Count Dracula () is a 1970 gothic horror film directed by Jesús Franco, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It stars Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom and Klaus Kinski. Although Count Dracula stars Lee in the title role, it is not a Hammer production like his other Dracula films, being produced instead by Harry Alan Towers. Klaus Kinski, who would play Dracula himself nine years later in Nosferatu the Vampyre, is also featured in the film as Renfield. Count Dracula was advertised as the most faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. Among other details, it was the first film version of the novel in which Dracula begins as an old man and becomes younger as he feeds upon fresh blood. Plot Jonathan Harker, a lawyer traveling from London to Transylvania to secure property for Count Dracula, arrives at Bistritz to stay for the night. There, he is warned by a concerned lady against continuing his journey. Believing that her concerns are rooted in peasant superstition, he ignores her, but starts to feel unnerved by the way everyone looks at him. Harker later arrives at the Borgo Pass, where the Count's mysterious coachman picks him up. Harker disembarks at Castle Dracula, and the coach immediately rushes off. Harker approaches the main door and meets a thin, tall, gaunt old man. He turns out to be Dracula and takes Harker to his bedchamber. There, Harker notices that Dracula casts no reflection. Later, Harker goes to sleep and wakes in an ancient crypt where three beautiful vampiresses harass him. Dracula rushes into the room and orders them to leave Harker alone. He then gives them a baby to feed on. Harker wakes up screaming in his room and assumes it was a nightmare, but two small wounds on his neck indicate otherwise. Harker soon realises he is a prisoner, and tries to escape by climbing out his bedroom window. He finds his way back to the crypt where Count Dracula and his three brides rest in coffins. Harker runs out of the crypt screaming, and jumps out of the castle's tower into the river below. Harker wakes up in a private psychiatric clinic outside London, owned by Dr. Van Helsing, in the care of Dr. Seward. He is told he was found delirious in a river near Budapest. No one believes his story about Castle Dracula until Van Helsing finds the two