Lust for a Vampire

Infobox Film
name = Lust for a Vampire


caption =
director = Jimmy Sangster
producer = Michael Style,
Harry Fine
writer = Tudor Gates
based on characters by Sheridan Le Fanu
starring = Ralph Bates,
Barbara Jefford,
Suzanna Leigh
music = Harry Robertson
cinematography = David Muir
editing = Spencer Reeve
distributor = American International Pictures (USA, theatrical),
MGM
released = 1971
runtime = 95 min / USA:91 min
country = flagicon|UKUK & flagicon|USAUSA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by = The Vampire Lovers
followed_by = Twins of Evil
imdb_id = 0067367

Lust For a Vampire (also known as "Love for a Vampire" or "To Love a Vampire") is a 1971 British Hammer Horror film directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Yutte Stensgaard, Michael Johnston and Barbara Jefford. It is the second film in the so-called Karnstein Trilogy loosely based on the J. Sheridan Le Fanu novella "Carmilla". It was preceded by "The Vampire Lovers" and followed by "Twins of Evil" (1972). The three films do not form a chronological development, but use the Karnstein family as the source of the vampiric threat. The three films were somewhat daring for the time in explicitly depicting lesbian themes.

Production of "Lust For a Vampire" began not long after the release of "The Vampire Lovers".

The film has a cult following although some Hammer Horror fans have accused it of being overly camp and silly. Its most noted scene shows Yutte Stensgaard chest drenched in blood and partially covered by blood-soaked rags.

Other notable actors in the film are Ralph Bates, Harvey Hall (who has a different role in each film of this series), David Healy and popular radio DJ Mike Raven.

Plot summary

In 1830, at a finishing school in Styria, Mircalla arrives as a new student. A visiting author, Richard Lestrange instantly falls in love with her. Mircalla is a vampire - Carmilla Karnstein - who has been resurrected by her vampiric family. As students in the school, inhabitants of the nearby village and those who suspect Mircalla is responsible, start to die suspicion turns toward the Karnsteins and their ominous castle.

Cast

* Yutte Stensgaard as Mircalla Herritzen/Carmilla Karnstein
* Michael Johnson as Richard Lestrange
* Ralph Bates as Giles Barton
* Barbara Jefford as Countess Herritzen
* Suzanna Leigh as Janet Playfair
* Helen Christie as Miss Simpson
* Pippa Steel as Susan Pelley
* David Healy as Raymond Pelley
* Harvey Hall as Inspector Heinrich
* Mike Raven as Count Karnstein
* Michael Brennan as Landlord
* Jack Melford as Bishop
* Christopher Cunningham as Coachman
* Judy Matheson as Amanda
* Christopher Neame as Hans
* Sue Longhurst as Schoolgirl

Production

Jimmy Sangster replaced Terence Fisher a director at very short notice. Partially due to censorship restraints from the BBFC (Hearn and Barnes 1998), this film and its sequel had increasingly less overt lesbian elements in the story. Carmilla, for example, in this film falls in love with a man. Ingrid Pitt was offered the lead but turned it down. Peter Cushing was supposed to have appeared in the film but bowed out to care for his sick wife. Ralph Bates, who described "Lust for a Vampire" as 'one of the worst films ever made' (Maxford 1996: 110), had earlier appeared in "Taste the Blood of Dracula" with Madeleine Smith, who starred in the previous "Karnstein" film, "The Vampire Lovers".

References

*Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes (1998) "The Hammer Story".
*Howard Maxford (1996) "Hammer, House of Horror". Batsford: London

External links

*
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/559185/index.html Online review of DVD]
* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/trailer.html?v_id=30495 NY Times trailer]
* [http://www.moviemarket.co.uk/Lust_for_a_Vampire_T102221_1/ Promotional Photographs]
* [http://www.carfax-abbey.com/TitleSearchResults.cfm?TitleVar=105 Review with gallery of photos]