Blacula
William Marshall, who has one of the great bass voices of all time, plays an African prince who is visiting, along with his wife, Castle Dracula. The year is 1780, and Marshall wants the Count's support in ending the slave trade. I was not aware the Count was a major player on the diplomacy scene. The Count was not an enlightened thinker, and offers to buy Marshall's wife (Vonetta McGee). Dracula bites Marshall, turns him into a vampire, and locks him in a coffin.
Almost two-hundred years later a couple of interior decorators buy the contents of the castle, including the coffin, and move them to Los Angeles. These two are two of the worst representations of gay men on the screen that I've seen in a while. They are swishy and bitchy, and are frequently called "faggots." It's interesting that a creative team that is presumably for equal rights for blacks resorted to such behavior.
Anyway, they unlock the coffin, Blacula rises, and the killing starts. He finds that a woman (again McGee) looks just like his wife. Her brother-in-law, Thalmus Masulala, is a doctor working for the police department and puts two and two together. He finally convinces a police lieutenant of the danger and track Marshall down to an industrial park to find his coffin. Question--if Masulala knew that only a cross or a wooden stake would kill vampires, why did he send a platoon of cops in with only their useless guns?
There's lots of other problems with the film. How did Blacula know he wouldn't show up in a photograph, given that he couldn't possibly know what cameras were? Why does he grow ridiculous eyebrows and facial hair when he's killing? Is he also part wolf?
There is also stuff to make you sad in this movie. Elisha Cook, who was a key player in noir films like The Maltese Falcon, shows up in a bit part as a morgue attendant with a very fake-looking artificial arm.
It's too bad this was such a misfire, as it could have been far better.
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