Did These Girls Get Their Makeover At Sally Hershberger? Does She Now Do Teeth Bleaching??????????????????????????

                                I have wanted to see the 1960 movie, "The Brides Of Dracula," for a very long time, and I got my chance, last Saturday night on "Svengoolie."  Considering that "Sventoonie" was not on, this gem from Hammer, made in 1960, almost made up for it.

                                Notice the one on the left.  That is Gina, played by Andree Melly, and she is the most famous of all the brides.  Her image was even used in a card game during the 1960's--Milton Bradley's "Monster Old Maid," which I had.  She was mistakenly labeled "Dracula's Daughter," and was designated as the "Old Maid."  Can you imagine?

                                 These girls are just having fun, giggling and carrying on, like any other group of schoolgirls.  The entire film is simply fun.  Little Pippin especially loved the set and costume designs.  And the lush color.

                                      A nubile woman named Danielle is on her way to be a teacher at a girls' school, where all the students are nubile and aged beyond their supposed years.  And yet, Mona Washbourne (who played Mrs. Pearce, in the 1964 film of "My Fair Lady!") runs the place like some sort of 19th century European Miss Porter's.  Meanwhile, in Von Meister Castle, Martita Hunt (yes, Miss Havisham of David Lean's 1947 "Great Expectations!") dressed in a stunning gown with a red and black cape, sizes up Danielle, where she is forced to stay at the inn.  The Baroness extends her the courtesy of the castle, and before we know it, there is a handsome blond young man chained and wailing outside Danielle's bedroom.  It turns out he wants Daneille, but not in the way one would think.  Over dinner, the Baroness reveals the chained man is her son, who is feeble-minded.  Of course, Danielle goes digging, and through a set of circumstances, unleashes the son, who turns out to be a vampire, and the first person he destroys is his mother.  Wouldn't Sophocles be proud?  Martita now being out of the picture, I feared the film's liveliness would be lost, but she has one final moment, where she comes back as a vampire, and Peter Cushing, as an always on the prowl Van Helsing, drives that stake through her heart.

                                     The young Baron's plan is clear--he wants to make vampires out of all those nubile schoolgirls.  Hence, "The Brides Of Dracula."  He only succeeds in the two pictured here, Andree, as Gina, and her girlfriend, the Village Girl, played by Marie Devereux.

                                      He is played by handsome young (40!) actor David Peel, whose next to last film this was.  The filmmakers wanted Christopher Lee--this was intended as a sequel to 1958's "Horror Of Dracula," but they could not afford Lee.  I think they did better with peel--a hot, blond, vampire!  

                                      But the movie plays fast and loose with the vampire myth.  After stakes are driven, crucifixes shoved into faces, and holy water scalding the undead, Dracula and his brides are destroyed by fire, in a windmill where they are hiding.  The whole long shot looks like a Technicolor recreation of the mill scene in Universal's original, 1931, "Frankenstein."  True, Robert Paige, as Frank Stanley, burned his lover, Kay Caldwell, played by Louise Allbritton, while in her coffin by day, in 1943's "Son Of Dracula."  So, maybe this wasn't a stretch!

                        Next to Martita Hunt and Andree Melly, the liveliest performance is Freda Jackson, a horror veteran, as Greta, the housekeeper.  She starts out doing an imitation of Katina Paxinou in "For Whom The Bell Tolls," then descends into a vampiric sort of madness so incredulous, it descends to the level of camp!  Once she gets tossed off a terrace, the picture is almost done!

                                                                              

 '                                   But Andree, as Gina, is the most famous of the 'Brides.'  Her foundation almost matches fine.

                                      "Fangs a million," I am sure she is saying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!