Malenka

"Fangs of the Living Dead" or "Malenka" (depending on which version) is a decent film of the genre. Some of the cast actually starred in "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror": Julian Ugarte, Rosanna Yanni and Carlos Casaravilla. Anita Ekberg is passable as Silvia Morel, a model who inherits a castle. Come to find out, her uncle is a vampire and he has plans for Silvia to join him. The question I have about the ending is what happens to the two vampire chicks at the end? This may be an edited version that leaves out the answer. The acting is decent but the dubbing isn't very good. The sets and backdrops are almost the equal of Hammer studios. Rosanna Yanni and Diana Lorys are very beautiful. The character of Pietro's friend provides comic relief-he really stands out in this film. This is worth viewing at least once.

The Spanish vampire 'classic' Malenka plays like a Mel Brooks parody of a Gothic horror movie, only much funnier. It stars the inimitable Anita Ekberg in two roles. As Italian supermodel Sylvia Morel, who (out of the blue) inherits a creepy old castle in Transylvania. As her villainous ancestress Malenka, a witch whose experiments in black magic cast a sinister shadow over the living and the undead. It seems that Malenka, in her depravity, turned most of her family into vampires. They now long for nothing more than La Ekberg to share their evil fate.

Families, eh? Without the hilarity of Ekberg's performance, Malenka would be a paltry thing indeed. The lovely Anita does not act as mere mortals do. She purrs, she pouts, she preens, she struts, she flounces. She gnaws away at her risible dialogue as though every line had been honed in her honour by Tennesee Williams or Edward Albee, at the very least. Her wardrobe is atrocious as only a 60s Bad Euro Movie wardrobe could ever be. Faced with a display of camp diva-dom this extreme, female impersonators can only hang up their wigs and admit defeat!

Not content with one Superlatively Awful Performance, Malenka also throws in Julian Ugarte as poor Sylvia's wicked uncle. Aided by two leggy vampire lovelies, he attacks his role with sneering, lip-curling sadism that would make Basil Rathbone blush for shame! This is all to the good, as Malenka grows insufferably dull whenever Ekberg or the baddies are off-screen. Director Armando de Ossorio may in fact have some flair for wide-screen composition, but my Dutch video copy is so horribly panned-and-scanned it's hard to tell.

Such minor quibbling aside, Malenka survives as an object lesson in Why We Love Bad Movies. Teamed with Ekberg's 1978 horror opus Killer Nun, it could be the comedy double bill of all time.

A beautiful model in Rome named "Sylvia Morel" (Anita Ekberg) inherits a castle and sets out to take legal possession of it. When she gets there she meets her uncle, "Count Walbrooke" (Julian Ugarte) who traps her inside and tells her bizarre stories about her family in preparation for a diabolical initiation. At any rate, rather than disclosing what happens next, I will just say that there are some odd twists at the end which might leave you wondering. The acting isn't great by any means and the special effects were pretty bad as well. But this film does offer some attractive women, most notably two barmaids named "Bertha Zemis" (Diana Lorys) and "Freya Zemis" (Rosanna Yanni) along with the aforementioned Anita Ekberg. But other than that there really isn't anything that special or unique about it. That said, I would recommend this movie strictly for die-hard vampire fans only. Slightly below average.

FANGS OF THE LIVING DEAD (1969) * Anita Ekberg, Julián Ugarte, Gianni Medici, Diana Lorys. In this 1969 film by Amando de Ossorio (Tombs of the Blind Dead) Ekberg plays an Italian fashion model who inherits a creepy Spanish castle, only to learn that her ancestors were vampires. The sets and costumes are beautiful, but can't compensate for the stiff performances, poor dubbing and slow pacing. Avoid the Retromedia DVD version. Even though it purports to be the 88-minute "Americanized" version of the film, it's only 74 minutes and appears to be an edited-for-television version.

seen this one.. crazy little 60's flick. If you are a bad movie lover then you will love this one. Get a group of friends and trash on this one!

In commenting on the above comment from acidxian, I have this on dvd and it does have the ending with the vampire chasing the inn keeper lady, not sylvia. and the burning of the uncle is absolutely hilarious.. his head looks like a roasting marshmallow haha!