DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE
Director - Freddie Francis, Screenplay - John Elder [Anthony Hinds], Producer - Aida Young, Photography - Arthur Grant, Music - James Bernard, Special Effects - Frank George, Makeup - Heather Nurse & Rosemary McDonald Peattie, Art Direction - Bernard Robinson. Production Company - Hammer. 1968.

Cast: Christopher Lee (Count Dracula), Barry Andrews (Paul), Rupert Davies (Monsignor Ernst Muller), Veronica Carlson (Maria), Barbara Ewing (Zena), Ewan Hooper (Priest), Michael Ripper (Max)

      In a small village church, an altar boy makes a chilling discovery in the belfry. The village priest hears his cry and hurries up. Inside is the body of a young girl, with two fang-marks deep in her neck. Time passes. Along the mountain road comes the Monsignor. In the church, the priest is saying Mass, by him stands the youth, also obviously aged, showing signs of idiocy. There is no one in the church. At the local inn, townsfolk explain to the monsignor they never go to church anymore because the shadow of evil hangs over them.....a shadow cast by Dracula’s Castle. To prove the castle is empty, the monsignor orders the priest to accompany him there the next morning. When the time arrives, the two priests have climbed near the summit; the priest, terrified, agrees to wait while the monsignor carries on. Outside the gates of Castle Dracula, the monsignor begins the service of exorcism. Thunder and lightning crash across the skies. The priest runs in fright and topples down an incline to the edge of a stream. There, buried beneath the ice, is Count Dracula. The priest stirs, blood from his cut trickles down, into the lips of the vampire. The priest staggers to his feet, washes away the blood. As the waters become still, he sees the dreaded vampire reflected behind him. In a moment, the priest is hypnotized. Outside his castle, the vampire sees a nailed cross and demands to know who did it. His new slave answers that it was the monsignor.
      Back in the village, the monsignor prepares to leave. The grateful townspeople present him with a carved cross for ridding them of the vampire. Only the landlord fears otherwise. At home in Keinenburg, the monsignor re-joins his brother’s wife Anna and her daughter Maria, who is to have a birthday party. Coming, too, is Paul, Maria’s boyfriend. In the local cafe, packed with students, the atmosphere is gay. Waitress Zena dispenses beer and sausages. Paul enters, is joined by Maria.
      Later, at the Muller’s home, Paul shocks the party guests, admitting he is an atheist. After a row, he leaves. Zena, wending her way home in the pitch-black night, finds herself face-to-face with Dracula, who attacks her. Next morning, Paul, hurrying to the bakery where he works, discovers Zena huddled in a corner, a strange expression on her face. Later in the cafe, Zena is joined by the owner, Max.
      That night in Keinenburg, the priest slips from his room and makes his way into the cafe’s cellar. In a far corner, Dracula is rising from his coffin.. He demands that the priest brings Zena. When she arrives, the vampire asks her to bring Maria there, on some pretext. Upstairs, Zena tells Paul that when Maria arrives, she will bring her to him in his study. Maria arrives, looking for Paul and Zena says he is waiting in the cellar. They descend together. Zena slips a sack over Maria’s head and drags her to Dracula. Paul bursts in and Maria struggles away and rushes to paul. Dracula, furious, kills Zena, then tells the priest to get rid of the body. Paul and Maria go back to her home, and he leaves. Watching, from behind a tall chimney, is the priest. Next day, Paul asks the priest to take a note to Maria. The priest burns it and hurries to tell Dracula the girl is alone, in her bedroom. That evening, Anna goes to her daughter’s room and finds Maria slumped across the bed, but does not notice the two fanf marks in her throat. The monsignor, however, does. The next evening, Dracula rises again, dashes across the rooftops and slides into Maria’s room, where she waits. Waiting, too, is the monsignor, hiding in the shadows. At the sight of the crucifix, Dracula runs off. The monsignor, felled by the priest, instructs Paul on how to fight the vampire. Paul sees the priest in the streets and brings him along to Maria’s home. At the sight of the priest, the monsignor cries out, and dies. That afternoon, the priest, fighting to escape from the vampire’s powers, succeeds with the aid of the crucifix. He explains to Paul what has happened.
      Together, they set out after Dracula. Finding him, Paul drives a stake into Dracula’s body, but because he is unable to say a Latin prayer, the vampire escapes. Paul hurries back to Maria and finds Dracula there. Paul is knocked down in a fight. The vampire, the priest and Maria climb into the hearse and gallop off to Dracula’s castle. Paul revives and sets off in pursuit. At the castle, he confronts Dracula, who is dragging Maria behind him. They fight. Paul trips Dracula over the edge of the mountain wall. The vampire impales himself on a crucifix lying in the valley below. The priest arrives and says the prayer which convinces the struggling Dracula it is the end. With a terrifying cry, he disappears into the mist.

Screen grabs by STUART HALL

Disclaimer: Dracula Has Risen From the Grave was copyrighted 1968 by Hammer Film Productions Ltd. and presented by Associated British Pathe Lmtd. and released by Warners Pathe (UK) and Warners-7 Arts (US); renewed 1987 by Warner Bros.. Used for non-commercial purposes; All rights reserved. DO not use without permission.

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