Synopsis: Christopher Lee is looking very 1970s cool in this documentary portrait of the world's favorite vampire. Himself a great interpreter of the role, Lee performs multiple duties here: he narrates, appears in clips from Hammer films and Jess Franco's Count Dracula, and plays evil tyrant Vlad the Impaler in new footage. The rest of the film is a cobbled-together look at origins of Dracula, both historical (the life of bloody Vlad is recounted) and literary. The latter includes a brief account of Bram Stoker's source novel, plus a sidebar for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In fact, along with some good Transylvania footage and folklore, there are many peculiar sidebars, including a dramatization of a modern blood-drinker. It's all pretty slapdash, but undeniably a useful introduction for people unaware of the Dracula family tree. Plus, you get to see how truly hideous-looking a vampire bat really is. No wonder they've been demonized. --Robert Horton

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