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Today's Monster Memory conjures up issue #7 of Marvel's "Dracula Lives!" magazine from July of 1974. I was a tender teen of merely 15 when I bought it, from a convenience store on the walk to school when I lived in Macon, GA. It was always exciting to find these, and they made for some darned good reading during lunch and study hall that day, not to mention that evening back at home once homework was done. The painted covers of these and many of the monster magazines of the time were a large part of what made them so special, and it's not something you see much of any more.
The item I'm featuring from the issue is their article on "Taste The Blood Of Dracula," the fourth installment in Hammer's Dracula movie series with the incomparable Christopher Lee. Still sadly lacking Peter Cushing, his presence was missed greatly, and one wonders why they failed to have him in the later Dracula movies when everyone loved seeing them together. The film is not the best of the series, but not the worst either, and I still put it on and watch it occasionally. The article accurately points out the flaws, as well as the good points. But to me, even a lower-quality Hammer/Lee Dracula film is better than someone else's. Enjoy!
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3 comments:
Thanks for posting this. Dracula Lives (like Tomb of Dracula and Marvel's Frankenstein comic magazine) were probably the ONLY horror/sci fi movie mags I didn't buy/collect in the early to mid 70s. I wasn't that into monster comix (the slant of these magazines and also the reason why I have a limited collection of Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella), so I saved my money for FM, Monster Times, the rare issue of Castle of Frankenstein, Movie Monsters, Monster Fantasy, Monster World, etc. I'm glad I got a chance to read this and was somewhat surprised by the very critical nature of the article (most movie reviews were puff pieces b/c publishers and editors were afraid of getting cut off from the movie publicity machine of the studios, well except for CoF). I personally think the author was a little harsh with Taste the Blood of Dracula and his writing a little pedantic (I know the 10 year old me had no idea what "deus ex machina" meant), but I still enjoyed the trip down memory lane.
Hello, (different) Fred!
Thanks for visiting and commenting! I too bought those mags you mention, but I never passed up the Dracula or other Marvel monster mags when I came across them. It's true that the writers didn't pull their punches (or big words) when writing these articles, and for the most part they were right, but we young kids cared little for such things; we just liked the movies!
And now looking back we apprecaite whatever Hammer films we can get on DVD, at least I do. So it is a little surprising reading such harsh reviews in retrospect.
I found your site when looking for information on the Halloween Tree, and boy was I impressed! Thanks for all your hard work sharing these great memories with us all Frederick.
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