NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Severin Films Blu-ray (March 2024): Severin Films have transferred Jesús Franco's Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein to Blu-ray described as "scanned in 4K from Spanish, French and German release prints". It has a few inconsistencies but the film's frequent close-ups have strong detail. It's on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate - somewhat at the mercy of the source - which is not poor at all - probably all a function of the production. There are a handful of frame specific marks (see samples below.) Colors are decent and there is pleasing visible texture. I was honestly surprised it looked as good as it does in 1080P.

NOTE: We have added 58 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Severin Films use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language or the option of lossy Spanish, Italian, German and French. Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein has screams but modest effects and they come through fairly flat. The score is credited to Bruno Nicolai (Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Face to Face, The Perverse Countess, Torso, Ten Little Indians, Pasolini's Hawks and the Sparrows) and uncredited Daniel White (The Diabolical Dr. Z, Female Vampire, Crimson, Zombie Lake, The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus, The Man with the Severed Head). Severin Films offer optional English (SDH) and English for the Spanish, Italian, German and French track subtitles (similar translations) - although there is very little dialogue in the film (an example of Paca Gabaldón, as Maria, performing a burlesque-cabaret number is below) on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Severin Films Blu-ray offers the 3/4 hour Prisoner Of Franco-Stein interview with by Stephen Thrower (author of Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco.) He the de-facto Franco expert and expands of the production and director. We also get part 10 of a 2020 documentary tour of shooting locations featured in Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein with Thrower. There is also the 2-minute Spanish opening credit sequence (Drácula contra Frankenstein) and a brief deleted scene from English language version plus a trailer.

Jesús Franco's Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein was the last of three films released under the re-hashed pseudo title Dracula vs. Frankenstein. It came after the 1970 Spanish-German-Italian horror Los Monstruos del Terror (aka "Operation Terror") with Paul Naschy and Michael Rennie (his last film) and 1971's Dracula vs. Frankenstein with Lon Chaney Jr. and Russ Tamblyn - playing neither of the titular characters. We recently reviewed the 4K UHD of Franco's previous film featuring the character of Count Dracula (Bram Stoker's Count Dracula) played by Christopher Lee. Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein has Dennis Price (Kind Hearts and Coronets coming to 4K UHD soon) as Dr. Frankenstein, Euro-cult star Howard Vernon (Seven Women For Satan) as Count Dracula, Brandy as The Wolfman, Fernando Bilbao ('Red Hair' in John Milius' Conan the Barbarian) as Frankenstein's monster - and Portuguese / Argentine model Carmen Yazalde (credited as Britt Nichols) as a female Vampire. Delightful. It's better than your usual slap-dash Franco effort - with the, always intriguing, 1940s Universal studio monsters ala Paul Naschy's Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf, The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman, The Fury of the Wolfman etc. Perhaps I am finally coming around to the director's disparate style but I enjoyed Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein on Severin's Blu-ray. I suspect it may be better than viewers are expecting; cute 70's Euro gals, iconic monsters and reasonably sincere performances. The Stephen Thrower videos have value. To each their own.

Gary Tooze