Son of Dracula (1974 film)
Encyclopedia
Son of Dracula is a British musical comedy film
released in 1974 by Apple Films, starring Harry Nilsson
and Ringo Starr
. It is also the title of a Harry Nilsson
album released in conjunction with the film. It includes Nilsson songs that were showcased in the film as well as portions of dialogue, used as bridging sequences. All song tracks with the exception of "Daybreak" are from Nilsson Schmilsson
(1971) and Son of Schmilsson
(1972), albums previously released.
Ringo Starr appears as Merlin the Magician
, who follows the birth and rise of young Count Downe, played by Harry Nilsson. Starr and Nilsson were longtime friends, and Starr had played drums on Son of Schmilsson
, which had spoofed horror movie motifs. A year or so later, Starr decided to make a rock and roll
Dracula
movie, and invited Nilsson to come on board. Nilsson thought at first the whole idea came from his recent album; as it turned out, Starr had not followed its release, and until then-wife Maureen brought him a copy, he did not even know Nilsson had already used a similar theme.
Showings over the years have been limited to midnight movies
and similar outlets. No official home video release has ever been made, and reviewers including Leonard Maltin
have little positive to say about the film.
The LP release of the soundtrack
album included a T-shirt iron-on advertising the movie, and a companion songbook included a reproduction of the movie poster. The single version of "Daybreak" edited out the words "it's pissing me off" (referring to daylight), repeating the lyric "it's making me cough" instead, and the fadeout is longer than in any LP or CD release of the song. ("Daybreak" was covered
later by Nilsson friend and former Monkee
Micky Dolenz
.)
Keith Moon
, drummer of English
rock band
the Who
, as well as John Bonham
, drummer of Led Zeppelin
, make appearances in the film, drumming in the Count's band. Among the notables credited on the album were George Harrison
and Peter Frampton
, the later appearing courtesy of A&M Records. Klaus Voorman, who worked frequently with The Beatles
, also played bass on many of the songs.
) is summoned from his travels abroad by family advisor Merlin (Ringo Starr
) in order to prepare him to take over the throne. Baron Frankenstein (Freddie Jones
) is also on hand to help in any way he can. Problem is, Downe wants no part of this responsibility, and instead wishes to become human and mortal, especially after meeting a girl named Amber (Suzanna Leigh
), with whom he falls in love. He approaches old family nemesis Dr. Van Helsing (Dennis Price
), who agrees to enable the Count's transformation, much to the dismay of the residents of the Underworld. Despite the best efforts of a host of monsters, as well as one traitorous figure who is dealt with by the trusted Merlin, Dr. Van Helsing performs the operation and removes Downe's fangs, and informs him he can now live out his days in the sunlight, with Amber at his side.
, who was writing with Douglas Adams
at the time and had been working on a TV special tied into Ringo's Goodnight Vienna
album. They, along with Chapman's other regular collaborator Bernard McKenna
, were asked to write a whole new script to be dubbed over the film's lacklustre dialogue, and they recorded an alternative, Pythonesque soundtrack, which was then shelved. Later, attempts were made to market the movie, but as Ringo Starr later said, "No one would take it".
It is unknown if the film will ever come out officially on DVD. Harry Nilsson brought a VHS copy of the film to show at the 1982 New Jersey Beatlefeast convention to be shown only at a special Friday night party that Convention host Mark Lapidos gives for the convention guests and vendors. Most party attendees ignored the film. On YouTube
, a version in 11 parts is presently being offered. According to journalist Peter Palmiere, Ringo has said in the late 1980s that he had a copy of the video lying on top of his TV set, but could not bear to look at it.
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
released in 1974 by Apple Films, starring Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
and Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
. It is also the title of a Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
album released in conjunction with the film. It includes Nilsson songs that were showcased in the film as well as portions of dialogue, used as bridging sequences. All song tracks with the exception of "Daybreak" are from Nilsson Schmilsson
Nilsson Schmilsson
-Personnel:* Harry Nilsson – piano on 1 5 8 10, vocals, Mellotrons on 2 4, organ on 3, harmonica on 8, electric piano on 9* Jim Gordon – drums on 1 2 5 8 9, percussion on 7 9* Klaus Voormann – bass on 1 5 6 8, rhythm guitar on 2 9, acoustic guitar on 4...
(1971) and Son of Schmilsson
Son of Schmilsson
Son of Schmilsson is the eighth album by Harry Nilsson. Nilsson was being pressured to produce a follow-up album similar to his 1971 breakthrough, Nilsson Schmilsson, but, instead, he cut a more eccentric album....
(1972), albums previously released.
Ringo Starr appears as Merlin the Magician
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
, who follows the birth and rise of young Count Downe, played by Harry Nilsson. Starr and Nilsson were longtime friends, and Starr had played drums on Son of Schmilsson
Son of Schmilsson
Son of Schmilsson is the eighth album by Harry Nilsson. Nilsson was being pressured to produce a follow-up album similar to his 1971 breakthrough, Nilsson Schmilsson, but, instead, he cut a more eccentric album....
, which had spoofed horror movie motifs. A year or so later, Starr decided to make a rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
movie, and invited Nilsson to come on board. Nilsson thought at first the whole idea came from his recent album; as it turned out, Starr had not followed its release, and until then-wife Maureen brought him a copy, he did not even know Nilsson had already used a similar theme.
Showings over the years have been limited to midnight movies
Midnight movies
The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides...
and similar outlets. No official home video release has ever been made, and reviewers including Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
have little positive to say about the film.
The LP release of the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
album included a T-shirt iron-on advertising the movie, and a companion songbook included a reproduction of the movie poster. The single version of "Daybreak" edited out the words "it's pissing me off" (referring to daylight), repeating the lyric "it's making me cough" instead, and the fadeout is longer than in any LP or CD release of the song. ("Daybreak" was covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
later by Nilsson friend and former Monkee
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
Micky Dolenz
Micky Dolenz
George Michael "Micky" Dolenz, Jr. is an American actor, musician, television director, radio personality and theater director, best known as a member of the 1960s made-for-television band The Monkees.-Biography:...
.)
Keith Moon
Keith Moon
Keith John Moon was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon...
, drummer of English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
the Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, as well as John Bonham
John Bonham
John Henry Bonham was an English musician and songwriter, best known as the drummer of Led Zeppelin. Bonham was esteemed for his speed, power, fast right foot, distinctive sound, and "feel" for the groove...
, drummer of Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, make appearances in the film, drumming in the Count's band. Among the notables credited on the album were George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
and Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
, the later appearing courtesy of A&M Records. Klaus Voorman, who worked frequently with The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, also played bass on many of the songs.
Plot
After the death of his father (Count Dracula, the Lord of the Underworld) by a mysterious assassin, Count Downe (Harry NilssonHarry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
) is summoned from his travels abroad by family advisor Merlin (Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
) in order to prepare him to take over the throne. Baron Frankenstein (Freddie Jones
Freddie Jones
Frederick Charles "Freddie" Jones is an English character actor.Jones was born in the town of Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the son of Ida Elizabeth and Charles Edward Jones. He became an actor after ten years of working as a laboratory assistant with a firm making ceramic products,...
) is also on hand to help in any way he can. Problem is, Downe wants no part of this responsibility, and instead wishes to become human and mortal, especially after meeting a girl named Amber (Suzanna Leigh
Suzanna Leigh
Suzanna Leigh is a former English actress.Born to a manufacturer of car engines Suzanna Leigh grew up in the Belgrave district of Leicester, England and later went to convent schools outside London...
), with whom he falls in love. He approaches old family nemesis Dr. Van Helsing (Dennis Price
Dennis Price
Dennis Price was an English actor, remembered for his suave screen roles, particularly Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and for his portrayal of the omniscient valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G...
), who agrees to enable the Count's transformation, much to the dismay of the residents of the Underworld. Despite the best efforts of a host of monsters, as well as one traitorous figure who is dealt with by the trusted Merlin, Dr. Van Helsing performs the operation and removes Downe's fangs, and informs him he can now live out his days in the sunlight, with Amber at his side.
Release
Soon after completion, Ringo called in Graham ChapmanGraham Chapman
Graham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...
, who was writing with Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
at the time and had been working on a TV special tied into Ringo's Goodnight Vienna
Goodnight Vienna
Goodnight Vienna is the fourth album by Ringo Starr. It was recorded in the summer of 1974 in Los Angeles, and released later that year. Goodnight Vienna followed the commercially successful predecessor Ringo, and Starr used many of the same players, including Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, Robbie...
album. They, along with Chapman's other regular collaborator Bernard McKenna
Bernard McKenna (writer)
Bernard McKenna is a Scottish writer/producer who has written, or co-written, many hours of British television comedy. He is most noted for his work with Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame as well as his collaborations with Peter Cook and Douglas Adams...
, were asked to write a whole new script to be dubbed over the film's lacklustre dialogue, and they recorded an alternative, Pythonesque soundtrack, which was then shelved. Later, attempts were made to market the movie, but as Ringo Starr later said, "No one would take it".
It is unknown if the film will ever come out officially on DVD. Harry Nilsson brought a VHS copy of the film to show at the 1982 New Jersey Beatlefeast convention to be shown only at a special Friday night party that Convention host Mark Lapidos gives for the convention guests and vendors. Most party attendees ignored the film. On YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, a version in 11 parts is presently being offered. According to journalist Peter Palmiere, Ringo has said in the late 1980s that he had a copy of the video lying on top of his TV set, but could not bear to look at it.
Soundtrack listing
- It is he who will be king (Paul BuckmasterPaul BuckmasterPaul John Buckmaster is a Grammy Award-winning English artist, arranger and composer.He began learning the cello at the age of 4 and graduated from the Royal College of Music at age 16....
) – 3:07 - "Daybreak" (Nilsson) – 2:43
- "At My Front Door" (Ewart B. Abner, John C. Moore) – 2:40
- Count Downe meets Merlin and Amber (Buckmaster) – 2:10
- "The Moonbeam Song" (Nilsson) – 3:20
- Perhaps this is all a dream (Buckmaster) – :47
- "Remember (Christmas)" (Nilsson) – 4:09
- Intro, "Without You" (Pete Ham, Tom EvansTom Evans (musician)Thomas Evans Jr was a musician who was most notable for his work with the band Badfinger.- Badfinger :In 1969, The Iveys changed their name to Badfinger and Paul McCartney of The Beatles gave the group a boost by offering them his song "Come and Get It" which he produced for the band...
) – 3:47 - The Count's vulnerability (Buckmaster) – 2:10
- "Down" (Nilsson) – 3:07
- Frankenstein, Merlin and the operation (Taverner) – 3:20
- "Jump into the Fire" (Nilsson) – 3:16
- The abdication of Count Downe (Buckmaster) – 1:10
- The end (Moonbeam) – :49