Cuadecuc, vampir

Cuadecuc, vampir (1970)

*** (out of 4)

Extremely well-made avant-garde documentary is an experiment done at its very best. Director Portabella got onto the set of Jess Franco's 1970 film COUNT Dracula and filmed the majority of what he saw and turned it into this unique, behind the scenes look at the film. This isn't your typical documentary because the movie is silent for the majority of the running time and we never learn anything about the film being made. What this film is is a bunch of bizarre images set to some even more bizarre music and one doesn't need to be familiar with the Franco film to really enjoy what we have here. I think what makes this work so well is the fact that it has a lot more to do with the German Expressionism films from the 1920s. While watching the movie I couldn't help but think of films like NOSFERATU and THE GOLEM and had this thing seemed so close to them in terms of nature, mood and atmosphere. Those familiar with the Franco film are going to notice all the scenes here but they're shot differently here and they also have this wonderful look to go with them. One could debate how well Franco did with the novel but this movie here really becomes a bizarre, alternate version of the film. Another major plus is that we do get to see some of the actors outside their characters and this includes a couple good shots of Soledad Miranda who would die not too long after this movie was released. Apparently this is the only known footage of Miranda being herself that was captured on film. We also get to see Lee clowning around a little as he jumps towards the camera to attack it before getting ready for his shot inside the coffin. Herbert Lom and Jack Taylor are also seen in a few shots and we get one of Franco actually directing. The film runs 67-minutes and the only dialogue comes at the very end when Lee reads the death of Dracula to use from the novel. Before this is a fun sequence of him getting out of his costume and having to remove his teeth and a few other items. Portabella certainly has a great eye for style and atmosphere as this film is very impressive even in its short state. The movie hasn't ever seen a legit release as the director thought the movie too good to be included as an extra when the Franco film was released to DVD, which is a shame as it would be nice for more people to be able to see this work. Fans of the strange should certainly try to track this down as its certainly unique in its own way.