DOCTOR DRACULA (1978)
aka Svengali, Lucifer’s Women
Article 3005 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-30-2009
Posting Date: 11-6-2009
Directed by Paul Aratow and Al Adamson
Featuring John Carradine, Don ‘Red’ Barry, Larry Hankin
Country: USA

Svengali has been reincarnated into a college professor by Satanists who want him to deliver Trilby to them. Meanwhile, Dracula is killing women and plotting against the Satanic cult. John Carradine looks on.

In which Al Adamson follows in the footsteps of Jerry Warren and edits his own footage into another movie (in this case, a 1975 movie called SVENGALI / LUCIFER’S WOMEN) to produce a new movie. He actually does a nice job of making his footage match that of the original movie; I suspect he helped things by getting the same actor who played the college professor in the original movie to reprise the role in the new footage. I suspect all of the Dracula footage is Adamson’s, as well as any scene with John Carradine. No, Adamson’s footage isn’t any good (it has some truly atrocious acting), but neither was the footage from the original film. The result is an unsatisfying mishmash that never makes sense, and which is often talky and boring. Quite frankly, I don’t understand why they didn’t call it DRACULA VS SVENGALI, or why producer Sam Sherman didn’t come up with an alternate title that had the word “blood” in it, as was his wont. At any rate, this is pretty much the bottom of the barrel for everyone concerned.