Blood For Dracula - Criterion Collection Laserdisc Preservation

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

ANDY WARHOL PRESENTS

ANDY WARHOL PRESENTS

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY

PAUL MORRISSEY BLU-RAY EDITION 1974 103 MINUTES COLOR MONAURAL 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO

Paul Morrissey’s moralistic take on modern values is a brash mixture of humor, horror, and sex—and a revelation to fans of the horror film. In Blood for Dracula, the infamous count searches Italy for virgin blood. Criterion presents the longsuppressed director’s cut of this outrageous cult classic in a widescreen transfer.

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY

PAUL MORRISSEY

BLOOD FOR DRACULA is under exclusive license from Compagnia Cinematografica Champion S.P.A. © 2020 by Compagnia Cinematografica Champion S.P.A. All Rights Reserved. © 2020 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1439L. 1559406968. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2020.

SPECIAL FEATURES 1974

u Audio commentary by writer/director Paul Morrissey,

actor Udo Kier, and film historian Maurice Yacowar

u Still gallery of publicity and production photographs,

presented in slide show form, and featuring excerpts from Claudio Gizzi’s musical score in stereo

Audio: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / English DTS 2.0 Mono

/ Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p DVD source

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 287

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

ANDY WARHOL PRESENTS

ANDY WARHOL PRESENTS WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY

PAUL MORRISSEY

BLU-RAY EDITION 1974 103 MINUTES COLOR MONAURAL 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO

Paul Morrissey’s moralistic take on modern values is a brash mixture of humor, horror, and sex—and a revelation to fans of the horror film. In Blood for Dracula, the infamous count searches Italy for virgin blood. Criterion presents the longsuppressed director’s cut of this outrageous cult classic in a widescreen transfer.

BLOOD FOR DRACULA is under exclusive license from Compagnia Cinematografica Champion S.P.A. © 2020 by Compagnia Cinematografica Champion S.P.A. All Rights Reserved. © 2020 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1439L. 1559406968. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2020.

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY

PAUL MORRISSEY

SPECIAL FEATURES 1974

u Audio commentary by writer/director Paul Morrissey,

actor Udo Kier, and film historian Maurice Yacowar

u Still gallery of publicity and production photographs,

presented in slide show form, and featuring excerpts from Claudio Gizzi’s musical score in stereo

Audio: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / English DTS 2.0 Mono

/ Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p DVD source

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 287

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

ANDY WARHOL PRESENTS

ANDY WARHOL PRESENTS DVD EDITION

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY

PAUL MORRISSEY

1974 103 MINUTES COLOR MONAURAL 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY

Paul Morrissey’s moralistic take on modern values is a brash mixture of humor, horror, and sex—and a revelation to fans of the horror film. In Blood for Dracula, the infamous count searches Italy for virgin blood. Criterion presents the longsuppressed director’s cut of this outrageous cult classic in a widescreen transfer.

BLOOD FOR DRACULA is under exclusive license from Compagnia Cinematografica Champion S.P.A. © 2020 by Compagnia Cinematografica Champion S.P.A. All Rights Reserved. © 2020 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1439L. 1559406968. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2020.

PAUL MORRISSEY

1974

SPECIAL FEATURES u Audio commentary by writer/director Paul Morrissey,

actor Udo Kier, and film historian Maurice Yacowar

u Still gallery of publicity and production photographs,

presented in slide show form, and featuring excerpts from Claudio Gizzi’s musical score in stereo

Audio: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / English DTS 2.0 Mono

/ Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p DVD source

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 287

PRODUCTION CREDITS DVD producer and menu design . .

Original package design . . . . . . . . .

DVD mastering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

DVD production supervisor . . . . . . .

Commentary editors . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Commentary recordists . . . . . . . . . .

Audio restoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Audio bumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Executive Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Technical director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Production manager . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Editorial coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . .

Susan Arosteguy Gordon Reynolds Crush Digital Video, NYC Sean Wright-Anderson Michael W. Wiese, Rex Arthur Chris McLaughlin/ Blackpocket Studios, NYC Tim Gerron/Westlake Audio, L.A. Michael W. Wiese, Fletcher H. Chenn, and Heather Shaw Dr. Fiorella Terenzi Peter Becker Lee Kline Catherine Gray Shannon Attaway

SPECIAL THANKS: Paul Morrissey, Udo Kier, and Maurice Yacowar Thanks also to: David Del Valle, Mark Rance, and Richard Schwartz and Karen Stetler

Paul Morrissey’s two horror entertainments, Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula, have become cult classics for their outrageousness and gross humor.

But there is more to both films than meets the funnybone.

They have much in common with Morrissey’s more characteristic films, the Flesh trilogy of 1968–72 and his New York street sagas, Mixed Blood (1974) and Spike of Bensonhurst (1988). The central figures fail to achieve a full self or life because they have too much freedom and power. Sensual self- indulgence seems the characters’ worst flaw and sexual exploitation the typical human relationship. Morrissey’s period pieces (including Beethoven’s Nephew, 1985) depict the historical roots of the amorality and commodification that Morrissey reflects in his contemporary dramas. So while these films are hearty comedies, they confirm Morrissey’s passionate critique of modern permissiveness.

A shortage of Romanian virgins drives the vampire Count Dracula (Udo Kier) and his faithful servant Anton (Arno Juerging) to Italy. There an aristocratic family is pleased to provide a bride from among their daughters. But the count chokes on their nonvirginal blood. The family handyman, Mario (Joe Dallesandro) rapes the 14-year-old daughter, ostensibly to save her from the vampire. After the climactic carnage, this peasant commands the estate.

Morrissey obviously has a lark with the vampire film conventions. He seems to be both in and outside the genre, utilizing and satirizing it at the same time.

So no explanation is given for why the Italian peasant Mario speaks New York colloquial; a modern character is simply forced onto the period. His Marxist clichés also satirize the political pretensions of the European art cinema. In contrast to Anton’s selfless service to the count, Mario’s seduction of three of his master’s four daughters replaces the higher values of legend with the vices of social reality.

In the same spirit of being both in- and outside the genre, Morrissey casts two established film directors in significant roles. The master of Italian neorealism, Vittorio De Sica, plays the Marchese di Fiori, and Roman Polanski, a specialist of psychological horror, plays the peasant who bests Anton in a tavern game. This star casting invites a comparison between the impotent, vain aristocrats and the potent, pragmatic peasants.

The marchese also relates to the count as a romantic striving to sustain traditional values against a corrupt modernity. The count assumes more dignity and pathos from this comparison. Indeed, he becomes a genuinely moving figure when he’s tricked into taking nonvirgin blood. His toilet agonies are laughable, but we are touched when we remember that they are the death throes of a dashing figure who cannot survive in a world without purity. In this corrupt world, sex means death to the romantic hero.

Mario’s professed Marxism may seem persuasive, but it’s revealed as but another

form of oppression. In front of his hammer and sickle insignia, Mario brutalizes his women. When he supplants di Fiori and dispatches Dracula, Mario represents not the triumph of the people but the replacement of one tyranny with another, less dignified. On another level, Dallesandro’s succession of De Sica represents the ascent of Morrissey’s New York neorealism over De Sica’s.

Blood for Dracula is not a film for the squeamish. It has obvious appeal for the lover of Grand Guignol—but it equally addresses the thoughtful.

Maurice Yacowar - November 23, 1998 Maurice Yacowar is Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and the author of The Films of Paul Morrisey (Cambridge University Press).

PRODUCTION CREDITS DVD producer and menu design . .

Original package design . . . . . . . . .

DVD mastering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

DVD production supervisor . . . . . . .

Commentary editors . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Commentary recordists . . . . . . . . . .

Audio restoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Audio bumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Executive Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Technical director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Production manager . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Editorial coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . .

Susan Arosteguy Gordon Reynolds Crush Digital Video, NYC Sean Wright-Anderson Michael W. Wiese, Rex Arthur Chris McLaughlin/ Blackpocket Studios, NYC Tim Gerron/Westlake Audio, L.A. Michael W. Wiese, Fletcher H. Chenn, and Heather Shaw Dr. Fiorella Terenzi Peter Becker Lee Kline Catherine Gray Shannon Attaway

SPECIAL THANKS: Paul Morrissey, Udo Kier, and Maurice Yacowar Thanks also to: David Del Valle, Mark Rance, and Richard Schwartz and Karen Stetler

Paul Morrissey’s two horror entertainments, Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula, have become cult classics for their outrageousness and gross humor. But there is more to both films than meets the funnybone.

They have much in common with Morrissey’s more characteristic films, the Flesh trilogy of 1968–72 and his New York street sagas, Mixed Blood (1974) and Spike of Bensonhurst (1988). The central figures fail to achieve a full self or life because they have too much freedom and power. Sensual self- indulgence seems the characters’ worst flaw and sexual exploitation the typical human relationship. Morrissey’s period pieces (including Beethoven’s Nephew, 1985) depict the historical roots of the amorality and commodification that Morrissey reflects in his contemporary dramas.

So while these films are hearty comedies, they confirm Morrissey’s passionate critique of modern permissiveness.

A shortage of Romanian virgins drives the vampire Count Dracula (Udo Kier) and his faithful servant Anton (Arno Juerging) to Italy. There an aristocratic family is pleased to provide a bride from among their daughters. But the count chokes on their nonvirginal blood. The family handyman, Mario (Joe Dallesandro) rapes the 14-yearold daughter, ostensibly to save her from the vampire. After the climactic carnage, this peasant commands the estate.

Morrissey obviously has a lark with the vampire film conventions. He seems to be both in and outside the genre, utilizing and satirizing it at the same time. So no explanation is given for why the Italian peasant Mario speaks New York colloquial; a modern character is simply forced onto the period. His Marxist clichés also satirize the political pretensions of the European art cinema. In contrast to Anton’s selfless service to the count, Mario’s seduction of three of his master’s four daughters replaces the higher values of legend with the vices of social reality.

In the same spirit of being both in- and outside the genre, Morrissey casts two established film directors in significant roles. The master of Italian neorealism, Vittorio De Sica, plays the Marchese di Fiori, and Roman Polanski, a specialist of psychological horror, plays the peasant who bests Anton in a tavern game. This star casting invites a comparison between the impotent, vain aristocrats and the potent, pragmatic peasants.

The marchese also relates to the count as a romantic striving to sustain traditional values against a corrupt modernity. The count assumes more dignity and pathos from this comparison. Indeed, he becomes a genuinely moving figure when he’s tricked into taking nonvirgin blood. His toilet agonies are laughable, but we are touched when we remember that they are the death throes of a dashing figure who cannot survive in a world without purity. In this corrupt world, sex means death to the romantic hero.

Mario’s professed Marxism may seem persuasive, but it’s revealed as but another form of oppression. In front of his hammer and sickle insignia, Mario brutalizes his women.

When he supplants di Fiori and dispatches Dracula, Mario represents not the triumph of the people but the replacement of one tyranny with another, less dignified. On another level, Dallesandro’s succession of De Sica represents the ascent of Morrissey’s New York neorealism over De Sica’s.

Blood for Dracula is not a film for the squeamish. It has obvious appeal for the lover of Grand Guignol—but it equally addresses the thoughtful.

Maurice Yacowar - November 23, 1998 Maurice Yacowar is Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and the author of The Films of Paul Morrisey (Cambridge University Press).

Champion S.P.A. Š 2020 rafica

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Criterion Collection - Laserdisc Preservation Blood for Dracula: Andy Warhol’s: Special Edition #287 (1974) [CC1439L] https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/07117/CC1439L/Blood-for-Dracula:-Andy-Warhol’s:Special-Edition Blu Ray - Region A/B/C DVD - Region All Audio: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / English DTS 2.0 Mono

/ Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source

Artwork Criterion Blu Ray Case - Inlay 273mm x 160mm Standard Blu Ray Case - Inlay 269mm x 148mm Standard DVD Case - Inlay 272mm x 182mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Blu Ray Disc Art 115mm x 115mm