Scream Queens! Part 5 Hammer Glamour: The Vampire Lovers

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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