The Movie
Cultivated and articulate African Prince Mamuwalde is bitten by Count
Dracula as is his destiny. He develops the requisite insatiable hunger
for blood and must do all that he can to satisfy the craving. Two centuries
later interior decorators buy the coffin, and the princely ghoul is unwittingly
transported to modern day Los Angeles.
The African prince starts feeding his hunger while following a woman
who looks like his departed wife.
This groove from beyond the grave was named best horror film of 1972
by the Academy of Horror Films and Science Fiction Films.
Review
Even Dracula was racist, reveals this blaxploitation movie; he insults
and deceives our hero, and then leaves him to suffer while he steals his
wife. Naughty man.
After a shaky start, the movie settles down to the old 'boy meets girl,
boy loses girl, boy sleeps for 200 years, boy seeks reborn lover"
routine (why is it always 200 years? copyright, I suppose). It does have
its spooky moments, and the two leads William Marshall (Blacula) and Tina
(Vonetta McGee), do a fair job of keeping the story in line. The rest
of the cast is rather weaker, and the director was playing for laughs,
so the result is a little hard to read as a vampire movie.
The DVD
- Cast:
Gordon Pinsent,
Charles Macaulay,
Thalmus Rasulala,
Denise Nicholas,
Vonetta McGee
- Director: William Crain
- Rating: PG
- Run time: 93 min.
- Released: 20 January 2004
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