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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cat, the other white meat..., February 27, 2004
Written and directed by Bob Kelljan, who later directed episodes on various 70's TV shows like Starsky and Hutch, Dukes of Hazzard, and Charlie's Angels, Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), aka The Loves of Count Iorga (not a misspelling), did extremely well when it opened.
The movie starts off with a scene of a large cargo ship sitting at a dock off some California coast, and a large, coffin shaped crate being loaded on a truck. As the truck drives away, we are treated to voice over that sounds like a mix between Ricardo Montalban and Harvey Fierstein talking about the vampire mythos. The truck continues until it comes to a secluded driveway with a large gate. Next we go to a séance in progress, being conducted by Count Yorga, who, if you're familiar with the title of the movie, is a vampire. He ends up secretly putting the whammy on one of the women present, and then gets a ride home from a couple in their VW minibus...I have to say, it was kind of funny seeing this young couple and the aristocratic Eastern European (we learn that the Count came to America from Bulgaria) and very sophisticated Count crammed into the front bench seat of a minibus. Anyway, the couple drops the Count off after declining his offer to come into his home, and they get stuck in some mud along the Count's long driveway. This starts a five-minute discussion about mud. Where did the mud come from? How did we miss it come in? How come the rest of the ground is dry? Blah, blah, blah...it's scenes like this that really dragged this movie down. I guess, among the Count's other supernatural powers, creating wind and lighting, manipulating objects with his mind, mind control over animals and humans, super natural strength, he can also create mud. After hearing a wolf howl, the couple decides not to trek back to the Count's house but to spend the night in the minibus, and after a little lovin' in the back of the van, they are soon visited by a dark stranger (two guesses who). As the movie progresses, the Count takes a couple of women (Count Yorga needs women!) in the way vampires do, and the men begin to suspect something is wrong, and whatever it is, it's directly linked to Count Yorga. They start throwing around the theory of vampirism, with some willing to believe once offered proof, while others refuse to accept even the possibility as they think the idea is purely a work of fiction. After much goofy dialogue, two of the men decide to take matters into their own hands and try to sneak into the castle and convince themselves that Count Yorga is a vampire. They take along a female character, as they fear to leave her alone (great idea, take her into the lair of a suspected vampire). If they are able to confirm that Count Yorga is a vampire, they intend to kill him, and their friends who have been turned, as there is no cure for bloodsucking other than a wooden stake in the heart...the last twenty minutes or so things the pace picks up pretty well, as the two men confront Count Yorga and his brides from hell. And how could I write a review about this movie without mentioning Brudah, the Count's mostly mute, brutish servant? Oh man, he is good for a few laughs...he walks around the entire movie looking like a transported cavemen in a bad sport coat and tie. I kept injecting my own lines for poor Brudah when he had none...I imagined when he spoke, each sentence would be preceded by his own name..."Brudah want woman"..."Brudah drive car"..."Brudah need shave"....
The dialog throughout the movie is rather clunky but oddly realistic at times. The actor playing Count Yorga, Robert Quarry, was the highlight of the movie, really getting into the part creating a truly believable and scary character. I vaguely recognized him, but then remembered seeing him in Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972). The direction was passable, but got annoying at times, especially during scenes with conversation, as the director would make many needless cuts back and forth between characters, sometimes showing the back of a character who was speaking... there was some blood and one scene in particular, with a cat, that was pretty ugly. The one actor most will probably recognize in this film is Michael Murphy, who played the mayor in Batman Returns (1992) and has been in a few Woody Allen movies like Manhattan (1979) and The Front (1976). The scares were mostly of the cheap kind, things popping out at the viewer accompanied by a loud sound effect or startling music. The film has a 90-minute run time, but I thought some trimming would have been useful, and would have quickened the pace.
The presentation on this disc looks really great, and special features include a trailer for the film and a neat reproduction of the original movie poster on a little card on the inside of the case. Age hasn't been kind to this movie, as the dating is very apparent in the wardrobe and hairstyles of the various actors, but I think the movie is worth looking into if you are a horror movie fan, mainly for Quarry's performance. A sequel was released a couple of years later titled The Return of Count Yorga (1972).
Cookieman108
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The start of modern vampire cinema in America !!, November 12, 2003
It was no secret in the early 1970's that American International Pictures were grooming Robert Quarry to take over the mantle of their number one horror star, from the ageing Vincent Price. Price was none too happy about the treatment he received from studio executive's and made his feelings felt on several occasions. One well known story has it that during the filming of "Dr Phibes Rises Again", Price heard someone singing Gershwin and looked around the corner to see Quarry in full voice. Quarry turned to Price and remarked "Vincent, you didn't know I was a singer !". To which Price replied "Well, I knew you weren't a ******* actor."However, Quarry did make a pretty decent vampire on three occasions in "Count Yorga", "The Return of Count Yorga", and the lesser known "Deathmaster"....all films being made virtually back to back ! "Count Yorga" started out as a concept from writer / director Bob Kelljan to make a soft porn style vampire film, however when he recruited Robert Quarry to play the lead, Quarry convinced him to play it straight for thrills. Keeping in line with the new age, hippie influenced culture of the 1970's, the film sees Count Yorga posing as a psychic medium and leading unsuspecting & naïve guests into his vampire clutches ! The film saw a departure from the more Hammer influenced style of vampire movie where the female underlings to Christopher Lee were buxom, attractive women. In "Count Yorga" however, the female servants of Yorga are haggard, disheveled harpies from the grave that mercilessly carry out the evil biddings of their master. Additionally, the film was noticeably more violent than Hammer's Dracula series, and shifting vampires to a contemporary setting ( as opposed to Hammer's Carpathian Mountains of the 1900's ) became the standard for vampire film's for many years to come, and definitely revitalized the declining movie fan's interest in blood suckers. Kelljan does a pretty good job of keeping the plot ticking along, and Quarry does provide some solid scares....especially the shots of him bearing down on his victims in slow motion, arms outstretched and fangs bared. Well worth a look, "Count Yorga" is an interesting piece of vampire cinema that provided the genre with much needed fresh blood.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As Good As A Vampire Movie Gets!, July 4, 2000
Very well paced horror movie, great gore, and suspense. I have viewed all of the (American) classic Vampire movies, also all Hammer Vampire flicks. This is up there w/ the best of em' You will be as surprised (Pleasantly!) as I was after viewing this hidden treasure. I do not like writing reviews that give away (or give an overview) of a story. However, the scene w/ the cat is worth the price of this film!
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