Review: Blacula

18^th Century African prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall) pleads with Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay) to end the slavery of his people. He gets it in the neck for his troubles, causing him to become the title blood-sucker. Cut to the 1970s and two gay American interior decorators transport and unwittingly release Blacula/Mamuwalde from his coffin. Taking in the hip nightclub scene in between the occasional midnight snack, he becomes obsessed with Tina (Vonetta McGee), who he thinks is the reincarnation of his late, beloved wife Loova. Thalmus Rasulala plays police forensic pathologist Dr. Gordon Thomas, investigating a series of strange killings involving suspicious bite marks. Denise Nicholas plays Michelle, Tina’s best friend and Dr. Gordon’s co-worker. Elisha Cook Jr. turns up as a hook-handed hospital orderly, Ji-Tu Cumbuka plays a mutual friend named Skillett, and Gordon Pinsent plays a police lieutenant.

 

Of all the blaxploitation flicks that turned out pretty good, this 1972 William Crain (“Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde” with Bernie Casey) flick might just be the most unlikely success story. I mean, look at that title for cryin’ out loud. Scripted by Raymond Koenig and Joan Torres (both of whom would script the sequel “Scream Blacula Scream” and curiously nothing else), the screenplay is certainly better than the cheesy, jokey title suggests. In fact, aside from the 70s setting and mostly African-American cast, this is your standard ‘Dracula becomes obsessed with woman who looks like his long dead lover reincarnated’ story. There’s also some fascinating racial politics going on in the opening scene between Mamuwalde and Count Dracula.

 

It’s a silly film of course, but I think some of the lines of dialogue are deliberately humorous. Best of all, it’s one of the better-acted films in the blaxploitation sub-genre. Through all of it Shakespearean actor William Marshall refuses to ham it up here. Playing the thing for more than it is probably worth, Marshall is the closest thing this film has to a Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing and one is forever grateful for his presence here. The makeup and fangs are really shoddy (making Marshall seem quite uncomfortable), but he’s very good in the dialogue scenes, sans fangs. He lends the part and the overall film a baritone-voiced dignity, backed up quite well by the cool and fabulously named Thalmus Rasulala. Despite wearing a dorky grey skivvy in some scenes, Rasulala could just as easily have filled in for Richard Roundtree in “Shaft”. He is the coolest dude in the room and like Marshall, plays the thing completely seriously, to the film’s advantage (It’s a funny film, but you don’t need the actors to ‘act’ funny). He also manages to make skivvies (that’s turtle-necks to you yanks, by the way) look super-cool. Even a grey one, and I hate grey. We also get choice cameos by gap-toothed Ji-Tu Cumbuka (doing his best Jimmie Walker impersonation: ‘He’s one straaaaaaange duuuuuude!’ he says of Mamuwalde. Twice!), veteran character actor Elisha Cook Jr. (as an orderly with a hook for a hand, which seems unlikely), and Charles Macaulay as Dracula. The real scene-stealer, though, is Ketty Lester as a cabbie named Juanita, who makes the mistake of getting a little too lippy with ‘ol Blacula. Don’t be sassin’ Mamuwalde, or you’ll get it in the neck for your back talk. This leads to the best scene in the film later on, as a vampiric Juanita jumps out at poor Cook and kills him. It’s the closest this decidedly un-scary film gets to being genuinely creepy and it’s definitely memorable for its bizarro imagery and creepy atmosphere. As for Macaulay, he looks a little like Vincent Price and although hardly Christopher Lee, is OK in a hammy way. Denise Nicholas is a bit bland, and the underrated Vonetta McGee is for once, rather wooden actually.

 

The camerawork by John Stevens also deserves a mention. Like a lot of blaxploitation films, the budget obviously wasn’t huge and that can often result in more innovation, and Stevens’ work will remind you a bit of the later “Black Caesar” in the use of handheld camerawork and lots of eerie, discomforting close-ups. On the downside, a low-budget (this is an AIP flick, in case you can’t tell) also results here in poor makeup, FX, and production design. It all looks cheap and fake. Also, the film isn’t remotely scary (creepy on one or two occasions), but that may not be a big deal to you. I doubt very much that anyone involved thought they were making a legit horror movie, as such. I mean, were we meant to take Blacula seriously when he starts growling mid-attack? ‘Coz…yeah. If anything, the film really needed a dose of sex and nudity, which you’d think any blaxploitation movie would supply let alone something like this. On smaller notes, the opening titles design is cool, The music score by Gene Page (“Brewster McCloud”, “Fun With Dick and Jane”) is funky as hell, and The Hues Corporation (Remember ‘Rock the Boat’?) even perform a blatant self-promotion…er…I mean they perform a song. It’s no ‘Rock the Boat’ but it’s still cool. I also couldn’t believe that in 2015 I was able to watch a film on TV (from the 70s, mind you) that mixed Dracula with the slave-trading of African-Americans. And the film makes it work! It’s interesting thematically, but silly enough that you can’t get offended. Well, maybe the two swishy guys at the beginning are a little offensive and non-PC in 2015, I’ll admit that.

 

Far better than it has any right to be, this is one of the best films of the blaxploitation era, mostly due to the committed, oddly dignified performance by William Marshall who plays it straight, even when the dialogue occasionally seems to be going for humour. I could listen to that guy’s fine baritone all day long.

 

Rating: B