The Brides of Dracula (1960)

Since the release of Dracula, Hammer Productions had a mixture of success, with a return to another monster franchise with Revenge of Frankenstein and a huge hit with The Mummy, by which stage Hammer had established ‘ a gift of harnessing talents to achieve a harmony of purpose’ The movie Dracula had reportedly saved Hammer Productions from bankruptcy and business was doing well globally with success particularly high in Britain, Japan and the States. Hammer were eager to repeat the performance with a sequel. After a few redrafts of Jimmy Sangster’s original script, The Brides of Dracula soon went into production with Peter Cushing reprising his role of Van Helsing. This time however the villainous duties would fall upon David Peel as Baron Meinster, Christopher Lee allegedly turning down the chance to don Dracula’s cape at least this time around. Fellow podcaster, Myles Davies and I discuss the second Dracula instalment that Hammer delivered. Does it stand up next to it’s predecessor or should it be staked through its celluloid heart? Listen to the audio links below to find out our thoughts.