The Satanic Rites of Dracula

The beguiling message underlying Hammer's modern-dress Dracula movie is that the real vampires of modern London are property speculators. The legendary Count (Lee in fine form) has built a Centre Point-type construction on the site of his old crypt, and comes on like a cross between Howard Hughes and Harry Hyams as he plans to lay waste the city. The idea is amazing (after all, Dracula started as a subversive myth), but inevitably it tends to get lost in the usual mundane complexities of espionage melodrama and occult lore. A lot of weak action scenes and weaker lines, but still a vast improvement on Dracula A.D. 1972. DP.