Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Curse of Dracula
Cliffhangers: The Curse of Dracula

USA 1979
produced by
Kenneth Johnson, Richard Milton, Paul Samuelson for Universal/NBC
directed by Kenneth Johnson, Jeffrey Hayden, Richard Milton, Sutton Roley
starring Michael Nouri, Stephen Johnson, Carol Baxter, Antoinette Stella, Mark Montgomery, Bever-Leigh Banfield, Louise Sorel, Joanne Strauss
written by Myla Lichtman, based on characters created by Bram Stoker, music by Les Baxter, C.R. Cassey, Joseph Harnell, special effects by Wayne Rose

serial, TV-series
Dracula, Van Helsing, Cliffhangers

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

USA, the present day: Kurt Van Helsing (Stephen Johnson) and his companion Mary (Carol Baxter) are systematically destroying Dracula's (Michael Nouri) native soil-filled caskets to make it unable for him to stay in their city any longer, when Mary chances upon a university course on old European culture that's only held after dark ... and when she attends, she has to realize it's really held by Dracula ... and he's charmed by her, and invites her to one of his parties ... but what should have been a perfect opportunity for her and Van Helsing to destroy the vampire actually turns out to be a trap set for her, and Dracula manages to bite her for the first time (three bites make a vampire) and manages to get away with it ...

Now there is a reason Mary wants to kill Dracula, she believe he has killed her mother Amanda (Louise Sorel), but being bitten by the vampire seems to suddenly draw her to him ... and Van Helsing can do nothing to see her bitten a second time - but he finds a powerful ally in Mary's mom Amanda, who has never actually died but been turned into a vampire by Dracula years ago. Amanda, once his lover, now hates Dracula for what she's done to her, but desperately wants to save her daughter from becoming a vampire. But there's also Antoinette (Antoinette Stella), one of Dracula's students who's deeply in love with him and terribly jealous of Mary, so much so that she wants to see her dead.

Now Van Helsing and Amanda have to ward Antoinette off while seeing Mary falling under Dracula's spell more and more and more, so much so that she attacks Van Helsing - but ultimately, Amanda comes up with the remedy for Mary, she has to release a vampire from the curse of Dracula ... that vampire being herself of course - and Mary almost fails to stake her own mother (but can you blame her) and only manages to do so when Dracula threatens her life. Fearing that he could do something to Mary, the woman he loves, in rage, Dracula flees the scene, and finding the journals of Dracula, Van Helsing and Mary have little trouble to find the rest of his coffins and destroy them. Of course, Dracula can only be found in the last coffin, and Mary and Van Helsing only manage to track that one down by nightfall, so they of course have Dracula and Antoinette to fight ... but yeah, good prevails over evil in the end.

 

Curse of Dracula, along with The Secret Empire and Stop Susan Williams, was an attempt to present the serial format of yesteryear to television audience within the series Cliffhangers - but not too successful an attempt, because while many serial-elements are prevalent, like a reliance on action over character, simplified and slightly repetitive storylines and of course cliffhangers as such, it in many other ways lacks the sense of adventure of the best serials and instead treats the topic with the flatness of your typical TV series (though that's in line with quite a few serials from the 1950's too), lacking the actual sense of wonder of the format. Plus, this one relies much to heavily on romance, which might be in line with 1979's blockbuster Dracula by John Badham starring Frank Langella, but it doesn't do the source or the serial format much justice. In all, I'm afraid to say this is just a piece of forgettable TV - the intentions might have been good, but the execution certainly lacks in too many aspects.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Curse of Dracula
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Curse of Dracula here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find The Curse of Dracula at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!