Month: May 2019

The Vampire Lovers (1970) Hammer/AIP/MGM

Directed by Roy Ward Baker

Adapted by Harry Fine & Tudor Gates and Michael Style from the Novella by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Screenplay by Tudor Gates

124 minutes.

CAST: Ingrid Pitt (Marcilla/Carmilla/Marcalla Karnstein), Pippa Steel (Laura), Madeline Smith (Emma Morton), Peter Cushing (General von Spielsdorf), George Cole (Roger Morton), Dawn Addams (The Countess), Kate O’Mara (The Governess/Mme. Perrodot), Jon Finch (Baron Joachim von Hartog), Douglas Wilmer (Baron Joachim von Hartog).

The Vampire Lovers was a landmark for Hammer Films as it was the first of their horror films to contain nudity. It also featured a female vampire who fancied women (Carmilla). Due to these new directions it was also the first Hammer Film to receive an R rating in the United States (Just an year earlier, Midnight Cowboy received an X rating). As Madeline Smith observed in an interview, the production was part of an “uneasy marriage between Hammer and American International.” AIP was brought in to draw audiences back into the theaters to see Hammer Films. As Madeline Smith put it, they were there, “to hot them up!” She further exclaimed that she didn’t really realize what they were going to do to “Hot” them up! And “hot them up” they did.

The emphasis on bosoms, already a staple of Hammer Horror, was increased and the nudity of Ingrid Pitt and partial nudity of Madeline Smith took them over the top, if you will pardon the expression. The film was based on the 1872 novella by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla, one of the earliest works of vampire fiction. Bram Stoker’s Dracula would not appear until 1897. Fanu, like Stoker was Irish and may have been an influence on the author of Dracula and Dracula’s Guest.

Whether or not the lesbian behavior was implied in Fanu’s text is beside the point, in the Hammer Film version it is the basis of the tale. It powers the sexuality that drives Carmilla throughout the narrative. Ignoring some of the traditional vampire mythology such as fear of daylight, Carmilla’s behavior is not what is typical for the vampire film as established by Stoker and later by Hollywood.

Another change is that the woman are in the foreground and the usual lead actors are reduced to much less screen time. Peter Cushing’s character of General Von Spielsdorf is little more than a supporting player as is Jon Finch’s Baron Joachim von Hartog, and Douglas Wilmer as Baron Joachim von Hartog. They give wonderfully professional support in this film where the roles are effectively reversed placing the women at center stage.

The two actresses more than delivered. Ingrid Pitt is wonderfully evil as Carmilla, and Madeline Smith’s innocence and tragic trust of the demon was astonishingly well performed. The Vampire Lovers did come near the end of Hammer’s reign as the studio of Gothic Horror, but it was a fitting finale and a sincerely wicked effort.

Ingrid Pitt (1937-2010)

Ingrid Pitt was featured in two subsequent Hammer features, Countess Dracula, and The House That Dripped Blood. Both films were released in 1971. Prior to making the Hammer films, she had appeared in Where Eagles Dare (1968) with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton.

She appeared with Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland in The Wicker Man (1973). An exceptionally well done horror film with a screenplay by Anthony Schaffer that has become a British cult classic. She went on to a long career in film and television including most notably: Doctor Who (1972 & 1984), and Smiley’s People (Mini-Series 1982).

Ingrid Pitts’ last film was an animated short. It focuses on her time in and escape from a Nazi concentration camp when she was eight years old. Her story is told in the acclaimed film short, Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest (2011). This 6 minute animated short was written and narrated by Ingrid Pitt and Directed by Devin Sean Michaels. Animated by (then 10 year old) Perry S. Chen with characters designed by academy award winner, Bill Plympton.

Madeline Smith (1949)

Madeline Smith’s first Hammer appearance was a small part in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) where she was billed as Maddy Smith. In the same year, The Vampire Lovers was released insuring that her name would be forever associated with Hammer horror. Her career would be a long and varied one as she appeared in both television and theatrical films. From British comedy shows like The Two Ronnies and Doctor at Large (both 1971) to films like Theater of Blood with Vincent Price and Live and Let Die (both released in 1973) and The Bawdy Adventurers of Tom Jones (1976). She also appeared in the last of the Hammer Frankenstein series, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1974). Peter Cushing was in his usual fine form, but the make-up that turned David Prowse (best know for his silent performance in Star Wars) into the Monster From Hell was not the films crowning glory nor was the script. All in all making one wish that The Vampire Lovers had been the Hammer horror swan song.

Left and Center: Live and Let Die. Right: The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones.

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The casting of Anthony Perkins was perhaps the most important decision that Alfred Hitchcock made while in pre-production on what would become his greatest and most notorious achievement. Perkin’s nuanced performance as Norman and Janet Leigh’s restrained portrayal of Marion Crane are among the finest performances either have given. The peculiar fact that Hitchcock said in an interview with François Truffaut, “People will say (of Psycho), ‘It was a terrible film to make. The subject was horrible, the people were small, there were no characters in it.’ I know all of this.” (Hitchcock by François Truffaut) cautions us not to take what the director says in interviews at face value. He was emphasizing his focus on technique. On shooting and editing, but before all of that came the careful preparation of the script and the casting.

Hitchcock always took special care in script preparation and casting, both very important steps in creating any film but even more so with one that defies description. It is a horror story in no uncertain terms, but it is also a love story gone terribly wrong. With very short brush strokes, Hitchcock and screenwriter Joseph Stefano create the characters of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and Sam Loomis (John Gavin). There is no doubt that they are fully formed characters. Given the short amount of time that we get to know them, they’re three dimensional in our minds. Marion’s desperation is palpable, and we find ourselves cheering her on as she takes off with the loot.

The same can be said of Norman Bates as his character is revealed (if somewhat misleadingly due to its nature) through both his words and his actions. He has advised Marion that the hotel has “...twelve cabins, twelve vacancies…” yet when he goes to reach for a room key his hand hovers hesitatingly over room 2 and 3 and then slowly moves to pick room 1’s key from the board.

Norman’s hospitality to Marion is borne out of loneliness. His offer of a meal up at the house is derailed by the ravings of the woman that Marion saw in silhouette in the window of the house up the hill. We see Marion’s response to the old woman’s insinuating tirade. The voice is as much a shock as it is disturbing in what it conveys.

The later scene echoes the conversation that Sam turns lurid with his suggestions for being alone with Marion. In the scene with Sam we see Marion’s sandwich untouched and it hammers home the sadness of the tryst. Norman comes down from the house with a tray of milk, bread, and butter which is his pathetic attempt at being hospitable. They have a conversation during which Marion is moved to change her mind about what she is doing. When she suggests that Norman leave his mother he goes into a controlled rage. Marion tries to convince him, and though he comes back to his senses and admits that he has even thought about it, he remains unresolved:

MARION: “…She’s hurting you…

NORMAN: “…She needs me…She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?

MARION: “Sometimes just one time can be enough…I have a long drive tomorrow, all the way back to Phoenix.”

NORMAN: “Really?”

MARION: “I stepped into a private trap back there I’d like to go back and try to pull myself out of it before it’s too late for me too.”

Marion goes back to her room and Norman checks the register and sees that although she told him her name is Crane while in the parlor with him, she signed it as Samuels. Then he goes back into the parlor and removes a picture from the wall exposing a hole, and through the hole we see Marion preparing to shower.

After this, Norman goes back up to the house. He stops at the stairs and it appears that he thinking about something–probably to go up and tell his mother that he is leaving? He thinks better of it and goes into the kitchen. Sitting down at the table, he fidgets with the lid of a sugar bowl.

Then we are back in the hotel room with Marion. She is also sitting as she tries to figure out how much of the money she has spent so she knows what she has left. It is clear that she intends to go back and return the money and face the consequences. She tears up the paper that she has been doing the figures on, and she flushes the scraps down the toilet. Then she closes the door of the bathroom, gets in the shower, and turns it on.

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The suddenness of the act is horrifying even after multiple viewings. It is also what makes the film so memorable. That, and the incredible performances by both Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.

The old woman runs out of the bath. We see the house and hear Norman’s horrified reaction to his mother returning spattered with blood. He bursts from the house and down to the hotel room where he is visibly repulsed, and yet he proceeds to clean up. We quickly realize that he is going to cover up for his mother. The methodical way that he does this gives us the idea that this may not be the first time his mother has gone a little ‘mad.’ After he clears the room of any trace of Marion (even taking the newspaper wrapped forty thousand dollars and throwing it into the truck), he pushes her car into a swamp behind the hotel and stands watching it sink. His nervousness brings our sympathy. What a horrid trap he was born into! When the process stalls and the car appears not to be sinking, we find ourselves hoping it does and that he is not caught. We have shifted our identification from Marion to Norman.

NEXT: The Investigation