Nocturna (1979)
Nocturna (aka Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula) is an American gothic comedy-horror film from 1979 written and directed by Harry Hurwitz, who was credited as “Harry Tampa”. And starring Vietnamese / French actress Nai Bonet
Plot
Geriatric Dracula owes taxes, so he turns his castle into Hotel Transylvania. 
His granddaughter Nocturna, books a disco band, learns that she loves dancing and can turn mortal whenever she dances and moves to NY to get a life and find love.
Notable scenes
The nude scenes
Making of Nocturna
One of the locations was an empty vault under the Brooklyn Bridge, which was reopened and cleaned out especially for the film after being sealed for 100 years.
John Carradine’s costume is the same one that he wore in House of Dracula (1945).
John Carradine and Yvonne De Carlo’s scenes were shot in a week.
Nai Bonet’s bathing scene (as well as many of the other interiors of the Transylvanian castle) was shot inside a huge church in New York. The crew was careful not to let anyone from the church know that they were filming a nude scene.
Gloria Gaynor only agreed to sing the theme song, “Love Is Just A Heartbeat Away,” out of courtesy to her then manager, who she later married. In a 2008 interview she said that the title was “corny,” the lyrics were “dreadful\” and the arrangement “was already badly dated” when she recorded it.
The New Yorkers seen during the sequence where Nocturna strolls through Times Square were not actors. Nai Bonet was wired with a microphone and a hidden camera captured the action.
Many of the dancers during the sequence at the Starship Discovery Disco were extras from Saturday Night Fever (1977).
This was one of five Dracula films released in 1979, the other four being Dracula (1979), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Love at First Bite (1979) and Dracula Blows His Cool (1979). In the same year, Vlad Tepes (1979), a Romanian film concerning the historical figure the Count was based, was released. 1979 also saw the release of two other vampire films: Thirst (1979) and Salem’s Lot (1979).
Nai Bonet appeared in a semi-nude pictorial in the April 1979 issue of Gallery magazine to promote this film.
The version of the Gloria Gaynor song “Love Is Just a Heartbeat Away (Nocturna’s Theme)” which is featured in the film includes an additional verse that was cut from the soundtrack and remixes. This edit seems to have only been issued as a 12″ single with the subtitle “Long Version.”
Other trivia
In a 1978 interview, Yvonne De Carlo revealed her character’s full name to be “Jugula Vein.”
Filmed in autumn of 1978, and was already being screened in March 1979, barely five months later.
Star Nai Bonet raised $350,000 to produce the film. She spent $100,000 on the music.
Film debut of Antony Hamilton (billed as Tony Hamilton).
Nocturna states that her name is a Transylvanian term meaning “of the night”.
The BSA club stood for Blood Suckers of America / Blood Suckers Association.
Yvonne De Carlo’s character Jugulia Vein is a play on words of “jugular vein”.
The name of the massage parlor was the Trickey Hickey Massage Parlor.
Our view on Nocturna
Nocturna is a cult movie where disco and the vampire theme are combined. Cashing in on the Saturday Nigh Fever Craze and vampire movies. It had some nudity of main character Nai Bonet. Great disco music and vampires…what do you want more? Exploitflix thumbs up!
Trailer
Where to buy
