Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This version of Dracula gave Christopher Lee an opportunity to play the role he had already played several times, but this time with the intent of following Bram Stoker's original story as closely as possible. On that point, Count Dracula is fairly successful. It stays mostly on track with the original tale, right down to Dracula's mustache which, while present in the book, usually doesn't show up on screen. It's not a Hammer production, so it looks and feels a little different than what you may be used to. Lee gets more screen time and more lines than he usually got in this part, and there are some good supporting actors with Herbert Lom as Dr. Van Helsing and Klaus Kinski doing his usual kooky thing as Renfield.Unfortunately, if you watch it from beginning to end, you'll find that the whole thing is pretty dull. By the time this movie was made in 1970, the idea had really been wrung out, and there's nothing new or interesting here. This movie is rarely seen today and really only rates a footnote in the history of vampire lore. Postcript: However, with that being said, I did recently pick up an old book that discussed this movie. It was apparently very popular in Europe at the time, especially in France where it was billed as Les Nuits de Dracula (The Nights of Dracula).

I have the DVD of this Spanish film production from circa '70 with the great Chris Lee and Herbert Lom. Yes, it is online with what Bram Stoker wrote back in the 19th century, yet I have never been overly impressed with Jess Franco's slow and ponderous style of film-making. I am a fan of horror / thriller, so I can deal with and accept the moments of slowness and the various scenes that drag, etc. I heard that Chris Lee was most happy with this production of Dracula. Well, I hope he was paid well to travel to Spain for the film shoot. If it wasn't for his supporting cast of Herbert Lom and Soledad Miranda, I feel this film would've been no better than a stink-bomb. I do not blame the setting or the cast, but rather the lousy direction from Jess Franco. In all reality, Jess Franco is no Terence Fisher. I mean, not even close.

For some years, Christopher Lee had expressed a disenchantment with Hammer films' variations on the Dracula theme. In 1969, he explained to his fan club that he was shortly to embark on a film for Jess Franco which promised to be a most authentic version of Bram Stoker's novel. This is the result.For anyone familiar with Franco's films, this contains no real surprises. The storyline is laboriously told, but at least – thanks to Stoker – there is a storyline. Amidst the many zoom-ins (some of which work – for example, Renfield's delirium is communicated well by their inclusion – and some of them don't), much of the running time focuses on Dracula's possession of Lucy, who we never get to know before his involvement. Therefore, we are not sure whether her robotic manner is the result The Count's mental grip, whether she has always been that way, or Soledad Miranda – who looks stunning, of course - is delivering a performance so understated as to be somnambulistic.Alongside Lee, we have Klaus Kinski, who could have made a memorable Renfield, but is given little to do other than eat the flies he keeps in a box hidden in the latrine! Herbert Lom is a splendidly solemn Van Helsing, and Fred Williams is a fine Jonathan Harker. It is worth mentioning that Dracula, in the novel from which this is apparently closely adapted, had an abhorrence of mirrors and would not allow them in the castle. Here, Harker has barely walked through the impressive main door when he and The Count are confronted by a massive wall mirror revealing, of course, that the earnest host casts no reflection. It seems as if Dracula is advertising the curse of his vampirism.The locations and buildings are mostly suitably austere and impressive. There is a scene where the vampire hunters appear to be attacked/mesmerised by a menagerie of stuffed animals coming to life. This is either very effective (the camera swoops in close for us to see their glassy eyes and unmoving slavering jaws) or laughable if you make the mistake of presuming the director intends us to think the animals are real.Christopher Lee is not aided by the direction in the way he was by Hammer's crew, and without careful camera angles and lighting, is occasionally exposed as giving a hammy performance. That said, his strength of presence imposes nicely. His demise is fumbled – it serves to be both anti-climactic and poorly realised. Buried beneath flames, his despatch seems to be a direct influence to John-Forbes Robertson's final fate in 'Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974).' It would be unfair of me to express the opinion that this lacks the polish of even Hammer's weakest Dracula outing ('Scars of Dracula', made this same year), because there is a deliberately different 'feel' to this. It meanders, parts are under-written and there is clearly very little budget. But it is pretty accurate to Bram Stoker's novel and is enjoyable on its own merits. A flawed but enjoyable, very worthy addition to the many Dracula adaptions.

Jess Franco's Count Dracula, starring Chrisopher Lee is one of my favorite film adaptations of Dracula. While I love the Hammer Dracula pictures (which Christopher Lee played Dracula for Hammer 7 times),this is a lot different and more true to the source material. Director/producer Jess Franco did not have an enormous Hollywood budget for this production, but took the material seriously and made the best of the resources he did have. Christopher Lee is exceptional in this with his brooding screen presence and tremendous acting ability. The rest of the cast is impressive as well with Herbert Lom to play Van Helsing, Klaus Kinski as Renfield and (the lovely and tragically departed the same year as this production) Soledad Miranda as Lucy. Like I stated before, Franco's Dracula is much more true to the novel and has a different tone and energy than the Hammer films. Darker, more ominous and very atmospheric with an excellent mood created by Bruno Nicolai's excellent and diabolical score. The film was shot in Spain and the sets have a 14th century Gothic look. Overall, Count Dracula is an excellent and memorable adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel.