The Vampire Lovers (1970)

Seductive vampire Carmilla Karnstein and her family target the beautiful and the rich in a remote area of late eighteenth-century Gemany.

Director:

Roy Ward Baker

Writers:

Sheridan Le Fanu (story "Carmilla") (as J. Sheridan Le Fanu), Harry Fine (adaptation)

Stars:

Ingrid Pitt, Pippa Steel, Madeline Smith

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ingrid Pitt	...	Marcilla / Carmilla / Mircalla Karnstein
Pippa Steel	...	Laura (as Pippa Steele)
Madeline Smith	...	Emma Morton
Peter Cushing	...	General von Spielsdorf
George Cole	...	Roger Morton
Dawn Addams	...	The Countess
Kate O'Mara	...	The Governess (Mme. Perrodot)
Douglas Wilmer	...	Baron Joachim von Hartog
Jon Finch	...	Carl Ebhardt
Ferdy Mayne	...	Doctor
Kirsten Lindholm	...	First Vampire (as Kirsten Betts)
John Forbes-Robertson	...	Man in Black
Shelagh Wilcocks	...	Housekeeper
Harvey Hall	...	Renton
Janet Key	...	Gretchin

Storyline

The Countess is called away to tend a sick friend and imposes on the General to accept her daughter Marcilla as a houseguest. Some of the villagers begin dying, however, and the General's daughter Laura soon gets weak and pale, but Marcilla is there to comfort her. The villagers begin whispering about vampires as Marcilla finds another family on which to impose herself. The pattern repeats as Emma gets ill, but the General cannot rest, and seeks the advice of Baron Hartog, who once dealt a decisive blow against a family of vampires. Well, almost.

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Plot Keywords:

bathtub | female full frontal nudity | female pubic hair | female rear nudity | towel | 

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Taglines:

Even the Lifeless Can Love. Even the Dead Can Desire.

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English German

Release Date:

22 October 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Vampire Lovers

Filming Locations:

Associated British Picture Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hammer Films, Fantale Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In 2009, Ingrid Pitt write about how she got cast for her role in her column for Den of Geek. She said one night after being in Where Eagles Dare, she went to a reception at the Savoy. "I was a bit disappointed to be seated next to a man I had never heard of. He introduced himself as James Carreras (the head of Hammer Studios at the time) and we chatted amicably while I kept a roving eye on the room in case there was anybody there I could impress. My attention was drawn back to Mr. Carreras when he started saying nice things about my part in Eagles. I am always susceptible to a little flattery. I agreed with him and asked him what he did. He told me that he was a film producer. That got my attention and by the time we left the party I had an appointment to meet him in his office the following morning to talk about a film he was about to produce." She said she was wary because she'd heard it all before and wasn't sure if she should trust him. But she showed up at the Hammer offices the next morning and he cast her for Vampire Lovers.

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Goofs

The story is set in the late 1700s, but at the General's ball the orchestra plays a couple of pieces by Johann Strauss Sr. (1804 - 1849) and Léo Delibes (1836-1891).

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Quotes

Baron Joachim von Hartog: They were all evil and remain evil after death.

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Alternate Versions

The film was cut for its R rating and the old Embassy videos reflect this edit. MGM restored most of the footage for its 1999 VHS release, except for part of the opening decapitation and some nudity in the bathing scene. The nudity was found and added in to the 2003 DVD release, which now presents the film complete save those missing frames in the opening beheading. The UK DVD contains MGM's first restoration that was on VHS in the USA. The R1 MGM DVD contains the more complete edition.

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Connections

Referenced in The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs: Daughters of Darkness (2018)

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Soundtracks

Ach du Liebe Augustin
(uncredited)
Traditional
Arranged by Philip Martell

User Reviews

A Hammer Classic

This film gets a lot of ribbing for the casual nudity that bedecks it. Not fair. This film is in many ways another Hammer classic with its good solid acting, its lush photography and costuming, and general sense of horror. It is based in part on Sheridan Le Fanu's classic female vampire story Carmilla about a young girl that befriends other young girls only to vampirize them. Ingrid Pitt plays the toothy(and toothsome) vampire wench in all her busty splendour. She is magnificent on the screen and oozes sex appeal. Yes, she goes topless as do her female co-stars....but although one sees that these scenes feel forced...they do not detract from the film(and for me they enhanced it greatly). The rest of the cast is good with Peter Cushing as a general in a small role and Harvey Hall as a servant standing out. The best part of the film for me is the eerie graveyard of the Castle Karnstein that we are introduced to in the prologue and again visited to in the epilogue. It really sets the mood of the story and was a pretty inspired rendition of the Carmilla tale.