Realtor Azmi (Bülent Oran) from Istanbul has traveled all the way to
Transylvania to visit a client of his, Count Dracula (Atif Kaptan). All of
the natives warn him to go to Castle Dracula, but he dismisses the
warnings, taking them as nothing more than rural superstition. Count
Dracula seens to be nice enough at the beginning, but quite the eccentric
all the same, p.e. he only shows himself at night, leaving Azmi wandering
the castle on his own during the day. A servant warns him to not enter
certain rooms, but left with nothing to do, Azmi eventually enters a
hidden room, is drugged, attacked by a female vampire, and Dracula saves
him only in the nick of time and claims it was but a nightmare.
Eventually, Azmi finds out Dracula's a vampire and tries to destroy him in
his coffin. But Dracula wards him off and wants to counterattack the next
night - but Azmi is saved by the servant in the nick of time, who dies a
hero's death in the process. The same morning, Azmi pays another visit to
Dracula's coffin, beats Dracula's head in with a shovel, shoots the body
several times ... but of course, none of this works against a vampire. A
few days later, Azmi is found wandering the countryside, numb and quite
crazy at the same time ... Güzin (Annie Ball), Azmi's wife, is called
to her sister Sadan's (Ayfer Feray) home, as her sister is losing blood
rapidly, has taken to somnambulism, and always talks about terrible red
eyes that seem to follow her at night. The local doctor is clueless, so he
calls in Dr Nuri, a sort of specialist, and his assistant Akif. Dr Nuri is
quick to find out it's the work of a vampire, but he still can't keep
Sadan alive ... Around this time, Güzin is summoned to Hungary to fetch
her husband from a mental hospital - and Dr Nuri can't wait to meet him,
as he thinks the vampire he has fought in Transylvania and the one in
Istanbul are one and the same, Dracula. Dr Nuri also suggests to impale
the body of Sadan, but her fiancé Turan (Cahit Irgat) is dead against any
desecration of her body ... until he sees her walk the streets at night
... But while Azmi, Turan, Dr Nuri and Akif are all out vampire-hunting,
Dracula has already chosen Güzin as his next victim. Fortunately, Azmi
comes home in time to chase him away, and then Dr Nuri gives her a garlic
necklace to always wear, especially when the men are out. Soon the men
chase for the coffins Dracula has scattered all over Istanbul to sleep in
during the day. They're pretty successful in destroying most of them too,
but don't seem to come a single step closer to Dracula in the process.
Dracula meanwhile doesn't let Güzin out of his eyes, and once she takes
off her garlic necklace, he puts her under his spell. But since she's a
dancer, he doesn't suck her dry right away but lets her dance for him.
This gives Azmi enough time to rush to her rescue yet again, chase Dracula
to his last coffin (hidden in a graveyard), and then impale and destroy
the vampire by the book. Dracula Istanbul'da is
generally regarded as the first feature film in which Dracula
exhibits long canine teeth - and that's pretty much its main claim to
fame, the film as such is actually rather boring, an a tad over-long Dracula
adaptation that features all the typical elements but little in terms of
innovation, a rather stale Dracula with Atif Kaptan, and a few sexy dance
scenes that seem oddly out of place. At least, with Annie Ball's Güzin,
the movie has a surprisingly strong female character. Not a total
trainwreck, but certainly nothing special.
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