Jackula

 

 (imdb)

DRACULA-1974-Jonathan Harker (Murray Brown; also in VAMPYRES the same year) goes to Transylvania and meets Dracula (Jack Palance) who's looking to relocate to Carthax Abbey in England. In due course Harker learns his employer is a vampire and becomes a victim of Drac's wives. 5 weeks later The Count is in England. Mina (Penelope Horner), Harker's fiancée, visits her best friend Lucy (Fiona Lewis; she was in LISZTOMANIA the next year), who Dracula took a fancy to when Harker showed him a picture. Lucy is sick in bed with a wound on her throat. Her boyfriend Arthur (Simon Ward) brings in Dr. Van Helsing (Nigel Davenport; PHASE lV the same year) who has his suspicions. Of course, Lucy is a victim of vampirism. Despite their best efforts, Lucy dies and she comes back to try and put the bite on Arthur. Fortunately, Van Helsing intercedes and later puts a stake in her. The Count goes crazy when he finds Lucy dead (apparently, she looked like his long dead love). When he sets his sights on Mina, Arthur and Van Helsing move into action. 

This is a not bad adaptation of the Bram Stoker classic, in fact very good for a TV movie, with Palance putting his own personal touch on his interpretation of the character. Virginia Whetherell, Sarah Douglas and Barbara Lindley play the count's undead wives. Director Dan Curtis and screenwriter Richard Matheson also made the not as good SCREAM OF THE WOLF the same year.

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Ants!

PHASE IV-1974-In a geodesic dome in the Arizona desert, two scientists Lesko (Michael Murphy) and Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) investigate the local ant population that seem to be changing their food patterns and building monoliths out of sand. They are actually developing into intelligent and poisonous ants who could be really more than a bother at the next family picnic. The duo get trapped in their lab (along with a local girl named Kendra (Lynne Frederick)) when the insects assert their power. After Hubbs gets bitten he goes crazy and hunts for the queen. He becomes ant bait. Later Kesko goes after the queen himself but fails. He and Kendra seem to become evolved “slaves” for the new invaders. 

This interesting British-American co-production is the only film directed by Saul Bass, the graphic designer known for his credit sequences in films. The exterior scenes were actually filmed in Kenya, while the interiors were done at Pinewood studios in England. Some critics found it too “vague”. It was written by Mayo Simon who'd written the screenplay for MAROONED several years earlier and later created TV's THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS.

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