Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)

When it comes to monster movies, I would have to say that vampire movies rise to the top of interest for me. I can remember as a child watching Dark Shadows on daytime television, waiting to see what Barnabas Collins was going to do next. As time passed, I managed to catch most of the classic films, and I would have to say I was probably disappointed about half the time. Each decade seemed to bring its style to the vampire movie and with each change came things which added interesting interpretations to the vampire myth or were just plain schlocky. One film that left a lasting impression on me was a little something called “Count Yorga, Vampire”. It was probably around 1973 or 1974 when I first saw this film, which means I was probably either a 3rd or 4th grader. It was one of those Friday late night CBS movies. I watched with my face close to my pillow and by the time it was over, man was I freaked! Though certainly not a work of art, Count Yorga, Vampire is worth its time in pop-culture, fanboy, horror film gold. If they gave awards for “It’s-Bad-But-Good-At-The-Same-Time” awards, this film would have been nominated and probably won the category. I am going to take some time here to talk about the film and why I did and still like it.

History

American International Pictures was famous for grade B through Z films from the mid-1950’s to the mid-1970’s. Founded by James Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff, these were the folks who brought you such memorable classics as “Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow”, “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”, “Foxy Brown”, and all of those Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon beach movies. Their market was pretty obvious: teens and young 20-somethings who were out on dates, making out in cars at drive-in’s and grindhouse theaters. The kids would need an excuse to get away from the older generation, so why not give them something to watch in between tongue-battles? To be fair, AIP would occasionally come up with something fairly decent, such as “The Raven” with Boris Karloff and Vincent Price, or “The Abominable Dr. Phibes”. One of their other efforts was a vampire movie made in 1970, originally based on Count Dracula, set in modern Los Angeles.

The thought of moving the infamous Count Dracula to a modern setting was not new. The plot idea had been used in a 1958 movie called “The Return of Dracula”. But by 1970, British blood-and-boobs movie studio Hammer Films had been churning out films based on Bram Stoker’s vampire villain since the late 1950’s, all set in 19th century Europe, most starring Christopher Lee. What AIP wanted was a Hammer-style film (vampires, blood, boobs) but with a cheaper price tag. The concept writer-director Bob Kelljan and producer Michael MacCready came up with was a retelling of Stoker’s Dracula novel, set in modern day Los Angeles, but with more sex and blood to bring it up (or down?) to the standards of a typical American International film. The first hurdle was getting the name Count Dracula. Either Hammer had exclusive rights at the time or AIP could not or did not want to pay the price to obtain that classic name. Hence, the first change was the vampire’s name. Now, he would be known as Count Iorga. That’s right, Iorga, pronounced YOR-guh. And the title? “The Many Loves of Count Iorga”. Yes, as originally conceived, the film was going to be a soft-core porn flick. That would soon change, too.

Enter actor Robert Quarry. Tall, handsome, charismatic, Quarry’s classical style and approach to the role of the aristocratic vampire would be a major step forward. However, one of Quarry’s stipulations to taking the role of Count Iorga was the film needed to be changed from a skin-flick with horror elements to a straight vampire movie. Apparently this was okay with Kelljan and MacCready, and so rewrites to the story were made to ratchet down the sex and up the scare- factor. Elements of the film’s former emphasis can still be easily noticed from scenes that remain in the movie, such as the count watching two of his vampire concubines embrace each other and the effect Iorga/Yorga has on at least one of his victims.

One final change to the film was the name. Samuel Arkoff was not happy with the spelling of Count Iorga’s name, and so the final title became “Count Yorga, Vampire”.

Summary
The story basically follows Bram Stoker’s Dracula from the point at which Dracula arrives in London. In Count Yorga, the vampire has come to early 1970’s Los Angeles, passing as a psychic medium and conducting séances. The daughter of a woman who ‘dated’ the count is trying to communicate with her. The modern versions of Mina and Jonathan Harker, Arthur Holmwood, Quincy Morris, and Lucy Westerna are all there. The count gives the daughter, Donna (Donna Anders), a couple of post-hypnotic suggestions and allows a couple at the senance, Paul (Michael Murphy) and Erica (Judith Lang), to drive him back to his house after the ritual. Once there, we see the count’s manservant, Brudah (Ed Walsh), a typical ugly brute who should have given anyone the first idea that something wasn’t right about Yorga.

The story continues with Yorga physically attacking Paul and biting Erica after the couple had sex in their VW van. Erica (the Lucy character) and Paul don’t remember any details of the assault. Erica begins to exhibit signs of anemia. Enter the movie’s Van Helsing: a hematologist, Dr. Hayes, played by Roger Perry. Noting the bites on her neck and her behavior, he begins to suspect a vampire. One memorable seen is her having nearly devoured the pet cat for want of blood. Erica ultimately becomes one of Yorga’s vampire brides along with Donna’s mother.

The vampire hunters end up convincing themselves that at least Yorga is the instigator of the strange things going on and may very well be a vampire. Paul ends up running off to Yorga’s mansion after Erica goes missing, but is killed by Yorga. Donna (the Mina Harker character) soon begins responding to Yorga’s hypnotic suggestions and finds her way to his mansion.

In another scene that owes a nod to Bram Stoker’s novel, Hayes is trying to decide if he should call the police and if anyone would believe him. His girlfriend replies that she would believe him because she recently saw a news story about a baby who had been abducted and drained of blood, as Lucy Westerna does in Dracula.

Two visits to the Count’s mansion give the audience some very good dialogue between Yorga and Dr. Hayes. The two play a conversational cat-and-mouse as they discuss topics that end up centering on vampires. In their final meeting, Hayes appears noticeably uneasy while Yorga is quite calm and reposed. Each one knows what is really going on and an uneasy feeling becomes the elephant in the room for them and the audience. Yorga asks for Hayes’ makeshift wooden stake, which the doctor reluctantly hands over. After some talk whereby Yorga proclaims the vampire as being superior to humans, he hands the stake back and says they should end the charade. “Would you now like to see that which you hoped you would not?” he asks.

Hayes is introduced to the vampire women and becomes their next meal. Michael, Donna’s fiancé, finds Hayes after he has been killed by the vampire brides and then finds Donna, her mother, and Yorga. He manages to kill Donna’s mother rather quickly thanks to Yorga shoving her in front of him. Yorga and Michael then battle it out but the Count goes down with stake through the heart.

The final scene is one of Michael and Donna fending off the remaining vampire women in Count Yorga’s mansion. Donna lets go of his hand. As Michael turns around to her, the camera becomes his eyes and we see Donna has become a vampire who now lunges at him.

Comments
It would not take much of a film critic to make some negative comments about this film beginning with the opening scene at the harbor in Los Angeles and the irritating narration. With a title like "Count Yorga, Vampire", you pretty much know what you're going to get when you decide to watch. But since I am a glass-half-full kind of guy, I would like to make some positive comments about this movie.

The first has to be Robert Quarry. His choice to make the movie a straight-ahead horror film appears to have been a good one and really showcases his talent as a stage actor. His presence on film is large and he clearly dominates every scene he is in, but often in an understated way. His Count Yorga is not a sympathetic character as many movie vampires have become over the years. Quarry’s scenes at the séance and with Dr. Hayes are good examples of the potential for over-acting but carried through with proper restraint. It is a shame he never got to actually play Count Dracula (at least to my knowledge he never did) as I am sure he would have made it a memorable performance either on stage or film.

The second good thing about Count Yorga is the borrowing from Bram Stoker just enough to create a good story but with added, modern touches and some twists. As I’ve already mentioned, the scene with Erica and her cat is almost legendary and was even removed from some prints after the initial release of the film. Also, the straight-ahead serious horror film mood is certainly more pleasing than a campy, tongue-in-cheek theme or the soft-core porn version they were originally planning on shooting (although vague elements of that script remain in the film).

The additional cast members are, for the most part, also good and the parts are as well played as could be expected. Roger Perry does a particularly good job as Hayes. The only disappointing character in the cast is Brudah.

To wrap this up, I’ll just say that as a 9-year-old kid, by the time I got to that last scene with Donna lunging at the camera with open mouth and fangs, I must have shot so high that I nearly hit the ceiling. I don’t know how I ever got to sleep that night (or if I even did). Not as surprising or scary by today’s standards, nevertheless Count Yorga, Vampire is definitely worth checking out if you like vampire movies or if you just have a taste for low-budget drive-in horror movies. It and the sequel, “The Return of Count Yorga”, are both available on DVD from MGM.

After Count Yorga
Quarry would go on to make other pictures for AIP, including the sequel to this film, “Dr. Phibes Rises Again”, and “Madhouse”. He was being groomed to be added to AIP’s group of stars, and possibly replace Vincent Price, before the studio was absorbed into Filmways, Inc. One of these films “Deathmaster” is considered by some to be an inferential sequel to the Count Yorga films since Quarry plays a vampire in it, although his name is changed to Khorda. The director Bob Kelljan would go on to make such other memorable classics as “Scream, Blacula, Scream”.


Summaries and other Reviews

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/05/07/count-yorga-vampire/

http://www.1000misspenthours.com/reviews/reviewsa-d/countyorgavampire.htm

http://www.dvddrive-in.com/reviews/a-d/countyorgareturn7071.htm

http://www.dvdjournal.com/quickreviews/c/countyorgavampire.q.shtml

http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/cult_movies/count_yorga.htm

http://monsterhunter.coldfusionvideo.com/CountYorga.html

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A02E5DB1538EF34BC4A52DFB767838B669EDE


Video

http://www.fancast.com/movies/Count-Yorga%2C-Vampire/69821/827090861/Count-Yorga%2C-Vampire/videos;jsessionid=FC552125B74F5DA0F92B24D5E06EB8E3?autoPlay=true