Tender Dracula (1974)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Weird French mix of horror and comedy has two screenwriters and their girlfriends going to the home of a retiring horror actor (Peter Cushing) who played Dracula countless times in his career. It doesn't take long for the guests to wonder if he was playing Dracula or if he's the real thing. Well, I'm really not sure what to say about this film other than it's quite rare and that's a good thing. While the film isn't nearly as horrible as it's reputation, the entire thing is quite bizarre to say the least and in the end it comes off like an Abbott and Costello film with a lot of nudity and sex jokes. I do wonder if the filmmakers had Abbott and Costello in mind because I couldn't help but think of some of their monster mash movies and of course it's quite fitting that they've got Peter Cushing here playing the "Dracula" character. The film pretty much has the two writers and their two hot girlfriends running around and encounters countless bizarre things. This includes Cushing but we've also got blood in the bathtub and various other strange things throughout the castle. One running joke involves the horror star wanting to do romantic movies but it's not all that funny. In fact, most of the comedy here just doesn't work because the direction is simply all over the place and if you check out Pierre Grunstein's credits you'll notice this was the first and last time he worked the director's chair. To say the film is uneven would be an insult to the word uneven. You really can't tell what exactly they were going for because the pacing is off but there's also issues with the screenplay. The script simply goes on and on at times and you just sit there wondering what the whole point is. Even worse is that the horror elements really don't work either but I must say that you do get a good performance from Cushing who is at least energized and appears to be having fun. The supporting players really aren't all that memorable, although there is plenty of nudity with the two female leads. TENDER Dracula has pretty much been forgotten and there's really no reason for anyone to re-discover it.
