VAMPIRE DVDS
I VAMPIRI
Image Entertainment
Movie: 3.0; Disc: 3.5Last year one of my favorite DVD discoveries was the uncut European release of The Girl Who Knew Too Much, a movie that director Mario Bava made after Black Sunday but before he made Black Sabbath. It was a marvelous blend of modern-day horror with knife-wielding fiends lurking in the fog with creepy mansions and mood galore. Now I finally had the opportunity to view I Vampiri, the first modern Italian horror movie, produced in 1956, directed by credited Riccardo Freda (but also directed by uncredited Mario Bava) with Bava serving as director of cinematography.
The same team would reunite to do Caltiki, The Immortal Monster three years later, but, I Vampiri foreshadows both Black Sunday (Bava's black and white Gothic classic) and The Girl Who Knew Too Much, where his giallo leanings are showcased. I Vampiri, devised more as a police mystery, is not as satisfying a movie as The Girl Who Knew Too Much, and, of course, it is no Black Sunday, but the movie is chillingly executed and holds plenty of suspense and surprises.
The movie occurs in modern times, but the journalist who is working with the police to solve a string of vampire murders where young females have been drained of blood, is also romantically involved with Gisele, the affluent niece of the Duchess du Grand, an ancient woman whose face has not been clearly seen for years, her vanity reducing her to wearing veils to hide her features. Gisele and the Duchess inhabit a Black Sunday-esque castle, complete with huge fireplace that contains a secret passageway.
Bava manipulates the camera in such wonderful sequences such as a long walk showing the Duchess traveling secretly from the family burial vault to the castle, the curtains fluttering in unison as she slowly hobbles down the dank corridors. The large castle sets feature high ceilings with huge candelabras illuminating all the festivities. Whenever the movie segues to the castle it becomes almost a period piece occurring seemingly in an ancient world of dread. Of course, within the castle lies a secret laboratory with beakers and operating tables and syringes, giving it a decidedly modernistic flavor.
Returning to the modern world outside, Bava creates a sequence where the journalist hero follows a suspect of the vampire murders to his apartment in another creepy and Gothic style building. Knocking on the door he is confronted by the strange man, Joseph. The journalist returns later that day with his police comrades, but the apartment is deserted with no sign of habitation. Another incident occurs later when a young blonde woman is asked to do a favor by a blind beggar, she is to deliver a letter to a specific apartment. Arriving there, the girl is greeted with servants overseeing an ornate living quarters of affluence, but when the police later arrive, hot on the trail of the disappearing woman after tracking down the address from the beggar, all they again find is a deserted apartment. Shades of similar events occurred in strange apartments in The Girl Who Knew Too Much.
I Vampiri predicts two very different style Bava productions in his future while allowing I Vampiri to emerge as a wonderful horror whodunit. Interestingly enough, it turns out the Duchess du Grand is the orchestrator of the vampire murders, causing Professor du Grand to kill innocent young women for their blood which he uses to experiment on the Duchess and re-animate her as a young, beautiful woman. Of course, the treatments are only temporary, and upon emotional stress, the now young Duchess, who assumes the identity of her so-called niece Gisele, morphs into the old bat without warning.
The movie works on all levels—interesting characters (especially the depraved supporting roles), fascinating photography, a well manipulated script and steadfast direction. I Vampiri is not a classic Bava production (and we must give credit to Riccardo Freda as well), but it is a first of its kind and it illustrates, in just one movie, all the different directions that Bava's career would take over the next 25 years. The Image DVD contains a letterboxed (16:9 enhanced) uncut European release which is absolutely pristine. The Italian language print is subtitled. Extras include filmographies of Freda and Bava and a lengthy biography by Tim Lucas of Bava. A photo/poster gallery is included as are trailers. Once again Image has unearthed the unaltered director's release cut of a pivotal movie and presented it in the clearest format possible. I Vampiri is well worth seeking out and is another important entry in Mario Bava's canon.
SCARS OF DRACULA
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Movie: 2.5; Disc: 3.5By 1970, when Hammer Film Productions released the final Gothic Dracula, Scars of Dracula, one era was coming to an end and another era was taking shape. Hammer was no longer at Bray Studios, and the diminishing budgets were beginning to show. Nudity was creeping into the mix and ultra-violence had replaced the subtlety and artistry of the horror thrillers of the past. While Scars of Dracula was directed by Roy Ward Baker, the best of the new Hammer directors (actually a veteran who will always be remembered for his A Night to Remember, one of the best retellings of the Titanic disaster, made over a decade earlier) and scripted by John Elder (aka Anthony Hinds), everything else about this latest installment in the Dracula series seems different. For instance, the mainstay of Hammer vampirism cinema is its detailed sense of mythos of the Undead, and in this movie, it is non-existent. For instance, victims of the vampires stay dead, they do not return as vampires themselves. One of the victims of Dracula is left impaled on a hook (a reference to Vlad the Impaler?) to rot, and unlike the stunning sequence in the original Horror of Dracula where Dracula intervenes when his vampire bride is about to put the bite on Harker, here Dracula arrives on the scene and uses a huge dagger to stab his vampire mate to death... something seemingly impossible in the annals of vampire lore. By 1970 Hammer was recreating Count Dracula in the image of serial killer who is less supernatural and more innately evil and cruel. However, included are a few sequences showing Dracula exit his protected chamber by scaling the vertical wall of his castle... the only entrance or exit to his casket where he sleeps during the day. Long-time Hammer cohorts Michael Gwynn (the creature from Revenge of Frankenstein whose performance remains one of the best in the entire Hammer horror history) and Michael Ripper return for supporting roles of substance. Ripper more than rises to the occasion by playing the barkeep who is also the titular leader of the local villagers who storm Dracula's castle at the movie's beginning. After Dracula's subservient bats slaughter the daughters and wives of the transgressing villages in their local church while the men are away, Ripper becomes callous and reclusive and distrusting of strangers later on in the movie as the youthful cast happens upon Castle Dracula. Gwynn, following in the long line of Hammer Vampire Hunters (Peter Cushing, Clifford Evans, Andrew Keir and Rupert Davies), becomes an absolutely anemic priest lacking courage and energy and simply sleep-walks through his performance. Although this release features a flawless Technicolor print, which is absolutely pristine, Dracula's death is undramatic as he pulls a metal spike from his chest. As he is about to thrust the spike back toward the recoiling hero, a lightning bolt from the heavens strikes the spike and causes Dracula to burst into flames experiencing a slow, agonizing death. The Anchor Bay DVD features a secondary disk, The Many Faces of Christopher Lee, and the major disk features audio commentary by Christopher Lee and Roy Ward Baker. A Talent Biography appears, as do trailers and poster and still galleries. Thus, as usual, Anchor Bay has presented this less than stellar production with all the bells and whistles that anyone would ever hope for. A stunning presentation of the swam song of Hammer Gothic horror does have its merits!
Countess Dracula
The Vampire LoversMGM Midnite Movies
Movies: [Countess Dracula 2.5; The Vampire Lovers 3.0]For a short time during the 1970s, Ingrid Pitt became the female horror movie icon for Hammer films and other production companies, her presence and performances not properly assessed at the time. We generally think of Anchor Bay when it comes to pristine widescreen release prints of Hammer films, but these Hammer/American International co-productions belong to MGM, and their widescreen release on DVD, double-billed, is cause for celebration (at only a $15 list price that generally means the disc sells for $9.95). The fact that the letterboxed release prints are uncut and pristine (unfortunately, only The Vampire Lovers has been anamorphically enhanced for 16:9 monitors), equaling anything Anchor Bay has released, is an additional plus.
Ingrid Pitt, portraying the evil Countess who bathes in the blood of virgins, acting under heavy layers of age makeup, only to emerge as her sensual self after taking bloodbaths, creates a nuanced and rich performance. As the Countess, mostly mute and hidden partially beneath a veil that covers her head, Ingrid Pitt slightly hunches over and moves stiffly to demonstrate her frail condition. But after emerging in the guise of her "daughter," after the actual daughter is murdered, Ingrid Pitt glows with a radiant sensuality that loves the camera. Never has Pitt looked more alluring or beautiful.
Countess Dracula , with its stark sequence of the nude Ingrid Pitt emerging from her tub, dripping blood as she attempts to hide her nudity, is a sequence for the ages. Unfortunately, this talky costume drama likes to shock us with the discovery of sexy nude virgin bodies in the closet, and the set-up for murder is nicely atmospheric, but simply stated, the movie plays out at a much too slow pace and the costume drama becomes too classy for its own good. Nigel Green, shortly before his suicide, submits another aristocratic performance that commands attention, but poor unfortunate hero (although he is tainted by enjoying the pleasures of the village prostitute after seemingly committing to the Countess' "daughter") Sandor Eles dies unfairly in the final minute of the movie before the irate villagers punish their Countess Dracula once and for all. However, for Ingrid Pitt, her performance is mesmerizing and quite solid with a remarkable contrast between her non-sexual Countess and blatantly erotic transformation into nude romper. At FANEX 8 Pitt told a hilarious story about Eles' difficulty filming a love scene with her during this film.
However, The Vampire Lovers is Pitt's classic horror portrayal and a film that grows richer with age. Touting direction by Roy Ward Baker and featuring a generally uninspired supporting performance by Peter Cushing (just compare his role here as the General to his Baron Frankenstein performances or Van Helsing in his Terence Fisher-directed Dracula movies), The Vampire Lovers is not Terence Fisher's style of vampire fandango. Featuring lush period detail and costuming, The Vampire Lovers brings erotica to Hammer's vampire mythology, and does it quite tastefully. Ingrid Pitt, through the course of the movie, plays the same vampiric character operating under two different identities, both involving her so-called aunt leaving her at the home of an unsuspecting aristocrat, to befriend a virginal daughter, who will ultimately become her next victim (even though Ingrid Pitt claims in printed interviews that vampires are not sexually motivated, all her primary victims are female and are slowly seduced, more so than attacked, and that look in Pitt's eyes before she bites Madeline Smith is sexual, pure and simple. The nude romps, which seemed more flashy and sensational back in 1970, today seems more carefully crafted to demonstrate the seductive influence of evil, and how sexual seduction is similar to the seduction of evil. Ingrid Pitt, looking beautiful yet somehow infinitely sad and pale, almost haggard, captures the loneliness of the undead and demonstrates vampirism as both a sexual urge and also as a disease. Her performance resonates and grows richer over time. Here is not the typical Hammer Glamour model who frolics in the nude, for Pitt, though quite beautiful with a well proportioned body, was exotic and mature in a way that separates her from most of the other female fashion queens. For Pitt truly submits a multi-layered performance here. While The Vampire Lovers offers one beheading too many, its vampiric violence and well-filmed cinematographic atmosphere create a movie several cuts above the other typical Hammer productions of that time.Each movie features audio commentary with Ingrid Pitt and each film's respective director and screenwriter. Also included are original theatrical trailers and Ingrid Pitt reading sections from Carmilla , the original story on which The Vampire Lovers was based. Both films, made in 1970, showcase a rare European talent first emerging as the new star of Hammer horror. Countess Dracula and The Vampire Lovers have never appeared more complete or looked better. For anyone who thought these new movies were disposable, now is the time for serious re-evaluation.