Vampiress Review: "Countess Dracula"

The Gist:  Countess Elizabeth Nadasdy after discovering that bathing in the blood of virgins reverses her aging masquerades as her own daughter in order to seduce a younger man into marrying her.

Clarification: Basically the Elizabeth Bathory story but Hammer Horror version (IE with nudity and angry villagers).  Not much else to add that is not mentioned in the gist.  The Countesses biggest issue which leads to her downfall is her own greed as she sacrifices her loyal lover and her own daughter for the chance to live this younger life. That and the fact that her youth only comes back temporarily and every time it wears off she seems to age even older.  

Selling Point: Another excuse to see the late Ingrid Pitt naked.

Female Vampire Factor: Much to the surprise of some there are no female vampires in this film in the supernatural sense.  The countess is a regular mortal woman who has supernatural side effects when she partakes of and baths in the blood of virgins. She is a very wrinkly old woman normally

 but after her blood treatment she becomes Ingrid Pitt hotness (below).

 The reason the lack of your run of the mill Hammer Horror vampires is a surprise is because many reviewers and columnists incorrectly refer to this film as a traditional vampire movie when in reality the film that they are actually referencing is the film "The House that Dripped Blood" which also came out the same year as this one but featured Pitt playing a traditional vampire wearing a Dracula Style cape and rising from a coffin.  This film gets a Vampire Beauty rating of 1 out of 5.

The Vampiress Episode: "The House That Dripped Blood"

Scene 4: The Cloak

The House That Dripped Blood is a 1971 film consisting of a collection of short horror stories starring the legends of Hammer studios.  The stories are all linked by the house in which the events happen which includes the disappearance of the most recent tenant to live there.  

In the fourth (and last) story of the film entitled "The Cloak", an actor named Paul Henderson moves into the house.  Paul has been cast as the lead in a vampire film which requires him to wear a cloak ala Dracula.  The problem is, the original cloak is nowhere to be found so Paul buys one himself from a shop that sells mystical items and now whenever he puts it on he shows traits of being an actual vampire including biting his co-star Carla Lind.  

!!!Spoiler Alert!!!

Once Paul figures this out he goes to explain this to Carla who seems perfectly fine with the odd story he just told her.  Paul takes this as Carla not believing him but it's actually just the opposite.  Much to Paul's horror, Carla puts on the cloak herself explains that she is a vampire and that she was such a big fan of his movies that she wanted him to be one too.    

VAMPIRESS CAST

Ingrid Pitt (Carla Lynde)

 If you read my blog on the Karnstein Trilogy you know that Ingrid Pitt is the Babe Ruth or Michael Jordon of female vampires in film.  It's amazing how much she is known for this film despite this being a small part in a bigger movie as compared to being the focal point of "The Vampire Lovers" or "Countess Dracula" (which the latter is NOT a vampire movie FYI).  In a Dracula cape, cleavage out, rising from a casket she is pretty much an icon for what a vampiress is and at the rate the vampire genre is going these days it doesn't seem she'll loose that title anytime soon.  While this film was more campy humor than it was horror, it got the point across.