kindkit | the depths to which I will sink

Tonight I watched Dracula AD 1972. Why, you ask?

Because Christopher Neame is in it.

Meet Johnny Alucard:

Isn't he pretty? And camp? And shocking? Whoever originally uploaded this image to the internet ~~deserves the thanks of a grateful world~~ titled it "johnnyalucardyouscamp," which is perfect.

Here's our pretty scamp celebrating a Black Mass:

Despite the fact that his surname is "Dracula" spelt backwards, he's not actually a vampire at the start of the movie, just a descendent of Count Dracula's nineteenth-century ~~boyfriend~~ henchman. The ritual here is meant to restore Dracula's ashes to vampiric life. Three guesses whether it works.

The movie is silly (although a lot better than I expected) and so at times is Neame's performance, but he does give off a marvellous air of decadence. And gay. Despite having a kissing-and-possibly-implied-sex scene with a woman, Alucard doesn't seem terribly . . . heterosexual:

Go-go dancer: *wears hot pants*
Johnny Alucard: *looks bored*

Here, in contrast, is how he reacts to Dracula:

That's after Dracula finally agrees to Johnny's request to be given ~~vampiric penetration~~ "the Power." No wonder the boy looks so ecstatic.

Alas, in this universe vampires can be killed by hot showers (why this does not result in smelly vampires who can only seduce victims with bad colds is an interesting question), so poor Johnny does not survive the film.

I don't know why the last two images are in black and white (I think they're set photos rather than film stills), but I should mention that for the last half of the film, Neame dresses mostly in black. He looks absolutely delicious in it, although I couldn't find a good color image to show you. But trust me, that creamy pale skin in an open-necked black shirt and tight black jeans . . . one does understand the urge to bite. /perv

For those of you who don't share my entirely rational and healthy ~~obsession~~ interest in the early career of Christopher Neame, the film also has Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Stephanie Beacham as the mostly awesome Jessica van Helsing. It is ridiculous and yet oddly charming.