Nocturna (1979)

Touches You

Sadly Over-hyped

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Nocturna, Dracula's granddaughter, falls in love with a disco guitarist and follows him to the Big Apple, where she takes up residence with Drac's ex. The Count and his lovelorn henchman soon follow to bring Nocturna home to Transylvania. I generally open with a bigger synopsis, but that's how light the film is on story. There are a few run-ins with other characters in various vignette-like sequences, but they don't have a whole lot to do with the plot. However, there's a WHOLE LOT of disco music and shots of Nocturna twirling! Years ago, someone recommended Nocturna to me and my initial reaction was, "Why'd he think I'd like this? It's awful!" It wasn't until I revisited the movie on a whim that I realized how FASCINATINGLY awful it is. The dialogue is abysmal, the performances are almost universally bad (though the always-delightful Sy Richardson managed to transcend the material a bit), the animated FX are beyond cheesy, the disco sequences seem endless, and a bathing scene drags on past the point of titillation into tedium. However, there's something oddly lovable about this obscurity. Years later, it dawned on me that it's essentially a lower-budget vampire version of "Xanadu": Starcrossed lovers with zero chemistry, a related antagonist who's weak (literally, in this instance), tons of music, some tacky animation, and a few dialogue scenes to loosely tie things together. I've chronicled the making of the film at length elsewhere (it's become a minor obsession), but allow me to briefly reiterate... This was a star vehicle for bellydancer Nai Bonet, who had appeared in a few films and TV shows in the decade+ preceding Nocturna (she actually wasn't bad in "Soul Hustler"), but her biggest accomplishment was becoming a socialite among the Studio 54 type of crowd. She conceived the idea for the movie, got director Harry Hurwitz to write the script, secured soundtrack music from disco divas Gloria Gaynor and Vicki Sue Robinson (in an odd twist, Robinson went on to star alongside Bonet in her next-and-final film venture, "Hoodlums"), threw a few measly bucks at typecast frequent-costars Yvonne DeCarlo and John Carradine, and got Compass International Pictures to produce and distribute the film. Critics universally panned the movie, audiences generally ignored it, and it only briefly blipped on big screens and video store shelves. Bonet made one final foray into film with a gangster disco-drama(!) she'd conceived and then she retired from acting for good.If I could pick one largely-unknown film to get a lavish Blu-Ray release, this'd be the one. It's developed a small cult following over the years and it's a travesty that the only prints in circulation are taken from early 1980s VHS transfers. Despite its many, many horrendous flaws, there's something sort of magical about this little disasterpiece. So is anyone from Shout Factory or Scorpion Releasing reading this? Or MST3K/Rifftrax, even? (Brother Theodore could be the next Torgo!)

"She'll get under your skin!" promised the ads. What the ads don't say is that you'll want to go straight to the pharmacy for something to get her off your skin after seeing this cinematic wonder."Nocturna" is awful, no doubt about it, but boy howdy, is it fun! The wooden Nai Benet, whose disco dancing is only slightly worse than her acting, stars as thegranddaughter of Dracula, a gal who has no interest in the local werewolf (no, seriously) and falls for a hot gay man from a local disco band (played by the late Antony Hamilton). She runs away from Transylvania to Manhattan with him but chooses to stay with friend of the family, Lily Munster -- I mean Yvonne de Carlo -- because the guy doesn't know she's a vampire. Oh yeah, Lily lives under the Brooklyn Bridge, on the Manhattan side, and leaves her front door unlocked.Next come several bad jokes and sight gags involving the Manhattan vampire gang.The young chemistry-free lovers then go to a disco where Nocturna twirls and twirls. and twirls. and twirls, because apparently that's all she knows how to do. After flinging off her shawl to reveal her stripper outfit, Nocturna does a bizarre chicken dance while the crowd watches lovingly. Full of bad writing, bad acting, bad dancing, terrific 1979 New York City street shots, a wocka-wocka disco/porn soundtrack, special effects that make "Land of the Lost" look like hard-core art, one completely gratuitous nude bathing sequence, and the least erotic sex scene I believe I've ever seen, I can't recommend this film highly enough -- that is, if you can find it.

I have to echo previous commentators' reviews and proclaim NOCTURNA as one of the best unseen exploitation films of the 70s! Where late-70s flicks like VAMPIRE HOOKERS, LUST AT FIRST BITE and Dracula aren't too hard to find, NOCTURNA has been unavailable for years. Contrary to popular belief, it is not because of music rights issues, but because of other behind-the-scenes issues. Hopefully they can be rectified and this cult-classic-waiting-to-happen can finally be unleashed to a brand-new audience of Midnight Movie lovers!The Nai Bonet nude scene was shot separately from the rest of the film and tacked on to spice up the movie. Other than this sequence and a sex scene with Tony Hamilton, this could have been rated PG. NOCTURNA is a feel-good vampire comedy with good-natured jokes, almost wall-to-wall disco music and a charming love story. Bonet is a very bad actress, but is simply stunning and definitely has a unique statuesque presence in her many flowing costumes. Sy Richardson, familiar from playing the jive-talking Fairy Godmother in Michael Pataki's Cinderella, is a jive-talking vampire pimp here, and Brother Theodore (whose bloodthirsty voice was lent to Dracula VS. FRANKENSTEIN and the trailer for MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND) hams it up magnificently as Hotel Transylvania's manager. John Carradine seems a little lost, but Yvonne De Carlo acts like she's having a grand time (as she did in the pretty abysmal BLAZING STEWARDESSES) and is given some juicy one-liners here. Look fast for a 42nd Street adult movie marquee advertising the classic A COMING OF ANGELS!NOCTURNA's double-disc soundtrack LP can still be found pretty easily in cutout bins and eBay auction listings, and I would recommend picking up a copy even if you haven't seen the film! Tracks by Gloria Gaynor, Vicki Sue Robinson, The Moment of Truth, Jay Siegel and The Heaven 'n' Hell Orchestra are wonderful and generally very hard to find elsewhere!

Recently stumbled across an old copy of this film at my local video store. The quality of the video was appalling, which was quite appropriate, given how bad the rest of the film is. The acting's atrocious, the humour weak and obvious, and the plot threadbare. I was also dismayed by the over- emphasis on Nai Bonet's naked body. Not that I mind nudity, but there was very little to distinguish parts of this film from excerpts taken from traditional, sexist, male-directed porn.The only redeeming feature of this film is the wonderfully kitsch performances by the disco group, and the kitsch- dreamy nature of some scenes. Was also good to see John Carradine, a brilliant actor whose strained facial expressions seem to suggest he knew the limited quality of the material he was working with.