Cast and Crew: Michael Carreras (Executive Producer); Caroline Munro,

What It’s About: In 1872, Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) battles Dracula (Christopher Lee) on a runaway carriage.  The carriage crashes and the broken wheel pierces Dracula’s heart, killing him.  One hundred years later, Van Helsing’s grandson is a London-based professor of the occult whose own granddaughter, Jessica (Stephanie Beacham) runs with a wild crowd of counter-culture types.  One of the group, Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame), is an occultist with his own agenda, and gets the group to help him conduct a ceremony to raise Dracula from the dead.  Dracula’s only goal is to revenge himself on Van Helsing’s family.  Will Professor Van Helsing defeat Dracula before Dracula makes Jessica his bride?

Why watch it today?: Author Bram Stoker was born today in 1847.  Dracula A.D. 1972, while not without its flaws (chiefly that the filmmakers are clueless about “the kids” but eager to include already dated hippies and some of the weaker members of the supporting cast), at its heart is a very solid and exciting updating of the Dracula story to the then-present day and reuniting Cushing’s Van Helsing with Lee’s Dracula.  You can read the full review here.

Other Choices: The Horror of Dracula, The Brides of Dracula, Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, Son of Dracula, Dracula vs. Frankenstein