The Vampire Lovers (5 Stars)

This wasn't Ingrid Pitt's first film, but it was the film that made her famous. I read her autobiography a few years ago, and I became fascinated by her as a person. Her life story would make an incredible film, as long as the budget is big enough. To put it briefly:

She was born as Ingoushka Petrov in Poland in 1937, and she spent her early years in a Concentration Camp. After the war she became an (unsuccessful) theatre actress in East Berlin. She fled to West Berlin by swimming across the River Spree, and she married the American soldier who pulled her out of the water. That sounds too slushy to be true! She moved to America, but the marriage didn't last. She moved to Spain and began work as a film actress, but she didn't have much success until she moved to England. She travelled to Argentina to make a film, but remained for years because the civil war made it too dangerous to attempt to leave. She became personal friends with the Perons. Finally she returned to England, where she settled down as an actress and authoress. In her later years she spent a lot of time in America, but England remained her home.

I was well acquainted with Ingrid Pitt's name, but I didn't pay much attention to her until a few years ago. The reason is, when I first saw this film on television I had a crush on Madeline Smith, who plays the woman that Ingrid loves. In the early 1970's she was everywhere, in films, in television episodes, in television commercials, in newspapers. "The Vampire Lovers" was just another opportunity for me to feast my eyes on her.

In the film, Ingrid Pitt plays Mircalla Karnstein, a vampiress who lives in Austria in the 18th Century. She's been alive for 200 years. She seduces young women and feeds on their blood for weeks until they die. Emma Morton, played by Madeline Smith, is different. Mircalla begins to fall in love with her, so she promises to make her a vampire before it's too late.

That's understandable. I wouldn't want Madeline Smith to die either.

Emma tells Mircalla that she dreams of marrying a handsome man, but Mircalla tells her she doesn't need a man. Emma is confused, but she can't resist Mircalla's charms.

I don't know whether Emma is ensnared by Mircalla's vampire mesmerism or her natural charm. It seems to be a mixture of the two.

This was the first Hammer Horror film to portray lesbian sex. It's all very tame by today's standards, but it was shocking in 1970. The nudity was also more than was usual in mainstream films. This was a deliberate step by Hammer. Cinema audiences were shrinking because of the advent of colour television, so something special had to be done to draw audiences into the cinema. Madeline Smith's bare breasts would have made me pay for a cinema ticket, but I was too young at the time.

This film poster would entice anyone into the cinema, but I'm afraid to say it's false advertising. It shows more nudity than the film actually contains.

In the previous Hammer Horror films, the vampire was a man, Count Dracula. It's a novelty that the vampire in this film is a woman. There is, however, an unnamed vampire who watches everything that happens, but never interferes. Is it Count Dracula or another member of the Karnstein family? The film doesn't answer that question.

Peter Cushing appears as General Spielsdorf. He's a magnificent actor in every role that he plays.

Jon Finch appears as Carl Ebhardt, the lover of Mircalla's first victim and a friend of Emma's father. I consider him to be one of the world's most underrated actors. He turned down the role of James Bond when Sean Connery quit. I'm certain he would have been a better Bond than Roger Moore.

He said in later years that he didn't want to become famous. He wanted to be able to walk in the street without being mobbed by fans. In the 1960's he was a recurring character in the TV soap opera "Crossroads". That probably made him too public, so he wanted to reduce his popularity after he left the soap.

Nowadays almost all cinemas show several films at once. They're called multiplexes. In the 1970's films only showed one film at a time. As a result, films usually displayed cinema cards, i.e. still photos taken from the film. They were shown in glass cases, sometimes in the cinema foyer, sometimes on the outer wall. They weren't given to the cinema, they were only loaned out with the film. They had to be returned to the film studio or distributor together with the film rolls. The cinema card photos of just about any film are collectors items. These photos fascinated me. Here are the cinema cards for "The Vampire Lovers":

They're beautiful, aren't they? I wish I had the original photos.

Ingrid Pitt goes through a large range of emotions in the film, but I like her most when she's crazed with bloodlust.

There's something sexy about a woman with sharp teeth.

What a perfectly framed scene!

This is a promotional photo released for the film.

And another promotional photo. Madeline Smith has such big eyes. They make her look innocent.

I'll end this post with a small gallery of photos of Madeline Smith. I emphasise the word small. I just made over 30 screenshots of Madeline Smith in the film, but that's way too many to include here. I'll just publish the best.

I don't remember how long my obsession with Madeline Smith lasted. There were a few other women I obsessed over as I grew older, but I only had one celebrity crush at a time. I was strictly monocrushamous.

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