You Say Iorga, I Say Yorga

 

 (the moviedb.org)

THE LOVES OF COUNT IORGA, VAMPIRE-aka COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE-1970-At a botched seance trying to help a woman named Donna (Donna Anders), the medium Count Yorga (Robet Quarry) is later revealed to be a vampire. He puts the bite on a woman named Erica (Judy Lang). Her boyfriend Paul (Michael Murphy) suspects the count. A doctor named Jim Hayes (Roger Perry) examines Erica and finds her anemic with two puncture wounds on her neck. Later Paul and his friend Mike (producer Michael McCready) find Erica eating a rat (?). With his odd servant Brutah (Edward Walsh), Yorga plans to make Erica his eternal bride. After Paul is captured, Donna, Paul and Hayes go to the count with the plan of keeping him up until sunrise! That doesn't work. Yorga captures Donna and Hayes confronts Yorga. The doctor becomes a victim of the Count's vampire brides (including Marsha Jordan), leaving Mike to destroy the count. He succeeds but….

Vampire narration by George McCready (Michael's father). I never really cared for this movie. It's drawn out but effective at times. Supposedly planned as a soft-core porn film, it was later changed to straight horror but still maintains a kind of cheap porno atmosphere. Could have been better but considering the time….

Former actor Bob Kelljan made SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM in 1973 but worked mainly in TV.

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Bava

 

 (the moviedb.org)

BLACK SABBATH-1963-Three tales of terror are hosted by Boris Karloff in this Italian American co-production presented by AIP. 

The Drop of Water-A woman (Jacqueline Pierreux) is terrorized in her apartment after stealing a ring off a dead woman. Dripping water, weird lights and the dead woman seemingly back for revenge all help in the thief's demise. Credited as based on a story by Anton Chekov but he never wrote such a story.

The Telephone-A woman named Rosie (Michele Mercier) receives threatening phone calls from a man she thought was dead. Credited as a story by Tolstoy but not Leo, the author of “War and Peace” but a minor author Aleksei.

The Wurdaluk-A man (Mark Damon) stays with a family and awaits the return of their grandfather (Boris Karloff) who may now be a vampire. Based on a story by Guy de Maupassant. Usually said to be the only time King Karloff played a vampire.

Mario Bava directed this using lots of style and clever camera work. The original Italian version has a different story order, different music and alternate narration by Karloff. Plus an unusual ending for the vampire story. Bava made THE WHIP AND THE BODY the same year.

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Silent Talkie

 

 (tcm.com)

THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND-1929-Count Dakkar (Lionel Barrymore) is a brilliant scientist who along with his daughter Sonia (Jacqueline Gadsden) and her fiancé Roget (Lloyd Hughes) invents fantastic submarines to go look for a civ-ilization deep in the sea. But he's betrayed by his friend Baron Falon (Montagu Love) who wants to be dictator of nearby Hetvania. 

This silent film has several scenes with characters speaking and their voyage to a strange undersea kingdom populated by fish men is quite eerie as is a giant octopus attack. Some prints featured tinted color scenes. The SFX are great for the time but some of the scenes with dialogue drag a little. Most likely only used simply because the advent of sound interrupted the production. Snitz Edwards and Gibson Gowland also appear. 

It's loosely based on the 1874 Jules Verne novel of the same name which was a sequel to "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". A more faithful remake was made in 1961. 

This is only one of three movies directed by Lucien Hubbard who went on to become a producer and writer. A few added scenes were directed by Maurice Tourneur and Benjamin Christensen.

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Von Stroheim

 

 (imdb)

THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI-1935-Teutonic, grouchy, self-assured Dr. Crespi (Erich Von Stroheim; 2 years before GRAND ILLUSION) agrees to operate on his former lover's husband Stephen Ross (John Bohn), a highly decorated doctor who used to be Crespi's assistant. The operation is a success but Ross dies anyway. Or does he? It seems Crespi is a mad scientist who injected Ross with a drug that makes him appear dead when in fact he can see and hear everything. Crespi wants him buried alive and even gloats about it to Ross' prone body. Ross is buried but is inadvertently saved when Dr. Thomas (Dwight Frye; in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN the same year) exhumes the body believing Crespi poisoned Ross. Hungarian born John H. Auer directed this creaky melodramatic sort of horror tale with the credit “suggested” by Edgar Allan Poe's “The Premature Burial”.

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3 By Curtis

 

 (imdb)

TRILOGY OF TERROR-1975-Very good TV horror anthology directed by Dan Curtis. In the first story “Julie” (written by William F. Nolan & Richard Matheson), Chad (Robert Burton), a college jerk becomes obsessed with nerdy teacher Julie (Karen Black). He drugs her, takes her to a hotel, takes pictures of her and rapes her. Then he blackmails her and he and his friends use her (not shown, only implied). But in the twist ending he finds out she's not what he thinks she is....

In the second “Millicent & Therese” (written by Nolan), Millicent (Black) complains about her sister Therese (also Black), being evil, practicing witchcraft and seducing men. She warns Therese's boyfriend (John Karlen) about her but he ignores it. Then Therese tries to seduce their doctor (George Gaynes). Millicent decides to do away with her sister using her own witchcraft. This story is ok but the ending is fairly guessable.

In the third and most famous episode “Amelia” (written by Matheson), Amelia, a woman with mother problems buys a weird Zuni fetish doll for her anthropologist boyfriend. After a fight with her mother, she breaks her date and is then terrorized by the evil looking doll that has big teeth and makes strange noises. 

Once again director Curtis shows that just because it's made for TV, horror stories can still be good.

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Better To Be a Cockroach..

 

 (imdb)

METAMORPHOSIS-2007-In Budapest, the daughter of Elizabeth Bathory (Irena Hoffman) comes back to life as a vampire. She hooks up with an American (Corey Sevier) doing a book about her and his two friends. She likes him because he has sympathy for her and she beats up a local mugger. Later, after they crash their car, they meet Igor (Zolee Ganxsta) and Sabine (Florentine Lahme), two local tourists. They hook up with a priest and nun and are chased by wolves. And then Christopher Lambert shows up to chew the scenery. Pretty tough going. Director Jeno Hodi also made AMERICAN KICKBOXER 2 (1993).

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Who Remembers Count Dante?

Martial Arts Ads from Comic Books in the late '60's-early '70's