VinnieRattolle 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!)

Michael_Elliott Nocturna (1979)** (out of 4) This softcore-disco-vampire flick has pretty much been forgotten to time but for fans of John Carradine it will give you the final chance of seeing the legendary actor playing Count Dracula. In the film he must travel to New York City from Transylvania because his great-granddaughter Nocturna (Nai Bonet) has fallen in love with a drummer from a disco band and she wants to marry him and live life as a normal girl. I'm not sure who would think that a film like this would have been wanted even in 1979 but star Bonet apparently put up all the money to get the film in the can. This is a pretty bizarre little movie that's only going to appeal to those who enjoy campy horror-comedies. I'd be lying if I said I understood what the point was but if you sit back and just take things for what they are then this here isn't too bad. I'll say right up front that I'm not a fan of disco music so I found the extended dance sequences to be rather hard to sit through and I found the music incredibly annoying. The soundtrack includes Gloria Gaynor, Vicki Sue Robinson and Moment of Truth but none of the songs really jumped out at me and there's no question you won't get them confused with the work of the Bee Gees. What does work in the film is some rather nice humor including some bizarre dialogue including one scene where Dracula is complaining that he has to wear denture-fangs and then talks about his younger days when the women would tell him that his fangs were "hung like a walrus". We even get some more funny lines with Carradine delivering them at a high speed and this just adds to the entertainment. Speaking of Carradine, you gotta give the man credit for appearing in a film like this, obviously just picking up some cash, yet giving it all he has. At times he seems like he doesn't know what the heck all the disco stuff is but he's still going through all the motions and ends up turning in a rather memorable performance. Fans of Carradine will want to check this one out since it was his last time playing Dracula and sure enough it's just as strange as his BILLY THE KID VS. Dracula. Mrs. Munster herself Yvonne De Carlo plays a vampire named Jugulia and appears to be having a blast. Bonet was speaking her second language apparently and this certain effects her performance but I still found her to be rather charming in the part. I thought she did a good job getting across her "desire" to be human and I thought she worked well with both Carradine and De Carlo. Not only did Bonet star and put up the money but she also write the screenplay, which as I said features some pretty clever lines but she would have done herself a favor had she cut down on the dance sequences as well as got a director who could have handled the pacing better. I'm guessing at first thing film couldn't be sold so they had to spice things up a bit so we're got quite a bit of nudity including some full-frontal stuff. The most shocking scene is also one of the most gratuitous nude scenes in history and that has Bonet taking a hot bubble bath where she's constantly bend over in front of the camera while she rubs herself down. This sequence runs at least five minutes and is reason enough to track down a copy of this film. NOCTURNA isn't going to be considered a lost masterpiece but it's a shame this hasn't had a legit release because there's enough charm here to make it worth viewing.

xnet95 I read all the reviews because I wanted to find out WHY Nai Bonet wanted to make this film. I didn't get an answer, so I'll speculate. I think poor Nai must've been going through some mid-life crisis. This was shot in 1978, and she looked to be around 25 years old in the 1965 episode of the Beverly Hillbillies "The Sheik", so that makes her a late 30's MILF. Don't get me wrong, she's a great looking MILF, but she's still a MILF! I think she saw her beauty and youth fading away, lost her marbles, and made this thing. It's too bad she didn't make it in 1965 - she was gorgeous! Also, how the hell did she manage to raise the $350,000 to make this film (wink,wink...nod,nod... say no more)?Anyway, this film is pretty bad and boring. Nai Bonet's acting is so stiff and wooden she makes a Sequoia look like a lump of play-dough. I was a teen when disco was popular and have NO desire to deal with that crap again. If you like Lynyrd Skynyrd, you will hate this movie. Thank God for the remote! The old fart that plays the werewolf is horrendous and really annoying. Who is he, Nai Bonet's biggest contributor? What are the things that make this watchable? Nai Bonet's nude bathroom scene definitely tops the list. She's a dancer and her body shows it. John Carradine's performance was delightful, especially the earlier scenes when we first see him. He definitely gives us the impression that he is a loving Grandfather that appreciates the way Nocturna cares for him. Yvonne DeCarlo was pretty good, but I wish she would've hammed it up a bit more, like she had done on the Munsters. Her performance was a bit too subdued for me.

trashgang It's the end of the seventies and a time that disco came to the big screen. From Grease to Saturday Night Fever, it was time to unleash Nocturna. Starting very funny with Dracula (john Carradine)being interrupted from the grave. Nocturna being fed up of being undead comes into the world of the living. From transylvania she went to NY with her 'human' friend. Some scene's are way too long, and the horror comedy becomes a dancemovie. Of course a happy end makes it more romantic. The trailer contains a Nocturna vampire bite but that's almost all you will see. There is a funny effect when the vampires changes into animated bats. A cheap effect but somehow it works. Having trouble selling this flick it was also the time of Emmmanuelle and Bilitis. So they filmed afterwards a bathroom scene including Nai Bonet in the old fashioned David Hamiltonway. Ridicilious scene. The small talks tell that it's due to rights for the soundtrack that it never was released. The acting except for Carradine is terrible, it was also Bonet's last movie. It was only released as a rental one and copies go for more than 100 euro's these days. Worth it? It's a one of his kind so the choice is yours.