Blood for Dracula (also known as Andy Warhol's Dracula) is a
1974 film directed by
Paul Morrissey and produced by
Andy Warhol and
Andrew Braunsberg. It stars
Udo Kier,
Joe Dallesandro,
Maxime McKendry,
Stefania Casini, and
Arno Juerging.
Roman Polanski and
Vittorio de Sica appear in cameo roles.
The film was shot on locations in
Italy and was partly improvised as the filming of
Flesh for Frankenstein by the same team had been quicker and less costly than expected.
Plot synopsis
A sickly and dying Count Dracula must drink virgin blood to survive travels from Transylvania to Italy. With a shortage of virgins in Romania and thinking he will be more likely to find a virgin in a Catholic country, Dracula befriends Marchese di Fiori (played by de Sica), an impecunious Italian landowner with a lavish estate falling into decline, who wants to marry off his daughters to a wealthy aristocrat.
Of di Fiori's four daughters, two regularly enjoy the sexual services of Mario, the estate handyman (played by Dallesandro), a bemuscled Marxist with a hammer and sickle painted on his bedroom wall. The youngest and eldest are virgins, but the latter is thought too plain to be offered for marriage, and the youngest is only age fourteen. Dracula obtains assurances that all the daughters are virgins and drinks the blood of the two who are considered marriageable. However, both are non-virgins and their tainted blood make Dracula ill. Mario realises the danger to the youngest daughter in time and ostensibly rapes her for her own protection. But in the meantime Dracula has drunk the blood of the eldest daughter, turning her into a vampire. After more carnage, the peasant Mario commands the estate.
Themes
In one interpretation, di Fiori and his family represent European traditional values, and Morrisey produces a narrative of a doomed Europe that is self-destructing as the bourgeoisie attempts to survive making an alliance with the aristocracy while the aristocracy (represented by the pathetic Dracula in what some consider one of Kier's best performances) is losing the battle of power against the powers of industry and modernity.
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