In 2023 Severin did not release a third THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE Blu-ray set, but they did make available two of Lee's most obscure appearances. VAMPIR-CUADECUC and UMBRACLE are a couple of almost undefinable productions directed by avant-garde Spanish filmmaker Pere Portabella, and they have now been released on HD for the first time on a single disc.
VAMPIR-CUADECUC was made during the filming of Jess Franco's COUNT DRACULA in late 1969. COUNT DRACULA was an attempt to make a more authoritative version of Bram Stoker's novel, but it fell far short of its goals. (One can understand why with the director being Jess Franco and the writer-producer being Harry Alan Towers.) Christopher Lee had hoped that this project would finally give him the chance to truly portray Stoker's character faithfully (as opposed to the series of Dracula films he was involved with at Hammer), but the actor also had to have known what he was going to be in for (he had worked with Franco and Towers before).
I've never been a big fan of COUNT DRACULA. Lee is as majestic as expected, but the film feels rather lifeless (no pun intended). It also looks rather threadbare--it comes nowhere near matching the epic scope of the novel. (My copy of COUNT DRACULA is the DVD from Dark Sky, which I think I got from a Walmart for $5.) Severin now has a brand new 4K restoration of COUNT DRACULA for sale, along with copious extras. If I saw that, would my thoughts about the film change? Maybe.
VAMPIR-CUADECUC isn't so much a documentation of the making of COUNT DRACULA, it's more like an alternate version of the film. The thing is, in my opinion, it's more atmospheric, and more cinematic, than COUNT DRACULA. VAMPIR-CUADECUC was filmed in grainy, high contrast black & white, and the only audio (until the very end) consists of weird sound effects and strange musical cues. Watching VAMPIR-CUADECUC is like having a bizarre dream about viewing a movie, while seeing how it is being made at the very same time.
VAMPIR-CUADECUC follows the COUNT DRACULA storyline very closely, except that I believe Portabella's shot choices are much more interesting and dramatic. We not only see the story unfolding, we also see what goes on behind the scenes. Stagehands create fake cobwebs and mist, while actors are made up. We see performers such as Lee, Maria Rohm, Soledad Miranda, Paul Muller, and Herbert Lom at work, and we even get to see good old Jess Franco himself. (Klaus Kinski was also in COUNT DRACULA, but he doesn't appear in VAMPIR-CUADECUC. I'm sure Kinski's scenes were shot at a different time and at a different location, but when one thinks about it, putting a camera on the volatile actor in between shots wouldn't have been the best idea in the world.)
We also get such treats as Soledad Miranda pensively smoking a cigarette before a scene, and Maria Rohm dressed like a fashion model as she serenely observes a sequence being shot. There's also the fact that Lee is very well aware of Portabella's camera, and he reacts to it a number of times in a surprisingly playful manner. (Would Lee have been as playful behind the scenes of a Hammer Dracula film?) For whatever reason, Lee and Portabella seemed to hit it off--Lee would later appear in the director's UMBRACLE (which I have not yet watched).
The ending of VAMPIR-CUADECUC has Lee, in his dressing room, reciting the death of Dracula from a copy of Stoker's novel. It is the only time a person's voice is heard in VAMPIR-CUADECUC, and some might even say that this climax is much better than the disappointing ending of COUNT DRACULA.
Pere Portabella was not a mainstream filmmaker, but after seeing VAMPIR-CUADECUC, I wish that he had directed COUNT DRACULA--or at least made a true Gothic horror of his own. (I wonder if Christopher Lee himself had broached this proposal to Portabella at one point.) What VAMPIR-CUADECUC does show is that COUNT DRACULA had all sorts of possibilities, but they were not fully realized.
Severin's Blu-ray of VAMPIR-CUADECUC and UMBRACLE contains a booklet which has an article by Pere Portabella, along with reviews of the two films, all written in the 1970s. The disc also has a featurette on Portabella's background as a filmmaker, with Dr. Alex Mendibil. What the disc does not have are audio commentaries for the films, and they are sorely needed. After viewing VAMPIR-CUADECUC I'd love to know more about the circumstances behind it, and how those involved felt about it. Severin's new 4K/Blu-ray of COUNT DRACULA has listed among its extras a full-length documentary dealing with the making of Franco's film and VAMPIR-CUADECUC.
VAMPIR-CUADECUC is a must for Christopher Lee fans, and it gives a very rare glimpse into the working lives of some of the most notable names involved with Euro Gothic cinema. It's also a better film than some of the "official" vampire movies made around this time.
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