List Price: $14.95 Our Price: $13.46YOU SAVE $1.49!
Buy it
DVD Countess Dracula / The Vampire Lovers
Polish-born actress Ingrid Pitt's erotically supercharged presence is the highlight of this double bill of vampire chills from Hammer Films. In Countess Dracula, Pitt stars as an aging noblewoman (inspired by the real-life Erzebeth Bathory) who discovers the secret to eternal youth in the veins of young virgins, while in The Vampire Lovers (based on J. Sheridan LeFanu's "Carmilla"), Pitt's sensuous bloodsucker seduces Hammer starlets Madeleine Smith and Kate O'Mara and incurs the vengeful wrath of Peter Cushing. Countess is the more sober of the two films, with Jeremy Paul's script and Peter Sadsy's direction playing out more like an Old Dark House mystery than Hammer horror, while Lovers' aims for comic-book thrills with plenty of nudity and violence (much of which was trimmed from the American version, but reinstated here); in both cases, Pitt's sexy/scary performances make this DVD a memorably viewing experience for vintage and new-school horror fans alike. --Paul Gaita
Review(s): DVD Countess Dracula / The Vampire Lovers
dive into a double-feature bloodbath with Ingrid Pitt!
Ingrid Pitt stars in two blood-soaked vampire tales from Hammer in this well-produced double feature DVD.
COUNTESS DRACULA recounts the reportedly-factual life of Elisabeth Bathory, who stumbles across a way to keep herself looking youthful by bathing in the blood of virgins. She organises her daughter Ilona (Lesley-Anne Down) to be abducted and essentially replaces her in order to romance a young soldier. Ingrid Pitt offers a fantastic performance as the old woman suddenly given a new lease on life, and looks amazing in an array of ornate gowns (though her speaking voice was actually dubbed here). Probably one of the most spectacular-looking Hammer films of the period, it was shot on the abandoned ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS sets. Lesley-Anne Down, long one of my favourite actresses ever since her days on UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS, is strangely subdued and colourless in her acting here. Perhaps Miss Pitt had a way of unknowingly upstaging her female co-stars, because Down makes little of an impression. The transfer is quite good (though it lacks 16:9 enhancement). Commentary is provided by Pitt, director Peter Sasdy and writer Jeremy Paul.
THE VAMPIRE LOVERS ushered in a new era for Hammer films and gave rise to a plethora of similarly-themed horror movies. Based on Sheridan le Fanu's erotic "Carmilla" stories, Ingrid Pitt plays Carmilla, a lovely and bloodthirsty vampire who roams the countryside seducing farm maidens and innocent virgins. This film co-stars many of the noteworthy British B-movie beauties of the period: amomg them Kate O'Mara, Pippa Steel, Madeline Smith. Peter Cushing co-stars as Carmilla's powerful adversary General Spielsdorf. The DVD transfer looks gorgeous in a sharp 16:9 anamorphic print. Once again Pitt participates in a commentary track with director Roy Ward Baker and screenwriter Tudor Yates.
On the whole fans will love this DVD of double Ingrid Pitt goodness. Though the lack of 16:9 enhancement on COUNTESS DRACULA is a bit curious. A Granada-produced DVD available in Regions 2 and 4 contains a fantastic anamorphic print, so you may wish to seek out that disc in addition to this DVD.
Even The Dead Can Love!
Countess Dracula features Ingrid Pitt as a fictionalized version of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who slaughtered hundreds of women to bathe in their blood. Here the body count is not that high, but the bloodbaths actually work: the aged countess becomes young again, and romances a young soldier while pretending to be her own daughter. Unfortunately, old age keeps pouncing back on her without notice. The Vampire Lovers (which also stars Peter Cushing) is based on J. Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla, one of the classics of 19th-Century vampire fiction. Here Pitt is Carmilla, a young woman taken into a household after she has apparently suffered a serious accident. Once ensconced in everyone's affections, she most notably vampirises the daughter of the house. Far from being Christopher Lee's ravening Dracula, however, Pitt's Carmilla is a rather tragic figure, genuinely in love with her victim. Both movies are prime gothic horror, still holding up well today. Countess Dracula has the structure of a fairy tale, while The Vampire Lovers is actually quite faithful to its source material.
Wonderful commentaries are on off here. Countess Dracula has a talk by Ingrid Pitt, director Peter Sasdy and screenwriter Jeremy Paul. The Vampire Lovers has Pitt, director Roy Ward Baker and screenwriter Tudor Gates to talk about it. Both are excellent round tables -- the comments are thoughtful and really open up the world of Hammer studios. They aren't very scene-specific, but that's often because of extremely interesting digressions. Theatrical trailers are also provided on both sides of the disc, and The Vampire Lovers also features a phot montage with a scored reading by Pitt of passages from Carmilla. The menus are basic.
Two great movies, each with a sharp commentary, and at a bargain price. Life is good.
Countess Dracula / The Vampire Lovers
If you are buying it for The Vampire Lovers, then avoid it like the plague. It is "not" true wide screen.They just put black over the top and bottom of the screen. You will miss many "nice" shots. The 2 seconds of Ingrid Pitt getting out of the tub and 2 severed heads do not make up for everything else you miss. Countess Dracula however has the proper ratio. mes.
Related DVD's Countess Dracula / The Vampire Lovers
"Naked girls and lots of blood, that's what Vampyres is about," says Joseph Larraz in the notes to the film. He rewrites the vampire myth to make his bloodsucking lovelies the restless ghosts of lesbian lovers murdered while making love in their shadowy castle. Reappearing nightly in the twilight forest, they lure men to their castle for blood feasts until the brunette vampire, Fran (Marianne Morris), falls for her latest victim (Murray Brown) and decides to keep him alive, a sex slave she slowly drains dry. "You're playing a dangerous game," warns blonde Miriam (Anulka), perhaps just a tad jealous. As the local cops watch a veritable wrecking yard of car crashes fill up the sleepy back roads (all with naked dead men behind the wheels), you have to wonder if anyone finds this a bit... More Info about this DVD Director(s): José Ramón Larraz DVD Release Date: Released the 27 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.95 Your Price: $17.96YOU SAVE $1.99!
Buy it
What's that me hounds of classic Hammer horror films? You say you want more of the titillating, fantabuloso, bloodsucking, Sapphic action you enjoyed so much in the popular film The Vampire Lovers (1970)? Well, fret not, as Hammer Studios heard your grubby pleas and punched out this sequel, titled Lust for a Vampire (1971). Directed Jimmy Sangster, known for his excellent writing work on such films like X the Unknown (1956), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), and Dracula (1958), the film stars Ralph Bates (Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde), Michael Johnson (Anne of the Thousand Days), and Yutte Stensgaard (Scream and Scream Again), in her last silver screen appearance. Also appearing is Barbara Jefford (The Ninth Gate), Suzanna Leigh (The Lost Continent), Helen Christie (Rasputin: The Mad... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jimmy Sangster DVD Release Date: Released the 04 December 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.98 Your Price: $11.97YOU SAVE $8.01!
Buy it
"Hammer Horror Series" presents some of the studios best films from the early sixties period, though they might not be the most familiar to Hammer fans. A few, in fact, might come with baggage attached, but this collection dispells some of that baggage. In particular, Hammer's "Phantom of the Opera" has suffered more abuse over the years than any other of its films. The hard truth is, it's pretty good. The reason it has such a bum reputation might be because most people first saw it on television, which seriously impaired it. In it's proper aspect ratio, and with the extra scenes filmed for American TV left out, it's really pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty good. The biggest liability with the film are the horrendous opera sequences. "Evil of Frankenstein" has similarly been... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Herbert Lom - Heather Sears Director(s): Terence Fisher DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $29.98 Your Price: $19.98YOU SAVE $10!
Buy it
Art-movie goddess Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad) slinks through the plush Eurotrash settings as the deathless Elizabeth Bathory, Vampire Countess, in Harry Kümel's minor Dutch classic of lesbian erotic-gothic. Blood mingles with water during the languorous shower scenes. Set at an upper-crust seaside resort, the 1971 film recounts Bathory's plot to replace her current consort (Andrea Rau) with a fresher specimen, an abused newlywed whose brutal young husband is an inconvenience waiting to be eliminated. Although both the bi-sex and the neck-biting violence are tame by today's standards, the film has a graceful, gliding sense of pace that gets under your skin; something unspeakably kinky always seems to be just about to happen. It never quite does, but the mood... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Delphine Seyrig Director(s): Harry Kümel DVD Release Date: Released the 27 May 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
List Price: $19.95 Your Price: $17.96YOU SAVE $1.99!
Buy it
