Countess Dracula (Peter Sasdy, 1971)

Inspired by Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian countess who, with the help of her servants, purportedly murdered hundreds of women and girls in the late 1590s and early 1600s, bathing in their blood to attain permanent youthfulness, but was more likely the victim of false accusations in a political power play designed to ruin her family's influence, Countess Dracula uses pieces of that legend as the basis for an enjoyable British Hammer-horror gothic period piece with a dryly funny sense of humor, great sets, stylish performances, and plenty of atmosphere.

Countess Dracula begins with newly widowed Hungarian countess Elisabeth Nadasdy (Ingrid Pitt) and various members of her entourage arriving by coach for the reading of the count's will. Along the way, a villager begs Captain Dobi (Nigel Green) for a once-promised job but is shoved aside. The coach rolls over the poor villager, killing him, though the countess and the captain remain unmoved and continue on their way. These are some ice-cold MFs. The countess appears relatively unmoved by her husband's death (she's been having an affair with Captain Dobi for years, though his obsessive love for her is not reciprocated) and mildly bored by the reading of the will until she spots a young stranger, Imre Toth (Sandor Eles). Imre is a lieutenant whose father and the count were old military buddies, and he has only recently learned that he's been included in the will. The countess perks the hell up after drinking in the handsome, mustachioed young man. She may be elderly, but she's still powerfully horny.

The will doesn't shake out to everyone's liking. Dobi gets some historical military items he doesn't much care about, while new jack hustler Imre gets the stables and all the horses, which Dobi wanted. The librarian/historian Master Fabio (Maurice Denham) gets the count's books, which he's insanely pumped about, but the countess gets a twinge of anger in her face when she learns she has to share the castle and the fortune evenly with her daughter Ilona (Lesley-Anne Down), who will be arriving home the following day. We got some serious conflicts a-bubblin'.

Things get freaky-deaky after a clumsy chambermaid cuts herself and the countess gets some of the blood on her cheek. Her wrinkles disappear. Inspired, she enlists loyal servant Julie (Patience Collier) and Dobi in a murderous conspiracy to keep the supply of young women fully stocked so Countess Elisabeth can murder them and bathe in their blood.

Post-bloodbath and smokin' hot, the Countess decides to pretend to be Ilona and has the real Ilona kidnapped and held captive in the deep-woods home of the 17th century Hungarian version of a hillbilly. She then gets to work making young Imre fall in love with her, which is pretty quick work. The cuckolded Dobi, much to his chagrin, helps the countess achieve all her murderous and romantic goals with not entirely sincere promises of occasional sexy times and his own conviction that she will tire of the young man and realize her love for him.

That is a lot of intrigue, conspiracy, love triangle, family drama, secret murder, and jockeying for favor. It's like a few months of a soap opera rolled into one horror movie package. And, as the world's most annoying people say online, I am here for it. The cast mostly gets the tone and strikes that perfect balance between hamminess and sincerity, and the blending of humor and horror is also achieved successfully, with the truly dark moments never played for laughs and the comedy occurring naturally from the behavior of the characters. The look of the film is subtly beautiful, too, with director Peter Sasdy avoiding heavy stylization but filling each image with life and atmosphere.

Sasdy, a Hungarian, mostly worked in British television, but he had a parallel career in the '70s as a director of horror films. His other horror film credits include Hands of the Ripper, Doomwatch, the TV movie The Stone Tape, Nothing but the Night, Sharon's Baby, and the horror/western hybrid Welcome to Blood City. Outside of horror, he also co-directed historical adventure King Arthur, the Young Warlord and directed the notorious Pia Zadora-starring flop The Lonely Lady, which ended his film career and his brief stint in Hollywood, though his television career continued to thrive. He's still alive but retired in 1993.