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:

A Bloodstained Tale of Terror and Torture!

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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:

Vampyren - en erotisk mardröm

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

The director claimed that, after reading the novella Carmilla twice, he didn't get a sense of any lesbian content. Ingrid Pitt also claims she didn't play the role as though the vampire was a lesbian but asexual.

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Goofs

The fence around what looks like a tennis court in front of the mansion is chain link fencing.

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Quotes

Marcilla: You must die! Everybody must die!

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Alternate Versions

The UK cinema version was cut by the BBFC to reduce the opening decapitation and shots of Carmilla kissing Emma's breasts, and the same print was featured on video releases. The 2002 ILC DVD saw the cuts fully waived though the print used was an edited US one which missed a brief full frontal shot of Carmilla in a bathtub scene. The 2006 Optimum DVD featured the fully uncut and complete print.

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Connections

Featured in SexTV: Blood Lust/Bodies of Evidence/Cake (2001)

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Soundtracks

Mazurka
(uncredited)
Music by Léo Delibes
Arranged by Harry Robertson

User Reviews

Didn't do too much for me

I see here that the majority of user comments for this movie are pretty positive, so it does seem that most people who will watch this movie will like it. But to be honest, I was kind of disappointed by "The Vampire Lovers". Let me make it clear that I didn't find it aggressively awful or even merely bad - I just thought that it was kind of mediocre. The main problem I had with it was the one-two punch of it being slow-moving and not much plot in the end. I grew kind of restless despite the occasional erotic or horrific elements inserted in to liven things up. Also disappointing was that Peter Cushing didn't have as much to do here as in other Hammer movies he worked on - he's offscreen for long periods of time. To its credit, the movie does have good production values, and does have some atmosphere (erotic or horrific) throughout. But in the end, as I said, the movie didn't do that much for me. I know I'm in the minority, so you still might want to give this movie a try, especially if you are a fan of Hammer films.