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Countess Dracula / The Vampire Lovers Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 12 Reviews)

T & A & H (Hammer, that is)
At last, two latter-day Hammer horror classics arrive, and in a bargain-priced deluxe treatment! MGM has really done a fine job with this Ingrid Pitt double-feature. Both films feature commentary from Pitt and others involved in the productions. The commentaries are a bit dry, but nonetheless informative and entertaining. As an added bonus, you get Ingrid Pitt reading excerpts from "Carmilla" (upon which THE VAMPIRE LOVERS was loosely--very loosely--based).

COUNTESS DRACULA has not been, to my knowledge, commercially available in the U.S. until now. The widescreen transfer is certainly an improvement over my old "bootleg" VHS copy, with rich colors and a remarkably clean and crisp audio track. That being said, I find the film itself to be the lesser of the two on this disc. But of course, it's nice to have this rarely-seen Hammer flick.

THE VAMPIRE LOVERS finds Pitt it top form as the tortured Mircalla Karnstein. Even more delightful is doe-eyed Madeline Smith as Emma, the bewitching innocent caught up in this sapphic web of fangs and flesh.

This is one "Midnite Movies" offering that any fan of classic horror will definitely want to own. Or, if you're just curious about Hammer films or Ingrid Pitt, here's a very affordable way to check 'em out. Recommended, for sure.

You must die! Everybody must die!
The Vampire Lovers, while certainly well made and acted, it didn't really live up to the hype of being Hammer's creative high of the 70s. The story has no sense of urgency or menance until the last 3 minutes, and even than it still manages to end with a whimper. On the bright side MGM Technical Services outdid themselves with a superb restoration of the video and audio. If only all catalogue titles received such lavish attention. The commentary is a little dry, but Pitt/Baker/Gates do provide some interesting factoids about the film and Hammer in general. The best feature, for me, is the excerpts of "Carmilla" read by Ingrid Pitt. Apart from the pleasure of hearing her lovely accent, which I adore, it's made me want to track down Le Fanu's original novella. Countess Dracula was more of a chore! Again it's nicely made and the actors all rise to the occassion, but the script pulls them right back down. Peter Sasdy and Jeremy Paul have obviously worked on too many genteel BBC production by this point, because Countess Dracula plays exactly like a plodding early television drama (With blood and ... of course!). Pitt/Sasdy/Paul provide a fairly standard commentary. We learn early on that both Sasdy and Paul have had very good educations, and while Ingrid remains mum for most of the time she does offer some historical notes on the real Erzebet Bathori. After hearing Mr. Sasdy accent on the commentary one wonders why he decided to dub Ingrid's in the film, as Pitt once mentioned in an interview, his could explode a banana! While enjoyable, The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula certainly aren't the creative reawakening Hammer would experience with Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter and Hands of the Ripper they are not without their own charms.

The best, such as it is, of Ingrid Pitt's Hammer films
The commonality between these two Hammer films is that they both star Ingrid Pitt, which means they are both driven more by eroticism than horror. "Countess Dracula" is really a metaphorical title because we are not talking about a true member of the Dracula family (or even a vampire for that matter) but rather a figure clearly based on the historic figure of the Countess Elisabeth Bathory, a 16th Century noblewoman who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth and whose legend is frequently cited in the historical basis for vampirism. In this 1970 film set in medieval Europe, the aging Countess Elisabeth Nadasdy (Ingrid Pitt), is a cruel ruler who discovers that when she washes in the blood of young girls it makes her young again. So she orders her lover, Captain Dobi (Nigel Green) to go out and find more of them. However, when the Countess starts pretending to be her own daughter, Ilona (Lesley-Anne Down), so she can go out and enjoy the company of the younger Imre Toth (Sandor Eles), Dobi gets jealous. Then the Countess discovers that her rejuvenation requires the blood of only virgins, and Dobi's job gets a lot more difficult.

The truth is that the main attraction here is Pitt's countess giving herself a bloody sponge bath, but there is a rather good moment involving a hairpin that stands out in terms of the Hammer films (this DVD package was temporarily withdrawn because "Countess Dracula" was erroneously rated "PG" and you can only wonder how many children were exposed to Pitt's self ministrations). How much you like this film will have to do with what you think about the makeup job on the Countess, because she keeps bouncing back and forth. The subplot with the young lovers Imre and Ilona generates no chemistry and therefore no real interest. In the end, what we keep coming back to is the bloody sponge bath, which becomes the raison d'etre for this film from director Peter Sasdy. This film has nothing to do with the Hammer Dracula series, but that hardly matters to those who like this film.

Much the better of the pair, "The Vampire Lovers," directed by Roy Ward Baker in 1970, is the first in the Karnstein trilogy of Hammer films, all based quite loosely on Joseph Sheridan LeFanu's story "Carmilla." The Karnsteins are a clan of vampires, represented in this version by a bunch of scantily clad women. Pitt stars as Carmilla, who also goes under the anagram names of Mircalla and Marcilla at various points in the story (yes, there is a story). The last of her clan, Carmilla is trying to rebuild, turning first to Laura (Pippa Steele), the daughter of General Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing) and then Emma (Madeleine Smith), the daughter of Roger Morton (George Cole). Along the way she turns Mademoiselle Perrodon (Kate O'Mara) into a sexual slave. In the great tradition of Dracula and most other vampire films, Laura dies before anyone recognizes the marks of the vampire and then the goal is to save poor Emma from the same fate.

There is a lot in "The Vampire Lovers" that never makes much sense. Who is the countess (Dawn Addams) who travels with Mircalla? What is up with the black-clad vampire (John Forbes Robertson) who keeps hanging around? Supposedly Mircalla is the last of her clan, but maybe not. Mircalla keeps saying she loves her victims, but they all end up dead, which certainly does not help out her clan much. In the end it is clear that Hammer, aided and abetted by American International in this instance, was making a flat-out lesbian vampire film. As such, I can honestly say that you are not going to find a better one out there. Ironically, "The Vampire Lovers" ends up being more erotic than the vast majority of films featuring heterosexual relationships between the undead and their victims.

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