Sherlock Holmes and the Prince of Darkness (1976)
Starring
Jack Palance as Leopold Vladimir Tepesh, Count Dracula
Patrick McGoohan as Sherlock Holmes
Nigel Davenport as Dr. John Watson
Pamela Franklin as Mina Harker
Sam Jaffe as Professor Van Helsing
Don Knight as Albert Renfield
Victor Buono as Dr. Seward
Ann Michelle as Lucy
Elsa Lanchester as Mrs. Westenra
John Abbott as the Mayor of Drachenfel
Carl Esmond as Gravedigger
Fritz Feld as Undertaker
George Sawaya as Laslo
Keith McConnell as Inspector
Ben Wright as Bobby
Ian Abercrombie as Stallholder
Cathleen Cordell as Saleslady
Directed by Bert I. Gordon
Though theatrically released, this independent American production feels like a TV movie. Not produced by Dan Curtis, it does use both Palance and Davenport from his 1974 Dracula, and feels visually indebted to that film in certain parts, but director Gordon feels slightly out of his comfort zone doing a stagey period piece.
Like Loren D. Estleman's Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula, it inserts Conan Doyle's characters into Stoker's narrative, but rationalises the Count. Jack Palance not-quite-reprises his part from Dan Curtis' telemovie; his "Count Vladimir Tepesh" begins as an old man, but then "de-ages" into an Edgar Allan Poe-alike in Tomb of Ligeia shades, and his body is forever shrouded in a cape. To confuse matters, his silent, hypnotic-eyed bodyguard/butler Laslo (George Sawaya) is dressed in Lugosi-type medallion, evening dress and widows' peak.
1919, Transylvania, elderly Count Tepesh (a Fu Manchu-moustached Palance in silk robes and pancake makeup - looking very like Stoker's depiction of the count) is connected with the disappearance of partying hooray-henry toffs "James Harker" and "Lord Houlmwood", and Holmwood's fiancee, Lucy. Lucy (Ann Michelle) is found in the woods, in a wedding dress, in a catatonic state, and returned to a stagey backlot London, where she is studied at "Carfax Sanitorium" by family friend Dr. Seward (Victor Buono) and attended to by her East End medium mother ("Special Guest Star" Elsa Lanchester, eating the scenery). A manic, rifle-toting Holmes (Patrick McGoohan, over-playing the huffing and puffing) and a upper-crust, authoritarian military-type Watson (Nigel Davenport) team up with Dr. Van Helsing (Sam Jaffe unusually cast - was John Carradine busy?), here an elderly garlic-flinging religious crank who reads the bible and offers Sherlock advice but looking forward to John Badham's 1979 Dracula, is effectively useless and actually hinders our heroes, and Harker's newly married wife Mina (Pamela Franklin), here a proto-feminist suffragette in jodhpurs. Lucy breaks out of her catatonic state when Van Helsing pushes a cross in her face - and she goes on a mini-rampage at the asylum including lots of neck biting and possibly switchblade-assisted bloodsucking (she also withstands bullet shots fired by Holmes), and is given Renfield-ish business like acting as a spokesperson for the Count. Michelle is nicely animalistic, and gets a neat death scene - where blinded by sunlight, her dress catches fire, and she seemingly spontaneously combusts while Van Helsing douses her in a bath full of holy water. After this, Holmes and Watson go to Transylvania with Mina and Van Helsing. In a neat inversion,it is our heroes who journey on the Demeter to Eastern Europe to meet the Count. On board, we meet skeptic Captain Varna ( a mugging cameo from Forrest J. Ackerman) and Dr. Albert Renfield of Whitby (Don Knight, doing a credible Yorkshire accent), who claims to have known Harker, and is travelling to Castle Dracula to attend as the Count's doctor. A crewman goes mad, and during a fit of insanity from the crewmen - Holmes, Watson, Mina, Van Helsing and Renfield escape in a lifeboat where Renfield introduces them to Laslo, a sinister coachman in the mould of various sinister henchmen seen in Hammer vampire movies. Laslo brings them to the castle of Tepesh, and the village of Drachenfel, where the locals (Carl Esmond, Fritz Feld, John Abbott) live in fear of the vampiric Count Dracula, alias Tepesh. An undertaker (Feld) leads Holmes to the bloodless, pallid bodies of Harker and Houlmwood. The sign of neck bites leads our heroes to Tepesh who takes Watson hostage, leaving Sherlock Holmes and Mina (using herself as bait) to invade Castle Dracula, guarded by Bride-like female bodyguards ("all the young men are dead", we are told).
Eventually, we discover that the Count is a 93 year old scientist who is working on a blood serum that can restore youth and vitality, partly consisting of human blood and hallucinogenic drugs (supplied by Renfield - hence the madness on board the Demeter), that can be transported from person to person via saliva into the blood. In shades of the Legend of Hell House, Tepesh has a mechanical left leg that helps him give him strength. . In an intriguing premise, we learn Dracula's plan is to take on Sherlock Holmes' identity in order to travel to England and "paralyse England with fear", turning them into a race of vampires in revenge for the "Wars with Britain" that his country has supposedly suffered. Palance combines Bond villain/Mabuse/Fu Manchu-style evil plans with illusionary feats of faux-vampiredom (using hundreds of badly-animated bats to obscure his terrorist attacks). In a neat twist, Van Helsing stakes Tepesh, but succeeds only in removing his arm, which spurts the serum in Van Helsing's face - "turning" him. Davenport, again given Van Helsing business has to stake Jaffe's maddened vampire hunter, but lets Dracula escape in a balloon. Holmes, Watson and Mina eventually get to London, where Tepesh, his serum backfiring is starting to age, and needs blood to youthen himself. Watson discovers that the serum is made toxic by the addition of garlic, and Holmes storms Renfield's premises, using a stake dipped in garlic to finish the Count off. Tepesh, manages to climb out of the window, bleeding but an angry mob headed by Mrs. Westenra manage to corner the Count. Tepesh melts, as the sun rises, and he is left little more than a skeleton. Mina, the lone survivor asks Watson for advice on writing her memoirs, and in a weird meta touch, offers the help of a Mr. Stoker (though the real-life Bram Stoker was already dead at the time of this film's setting).
A peculiar curio, which is far from the gothic horror spectacle suggested and is actually a pleasingly pulpy action thriller. A decent cast manage to hold the film together, despite limited sets and props (lots of Kenneth Strickfaden equipment). Franklin is especially good as Mina, emphasisng the character as a plucky adventuress who unusually has no real connection with Dracula, who here is oddly more fascinated with Watson. Palance plays Dracula here in a manner unlike his previous turn. Here, he is almost channelling Olivier's Richard III, strutting, ranting, sometimes hunched and doing long, eye-rolling villain speeches. In the final act, he does get to channel his Mr. Hyde turn, and manages to just about carry a ludicrous death scene. Unusually, it reverses the dynamic of the Rathbone-Bruce Holmes films, with Watson as the straight man and Holmes as a wacky, unpredictable comic figure. It also overuses the idea of Holmes as a master of disguise (at one point, McGoohan drags up as a gypsy woman with a Cockney accent and later, dresses as Dracula himself). However, in his scenes with Palance, McGoohan settles down and comes across as quite sinister and menacing - emphasising the idea that Dracula is actually frightened of Holmes. The adaptation is full of role shifts - Lucy fulfills Renfield's duties, while Renfield is more like Stoker's Seward, Mina steps in for Jonathan Harker, and even Mrs. Westenra is portrayed as more intelligent and useful than doddering Van Helsing. But it does have its problems. There are numerous plot holes (it's never quite explained why Lucy's dress catches on fire), and the set design is lacklustre (the all-white marble asylum is nice, but Castle Dracula is cramped). However, it has enough charm to carry itself.
