"Brides of Dracula" is the best vampire movie ever made. Nothing like it ever appeared before or after and this is thanks to an extraordinary group of cast and crew. When I first saw this in a theater in l960, I was knocked out by the stunning use of color, lighting, costumes, story and of course the knock-out performances by a cast that gives it their all. What's stayed in my mind over the years is the terrifying relationship between Count Meinster (David Peele) and his mother (Martita Hunt). She keeps him locked up and scrounges up young girls to visit him so he can drink their blood. When the newest victim, the beauteous Yvonne Monlaur, frees him, the baron goes looking for his mother. Then he turns her into a vampire. Everything about this movie is touched by brilliance--from the sinister tracking shot of a carriage racing through the forest to reach the inn before sundown, to its incredible final sequence with the windmill. This movie delivers in every department, and especially in the sequences involving the fabulous Martita Hunt (who was also unforgettable in David Lean's "Great Expectations"), who portrays Mama Vampire and the count's lunatic nurse, old Greta, played unforgettably by Freda Jackson. Just study the scene where she lays on the ground, next to a freshly buried young vampire woman, and coaxes her out of the ground! The fact that "Brides" will finally be released on DVD is a cause for rejoicing. My VHS tape is worn and drab and I can hardly wait to see those beautiful hues and costumes and sets again on disc. Jery Tillotson
Review of The Brides of Dracula
