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Doctor Dracula
Svengali / Lucifer's Women
USA 1981
produced by
Lou Sorkin, Sam Sherman, Edward H. Margolin (executive) for Rafael Film Associates, Independent International
directed by Al Adamson, Paul Aratow
starring John Carradine, Don 'Red' Barry, Larry Hankin, Geoffrey Land, Susan McIver, Regina Carrol, Jane Brunel-Cohen, Norman Pierce, Philip Toubus (= Paul Thomas), Tweed Morris, Emiliy Smith (= Clair Dia), Vic Kirk, Robert W. Carr, Michael Renner, Noel Welch, Susan Catherine, Kathy Spencer, Laurie Gross, Nike Zachmanoglou
screenplay by Paul Aratow, Cecil Brown, Gary Reathman, additional dialogue by Sam Sherman, technical advisor: Anton LaVey
Svengali
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Doctor Wainwright (Larry Hankin) is an extremely talented stage
magician and hypnotist who is labelled the new Svengali by his fans -
little do they know that he is actually possessed by the spirit of
Svengali, and together with the publisher on his book on reincarnation
Steven (Norman Pierce) and the mysterious Radcliff (John Carradine) runs
some kind of coven that's supposed to make them immortal. For that though,
they need a human sacrifice, which they think they have found in dancer
Trilby (Jane Brunel-Cohen). It's easy for Svengali to pick up the girl,
but then he actually falls in love with her, and it seems the personality
of the true Doctor Wainwright comes to the fore. Eventually, Svengali
pushes Trilby away in order not to hurther, but ... Another narrative
threat has Stephanie (Susan McIver) looking for closure after her mother's
(Regina Carrol) mysterious murder, so she comes to Svengali to help her
get in touch with mom, whichever way possible. However, she is soon
whisked away by psychiatrist Gregorio (Jeffrey Land), a sometimes friend,
sometimes arch-enemy of Svengali, who tells her Svengali is a fraud, and
only he is the real deal. What Stephanie doesn't know of course is that
Gregorio is really a vampire, and not only that, he has vampirized her
mother and now keeps her as his undead companion, and now wants to do the
same to her. When after meeting her undead mom Stephanie realizes what
Gregorio is and has in mind for her, it's far too late, he already has her
in her power. At the rite at which Trilby is to be sacrificed, someone
kills her prematurely, a vampire ... Gregorio of course, who has long
regarded the coven with contempt, and by killing Trilby before her time,
he has destroyed the chances of the members of becoming immortal - and
consequently they all die on the spot. Gregorio himself doesn't far much
better, as Stephanie blows up the car she and Gregorio are leaving the
coven in. Veteran cowboy actor Don 'Red' Barry plays Stephanie's father. A
total mess of a movie, this one has begun filming in 1975, directed by one
Paul Aratow, but was presumably never finished. Eventually the material
fell into the hands of producer Sam Sherman and director Al Adamson, who
turned the skeletal material into one finished film - by adding material
over the next few years, giving it a pretty nonsensical framing story and
throwing in a whole bunch of new plot elements that don't make sense in
correlation to the original story (which I might add was rather weak to
begin with). The result is a weird mishmash that changes in mood and
approach, full of subplots that lead nowhere and/or make no sense, carried
by not one but two main narrative threads that have little in common and
are rather silly and smplistic by themselves, and culminating in a
ridiculous finale. Granted, the film has some so bad it's good-qualities
to it, but is rather tame compared to most of director Al Adamson's other
cut-and-paste jobs.
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