Countess Dracula 1971

In 17th-century Hungary, the recently widowed Countess Elisabeth Nádasdy, Ingrid Pitt, discovers that her youth and libido can be temporarily restored by bathing in the blood of young women. To keep her renewed vitality, she enlists her loyal steward and lover, Captain Dobi, Nigel Green, and her maid, Julie, Patience Collier, to help with the kidnapping and murder of several local girls, all while she begins a forbidden romance with a young lieutenant, Imre Toth, Sandor Elès.

To mask her crimes while in this rejuvenated state, Elisabeth assumes the disguise of her own 19-year-old daughter, Countess Ilona, Lesley-Anne Down, whom Dobi keeps captive in the woods near the mute money gambler. Yet castle historian Fabio, Maurice Denham, grows suspicious of the strange happenings around the estate. When Elisabeth murders a prostitute named Ziza, Andrea Lawrence the danger heightens, and Fabio uncovers a chilling truth about blood and youth.

Dobi finds Fabio and learns about a book of blood sacrifices; Fabio reveals that only virgin blood can restore Elisabeth’s youth and beauty. Elisabeth then kills a peasant girl bought in the marketplace, hoping to feed the magic. Fabio tries to warn Imre Toth, but Dobi silences him before he can speak fully, and Elisabeth uses this fear to push Toth away, forcing him toward a sham marriage with her. Elisabeth’s plan begins to unravel as Ilona returns home, having been brought by Dobi as a sacrifice and then freed by Julie, who loves her like a daughter.

At the wedding, Elisabeth ages rapidly after the priest, John Moore, pronounces the blessing. In a desperate bid to claim Ilona and erase the threat, Elisabeth tries to kill her daughter in front of the guests, but the plan backfires and she accidentally kills Toth instead. The weight of their crimes catches up with Elisabeth, Dobi, and Julie as they are sentenced to death and led to await the hangman in their cell. In the final scene, the peasants spray the air with curses, naming Elisabeth a “devil woman” and a true “Countess Dracula.”