The fact that there is a costumed vampire at the party, leads to amusing tension and the viewer knows that the Count will be teaching these people a thing or two about real vampires as the movie continues. Amazon.com: The Count Yorga Collection (Count Yorga, Vampire, & The Return of Count Yorga) [2-Disc Limited Edition | Blu-ray] : Robert Quarry, Donna Anderson, Roger Perry, Yvonne Wilder, Bob Kelljan: Movies & TV Movies & TV Blu-ray Movies $4236 FREE Returns FREE delivery Thursday, March 30 Or fastest delivery Wednesday, March 29. The climax is also pretty memorable, and there are a few other scenes (like when the protagonists try to keep Yorga around for sunrise) that come across as pretty original. By the end of the 1960s the boom in Old World gothic horror had begun to wane in the face of present day terrors like the Vietnam war. Erica is a young and attractive woman in her age early 20's with shoulder length brunette hair, green eyes, and fair skin color. We first meet Count Yorga at a seance he holds for a group of friends, one of which has just lost her mother. This isnt the tragic, romantic vamp featured in so many gothic tales; Quarrys take on the Count displayed both a dry sense of humor, a proto-Studio 54 sleaziness, and a mouth full of fangs. Yorga awakens Donna telepathically and has her sabotage Michael's alarm clock before having her come to the mansion. Those who only see 'The Return' will wonder what all the fuss was about in regard to the original. Some good suspense, especially in the stranded van awaiting something to happen, but what? A coffin is loaded to a truck at the Port of Los Angeles. During the seance, Count Yorga builds a strong bond between Donna, the grieving daughter, and himself. Youll receive instant access to exclusive insider movie content, member only deals, first dibs at limited editions, and more. Just as he is about to kill Baldwin via choking, Cynthia's memories of the brides killing her family resurface, causing her to realize Yorga was responsible for their deaths. Bob Kelljan's "Count Yorga,Vampire" is an effective horror film which has plenty of suspense and atmosphere.Robert Quarry("Madhouse")is simply outstanding as a deadly vampire Count Yorga and there are some sexy vampiresses.The film may be a little too tame for some people's tastes,but there is enough thrills to satisfy horror fans.Highly recommended. Despite knowing how dangerous their chances are, they stock up on stakes and makeshift crosses before heading to Yorga's mansion as night falls. She strikes Yorga in the chest with Baldwin's battle-axe. Leave your expectations of lavish special effects, intricate plotting, and deep character development at the door. Count Yorga (Robert Quarry) is living in a small town outside of San Francisco, where he becomes involved with an Orphanage, primarily as a source of victims. From there, the audience moves along to a seance in a hip Los Angeles home. He has made very few genre films but he can also be seen in 'Strange Behavior' and Wes Craven's 'Shocker'. Indie sleeper thanks to Robert Quarry's absolutely commanding performance as the lead blood-sucker. Yet COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE has found itself a B-movie oddity, relegated to late, late showings on UHF stations throughout the 80s and 90s and all but forgotten if ever seen by a generation that reveled in the modern horror era of slashers and special makeup effects. Even Van Helsing had a hard time convincing his peers and the authorities of supernatural goings-on in the 1800s, and that became increasingly difficult in the 70s and 80s. Donna becomes hysterical during the proceedings and Yorga uses hypnosis to calm her. it started out life being one thing, and ended up as another. Like most of the films that I saw when I was younger I watched it on a small black and white T.V. Baldwin splits from the detectives to expand the room-by-room search, and upon opening one door discovers Jason's corpse, covered in bloody bite marks with an IV draining remaining blood from his neck into a glass-bottle on the floor beneath him. It later was released on DVD by MGM in 2005 as part of its Midnite Movies series. When Michael awakens, he finds Donna gone and that it is nearly evening when he calls to awaken Hayes. Macready, who produced and directed the film (and enlisted his more famous father to provide a ripe, flavorful voice-over), while nice enough looking, is almost laughably expressionless and wooden during most of his screen time. Hayes is forced to the floor and fed on by the vampire women. "[3] Variety called it "a solid follow-up" to the original and "a handsome-looking film which rings the bell on both the shocker and satirical level. Its easy to pick out where the money shots would have occurred, had. Quarry plays the Count with a charm that is both amiable and yet caustic. Paul decides to go to Yorga's house and disappears and Donna's mate Michael 'Mike' Thompson (Michael Macready), Jim and Donna decide to pay a visit to Count Yorga late night. Up until then all vampire films had been set in Europe in the 1800s or early 1900s. In contrast to her exuberant personality on the night before, Erica now seems despondent and listless. the only other name i recognize is the narrator, George Macready; he was the nightclub owner in the awesome film Gilda, from 1946. pretty good. I enjoyed 'Count Yorga, Vampire' a lot and highly recommend it to fans of 60s and 70s vampire movies. Arkoff retitled the film COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE, explaining that nobody would know how to pronounce Iorga and that horror fans would be turned off by the loves of, particularly with the absence of any sex sequences. this one is played quite seriously. For a low budget flick that's coming up on its 45th anniversary, 'Count Yorga, Vampire' looks practically flawless with this 1.85:1 1080p transfer. They plan to attack later that afternoon in the hopes of killing Yorga in the daytime. The first character to suggest that the Count may be a vampire is Dr. Jim Hayes (Roger Perry); when the good doctor (whos in bed with an attractive, but daft young lady) calls the police to tell them theyre most likely dealing with a vampire, hes laughed off the phone as the 47th nut talking about vampires. In the first film comedy gave way to terror; in this self-conscious sequel the two elements tend to cancel each other out. Really, the film is an update of the classic Dracula story, only with more of a seventies horror swing to it. After taking the Count home, Paul and Erica are waylayed, and next the day, a listless Erica is diagnosed by their doctor as having lost a lot of blood. Distributed by Scream Factory. More often than not, since NOSFERATU hit the silver screen, vampires in film were confined to the villages and castles of 18th century Europe. Robert Quarry makes your blood run cold as the modern day Count Dracula, and Roger Perry is driven and pretty funny as Dr. Hayes, the modern day Dr. Van Helsing. The result is a pretty silly show. | Transposing the vampire legend into modern-day Los Angeles was not without its hurdles for the writers. Ohhow could I forget to mention the count's brides; possibly the scariest-looking, fastest-moving bunch you've ever seen! and apparently eats the family cat, but that scene seems to have been removed from the version I saw on Comet channel. The films climax features our heroes storming Yorgas home at dusk, having overslept despite their plan to attack during daylight hours. His performance and demeanor as a Bulgarian Count in this film is truly outstanding. Quarry was never a fan of Vincent Prices over-egging the pudding (note: both men penned cookbooks) and opted to play Count Yorga straight albeit with a certain sarcastic wit. It's up to those that are left, including Michael (Michael Macready, who also produced the film), and doctor / blood specialist Jim Hayes (Roger Perry), to wage war with the fiend. And, even though he kind of looks like and acts like Count Dracula, he's not Dracula! When we think of great vampire portrayals, normally the names of Lugosi and Christopher Lee immediately pop into our heads. As such, The Return of Count Yorga is a film with a good beginning and ending - alas the bits in between are often a drag. While enlisted, he started a theatrical troupe and upon making his way into filmmaking, he took a contract with RKO and subsequently MGM. Furthermore, Yorga had insisted that her mother be buried rather than cremated per the deceased's wishes. Yeah, it sucks that you're dead, but still, what a way to go, right? Quarry would don the cape again one year later for the studios THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA, as well as the foil to Vincent Prices Dr. Anton Phibes in 1972s DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (its rumored that early in the production of the PHIBES sequel, Phibes was to take on Count Yorga himself). That made this film surprisingly effective. Originally released in 1970, the first of his movies, Count Yorga, Vampire was a quiet, laid back kind of movie that felt more in line with the Dracula stories that had come before, yet managed to find a firm fan-base, and almost became a huge franchise. The Count comes to California and starts up a harem of sexy vampires. Arrow Video has announced a limited edition Blu-Ray release for THE COUNT YORGA COLLECTION, available in the UK from 24th October 2022. Michael fends them off, chasing away the redhead while Erica pauses, giving Michael a chance to stake her, but despite seeing she is no longer the Erica he knows, he cannot bring himself to do so, and proceeds upstairs while she hisses at him. They are preparing the orphanage for a fundraising costume party. Quarry suggested that producer/actor Michael Macready and writer/director Bob Kelljan ditch the softcore element and make a more typical horror picture that could play to teenage audiences in suburban movie houses. A memorable sequence in which Erica (Judy Lang), having been bitten by the count, begins her transformation by devouring her pet cat was all but removed from the film, but is now available in all of its uncut gory glory. Several ingredients really help to lift this modern-day tale above the raft of similar competitors. He also intends to take a new wife, while feeding his bevy of female vampires. Stephen Farber's 1972 book, The Movie Rating Game, details the problems that the film's distributor American International Pictures had in securing a GP rating (formerly known as M, later renamed to PG) from the Motion Picture Association of America, which initially was divided as to whether to give the film an R or X rating. ; Gratuitous Rape: Does this to Donna in the first movie, much to Yorga's displeasure. The Return of Count Yorga ups the ante and sees the sardonic Count on the streets of San Francisco, his sights set on an . 1970 saw Christopher Lee return as Count Dracula in not one but two Hammer entries, Before becoming a genre icon Quarry would go on to appear in, Quarry would don the cape again one year later for the studios, Pianist Bill Marx was brought on to compose the films score, arguably one of the more traditional elements in this modern vampire tale with screeching strings and creepy organs to punctuate the supernatural happening. "[7] Kenneth Thompson of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that "the understated acting and the tightly controlled, increasingly staccato tempo make this the most distinctive essay in the macabre since Night of the Living Dead."[8]. He takes it to heart but is rejected as a deluded prankster following a recent rash of such calls. Oct 20, 2015. Time capsule material. Meanwhile, Hammer Productions, which all but cornered the vampire market throughout the 60s, found themselves playing catch-up. Tommy dismisses it, but vampire women rise from their graves. His "Count" positioning gives him that old world nobility aesthetic, complete with a cloaked outfit. One of the female character turned within the movie. However, she notices something wrong and pulls away. The concerned men drive to her home where they find the place in disarray, and a hysterical Erica eating her kitten. Count Yorga, Vampire was shot on location in Los Angeles, CA, where the story is set. It was one of the first movies I saw on videotape. Thomas is tricked into walking into the quicksand pit and promptly sinks to his death. | Try Count Yorga, sort of a Diet Dracula. Its gory, sexy modern sensibility would go on to inspire American International Pictures releases throughout the 70s, as well as 80s vampire classics and beyond. Count Yorga is one of those films that came from the 70's, in my opinion, a very sexy vampire film, sort of soft core in some ways. Reverend Thomas is sent to distract Yorga while Baldwin, Madden and O'Connor sneak in to search the manor, armed with sticks they can cross and hold up to ward off the vampires. AIP insisted that they needed an unrestricted GP rating for the film in order to get the film released into the largest possible number of theaters, most importantly drive-in theaters. Plot [ edit] A coffin is loaded to a truck at the Port of Los Angeles. Though Count Yorga is referred to as "the Deathmaster" in publicity for this film, a later film called The Deathmaster, also starring Robert Quarry as a vampire, has no relation to the Count Yorga series. While only a nut would compare this to the greatness of Dracula or NOSFERATU, it still is a decent example of the franchise. Murphy, who would grow into a prolific character actor, isn't bad either, but most of the rest of the cast is weak. He also has a certain moral flexibility. A tragic event leads persons from the orphanage to contact the local police, and together, they end up investigating Count Yorga. She is dressed in a . While Hayes distracts Yorga with enthusiastic questions about Yorga's occult experiments, Brudah rebuffs Michael's attempts to explore the mansion. The film contains some truly startling moments (such as the count's toothy grimace as seen through a van's window), restrained but effective use of gore, a deliciously downbeat ending, and even a nice little shocker as a final capper. They resign themselves to spending the night in their van. The Return of Count Yorga (1971) Rated PG 97 minutes Cast Roger Perry as Dr. David Baldwin Robert Quarry as Count Yorga Rudy DeLuca as Lt. Madden Mariette Hartley as Cynthia Nelson Tom Toner as Rev. Quarry was never a fan of Vincent Prices over-egging the pudding (note: both men penned cookbooks) and opted to play Count Yorga straight albeit with a certain sarcastic wit. It's a classic vampire feel with a typical plot and silly actors, but that is what makes a fun horror movie. 2016 Daily Grindhouse - All Rights Reserved | Design by, COUNT YORGA AT FIFTY: HOW A SKIN FLICK BECAME THE INFLUENTIAL VAMPIRE MOVIE OF THE 70s. Donna cannot recall seeing Yorga at her mother's funeral. Quarry watches as two of his undead brides ALMOST make out and Lang has a self-caressing sequence as she's falling under his spell. He is about to take her when he hears Baldwin scream his name, who seemingly has escaped the brides. Donna mentions in conversation with her friends that Yorga was her mother's boyfriend. Their angry boyfriends decide to team up together to try and put an end to the Count's midnight snacks. Marsha and Quarry had been lovers. They duck into a darkened hallway, but when Baldwin turns on the lights, he finds himself confronted by all the brides (including Ellen and Mitzi) with Yorga behind them who calls Cynthia over to his side. Lang is attractive and reasonably good (soap fans will be interested to know that her daughter Katherine Kelly Lang has played Brooke on "The Bold and the Beautiful" for many years!) User Ratings While mulling over his options, Hayes' girlfriend suggests involving the police, citing an eerily similar case of a baby being found in the woods, drained of its blood with bite wounds on the neck. Metacritic Reviews. "Film Reviews: The Return Of Count Yorga". In the midst of their escape, they encounter Brudda and managed to shoot him to death. In this alternate take on the Dracula story, the titular count (from Bulgaria) holds a seance to contact the mother of young Donna. The story starts properly once he has bitten one of the young women, who is later found with massive blood lossand feasting on the family cat Count Yorga, Vampire, I remember seeing this movie as a kid and it scared the heck out of me. In the dark, this is still a pretty intense film. Erica is a character in the movie, Count Yorga, Vampire. After Thomas learns of Jennifer's death, David is sure he is correct about the Count's true nature and manages to convince Reverend Thomas and investigating police detectives Lt. Madden and Sgt. The newer members have cleaner silker gowns which can be tied around the waist. Meanwhile, Yorga goes to claim Mitzi, killing her boyfriend near their boat house before feeding on her once more, draining her completely and adding her to his vampiric harem. Intricate plotting, and more our heads quarry 's absolutely commanding performance as the lead blood-sucker see! 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