Lust for a Vampire **½ (1971, Ralph Bates, Michael Johnson, Yutte Stensgaard, Barbara Jefford, Suzanna Leigh, Mike Raven, Helen Christie) – Classic Movie Review 2,892

The 1971 horror film Lust for a Vampire is the second of Hammer Films’ three movies derived from J Sheridan Le Fanu’s book Carmilla. Though star Ralph Bates described it as ‘one of the worst films ever made’, it is a fascinating erotic vampire movie.

‘FEMALE BODIES… whose embrace is the kiss of death for a man or woman!’

Director Jimmy Sangster’s 1971 horror film Lust for a Vampire is the second of Hammer Films’ three movies derived from J Sheridan Le Fanu’s book Carmilla or at least its characters. Though star Ralph Bates described it as the least favourite film of his movies and ‘one of the worst films ever made’, it is a fascinating if adolescent erotic vampire movie.

Hammer’s Karnstein Trilogy of vampire films were all scripted by Tudor Gates: The Vampire Lovers (1970), Lust for a Vampire (1971) and Twins of Evil (1971).

Ralph Bates stars in Lust for a Vampire as Giles Barton, while Michael Johnson plays Richard Lestrange, an 1830s English writer who discovers that the ravishing mid-European schoolgirl Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard) is a reincarnated vampire, Countess Carmilla Karnstein, who adopts the name of her ancestor and seduces and murders her way through an exclusive girls’ school.

Danish actress Stensgaard packs the sensual charge her role needs, while director Sangster, though seeming uneasy with the story’s decadence, achieves visually fine sequences of furtive vampiring before resorting to pop songs and sex jokes. The film’s most notable scene shows Stensgaard drenched in gore, partly covered by blood-soaked rags.

Also in the cast are Barbara Jefford as Countess Herritzen, Suzanna Leigh as Janet Playfair, Mike Raven as Count Karnstein, Helen Christie as Miss Simpson, Pippa Steel, David Healy, Harvey Hall, Michael Brennan, Jack Melford, Christopher Cunningham, Judy Matheson, Christopher Neame, Eric Chitty, Caryl Little, Jonathan Cecil, Kirsten Lindhom and Luan Peters.

Peter Cushing was to play the lead but left shortly before filming to look after his ailing wife and Bates was cast at short notice. Sangster also replaced Terence Fisher at short notice. Bernard Robinson died hours after he was hired as production designer and was replaced by Don Mingaye.

Though Mike Raven was a radio DJ, his voice as Count Karnstein was dubbed by Valentine Dyall.

Jytte Stensgaard was born in Denmark on 14 May 1946, moved to the UK to improve her English in 1963, and worked as an au pair, studied stenography and became a model. She went on to appear in a couple of British TV shows, and the 1972 film Burke & Hare, but then gave up acting and emigrated to the US in the mid-Seventies and took up a job selling air time for a Christian radio station in Oregon. She made her debut in the Italian movie The Girl with a Pistol (1968), played Robot No. 1 in Some Girls Do, Trolley Nurse in Carry On Again Doctor, Erika in Scream and Scream Again, Ullah in The Buttercup Chain and Eve in Doctor in Trouble.

The BBFC enforced a cut that replaced a topless shot of Amanda (Judy Matheson) with a party covered one during the bed scene where she is bitten by Mircalla. The 2002 Warner DVD is the edited print but the 2008 Optimum DVD is the uncut version.

It got an R rating in the US for violence, gore, adult content and nudity.

Sangster and Bates disowned the film, including the song ‘Strange Love’ with music by Harry Robertson and lyrics by producer Frank Godwin.

Before the Hammer Films’ three movies, Christopher Lee’s Crypt of the Vampire (1964) is the third adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s novel Carmilla, following Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr (1932) and Roger Vadim’s Blood and Roses (1960).

The cast are Yutte Stensgaard as Mircalla Herritzen/ Carmilla Karnstein, Ralph Bates as Giles Barton, Barbara Jefford as Countess Herritzen, Suzanna Leigh as Janet Playfair, Michael Johnson as Richard LeStrange, Helen Christie as Miss Simpson, Mike Raven as Count Karnstein, Harvey Hall as Inspector Heinrich, Michael Brennan as landlord, Pippa Steel as Susan Pelley, Judy Matheson as Amanda, David Healy as Raymond Pelley, Jonathan Cecil as Biggs, Erik Chitty as Professor Herz, Jack Melford as bishop, Christopher Neame as Hans, Kirsten Lindholm as peasant girl, Luan Peters as Trudi, Christopher Cunningham as coachman, Nick Brimble as first villager, and Sue Longhurst as schoolgirl.

Barbara Jefford (1930–2020).

RIP Barbara Jefford, who died on 12 September 2020, aged 90. Superb actress (Ulysses, The Ninth Gate, Philomena), married to John Turner.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,892

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