El Gran Amor del Conde Dracula (1972)

Directed by Javier Aguirre

Writing credits: Javier Aguirre & Alberto S. Insúa

Jacinto Molina as Count Dracula/Dr. Wendell Marlow (as Paul Naschy)
Haydée Politoff as Karen
Rosanna Yanni as Senta
Ingrid Garbo as Marlene
Mirta Miller as Elke
Víctor Alcázar as Imre Polvi



>>The Story:

Two men deliver a large crate to a abandoned sanitarium.
Falling prey to temptation they open the crate only to find a
coffin inside with old bones. They are soon attacked by a
shadowy figure. The movie shifts to a stagecoach where four
lovely ladies are treated to a tale of local folklore concerning
the castle they are driving by that was rumored to once be the
home of Count Dracula. As they pass a wheel spins off of the
stagecoach. While a couple of passengers search for the wheel,
more bad luck befalls them as the driver is kicked by a horse
and dies.

They decide to try to spend the night at the old castle which most
recently was used as a sanitarium. Upon arrival they meet Dr.
Marlow who is restoring the castle for research. The first night one
of the ladies (Karen) encounters one of the delivery men who is
now a vampire. Dr. Marlow comes to her rescue and starts to find
himself attracted to her. As the next few days go by, one by one
the passengers fall prey to Count Dracula. However Dracula does
not take Karen as he does the others. Instead he must make her
love him in the normal way before he can use her blood to resurrect
his long dead daughter. Once his daughter has been risen Dracula
will then gain his strongest power!



>>Video quality:

Dracula's Great Love was shot on 35mm film and most likely was
released in a 1.66:1 OAR. The beginning of this disc is a cropped
full screen transfer that later shifts to full screen. It is quite apparent
that it has been modified by scenes where characters are cut off to
the sides. The initial cropping that tries to give a widescreen look,
butchers the credits as you can see from the screenshot of the title.
This transfer is clearly from a VHS source. There are throughout the
film images where the tracking is definitely off, which gives the
feeling you are watching a worn out VHS tape. The color throughout
the film is washed out and very weak.



>>Audio quality:

For the most part the mono track on the DVD is in good shape.
As you get about two thirds of the way through the film there are
about 4 spots where there is a audio drop-off. Fortunately it does
not drop any important dialog to the movie! Acceptable, that's about
it. I do think it would have the sound make a bigger impact with a
quality audio track.