COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE aka THE LOVES OF COUNT IORGA VAMPIRE [Onscreen Title] 1970, Twilight Time, 92m 47s, $29.95, BD-A
THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA 1971, Scream Factory, 97m 8s, $26.99, BD-A By Eric Somer
Midway through his survey of the classic monster film THE DEAD THAT WALK: DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY, AND OTHER FAVORITE MOVIE MON- STERS, author Leslie Halliwell buried a solitary sentence in re- gard to COUNT YORGA, VAM- PIRE and its sequel THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA:
“Robert Quarry appeared in two films as the bloodlusting Count Yorga, and in the second there was a Dracula lookalike contest.”
Short shrift can be a powerful thing. Based on the brevity of this author, I had avoided these vam- pire films for the past few de- cades, which I now realize was a costly error. Both Yorga films hold up exceptionally well, and the respective Blu-ray editions avail- able through Twilight Time and Scream Factory cry out for shelf space in any serious horror fan’s movie collection.
Set in (then) modern-day Los Angeles, COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE opens with a suspi- cious-looking oblong box in transit, while narration assures us what we are about to see will embrace familiar vampire
AIP promotional artwork for THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA.
lore. The exposition sequence transitions to a fairly dramatic séance, where Donna (Donna Anders) reaches out to her departed mother (Marsha Jor- dan) with the help of the mother’s exotic lover, a Bul- garian import named Count Yorga (Robert Quarry). Not ev- eryone present at the séance is willing to devote serious thought to the idea of super- natural forces—in one of the critical premises of the vam- pire story, healthy human skepticism about the fantastic enables the vampire’s contin- ued existence. But concerned we should be; the evening’s affair does not break up before Yorga demonstrates command of his mesmeric eyes that recall those of Bela Lugosi’s Count Dracula. Then it is explained that Yorga insisted the body of his lover not be cremated, as her daughter had planned. Oh, and how strange he did not attend the funeral! Researcher and “blood specialist” Dr. Jim Hayes (Roger Perry) is the req- uisite Van Helsing type, the man first to believe in the re- ality of the vampire’s presence. Of course, the local police are unwilling to act on the suspi- cions of Hayes, which leaves him to devise a plan of action. That is the salient point of most vampire fiction on record: an in- dividual must lead the charge against an immortal evil whom the masses cannot confront or will not acknowledge.
Much of any vampire film’s credibility lies in the hands of the actor who portrays the featured undead protagonist. Quarry is more than up to the task; he de- livers his well-written dialogue with an eloquent dignity that adds class to an independent property that was not conceived as a straight horror film, but rather as a softcore sex item;
played straight to a broader au- dience at Quarry’s suggestion, it proved good enough to be picked-up by American Interna- tional. The original concept remains somewhat evident, par- ticularly when Paul (Robert Altman favorite Michael Murphy) and Erica (Judith Lang) decide to spend the night making love in their van while stuck in Yorga’s vicinity. Even for a hor- ror film, it is a bit surprising they would not either seek help or ask if they could spend the night within Yorga’s vast estate. None- theless, the sequence provides the film’s high point in terms of staging and suspense. Another vestige of the erotic template in- volves the females in Yorga’s dungeon. Originally, his vampire brides were to enjoy each other to the pleasure of The Count, positioned to savor the action from his throne. Despite their prior conception as a voyeur’s delight, the energetic vampresses are involved in several startling scares. Further confirmation of softcore origins comes by way of casting, ie.; Something Weird Video queens Marsha Jordan (LADY GODIVA RIDES) and Julie Conners (MISS NYMPHET’S ZAP-IN).
The commercial success of COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE, writ- ten and directed by Bob Kelljan, kicked off a bevy of sanguinary reboots in the ’70s, including the YORGA sequel and THE DEATH- MASTER, both starring Quarry. Then there were the two blax- ploitation productions BLAC- ULA and SCREAM BLACULA SCREAM, the latter helmed by Kelljan. Hammer Studios un- leashed the similarly contempo- rary DRACULA A.D. 1972, with Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) reanimated near the hip London sphere. After COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE, erotic themes became more prominent in the vampire
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