Great Film overall

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

After arriving in Los Angeles, a group of upper-class friends finds that a series of strange encounters is largely due to the charismatic vampiric newcomer to their circle of friends and race to stop him before he manages to turn more of them into vampires as he searches for a bride.This was quite the decent if flawed vampire effort. One of the better elements of the film is the fact that there's some rather nice work done to bring those elements commonly found in centuries-old affairs back to a more modern setting. Rather than confine matters to Gothic hovels and turn-of-the-century villages out in the middle of nowhere, this one ventures into more recent times with a mod-based group of friends and setting this somewhat close to the suburbs of the city. The gothic castle is replaced with the idea of the Gothic-flavored mansion but otherwise, the film plays out closely to those other films of the past which help to give this one some accessible attributes to get into the other factors found here. That is the film's strong final half where it really turns the Gothic-set action into motion with a frenzy of strong activity here, from the meeting of the minds to the confrontation with the vampires in the dungeon, a bloody and brutal brawl in the dingy, cobweb-filled hallways of the house and leading into the slightly-underwhelming if still satisfying action in the end which has some nice bloodshed mixed into the proceedings. These here are enough to hold it up over it's few minor if detrimental faults. Frankly, one of the many flaws with this one is the utterly dreary and dull pacing throughout here. The film never seems to catch fire at all, limping along from one continuously bland sequence after another, from watching the group sit around talking about the outcome of the seance to them being incredibly witty and verbose about them being trapped out in the wilderness and finally the nearly endless series of scenes featuring the two walking around town talking about the situation. We see it happen several times over throughout the film and it's bland and excruciating to see it play out where the two walk side-by-side with what appears to be no actual dialog being spoken between them yet overdubbed voices play out their conversation. Whenever it happens there's barely anything about that plays out like a truly engaging piece as the whole thing feels like a banal discussion going nowhere and it just really eats up the time by making it last longer than it really should. As well, the other issue with the film is the rather obvious and really weird jumpcuts that are used to hide it's more salacious and sleazy elements. This one had plenty of opportunities for more sleaze here with nudity or graphic killings, yet it keeps this incredibly tame which doesn't make the edits done to cut that out any less obvious where it quickly hides it, moves away before it happens or just doesn't offer any of these exploits in the first place which makes it lacking in that regard. These here are what lower this one somewhat.Rated PG-13: Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.

Solid little AIP vampire pictures set in modern day Los Angeles. A young couple find themselves the guests of a Bulgarian count following the death of the young woman's mother. The counts and the mother had been involved, but after being invited back to the count's home, the film's heroine wakes up the next day feeling ill and her doctor informing her that she's suffered extreme blood loss. Hmmmm. How could that be? Overall, this film isn't as slickly made as the Hammer Horror films of this period, but it does have it's own low budget charms, primarily the Los Angeles setting, a few good visuals (particularly the count's "brides") and a fair amount of gory special effects. Hollywood veteran George Macready narrates the film's opening (his son was a producer on the film) and Michael Murphy, in an early role, also appears in the film.

*Spoiler/plot- Count Yorga, Vampire, 1970. In the sexy 60's, a hip European guy is holding classes in the occult. A pair of sexy girlfriends attract the Count's attention and the jealous boyfriends try to save them from Yorga attentions.*Special Stars- Robert Quarry, Roger Perry, Michael Murphy, Donna Anders, Judy Lang, NARRATOR: George Macready.*Theme- Vampires are deadly as well as sexy to humans.*Trivia/location/goofs- Color. Started as low-budget soft-core porno movie. Count Yorga was supposedly to become an enemy of Vincent Price's character, Dr. Phibes. It was not developed.*Emotion- It's an updated vampire story in modern American with some of the nudity and sex scenes also updated. It's campy and titillating all at the same time. Worth a quick look from viewers.

Made on a decidedly low budget, this contemporary vampire story is noted for placing a Dracula-like figure in a modern setting for perhaps the first time and for the captivating performance of Quarry in the title role. Anderson plays a young lady who holds a séance with her boyfriend and two other couples along with Quarry who leads the event. She is trying to connect with her recently deceased mother, who was also the lover of Quarry from three weeks prior to her death. Following a jarring and somewhat harrowing experience in the séance, the party breaks up and young Murphy and Lang give Quarry a ride home. Lang becomes intrigued by Quarry, a recent transplant from Bulgaria who lives in a musty castle on a gated estate. Before long, Quarry has nibbled on Lang and enticed her to his side while Murray and pal Macready prepare to do battle with him. They enlist the aid of blood specialist Perry, who acts as a sort of modern day Van Helsing, trying to come up with ways to combat the vampire. Quarry is a striking presence as Count Yorga (actually meant to be Iorga, and pronounced that way in the film, but changed by the distributing company in order to be more easily pronounced by the movie-going public!) The actor clearly relishes the chance to perform this type of role and brings a gravity to it, despite some of the lighter and campier aspects of the movie. Perry gives a skilled, knowing performance as well, obviously aware that a blend of seriousness mixed with levity was called for in the production. 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!) Murphy, who would grow into a prolific character actor, isn't bad either, but most of the rest of the cast is weak. 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. Initially conceived as a sort of T & A horror flick, it eventually morphed into a standard horror outing, though some sexually prominent elements remain. 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. Perry has a bedmate who was clearly chosen more for her body than her ability to recite dialogue, though he scene is amusing whether intentional or not! The low budget is revealed occasionally such as when two men carry on a conversation done entirely in voiceovers as they are shown walking, in long shots, through L.A. (these scenes afford priceless glimpses at the city at that time, however) and in the Volkswagon minibus scenes in which the actors are clearly emoting during daylight hours for a scene that takes place late at night! However, the visible snags are all part of the charm, for the most part. The non-polished production aspects lend the film a somehow more realistic and accessible feel. Memorable moments include Quarry enduring a late night tete-a-tete with Perry and Macready and Lang experiencing a gruesome encounter with her cat. The popularity, primarily at drive-ins and other theaters of that ilk, led to a sequel ("The Return of Count Yorga") one year later.