Mistresses of the Dark (Part One) - Dracula Goes Disco

Throughout the course of this blog, we’ve explored the more unusual iterations of Count Dracula. Stoker’s original character was a man, but in the spirit of adaptation, many versions of the story have been told with either a female Dracula or a female relation of Dracula at the heart of the story. And throughout September we’ll be spending some time looking at some weird and wonderful examples of just that, starting with 1979’s Nocturna.

Hammer’s foray into the 70s with Dracula AD 1972 may be comparatively well-known – though star Christopher Lee was openly not a fan of the movie – but Nocturna might almost be considered a lost movie. However what the two share is an attempt to inject Dracula into the culture and the spirit of the 70s.

Directed by Harry Hurwitz – who would work with Christopher Lee just a year later on Safari 3000 – the core concept for Nocturna came from acclaimed belly dancer Nai Bonet. Bonet’s film aspirations were never quite achieved, by her own admission in interviews and she only ever made one more movie after this. Having spent a decade trying to make the breakthrough into movies, Bonet retired from acting after her final feature, 1980’s Hoodlums.

Nocturna follows our titular lead character, who is in fact Dracula’s granddaughter. The family has fallen on hard times, so much so that the castle has been converted to Hotel Transylvania. And yes, that was long before Adam Sandler ever got there! She hires the disco group Moment of Truth to provide some entertainment for the guests but swiftly finds herself falling in love with band member Jimmy. The two decide to move to America together, where Nocturna finds herself ever more drawn to the disco scene of New York.

However, Count Dracula himself – played not for the first time by John Carradine – is none too happy with what is going on, and arrives in America to occupy the crypt of Jugulia Vein (I’m not making that up, honestly). He attempts by nefarious means to force Nocturna back to Transylvania, but with the help of Jugulia, we see a happy ending between Nocturna and Jimmy.

The disco movie was no rarity in the 70s, but bringing Dracula into the mix was certainly a different twist. John Carradine was one of the busiest actors of all time; he first played the Count back in 1944’s House of Frankenstein – some serious longevity on show there. It’s always a pleasure to see the wonderfully evocative and over-the-top Theodore Gottlieb/Brother Theodore turning the dial up to eleven in his role as – ahem – Theodore, basically the Renfield character of the film.

It's very hard to find a physical release for this movie, for a host of reasons too long to go into here, but you might if you’re lucky find it floating around online somewhere. As a curio it’s certainly worth your time, and an energetic first entry into our series exploring the many female Dracula depictions.

We’ll be back next time for Part 2 for another bite…