Video: 'Son of Dracula (1974) -- Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr (Full Movie)'

(Friday, April 19, 1974, midnight EDT) — Son of Dracula, a British musical film about Count Downe, the son of Count Dracula, who falls in love with the beautiful but human Amber, opened tonight at a midnight showing at the Cherokee theater in Atlanta.

Directed by Freddie Francis, the film starred Harry Nilsson and former Beatle Ringo Starr.

Son of Dracula was made during a period when Starr, in between occasional single releases and session work, was concentrating on filmmaking and acting.

Two films in which he had starred, 200 Motels and Blindman, had been released at the end of 1971, and before starting on this one, he had just finished work on his directorial debut, the T. Rex documentary Born to Boogie.

As well as producing Son of Dracula, Starr appears as Merlin the Magician, who follows the birth and rise of young Count Downe, played by Nilsson. Starr and he were longtime friends, and the ex-Beatle had recently played drums on Nilsson’s 1972 album Son of Schmilsson, which had spoofed horror movie motifs.

A few months after those sessions, in August 1972, Starr decided to make a rock and roll Dracula movie (originally titled Count Downe),and invited Nilsson to come on board.

At first, Nilsson thought the whole idea must have come from his recent album; as it turned out, Starr had not followed its release, and until then-wife Maureen brought him a copy, he did not even know that Son of Schmilsson had already used a similar theme.

Freddie Francis later said “at the end of the film I opted out. I said Ringo look, I’m ill at the moment, you better cut the film yourself. He had made it with a lot of his friends and that, the least said the better.”

The film’s soundtrack, featuring Starr on drums, had been released in the U.S. on April 1, 1974, and would be released in the UK on May 28, 1974.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-journal/143143792/

Article from Apr 20, 1974 The Atlanta Journal (Atlanta, Georgia)