Strange brew… Lust for a Vampire (1971)

This being the second of the Karnstein Trilogy and featuring some of my favourite Hammer stars, I’ve been very remiss in not watching this film before (I know!). On a recommendation from Judy Jarvis (nee Matheson) I bought the Studio Canal Blu-ray which, as it happens, comes with an excellent interview with Judy amongst a host of extras and a sparkling transfer. It looks fantastic and, whilst it’s not as well executed as Karnstein III, Twins of Evil or as iconic as Karnstein I, Vampire Lovers, it is a very enjoyable romp that perhaps should have stuck with its original title, To Love a Vampire.

It’s fascinating to hear Judy’s fond recollections of not just this film but also her other Hammer work including Twins alongside the Strange Love featurette which addresses the changes affecting Hammer in 1970. In 1969 Anthony Hinds was leaving Hammer after decades as writer and producer for his father’s company whilst Hammer also lost Warner Brothers’ US distribution deal and ended up working with independent distributors, Fantale Films which included producers Harry Fine and Michael Style along with writer Tudor Gates.

Judy Matheson and Yutte Stensgaard

Fantale were keen to take advantage of the liberalisation of censorship rules and the Hammer films they were involved in mostly in 1970, all feature the more graphic sexual and violent content that was prevalent at that time. This film has a reputation for high levels of nudity and – largely – female sexual engagement; "cheesy" for some and difficult to contextualise now. But Judy Matheson recalls the atmosphere as being very supportive and considerate with a positive approach led by director Jimmy Sangster as well as Ralph Bates and other senior leads. Lust does indeed feature a lot of female flesh but overall, it is indeed less about the lust and more about the love, “strange” though it is.

Judy has a scene with Yutte Stensgaard, presented in an “overseas” topless version and domestic cut with strategically draped sheet, but she remembers it being well managed and professionally done by the crew. As she also points when even Helen Mirren, Glenda Jackson and other RSC alumni had made nude appearances at this point, not to mention Oliver Reed and Alan Bates… in terms of overt sexploitation, Lust for a Vampire is pretty tame certainly in terms of the ratio between narrative exposition and sex; if anything, it’s a pretty wordy film.

Yutte Stensgaard, Barbara Jefford and DJ  Mike Raven

The story begins 40 years after Peter Cushing chopped Ingrid Pitt’s head off in The Vampire Lovers and in a world where the former wasn’t available and the latter declined to be. We’re in Castle Karnstein with the Countess Herritzen (Barbara Jefford) and Count Karnstein (DJ Mike Raven, as always looking the part but not quite acting it…and even being dubbed by an uncredited Valentine Dyall) who are conducting a satanic ritual to resurrect their daughter Mircalla after having captured a pretty young virgin from the village (Kirsten Lindholm). She lies head back on the slab and they cut her throat – did I mention how squeamish I am? - and drain her blood to pour into Mircalla’s coffin and re-animate her young and beautiful as ever.

Mircalla is, of course, Carmilla previously played by Ingrid and now by the Dane, Yutte Stensgaard who, according to Jonathan Rigby (author of English Gothic) and others is actually closer to the character as depicted by Sheridan le Fanu in his original novel, Carmilla being very young (Stensgaard was 24, Pitt 33…) and less worldly than Ingrid could ever be. Unfortunately, the acting level is not the same and Yutte merely does OK, possibly overawed by the role or, as Judy suggests, lacking in confidence amongst the Brits. She is radiant though reminding me of Katy Perry in terms of her look and with a stronger script and better coaching she could have made more sense. Possibly.

 

A proper finishing school...

There’s a school for young ladies in the locale and when Irish writer, Richard LeStrange (Michael Johnson), goes to research the supposedly abandoned castle for his next book on vampire horror, he is surrounded by a group of diaphanously dressed students, including Amanda (Judy Matheson) who briefly convince him they’re reincarnated Karnsteins, before revealing the gag. The writer meets the people who run the school, Miss Simpson (Helen Christie) and Giles Barton (Ralph Bates, who replaced Peter Cushing who had taken time out to nurse his terminally ill wife) along with Janet Playfair (Suzanna Leigh) who is conducting what looks like ancient Greek Panathenaeac dancing in the grounds with the ridiculously good-looking pupils.

That ratio of impossible to improbable shifts significantly to the former as young Mircalla is brought by the countess to join the school… LeStrange is immediately spellbound and intrigued by both the legends and those looks, engineers a way of joining the school staff.

 

Ralph Bates and Michael Johnson like a lady vampire they really do...

 

Miss Simpson’s establishment soon becomes a finishing school in ways she couldn’t imagine as pupils begin to disappear as do others outside with yet another barmaid lost at the village tavern, Trudi as played by the super Luan Peters who, incidentally appeared in a further two films with Judy Matheson, Twins of Evil and The Flesh and Blood Show, both part of the group of players guaranteed to deliver performance in films often made on the tightest of schedules and meanest of budgets! 

Strange loves develop all around Mircalla both with other pupils Susan (Pippa Steel who shines brightly and briefly) and with teachers too as LeStrange is compromised by his feelings for her even as he is certain she is a vampire… is even she a victim of circumstance? Meanwhile Miss Playfair has her own stake in things as she falls for the writer and, in one of the film’s strongest scenes, so well played by Leigh, pleads with him to examine his conscience and report the Karnstein cabal to the authorities: I thought of you as someone honest and courageous when you first came here… She is, as is noted in the featurette, the moral heart of a film in which most characters either lose their way or aren’t fully realised.

There's not just a Strange Love scene but also a lovely tinted dream sequence... like in a silent movie!

Meanwhile, the writer has strange dreams of his contrasting attractions to the teacher and the pupil… as a song called Strange Love, sung by a young singer called Tracy and written by film producer Michael Style, plays. An up-tempo version was later released as a single and is quite collectable!

The human cost of Mircalla/Carmella’s existence soon brings real consequence as the locals plan revenge, parents of missing pupils arrive and the loves or lusts that dare not, soon have to speak their name…

Dusty verdict: Lust for a Vampire feels somehow incomplete but the sentiment is clear and it does make for a vampire film with a difference… a sympathetic lead and humanity led by hearts not heads. It’s not as clunky as its reputation has it nor even as exploitative as the marketing would have it, as for 1970 being a “blip” year for Hammer, I’m not so sure given the affection with which the Karnstein Trilogy is held as entertainment and nostalgia. The company may have wanted to take advantage of changes in censorship, like most, but the raising of the X-rated age of admittance from 16 to 18 mid-year surely made it harder for the company to target the younger market as some of the commentators suggest?

The female gaze.

Anyway, as Judy Matheson said, the film looks great and Studio Canal have done a superb job in producing this set, which is essential, of course, if you like the genre, the studio and the actors… why else would you have read so far down the page! It’s available from all good retailers, including Amazon. 

Proper castle

DJ Mike realises he's forgotten to put the bins out.

Kirsten Lindholm tries to remember the advice about getting into strange coaches

The image is so clear you can see the camera crew...

Obligatory Luan Peters pic

"We're just sayin' we'd like to take back control from unelected Counts..."

Early form of The Birdy Dance.

This is as racey as I'm letting it go...

DJ Mike Raven... from this angle almost as tall as the actor Christopher Lee.

Katy Perry's auntie?

Behind you Ralph...

You know what this means...

Suzanna Leigh questions the audience's attitude...

Double trouble… Twins of Evil (1971)

I’m prepared to admit that you can’t watch Twins of Evil too many times… Kim Newman

 

I find Hammer films slightly confusing and difficult to critique if I’m honest as the genre sometimes obscures the skill involved in making them. In terms of a “Hammer Canon”, there seems a divergence of opinion online as to which titles are the “best”, top tens almost never seem to overlap and yet… gradually you start to make sense of it, solid wooden stakes being visible through bloodied trees and genuinely vibrant storytelling matching the invariably excellent performers and sometimes patchy scripts.

So it is with Twins of Darkness that, having not seen it since the late 70s, always struck me as a gimmick, the two sexy stars being used to pruriently sell another twist of the formula, two for the price of one in terms of vamps set against a gothic background built on flimsy chipboard by a production company famed for putting its poster art at the heart of the sell… never mind the script if we can get the backing for another lucrative addition to a bottom line so tight, you can't see the join.

Maria and Madeline or is it Frieda and Mary??

 

But by this stage of the game, Hammer was having to change its winning formula, introducing not just more sexuality but also new, younger directors such as John Hough who had learned is craft working on cutting edge TV action-drama series The Avengers, and who had something new to say on the big screen. The company had also involved new production teams including Harry Fine and Michael Style, who had previously worked on the cheese-core classic The Vampire Lovers and the less lauded, Lust for a Vampire the first two parts of the so-called Karnstein Trilogy of which Twins was the final part – although both Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974) and – more loosely - Vampire Circus (1972) are linked to Hammer’s interpretation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s saucy 1872 novella Carmilla. Incidentally, both are fine films and in my personal Hammer Top Ten (this week).

The script was from Tudor Gates who also wrote for Lovers and Lust and is an interesting attempt to merge the expected vampiric tale with a moral debate about the merely bad and the truly evil. None of this would work quite so well without the huge presence of Peter Cushing as Gustav Weil, head of the local Christian Brotherhood who are committed to cleansing evil through means of burning at the stake. Cushing was recently widowed and threw himself into his work to help distract from grief.

Judy Matheson: "Ready for my warm-up Mr deMille!"

I saw Judy Matheson (now Jarvis) discussing her genuinely iconic cameo in this film as the first of the suspected witches to be burned, and she tells of how professional and considerate Cushing was, making sure that she was well treated and comfortable in one of her earliest film roles. On screen, of course, there is no mercy, and Judy is dragged from her home and set alight by the Brotherhood before the credits even roll… a breath-taking start that signals the film’s intent: there is evil about but that within the hearts of these “good men” is no better or worse than that of the vampires up in the castle.

Cushing is drawn and so pained it’s hard to know where his performance ends and his bereavement begins but there’s no doubt his presence and force of character. He takes a thoroughly conflicted character and adds unexpected humanity to a “witchfinder” utterly convinced he is doing the right thing until fate suggests otherwise. Alongside him is the magnificent Kathleen Byron as his wife Katy, an actor of equal skill and experience who makes the most of her role and must have been a real comfort for Cushing. Byron had a huge career from a clutch of Powell and Pressburger classics –Small Back Room as well as the classic Black Narcissus – through to The Elephant Man and Saving Private Ryan.

Kathleen Byron, absolute legend!

In Twins, the characters are close in blood and proximity with fast-moving narrative entanglement as Weil’s twin nieces, Maria and Frieda arriving from Venice to set a stir the village and arouse the most unwanted of attention. The girls are played by the Collinson twins, Maria as Mary and Madeline as Frieda, having being talent spotted posing in Playboy by producer Harry. They’re almost identical but Maria/Mary is slightly prettier and more dutiful whilst Madeline/Frieda is earthier and most interested in exploring moral boundaries…

The girls immediately cause a stir with their low-cut city style and this extends far beyond the village. Up on the hill sits Castle Karnstein where the Count (Damien Thomas), descended from Countess Mircalla Karnstein, is bored to tears. The Count’s retainer, Dietrich (Dennis Price) tries to entertain him with dark theatre, hiring men and a local girl to enact a satanic ceremony, but the Count wants only the real thing and, having got rid of them all promptly despatches the young woman invoking the dark lord. This sacrilege succeeds in waking the dormant Countess who is played by Katya Wyeth with Ingrid Pitt refusing yet again to return in the role. One thing leads to another and Great-Great-Grandma turns the Count into a vampire.

Lovely Luan Peters and Damien Thomas share a joke

The Count has been amusing himself with local girl Gerta (the late, great Luan Peters) but connecting with Frieda, he finds someone eager to explore the dark side. Frieda has already attracted the attention of local schoolmaster Anton (David Warbeck) who, along with sister Ingrid (Isobel Black) have an all-girl class packed full of lovelies… there women in Twins are virginal and sexually inquiring to various degrees whilst so many of the Brotherhood are so repressed, they take strange delight in burning the thing they love.

Sexual politics aside this becomes a three-way battle for the soul of the Twins as Frieda’s night-time sorties to the castle and Count increase and she confronts her uncle and his Brotherhood, trying to frame her sister for her misdeeds. Can Anton or anyone, tell them apart?

Madeline and Maria... probably

Dusty verdict: There’s a lot packed into Twins of Evil but much to enjoy. Part of the problem with Hammer and other genre films is the predictability of much of the action – it’s usually just a question of when and how many characters get killed before the, mostly, inevitable conclusion. Hough wisely focuses on the supernatural elements and builds a consistently tense atmosphere throughout. 

He also makes the most of his cast who, the Collinsons apart, are able to extract every ounce of potential depth from Gates’ script. The Twins are OK and react well but they’re not pros and it shows, compare Judy Matheson and Luan Peters’ moments with theirs’, both are able to bring full commitment and emotional response whereas the Playmates need great editing to fit with the mood. Judy’s so good in fact, she gets burned twice, her pre-credit sequence being re-used to show another brunette paying the price for “living alone in the woods” and other clearly unholy activities.

Witch hunting never changes, does it?

Twins of Evil is now available on Network Blu-ray at very reasonable rates. There’s also an import Blu-ray which comes with the excellent documentary The Flesh and the Fury: X-posing Twins of Evil: Directed by Daniel Griffith which features some informed interviews and presents the history of Hammer to the point of the film. These include the rather jolly Damien Thomas in a Soho pub, along with horror writer Kim Newman, who’s quote at the top says all you need to know about this film! It has to be on anyone’s list as one of the most enjoyable from this period.

 

Judy's two burnings, the second - featuring higher flames - standing in for another poor wench