Lust for a Vampire (1971)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely Brilliant!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

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 lives to show some buxom flesh in the hope that that will be enough. A couple of scenes are smart, particularly the resurrection of 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 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

Lust for a Vampire is set in 1830 in England where fantasy writer Richard Lestrange (Richard Johnson) is staying in the village by the infamous Karnstein castle, it's been exactly forty years to the day since the Karnstein evil was last seen. Richard tries to prove to the locals that Vampirism is just superstition & decides to visit the castle himself, while there he meets a teacher named Giles Barton (Ralph Bates) three young girls whom he teaches at a nearby finishing school. While visiting the school Lestrange falls in love with new student Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard), however it turns out that Mircalla is actually the reincarnation of the evil Vampire Carmilla Karnstein & starts to seduce & drink the blood of the other girls at the school. As the bodies pile up & the police become involved Mircalla's secret is revealed...This British production came from Hammer studios & was directed by Jimmy Sangster who a last minute replacement for Terence Fisher after he apparently broke his leg, Lust for a Vampire was the second of trilogy of films made by Hammer that they adapted from J. Sheridan Le Fanu's short Vampire story Carmilla published in 1872 & began with The Vampire Lovers (1970) which was followed by Lust for a Vampire & ended with Twins of Evil (1972). I don't thin that Lust for a Vampire is a very good film at all, there are moments which make little sense or are barely explained. What, for instance, did that village girl see to make her scream & faint in the carriage at the start? Why was Carmilla at the finishing school anyway? I suppose her parents wanted her to be an educated Vampire, how did she keep sneaking out at night without being caught? I find it hard to believe that Lestrange would just fall in love with Carmilla after having only briefly seen her once, I mean they didn't even speak to each other yet he falls madly in love with her. It's a real stretch to believe & then when he does talk to her for the first time he says how much he loves her, talk about being forward. Carmilla seems to have no sort of plan or reason for being at the school & it's a mystery why she & her two guardian's don't just live in the castle together like a nice Vampire family, you know what I'm saying? Would an experienced police inspector really climb down a well by himself with no-one at the top to help if he got in trouble? Why not call for back-up? At over 90 minutes long Lust for a Vampire has a reasonable pace but not much happens if truth be told & it's hardly exciting, the central concept which had some potential of Carmilla being torn between her evil Vampire ways & her love for Lestrange is wasted.Lust for a Vampire was made with it's male teenage audience in mind as it's far more sexual than scary, an entire school full of attractive young girls who don't like wearing many clothes even when they go out at night in the cold they insist on the absolute minimum amount of clothing. There are a few topless shots, a couple of brief lesbianism scenes & a badly put together tinted montage during Lestarnge & Carmilla making love set to an awful song call Strange Love. There's not much blood or gore here, there's a bit of blood at the start as well as a decayed skeleton, there are a couple of biting scenes & a couple of staking scenes at the end. The sets look alright but the castle is a little cramped, the opening resurrection scene features some really bad incantations badly staged & close-ups of Count Karnstein's blood shot eyes (maybe taken from another film entirely) which are clearly not there in medium face shots.Probably shot on a low budget like most Hammer films the production values are decent enough if not amazing, it looks alright without ever being memorable. Danish actress Stensgaard is OK, Mike Raven was dubbed by someone else (Raven apparently walked out of the premiere because of this) while Ralph Bates is killed off early on, Peter Cushing was meant to star but didn't while Ingrid Pitt was apparently asked back but declined because she thought the script was terrible.Lust for a Vampire is minor Hammer to be honest, it doesn't really feature any of their main stars & is a fairly middling production in terms of concept & execution. Not one of Hammer's best, that's for sure.

While we anxiously await Lesbian Vampire Killers, we can visit a Hammer classic that has loads of naturally endowed women in a finishing school.While the lesbianism that is inferred is probably just normal boarding school hi-jinks, we are able to enjoy the peaks of pleasure exposed to our view. The vampire Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard) has plenty of girls to go skinny dipping with.The teacher Richard (Michael Johnson) is quite taken with the beauty that he fellow teacher (Ralph Bates) believes to be the reincarnation of a Countess that died 120 years previous. Another teacher (Suzanna Leigh) almost buys it after she continues to stick her nose into the problems of dying and missing.As expected, the villagers finally take matters into their own hands to rid themselves of the problem.

This has more style than most of Hammer efforts. For that reason I'm giving it a high rating. Its based on the story Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. As such it has a stronger narrative than the late Dracula films where the screen plays were not based on any novels. The story is about the resurrection of a long dead vampire girl by her vampiring relatives. For some unclear reason they feel she needs schooling and enrol her at an exclusive finishing school. Socially responsible these vampires. Part of the advantage for them is that it provides a supply of good looking women to appear for their scholastic vamp to suck on. This is only used a couple of times. Into this a stranger wanders along and is immediately given a teaching job without any checks as we are meant to have now days. He falls in love with Yutte Stensgaard's bloodsucker immediately. He is really inappropriate for a teaching post. What would he be like if he was there for 5 years?I knew of this film but hadn't got round to it as part of the Hammer canon until I read a review of Le Fanu by the writer and actor Stephen Armourae. On a couple of vampire websites also appeared a portrait of Yutte Stensgaard by him taken from the film. Yutte was a very good looking actress and I have recently seen an excerpt of a game show presented by Bob Monkhouse where she was assistant. Her performance was as wooden then as in this though she made a couple of good films later.A note on this film is that Peter Cushing was intended to play the Ralph Bates role but had to pull out due to ill health. This is to the film's credit. It would have been a shame to see Cushing die and the late great Ralph Bates does a good turn in a scene of desperation and appropriately enough lust.