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would be evidenced in further outings it is only those boy‘s own set–to‘s with Cushing and Lee that would be the saving grace of some pretty average movies. Veronica Carlson is the first in this line of new Hammer women. Beautiful to watch, but having no discernible motives and the character of Maria becoming as nondescript as the heroines in the old silent movies; relegated to being tied to the tracks in the wake of an oncoming train: the perennial damsel in distress.
    The Count’s Castle is an improvement and the fine matte paintings by Peter Melrose lend a brooding Gothic look to the gaudy landscape that was missing in Terence Fisher’s storybook fantasies. Unfortunately, these same paintings would be used in the next two additions in the series, making them quickly clichéd cutaways. Dracula Has Risen From the Grave was the first Hammer Dracula film to be shot at Elstree Studios in London and the first Hammer Dracula to pass the censor in Australia where it played with slight cuts for three weeks at Sydney’s Capitol theatre in January 1970. The two previous Lee/Dracula films had been banned outright.
     

     
     
    Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
    Christopher Lee as Count Dracula , Geoffrey Keen as Hargood , Peter Sallis as Paxton , John Carson as Secker , Ralph Bates as Lord Courtley , Linda Hayden as Alice , Anthony Corlan as Paul , Isla Blair as Lucy , Martin Jarvis as Jeffrey and Roy Kinnear as Weller . Screenplay based on the character created by Bram Stoker; John Elder (Anthony Hinds), Director; Peter Sasdy.    
    Synopsis
A coach journeys through large but open woodland. Its occupants are three gentlemen. One of the men identifies himself as Weller, a travelling salesman to his fellow passengers. Stuffing himself with vitals, he cannot resist the opportunity of another quick sale and produces a snow globe from his bag. Stating that they cost him six crowns, he offers the reduced rate of three crowns to the prospective buyers. Their seeming lack of interest forces him down to two crowns. The younger of the two suddenly makes a grab for the globe and throws the salesman from the moving coach, followed by bag and baggage. Weller wakes hours later and the moon is high in the sky. He wanders nervously through the woods to the accompaniment of a hooting owl and then three piercing cries of untold agony. He begins to run blindly through the woods and eventually trips and falls onto a ledge of rocks. Gazing over the side of the mountain he sees a man below clawing at the air and impaled on a large golden crucifix. Blood seeps from the man’s eyes and then the whole body melts away. The black cloak falling from the cross and the surrounding area running with the dead man’s blood. Picking through the pieces, the salesman quickly identifies the remains to be those of Dracula, the Prince of Darkness.
Meanwhile three Victorian Patriarchs Hargood, Paxton and Secker, visit the East end of London the first Sunday of every month to indulge their sexual fantasies whilst keeping a respectable facade amongst their peers. On their latest wanderings they cross the path of the decadent aristocrat, Lord Courtley, who entices them to perform a black mass ceremony with the acquisitions from Weller’s stock, Dracula’s cape, his clasp and his blood. The three agree and the ritual begins. When Courtley proves that he is deadly serious, the men are repulsed by their own debaucheries. Courtley drinks the blood of Dracula and expires as the three gentlemen return home vowing never to discuss the matter again. However, the body of Lord Courtley undergoes a transformation and he stands erect as Count Dracula. The Count vows vengeance on the men who have destroyed his underling and extracts it through their children. He first takes Alice Hargood under his power and uses her to entice her friends, Lucy and Jeremy Secker and Lucy’s brother and Alice’s beau, Paul Paxton. Throughout the course of the next few nights, Dracula