Conde Yorga, Vampiro

When we think of great vampire portrayals, normally the names of Lugosi and Christopher Lee immediately pop into our heads. Robert Quarry, however, is as convincing a vampire as both of those great actors. His performance and demeanor as a Bulgarian Count in this film is truly outstanding. He lives in a large house somewhere in California and terrorizes young women and their boyfriends. What makes this picture a better than average vampire film is that it has a very tense and atmospheric plot structure. We basically know what fate will befall our innocent(just) protagonists, but we become riveted to their actions and those of the Count. Quarry plays the Count with a charm that is both amiable and yet caustic. He makes one of the wittiest vampires in film. The rest of the cast is adequate, and I think Roger Perry does a wonderful job as a blood specialist who goads Count Yorga one evening into talking about the supernatural. A must see for the classic horror fan.

In this alternate take on the Dracula story, the titular count (from Bulgaria) holds a seance to contact the mother of young Donna. Donna's mom died of some kind of anemia, which of course fits in with the movie's theme. The seance doesn't go as planned, but Yorga is able to implant some post-hypnotic control on poor Donna, and soon enough bodies are piling up as Donna and her friends try to figure out what's what. There's even a henchman who's (apparently) a werewolf! But aside from the present-day (well, 1970) atmosphere and setting, this is a movie useful only as a cult hit. Tired of the same old vampires? Try Count Yorga, sort of a Diet Dracula. As with many genre pics of the period, the acting and direction are pretty nondescript, and the whole thing looks like it was filmed through a screen door.

Some friends gather at the mansion of Robert Quarry (Count Yorga) so that they can hold a séance and Donna Anders (Donna) can contact her recently deceased mother Marsha Jordan. Marsha and Quarry had been lovers. What follows is a vampire film with the women predictably the victims/aggressors and the men predictably running around trying to solve things. In the meantime, Quarry is the bad guy with a clichéd side-kick who resembles a monster and has super strength. Good versus evil – can you guess which side wins…..?

The film is OK but I find films in this genre quite limited in emotional connection for me. There are a couple of rare exceptions but on the whole, you know what you're going to get. The film does have one memorably scary part that is well done - check out the stuck-in-the-van sequence. We know what is coming, but it's still scary and gets you. This happens on another occasion as well as at the end. This predictability, unfortunately, lets the film down - as well as the comically bad narration, especially at the end. Aside from that, the film is a little dull and just plods along. The bloody images start to appear at the end of the film and there is a pretty grotesque moment with a kitten. Personally, I don't approve of gratuitous gore so these things lose points for me. I want to like these vampire films but they are ultimately boring and predictable. This one scores on the OK-ometer.

The early 70s were a great period for vampire movies. In England Hammer released some classics like 'The Vampire Lovers' and 'Vampire Circus', while Europe gave us some gems by Rollin, Franco and Larraz. America was not to be left out, and Bob Kelljan's 'Count Yorga, Vampire' is a great little movie that is often unfairly overlooked. Kelljan had acted in a couple of Richard Rush movies in the 60s including 'Psych-Out', before making a few exploitation movies of his own in the early- to mid-70s. For the rest of the decade he mainly concentrated on TV before sadly having his career cut short by cancer. As well as two Count Yorga movies he also directed 'Scream Blacula Scream' and the notorious 'Rape Squad'. 'Count Yorga, Vampire' is interesting because it is set in contemporary America, quite a rarity at the time. Robert Quarry ('Dr Phibes Rises Again') is excellent as Yorga. He's very charismatic and cool and I think this character deserved more than only two movies. The rest of the cast are pretty much unknown to me apart from Michael Murphy, an Altman semi-regular who also later appeared in 'Manhattan' and 'Magnolia'. He has made very few genre films but he can also be seen in 'Strange Behavior' and Wes Craven's 'Shocker'. I enjoyed 'Count Yorga, Vampire' a lot and highly recommend it to fans of 60s and 70s vampire movies.

I was a bit surprised by this rather low budget 1970s incarnation of vampire films. That's because around this same time period, vampire films were getting a bit stale and silly--with too many Hammer Dracula films (the franchise was getting weaker due to so many sequels) as well as dumb films like OLD Dracula and the Blacula films (which weren't terrible, but they sure were silly). However, despite my fear that this would be another stale film, this one turned out to be better than average and well worth a look. While only a nut would compare this to the greatness of Dracula or NOSFERATU, it still is a decent example of the franchise.

Before talking about the plot, there was something odd I noticed and that was how sexy the film was and it looked, at times, like it was a soft-core porno movie. However, again and again when it looked like it was going that direction, the movie abruptly changed direction--sometimes as if scenes were edited out to make this a film for general viewing. I checked IMDb for this and was not at all surprised to find that this was indeed the case. For example, a lesbian sex scene seemed about to occur--then the scene just ended. In another case, a woman was wearing a very revealing nightgown and began a very torrid scene with Iorga (there were two spellings in the film) and this just ended as well. There was also a very gratuitous scene involving a couple making love in a van for absolutely no reason--but again, with creative editing you really didn't see anything! As a result, the film is still quite sexy--but also one you could probably still let your teens watch.

Iorga/Yorga lives in the Los Angeles area in a house that looks more like a castle than a house. Even in crazy L.A., this house was definitely out of place! The film begins with his having a séance with three couples and it's soon apparent that the Count has magical hypnotic powers. Soon, it also becomes rather obvious that the Count is a heterosexual vampire--with strong desires for the three women but only a desire to kill off the men.

Many elements are taken from Dracula--even including a Dr. Helsing-like character. Despite the familiarity, the decent acting and nice update of the old tale make this worth a look. Plus the performance by the guy playing the Count was pretty cool.