Ganja & Hess

GANJA AND HESS-1973-Over the years I've heard a lot about this low budget independent African-American vampire movie known for years as the only other starring role for Duane Jones, the doomed hero of Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It's a very odd, untypical horror film displaying actor/writer/director Bill Gunn's personal (and un-commercial) vision. 


It's not without it's faults(mostly due to budget constraints)but the fact that it was made at a time when so called "blaxploitation" films were big in theaters it's quite an exception!


Jones plays Hess, an affluent anthropologist who has an addiction to blood (he's also immortal). After his suicidal assistant (director Gunn) kills himself, Hess drinks his blood and puts his body in a basement freezer. He causes a distraction at a doctor's office and steals vials of blood and syringes then visits his young son at a boarding school. Soon after he meets Ganja (Marlene Clarke), the assistant's wife (she's looking for her husband). She comes to stay with Hess for a while and winds up falling for him. She discovers the frozen body in the basement but marries Hess anyway and he makes her like him. Although Hess is a blood drinking killer he fears God and quotes the Bible many times. At first Ganja seems to hate her new existence but that changes in the finale. 


I've read that the producers planned on making a typical black cast vampire tale (perhaps along the lines of BLACULA?)but director Gunn gave them something they weren't expecting! 


According to some sources GANJA AND HESS was recalled by the producers (despite winning a critic's prize at Cannes) and heavily edited from it's original 110 minutes to 78 and re-titled BLOOD COUPLE while the unedited version was held by The Museum of Modern Art for years. 


I'm sure it influenced Romero's MARTIN, another un-Hollywood vampire film. 


All in all if you are expecting a vampire film in say the Count Yorga vein you will be highly disappointed. 


Bill Gunn had directed Marlene Clarke in the earlier and never released STOP. He died in 1989 at age 51. Clark had been in movies like NIGHT OF THE COBRA WOMAN, PUTNEY SWOPE and BEWARE!THE BLOB and later played Lamont's fiance on TV's Sanford & Son. 


After G & H Duane Jones taught acting at a college on Long Island and only took sporadic small roles in movies in the '80's. He died of heart disease in 1988 at the age of 52.