The 1970s have been called “The Vampire Decade” (cf. Stacy Abbott (2007) Celluloid Vampires: Life After Death in the Modern World) and you can easily see why. In 1970 alone, Christopher Lee appeared in three films playing his signature role of Count Dracula. Two of these films were for Hammer Films, the other for Jesús Franco, of whom the Guardian said was a “creator of erotic horror” and a “dedicated exponent of weird sex” and a “vast and complex body of work”. That same year, the first of the decade still, saw Ingrid Pitt kick-off Hammer’s ‘Lesbian Vampire’ trilogy in The Vampire Lovers – a subgenre to which Franco was almost destined to contribute (1971’s Vampyros Lesbos) – and Dan Curtis’ final killing off of Barnabas Collins in “House of Dark Shadows”. And, of course, 1970 gave us probably one of the best vampires ever committed to celluloid immortality in Robert Quarry’s portrayal of Count Yorga, Vampire.
Bob Kelljan’s film is to be noted for several reasons. If they’d gone with the original plan, Count Yorga, Vampire would have been The Loves of Count Iorga, Vampire, a soft-porn contribution to the vampire oeuvre – with little doubt that no one would be discussing it today – but notable for being one of the first of what was soon to become a popular take on the vampire’s place in cinematic history.
The film is notable, also, for its title. While we all know who and what Count Dracula is, there is nothing in that title per se which gives it away. Count Yorga, Vampire leaves nothing to the imagination. In this day in which we’re always being warned of spoilers when reading reviews on IMDb and elsewhere, one wonders what to do with a movie that contains the biggest spoiler in its title?
More significantly, however, is the fact that the film is set in modern day Los Angeles. Bob Kelljan can be seen as stealing a march on Hammer Films with this move to a modern metropolis, making Count Yorga, Vampire a precursor of much of what was to come next in the vampire mythos.
Apart from Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula (1897), vampires make little impact upon the world of literature. Seemingly a constant presence in popular culture, the vampire is not a creature of high art and, until fairly recently, academic study. Who can listen to Herr Lang’s recitation of Van Helsing’s qualifications (in The Brides of Dracula (1960) – Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Theology, Doctor of Metaphysics – today without at least a smile, knowing that our most prominent atheists would dismiss, out of hand, two of the three? There is reason why the garlic and the crucifixes are always the defense of the ignorant and superstitious in Hammer’s 1950s and 60s Dracula movies. Those who possess a proper education – i.e. those who are not peasants – do not so readily believe in such nonsense. This is what sets Van Helsing apart and makes him such an interesting character. So interesting, in fact, that he makes a disguised appearance in Count Yorga, Vampire, under the name of Dr. James ‘Jim’ Hayes, and in so many other guises in other vampire movies.
This being a movie of the 1970s, one has to wonder whether that name bears any significance. Surely a filmmaker, even this early in the Seventies, would understand the irony of a character called Hayes (Hays), in his struggle to uphold the moral decency and save souls from damnation, being ridiculed by the authorities as he tries to inform them of the dangers their culture and society faces? And just after he gets out of bed with, well, let’s say, a woman who isn’t there for her stimulating conversational skills.
In these early vampire movies, it wasn’t unusual for them to start with some version of Jonathan Harker’s journey and arrival at Castle Dracula. In other words, we’re usually well into the movie before we gain our first glimpse at the Count. This is understandable in a genre that must build tension to keep its viewers’ interest.
After a wonderfully over-the-top introductory narration, Count Yorga, Vampire, as its title suggests, gives us the Count up front and in-your-face. He’s there, leading a séance with three couples. Donna, wishes to keep in touch with her mother, who has recently died of – this is a vampire movie! – pernicious anemia. At which point, this movie really lets us know that the vampire has transitioned from his Old World roots to the New World of opportunity and irreverence.
For instance, Madonna comes from the Italian and means My Lady. As a title, it is applied to Mary, the mother of Jesus. She is The Madonna because she is the mother of the Son of God and, by extension, the mother of all. Kelljan turns this relationship on its head by having the daughter called Donna, whose mother goes unnamed. IMDb lists Marsha Jordan’s role as simply ‘Donna’s mother’. When you see the end of the film you might wonder about this appellation. Throughout the duration of the film, Donna is the daughter who has lost her mother, thus bringing these people into contact with the Count, but, at movie’s end, her name may have greater significance.
After the entertaining but somewhat superfluous narration, we are treated to a group of people sitting around a table, with the rather handsome guy at its head doing most of the talking while the others are being not so subtle in their disrespect. Yorga, as can be seen by his style of dress – not to mention the classic line, “I believe I brought a cape?” – is the old fogey mixing it with the modern, and far more jaded, younger generation. We soon learn that he was, in fact, the lover of Donna’s dear departed mother. Yes, we are supposed to know the significance of the vampire’s kiss. This entire movie works because it’s playing with a mythos it is fully aware its audience is familiar with. What’s the point of hiding the vampire in a movie for a 1970s audience? Hammer never got this memo.
And so, the movie begins, with Yorga saying, in an irreverent paraphrase of Ephesians 4:4, “Our hands are joined. Hopefully we will be able to act as one body.”
What he goes on to say will be the focus of what comes next.
Watching the 1970s 