El gran amor del conde Drácula
When their carriage loses a wheel while traveling over the Borgo
Pass, the five stranded passengers, Imre Polvi [ Vic Winner] and four young women --
Karen [Kaydee Politoff], Senta [Rosanna Yanni], Marlene [Ingrid Garbo], and Elke [Mirta
Miller] -- are forced to seek refuge at the Klinik
Dr Kargos. It was near here, Imre explains to the girls, that Jonathan
Harker and Professor van Helsing finally put an end to the king of the
vampires, Count Dracula. The sanitarium once held the laboratories of Dr
Kargos, who was hanged for his unsavory research in blood studies. It has
recently been purchased by an Austrian physician, Dr Wendell Marlow [Paul Naschy], who
is agreeable to putting up the travelers until supplies arrive in a week
and they can hitch a ride back to Bistritz.The first night in the somewhat rundown sanitarium (Marlow is having
difficulty hiring local workers) seems to go well. Karen and Senta share a
room while Elke, Marlene, and Imre have their own rooms, although Imre
finds his way to Marlene's bedroom for a little lovemaking. When Karen
leaves her room to close a window banging in the storm, she runs into a
vampire, but Marlow returns her to her bed, assuring both Karen and Senta
that it must have been a tramp taking refuge from the bad weather. The
next day Marlene and Imre go off alone while the other girls swim in the
pool and explore the sanitarium, ending up in a library where they find an
old book about Dracula's immortality that foretells a time when a true
virgin will fall in love with Dracula and give herself to him willingly.
When this happens, Dracula will be restored to his full power and will
rule mankind for all eternity, and his daughter Radna will also be
awakened.The second night, as Imre makes his way to Marlene's room again, he
is attacked and bitten by the vampire/tramp. When Imre finally makes it to
Marlene's room, he bites her, too. Meanwhile, Karen can't sleep, so she
leaves her bedroom and finds Marlow sitting in a chair, reading. Since
Marlow has been gone all day (checking his traps, he says), they take a
stroll together and talk about his lonely life. The next morning, the
girls notice that Marlene and Imre have disappeared but chalk it up to
them going off together and getting lost in the forest. The girls spend
the day looking for them, until Senta gets her foot caught in one of
Marlow's traps. When they return to the sanitarium, Marlow begins to clean
up the blood but then relinquishes the duty to Karen so that he can get
some disinfectant.During the night, Marlene bites Elke's neck. Senta wakes up and pokes
her head outside her bedroom door. She sees Marlow walking down the hall.
Senta has had the hots for Marlow since the day they arrived, so she
invites him into her bed and he is all too happy to join her, although he
does lecture her afterwards about how they shouldn't have done this.
Besides, Senta is not a virgin. Meanwhile, Imre tries to put the bite on
Karen, but her scream brings Marlow running. Marlow bests Imre and tosses
him out the window. Imre falls on a stick of some sort and is impaled.
Suddenly, Karen is attacked by the vampire/tramp. Marlow fights with him,
but the tramp seems to be getting the best of Marlow, until Marlow catches
up with him and drives a stake through his heart. Karen cowers in Marlow's
arms and reveals that she's in love with him. Marlow promises that they
will leave tomorrow.When Karen wakes up, Marlow is gone. She goes in search of him and
hears him calling her. She follows his voice into a chamber of coffins and
finds Marlene, Elke, and Senta (who has now become a vampire) waiting for
her. Marlow reveals himself as Dracula and tells Karen of his plan to use
her to cause his final rebirth along with the rebirth of his daughter
Radna, then he cuts Karen's neck and drinks her blood. With the first
ceremony completed, he imprisons Karen to wait until the next full moon
when they will perform the second ceremony.When the next full moon comes around, the three vampiresses kidnap a
virgin from the village and whip her until her blood flows. Then they hang
her upside down over Radna's coffin and slit her neck. At the same time,
they slit Karen's wrist so that Karen's blood will mingle with the
innocent virgin's blood, both combining to give life to Radna. After going
through all that in order to awaken Radna, however, Dracula/Marlow
decides, out of love for Karen, not to awaken Radna and has her coffin
tossed in a lake. He stakes Senta through the heart and hangs Marlene and
Elke out in the sun to fry. But, when Dracula/Marlow asks Karen to
renounce her mortal life and unite with him, Karen refuses, so he thrusts
a stake through his own heart and turns to dust. Alone now, Karen begins
the long walk over the mountains to Bistritz.Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.
romantic, gothic