Horror Classics: Brides of Dracula (1960)

With the production of Dracula in 1958, it gave people a vampire film like no other. The film was very successful and it wasn't long before Hammer Studios commissioned a sequel. Jimmy Sangster (he also wrote the previous film) was brought in to write the screenplay.

Originally, the film was supposed to have a brief cameo appearance in the film. With that in mind, Sangster's script went through some extensive rewrites. The idea was to take Dracula out entirely and add the Van Helsing character (Peter Cushing) to the film.

Once the script was done, the studio brought Terence Fisher back to direct Brides of Dracula. Casting was packed with great names including, Martita Hunt, Peter Cushing, Yvonne Monlaur, Freda Jackson, and David Peel.

The film received a rather...mixed reception at the time of its release. It had a great atmosphere, but many thought that David Peel's antagonist wasn't nearly as intimidating as Christopher Lee had been.

The Plot

A young French teacher, Marianne Danielle, stops at an inn on a trip through Transylvania to take a teaching job at a finishing school. She ends up abandoned by her coachman, and is subsequently invited to spend the night with one Baroness Meinster at her castle. While at the castle, she meets the Baroness' son - a handsome young man who's chained to a wall in his quarters.

The Baron convinces Marianne to help him get free and, much to the horror of his mother, she successfully gets the key to his shackles to him. Of course, he escapes and the following morning is nowhere in sight. The servant woman, Greta, reveals to Marianne that the Baroness is now dead sending the younger woman fleeing in terror.

She is later found by Dr. Van Helsing (played wonderfully by Peter Cushing) and taken back to the inn where she started her ordeal before travelling with Van Helsing to the finishing school where she was supposed to start working. The doctor is hunting for vampires turned by Dracula - including the Baron Meinster.

What I Liked

The film flows nicely and is tonally consistent, there aren't any jarring changes to the way things are going. As far as the pacing goes, it's consistent.

The costumes are all very nicely colored, which I really liked. I don't know how the team at Hammer does it, but they almost always get some great costume people on-set. Speaking of which, the set design and cinematography is absolutely gorgeous!

The music and sound design are fantastic and there are some very cool special effects in the film. One effect that comes to mind, and I'll talk about this again in a bit, is the way the Baron's face was affected by contact with holy water.

Performance-wise, everyone is great. Peter Cushing's portrayal of Van Helsing is compelling. Freda Jackson is the perfect casting for Greta, the Baron's mad servant. Martita Hunt was great as the Baroness Meinster. David Peel did a great job as the villainous vampire Baron Meinster.

What I Didn't Like

The film changed some of the continuity from the previous film. In the previous film, Van Helsing says that vampires can't turn into bats, in this film...well, it's the exact opposite.

As far as the bat itself goes, it looks very fake - not surprising considering the time when the film was made.

The ending was a bit...anti-climactic. The previous film saw an epic fight between Van Helsing and Dracula. This film sees Van Helsing jumping onto a windmill sail so that the thing turns to form a cross and the vampire drops dead...erm...well, properly dead.

A Surprisingly Good Sequel

One of the concerns with Brides of Dracula was that Dracula himself wouldn't be in it. If memory serves, Christopher Lee had other commitments at the time and so distributors weren't too confident about a Dracula film without Dracula. Still, the film was a critical and commercial success and it was a surprisingly good sequel.

I hope you all enjoyed the review, let me know your thoughts on this horror classic in the comments!