Count Yorga, Vampire


Title: Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Horror
Starring: Robert Quarry, Roger Perry, Judy Lang
Director: Bob Kelljan
Duration: 93 mins

Of all the numerous vampire movies made over the last 100 years, there are but a few truly recognizable blood-suckers. Nosferatu, or Count Orlok, is one of them. Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee as Count Dracula are two others, and the most classic. Barnabas Collins of the TV series Dark Shadows is a third. But one of the most overlooked vampires in filmland is Count Yorga, played by a charismatic Robert Quarry. During the height of Hammer Studios’ popularity, Count Yorga, Vampire served as an American alternative that more than gave Dracula a run for his money.

A young woman holds a séance party at her house to contact her recently deceased mother. The medium chose to perform the séance is her late mother’s boyfriend, Count Yorga. Yorga secretly hypnotizes Donna after the séance is declared a success, and then is taken home by young couple Paul and Erica. After dropping him off, their van gets stuck outside of his mansion and they decide to spend the night. But in the morning they wake up without memory of the night before, and Erica has two strange puncture wounds on her neck that defy medical explanation. It is supposed by her doctor that Count Yorga may be a vampire, and they have to stop him before it is too late for Erica.

What initially surprised me about this film was how ahead of its time it was. Unlike Dracula AD 1972, a Hammer film made shortly after, the humor, wardrobe, and dialog translates exceptionally well today (i.e. no goofy hippy slang or outrageously outdated fashion). The story is a classic vampire tale told in modern day Los Angeles, but does not go out of its way to make the film hip, something the aforementioned film made the mistake of doing. Count Yorga, Vampire also succeeds at a few good scares and even a shocking moment or two (how about a bloody-faced vampire girl with a mouthful of her pet kitten?). And like most vampire films of its day, this one is pretty sexy. Although at this time Hammer was featuring full frontal nudity in their pictures, Yorga’s love interests are quite the eye candy, even without completely disrobing.

As for the antagonist himself, Count Yorga is an intelligent and charming, yet undoubtedly evil, character that conforms to the classic tradition of film vampires. Maybe even more so than necessary. The character of Count Yorga is near flawless, but his look has been done a hundred times before, consisting of : a pale face, partially graying slicked back hair, a black cape with red satin lining, and a star-shaped ruby medallion. The costume designer should have taken some creative liberty and changed things up with Yorga, because by 1970, this look was already 40 years old. Another stand out character is that of Dr. Hayes, played by Roger Perry. Hayes is the Van Helsing equivalent in this story, however provides a more convincing and sympathetically human character, rather than a man completely fixated on science and vampire-slaying. While none can duplicate the kind of dominant presence of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, the two leads in Count Yorga, Vampire come dangerously close.

Yorga’s debut may not be perfect, poor night photography and shaky camerawork see to that, it was well received theatrically and spawned a sequel, The Return of Count Yorga. Then somewhere along the way, Yorga’s popularity stopped and now is forgotten among mass audiences. If you ever have the chance of viewing this film, please do so. After the travesties courtesy of the current Twilight series, this may just rekindle your faith in the immortal vampire subgenre.

Trailer

Comments

  1. Unknown6 October 2012 at 07:34

    Great review, and I concur that Robert Quarry, as are the two Yorga films, sadly overlooked. Quarry is terrific in the title role and the film was one of the first to successfullt transplant the Victorian Vampire into the then present day. Compare how not to do it with Hammer's Dracula AD 1972

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