Lust for a Vampire (1971)

Confessions of a Vampire Vixen! Lust for a Vampire is directed by Jimmy Sangster and written by Tudor Gates who uses characters written by Sheridan Le Fanu. It stars Ralph Bates, Barbara Jefford, Suzanna Leigh, Michael Johnson, Yutte Stensgaard, Helen Christie and Pippa Steel. Music is by Harry Robinson and Technicolor cinematography by David Muir. The second part of Hammer Films' "Karnstein Trilogy", "Lust for a Vampire" seemed destined to be miserable from the get go. Peter Cushing had to leave the production when his darling wife fell gravely ill, Hammer's best director Terence Fisher had to also bail out, while Gates had his original romantically literate script jettisoned for one more concerned with nudey prod games. What eventually plays out on screen is a tepid and confused movie, more concerned with bosom baiting than anything resembling a coherent and dramatic horror story. Pretty much everyone involved with making it disowned it, and it's not hard to see why. From production goofs to the inappropriate cheesy pop song that assaults the ears during a love making scene, the film is badly constructed and just functions to purely show some buxom flesh in the hope that it itself will be enough. A couple of scenes are smart, particularly the resurrection of the main vampire babe, and the colour and costuming is up to Hammer's high standards, yet you can see Hammer straining for inspiration to take the 70s by storm. The cracks in their magnificent armour were just starting to show. The only real surprise is that Robin Askwith isn't in it, he could have used it as a warm up for his "Confessions Of" series of films that were soon to surface... 4/10

**_Gothic drama/romance marked by villages, castles, maidens and vampirism_** In 1830, a writer (Michael Johnson) visits a village in the shadow of the diabolic Karnstein Castle in Austria whereupon he decides to teach at a nearby female school after meeting a lovely new pupil (Yutte Stensgaard). Another student (Pippa Steel) and the headmaster (Ralph Bates) are also enamored by Mircalla. What is the secret of her magnetism? Could she be the reincarnation of Countess Carmilla Karnstein, who died in 1710? Christopher Lee lookalike Mike Raven is on hand as sinister Count Karnstein. “Lust for a Vampire” (1971) takes place forty years after the events of the previous film, “The Vampire Lovers,” released the previous year. These movies were loosely based on Irish novelist Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla," which was published in 1872, predating Bram Stoker's "Dracula" by 25 years. Hammer’s ‘Karnstein trilogy’ is completed by the prequel “Twins of Evil” (1971). Blonde Dane Yutte Stensgaard is noticeably younger than Ingrid Pitt, who played Mircalla in the previous movie (and was offered the role here); Yutte was 24 during shooting while Ingrid was 32. There are, unsurprisingly, several fetching females due to the milieu, not to mention some top nudity (just a heads up). While Ralph Bates called it "one of the worst films ever made," all three in the trilogy are of about the same quality, although “The Vampire Lovers” is the most popular for obvious reasons (the overt sapphism, which is toned down here and in “Twins”). I think Bates didn’t like it because of his sniveling character, Giles Barton, who plays second fiddle to the dashing protagonist (Johnson). Producers insisted on including the pop song “Strange Love,” performed by Tracy, after the success of “Rain Drops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969). As far as I’m concerned, it fits the scene of the movie and isn’t jolting like “Rain Drops” in “Butch Cassidy.” In some ways, “Lust for a Vampire” is reminiscent of later movies “The Wicker Man” (1973) and “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1975) due to the progressive girl’s school, just with the addition of Gothic vampirism. The film runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot at Elstree Studios outside London to the north. The finishing school is located a little further northwest at Hunton Park. GRADE: B-/B