He was certainly believable in the role but more important he looks the part. The black costume and red cape were a perfect look and there's no doubt that Naschy made good in the part.

lazarillo Paul Naschy is, of course, famous for his many portrayals of the "hombre lobo", but he has also tried his hand at any number of other classic monsters like Mr. Hyde, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc. with various degrees of success. Here he tries Dracula. Naschy doesn't physically fit the part of the classic Dracula, but then again he doesn't really play the classic Dracula--he turns the traditional bloodsucking embodiment of evil into a tragic, doomed figure much like his "Waldemar Daninsky"/"hombre lobo" character who can only be cured of vampirism by a virgin who truly loves him giving herself freely to him.In a horribly clichéd set-up a group of attractive young women and their male chaperon have to take refuge in the sanitarium where Dracula lives after a wheel of their carriage falls off and crushes their driver. The group is vampirized so fast that the vampires are soon left fighting each other over the one survivor (and virgin). This is pretty typical Naschy movie really in that it has the style of an old Hollywood or early Italian Gothic horror movie, but with the old 1970's standbys of blood, boobs, and, of course, bloody boobs.And speaking of boobs, the best way to see this movie unedited today is on the double-feature DVD hosted by Elvira. I'm sure this movie was heavily edited when it featured back on TV's "Movie Macabre" back in the 1980's, but it sure isn't now. And, for the record, the Elvira cutaways are optional on the disc, and hardly necessary--with busty Spanish starlets like Roseanne Yanni and Mirta Miller in the cast, it already looks like a Russ Meyer movie even without the famous cleavage of Elvira/Cassandra Peterson. Recommended to those of you who know who you are.

Aaron C. Schepler DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE (1972) ** ½ Paul Naschy, Haydée Politoff, Rosanna Yanni, Ingrid Garbo. Four women and a man wreck their stagecoach and must take refuge in a nearby castle. Unfortunately for the travelers, the castle's owner, Dr. Wendell Marlow (Paul Naschy), turns out to be none other than Count Dracula. After Dracula falls in love with one of the women, she must decide whether to live eternally as Dracula's bride or reject him and continue to live as a mortal. Her not-so-surprising choice leads to a strange and surprising ending. Like a lot of '70s European horror movies, the film suffers from slow pacing and a somewhat muddled plot. But there's lots of gothic atmosphere and a few creepy moments here and there to keep things interesting. Worth a look.