Blacula
Encyclopedia
Blacula is a 1972 American horror film produced for American International Pictures
. It was directed by William Crain
and stars William Marshall
in the title role about an 18th century African prince named Mamuwalde, who is both turned into a vampire and locked inside a coffin by Count Dracula after a party at the count's castle in Transylvania that he attended with his wife Luva (Vonetta McGee
). Two centuries later, the now-undead Mamuwalde rises from his coffin attacking various residents in modern day Los Angeles, the first two being the interior decorators who unknowingly release him after purchasing and bringing his coffin from Dracula's castle in Transylvania. Mamuwalde later meets Tina (also played by Vonetta McGee), a woman he believes to be the reincarnation of his deceased wife Luva.
Blacula was released to mixed reviews in the United States, but was one of the top grossing films of the year. It was the first film to receive an award for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards. Blacula was followed by the sequel Scream, Blacula, Scream in 1973 and inspired a small wave of blaxploitation
themed horror films.
), the ruler of an Africa
n nation, seeks the help of Count Dracula
(Charles Macaulay) in suppressing the slave trade
. Dracula refuses to help and transforms Mamuwalde into a vampire
and imprisons him in a sealed coffin. Mamuwalde's wife, Luva (Vonetta McGee
), is also imprisoned and dies in captivity. In 1972, the coffin has been purchased as part of an estate by two interior decorators, Bobby McCoy (Ted Harris
) and Billy Schaffer (Rick Metzler) and shipped to Los Angeles
. Bobby and Billy open the coffin and become Prince Mamuwalde's first victims. At Bobby's funeral, Mamuwalde encounters Tina (Vonetta McGee), who Prince Mamuwalde believes is the reincarnation of his deceased wife. On investigating the corpse at the funeral, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala
) helps Lt. Peters (Gordon Pinsent
) with an investigation of murders that are occurring.
Prince Mamuwalde continues to kill and transform various people he encounters into vampires as Tina begins to fall in love with him. Thomas, Peters, and Michelle follow the trail of murder victims and begin to believe a vampire is responsible. After Thomas digs up Billy's coffin, Billy's corpse rises as a vampire and attacks Peters who fends him off. After finding a photo taken of Mamuwalde where his body is not visible, Thomas and Peters track Mamuwalde to his hideout. They defeat several vampires but Mamuwalde manages to escape. Later, Mamuwalde lures Tina to his water works while Thomas and a group of police officers pursue him. Mamuwalde dispatches several officers as one shoots Tina. To save Tina from death, Mamuwalde transforms her into a vampire. After Peters manages to kill the vampire Tina, Mamuwalde believes he can not live any longer after losing her twice. Mamuwalde leaves for the surface where the sunlight rots his flesh and kills him.
had directed episodes of The Mod Squad
. William H. Marshall's Mamuwalde was the first black vampire to appear in film. Marshall had previously worked in stage productions and in episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
, The Nurses
and Mannix
. Thalmus Rasulala
who plays Dr. Gordon Thomas had previously been in episodes of The Twilight Zone
, Perry Mason
, and Rawhide
.
Blacula was in production between late January and late March 1972.
While Blacula was in its production stages, William Marshall worked with the film producers to make sure his character had some dignity. His character name was changed from Andrew Brown to Mamuwalde and his character received a background story about being an African prince who had succumbed to vampirism.
The music for Blacula is unlike that of most horror films as it uses rhythm and blues
as opposed to haunting classical music. The film's soundtrack features a score by Gene Page
and contributions by the Hues Corporation and 21st Century Ltd.
' marketing department wanted to ensure that black audiences would be interested in Blacula; some posters for the film included references to slavery. American International Pictures also held special promotional showings at two New York theaters; anyone wearing a flowing cape would receive free admission. Blacula was popular in America, debuting at #24 on Variety
s list of top films. It eventually grossed over a million dollars, making it one of the highest grossing films of 1972.
gave the film a positive review praising the screenplay, music and acting by William Marshall
. The Chicago Reader praised the film writing that it would leave its audience more satisfied than many other "post-Lugosi
efforts". A review in the New York Times was negative, stating that anyone who "goes to a vampire movie expecting sense is in serious trouble, and "Blacula" offers less sense than most." In Films & Filming, a reviewer referred to the film as "totally unconvincing on every level". The film was awarded the Best Horror Film title at the first Saturn Awards.
Among more recent reviews, Kim Newman
of Empire
gave the film two stars out of five, finding the film to be "formulaic and full of holes". Time Out gave the film a negative review, stating that it "remains a lifeless reworking of heroes versus vampires with soul music and a couple of good gags." Film4
awarded the film three and a half stars out of five, calling it "essential blaxploitation viewing." Allmovie gave the film two and a half stars out of five, noting that Blacula is "better than its campy title might lead one to believe...the film suffers from the occasional bit of awkward humor (the bits with the two homosexual interior decorators are the most squirm-inducing), but Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig's script keeps things moving at a fast clip and generates some genuine chills."
was released in 1973 by American International. The film also stars William Marshall
in the title role along with actress Pam Grier
. American International were also planning a follow-up titled Blackenstein, but chose to focus on Scream Blacula Scream. Blackenstein
was eventually produced by Exclusive International Pictures.
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
. It was directed by William Crain
William Crain (filmmaker)
William Crain is an American film and television director. He was one of the first black filmmakers from a major film school to achieve commercial success....
and stars William Marshall
William H. Marshall
William Horace Marshall was an American actor, director, and opera singer. He is best known for his title role in the 1972 blaxploitation classic Blacula and its sequel Scream Blacula Scream , as the "King of Cartoons" on the 1980s television show Pee-wee's Playhouse beginning with its second...
in the title role about an 18th century African prince named Mamuwalde, who is both turned into a vampire and locked inside a coffin by Count Dracula after a party at the count's castle in Transylvania that he attended with his wife Luva (Vonetta McGee
Vonetta McGee
-Life and career:Vonetta McGee was born in San Francisco, to Alma and Lawrence McGee. She graduated from San Francisco Polytechnic High School and made her debut in 1968 as the eponymous character in the Italian comedy Faustina...
). Two centuries later, the now-undead Mamuwalde rises from his coffin attacking various residents in modern day Los Angeles, the first two being the interior decorators who unknowingly release him after purchasing and bringing his coffin from Dracula's castle in Transylvania. Mamuwalde later meets Tina (also played by Vonetta McGee), a woman he believes to be the reincarnation of his deceased wife Luva.
Blacula was released to mixed reviews in the United States, but was one of the top grossing films of the year. It was the first film to receive an award for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards. Blacula was followed by the sequel Scream, Blacula, Scream in 1973 and inspired a small wave of blaxploitation
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
themed horror films.
Plot
In 1780, Prince Mamuwalde (William H. MarshallWilliam H. Marshall
William Horace Marshall was an American actor, director, and opera singer. He is best known for his title role in the 1972 blaxploitation classic Blacula and its sequel Scream Blacula Scream , as the "King of Cartoons" on the 1980s television show Pee-wee's Playhouse beginning with its second...
), the ruler of an Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n nation, seeks the help of Count Dracula
Count Dracula
Count Dracula is a fictional character, the titular antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula and archetypal vampire. Some aspects of his character have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian general and Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler...
(Charles Macaulay) in suppressing the slave trade
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. Dracula refuses to help and transforms Mamuwalde into a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
and imprisons him in a sealed coffin. Mamuwalde's wife, Luva (Vonetta McGee
Vonetta McGee
-Life and career:Vonetta McGee was born in San Francisco, to Alma and Lawrence McGee. She graduated from San Francisco Polytechnic High School and made her debut in 1968 as the eponymous character in the Italian comedy Faustina...
), is also imprisoned and dies in captivity. In 1972, the coffin has been purchased as part of an estate by two interior decorators, Bobby McCoy (Ted Harris
Ted Harris
Ted Harris may refer to:*Ted Harris , professional ice hockey player in the National Hockey League*Ted Harris , songwriter in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame*Ted Harris...
) and Billy Schaffer (Rick Metzler) and shipped to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Bobby and Billy open the coffin and become Prince Mamuwalde's first victims. At Bobby's funeral, Mamuwalde encounters Tina (Vonetta McGee), who Prince Mamuwalde believes is the reincarnation of his deceased wife. On investigating the corpse at the funeral, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala
Thalmus Rasulala
Thalmus Rasulala was an African American actor who was an original cast member of ABC's soap opera One Life to Live from its inception in 1968 until he left the show in 1970....
) helps Lt. Peters (Gordon Pinsent
Gordon Pinsent
Gordon Edward Pinsent, CC, FRSC is a Canadian television, theatre and film actor.-Early life:Pinsent, the youngest of six children, was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, the son of Flossie ; originally from Clifton, Newfoundland, and Stephen Arthur Pinsent, a papermill worker and cobbler;...
) with an investigation of murders that are occurring.
Prince Mamuwalde continues to kill and transform various people he encounters into vampires as Tina begins to fall in love with him. Thomas, Peters, and Michelle follow the trail of murder victims and begin to believe a vampire is responsible. After Thomas digs up Billy's coffin, Billy's corpse rises as a vampire and attacks Peters who fends him off. After finding a photo taken of Mamuwalde where his body is not visible, Thomas and Peters track Mamuwalde to his hideout. They defeat several vampires but Mamuwalde manages to escape. Later, Mamuwalde lures Tina to his water works while Thomas and a group of police officers pursue him. Mamuwalde dispatches several officers as one shoots Tina. To save Tina from death, Mamuwalde transforms her into a vampire. After Peters manages to kill the vampire Tina, Mamuwalde believes he can not live any longer after losing her twice. Mamuwalde leaves for the surface where the sunlight rots his flesh and kills him.
Production
Many members of the cast and crew of Blacula had worked in television. Director William CrainWilliam Crain (filmmaker)
William Crain is an American film and television director. He was one of the first black filmmakers from a major film school to achieve commercial success....
had directed episodes of The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad is a television series that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. This series starred Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Tige Andrews...
. William H. Marshall's Mamuwalde was the first black vampire to appear in film. Marshall had previously worked in stage productions and in episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...
, The Nurses
The Nurses (Primetime CBS drama)
The Nurses is a serialized primetime medical drama which aired on CBS from September 27, 1962 to May 11, 1965. It was originally called The Nurses when it premiered in 1962; for the second season, the title was expanded to The Doctors and the Nurses and it ran until 1965, when it was transformed...
and Mannix
Mannix
Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors...
. Thalmus Rasulala
Thalmus Rasulala
Thalmus Rasulala was an African American actor who was an original cast member of ABC's soap opera One Life to Live from its inception in 1968 until he left the show in 1970....
who plays Dr. Gordon Thomas had previously been in episodes of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
, Perry Mason
Perry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
, and Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
.
Blacula was in production between late January and late March 1972.
While Blacula was in its production stages, William Marshall worked with the film producers to make sure his character had some dignity. His character name was changed from Andrew Brown to Mamuwalde and his character received a background story about being an African prince who had succumbed to vampirism.
The music for Blacula is unlike that of most horror films as it uses rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
as opposed to haunting classical music. The film's soundtrack features a score by Gene Page
Gene Page
Eugene Edgar "Gene" Page, Jr. was an influential conductor, composer, arranger and record producer most active from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s....
and contributions by the Hues Corporation and 21st Century Ltd.
Release
Blacula was released on August 25, 1972. Prior to its release, American International PicturesAmerican International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
' marketing department wanted to ensure that black audiences would be interested in Blacula; some posters for the film included references to slavery. American International Pictures also held special promotional showings at two New York theaters; anyone wearing a flowing cape would receive free admission. Blacula was popular in America, debuting at #24 on Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
s list of top films. It eventually grossed over a million dollars, making it one of the highest grossing films of 1972.
Reception
Blacula received mixed reviews on its initial release. VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
gave the film a positive review praising the screenplay, music and acting by William Marshall
William Marshall
-Politicians, noblemen and military leaders:*William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke , 12th-13th-century Anglo Norman nobleman*William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke -Politicians, noblemen and military leaders:*William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146–1219), 12th-13th-century Anglo Norman...
. The Chicago Reader praised the film writing that it would leave its audience more satisfied than many other "post-Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
efforts". A review in the New York Times was negative, stating that anyone who "goes to a vampire movie expecting sense is in serious trouble, and "Blacula" offers less sense than most." In Films & Filming, a reviewer referred to the film as "totally unconvincing on every level". The film was awarded the Best Horror Film title at the first Saturn Awards.
Among more recent reviews, Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
of Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
gave the film two stars out of five, finding the film to be "formulaic and full of holes". Time Out gave the film a negative review, stating that it "remains a lifeless reworking of heroes versus vampires with soul music and a couple of good gags." Film4
Film4
Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films.-Programming:...
awarded the film three and a half stars out of five, calling it "essential blaxploitation viewing." Allmovie gave the film two and a half stars out of five, noting that Blacula is "better than its campy title might lead one to believe...the film suffers from the occasional bit of awkward humor (the bits with the two homosexual interior decorators are the most squirm-inducing), but Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig's script keeps things moving at a fast clip and generates some genuine chills."
Legacy
The box office success of Blacula sparked a wave of other black-themed horror films. A sequel to the film titled Scream Blacula ScreamScream Blacula Scream
Scream Blacula Scream is a 1973 blaxploitation horror film, made under the working titles Blacula Is Beautiful and Blacula Lives Again!. This is the only sequel to the 1972 film Blacula...
was released in 1973 by American International. The film also stars William Marshall
William Marshall
-Politicians, noblemen and military leaders:*William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke , 12th-13th-century Anglo Norman nobleman*William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke -Politicians, noblemen and military leaders:*William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146–1219), 12th-13th-century Anglo Norman...
in the title role along with actress Pam Grier
Pam Grier
Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film...
. American International were also planning a follow-up titled Blackenstein, but chose to focus on Scream Blacula Scream. Blackenstein
Blackenstein
Blackenstein, also known as Black Frankenstein, is a 1973 blaxploitation horror film loosely based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It was made in an attempt to cash in on the success of Blacula, released the previous year by American International Pictures...
was eventually produced by Exclusive International Pictures.