5 Fiendish Facts About ‘Blood of Dracula,’ Svengoolie’s Dec. 28 Movie of the Week
Get out your garlic, crucifixes, and chemistry textbooks, because Svengoolie is showing Blood of Dracula on the Dec. 28, 2024 edition of the MeTV series Svengoolie Classic Horror & Sci-Fi Movie.
This 1957 film follows sweet-yet-troubled teen Nancy, who has been dropped off at boarding school by her recently-remarried dad; Nancy’s sadness over her mother’s death is cramping his style. Nancy decides to try to make the best of things. But an evil chemistry teacher has other plans — plans that involve turning Nancy into a remorseless bloodsucker! Teacher Miss Branding believes that each human mind holds the potential for a destructive power greater than a nuclear warhead. Her test subject? Short-fused Nancy, who is just a few hypnosis sessions away from transforming into a terrifying vampire who preys on her classmates.
Read on to learn a little bit more about Blood of Dracula … and remember: high school bites!
1It was intended as a sequel to another film about a teen monster
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Famous B-movie film studio American International Pictures (AIP) — also known as “the House Roger Corman Built” — had a huge hit earlier in the year with I Was a Teenage Werewolf, a film about a teen boy who is turned into a supernatural monster due to the machinations of a sinister adult. How could they keep this winning streak going? By making a film about a teen GIRL who is turned into a supernatural monster due to the machinations of a sinister adult, of course!
A lot of the Teenage Werewolf team returned for Blood of Dracula (more on that below). A lot of that same creative team also worked on the 1957 AIP film I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, which, surprisingly, is not about a teen boy who is turned into a supernatural monster due to the machinations of a sinister adult.
Blood of Dracula and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein were presented as a double feature, but neither was as popular as Werewolf — perhaps because hunky young Michael Landon didn’t star in either of them.
2The monster’s look was created by a B-movie makeup icon
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Blood of Dracula might be most famous for Nancy’s absolutely unique vampire look, which makes her look like … a bat? An evil bug? Either way, it is completely unique, and it is the work of makeup artist Philip Scheer.
Scheer has a truly impressive B-movie pedigree — he also created the look for I Was a Teenage Werewolf, and worked as a makeup artist on I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, 1958’s Attack of the Puppet People and How to Make a Monster, and 1960’s The Cape Canaveral Monsters. And just to show that there was more to him than fake blood and fangs — he was also a makeup artist on Jackie Gleason’s 1949 series The Life of Riley.
3The screenwriter didn’t actually exist (but he *did* work on Trog)
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“Ralph Thornton,” who is credited with writing the script? Yeah, he didn’t exist. The name was a joint pseudonym for Herbert Cohen and Aben Kandel. Cohen was one of the primary producers at AIP, who had overseen I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Kandel was a Romanian-born novelist who wrote on prestigious films like the 1940 James Cagney movie City for Conquest. However, prestige alone doesn’t pay the bills, so Kandel also wrote B-movie scripts; he just didn’t want his name on them.
He and Cohen also penned the script for I Was a Teenage Werewolf together (which might go a long way in explaining the similarities between the two films). Another production that Kandel and Cohen both worked on? Trog, the 1970 Joan Crawford flick about the discovery of a caveman in modern times. Cohen produced, while Kandel was one of the co-writers.
4The star’s next role was far more wholesome
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Sandra Harrison had been a child actress on a number of TV shows in the years before Blood of Dracula, but her first role after the film was the 1958 Father Knows Best episode “Calypso Bud.” In it, Bud gets a pair of bongos and dreams of driving all the girls wild with his new musical prowess. Harrison plays Jeanie, the girl Bud is trying to impress with his bongo-pounding ways … so he’s crestfallen when she specifically requests he leave the instrument at home when he comes to her big party.
5The evil teacher became a nice nurse
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Louise Lewis, who plays torturous teacher Miss Branding, had a long career in TV, appearing on everything from Dragnet to The Mod Squad to Tales From the Crypt. But her biggest role was on Medical Center, the medical drama starring Chad Everett as hunky physician Dr. Joe Gannon. Lewis appeared 18 time on the shows as Nurse Bascomb, primarily between 1972 and 1973.
Blood of Dracula will air at 8pm EST on Dec. 21, 2024, on MeTV.
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