Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly good
Review: I've read a lot about director Jesus Franco, but have never liked any of his movies. They are usually boring and depressing. So I was really surprised about this movie. It's an entertaining, wonderfully different vampire movie. The plot is standard , but has nice offbeat touches such as vampires walking in broad daylight. The sets, music and atmosphere are a great throwback to 1970 and adds an element of quaintness to the movie. The movie is also very sexy and features one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in a movie, the lovely Soledad Miranda. She's truly hypnotizing as a vampire. It is very easy to believe that people would fall instantly under her spell. I think all horror fans should check out this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Soledad 'screams' Cinema Erotique
Review: If you're familiar with Jess Franco's work, then you know that all of his films were truly collaborative efforts. By that, I mean that it was the culmination of music, acting, post-60s psychedelia and early eroticism that made them 'classics' of the genre...and why we're still interested in them today. This film IS brilliant simply because it takes you back to a time when the world was a much simpler place, albeit a sexier and certainly psychedelic one. Shot in Hungary and Turkey, recorded in Spanish, dubbed in German with French titling is enough to make this release intriguing, certainly for it's language history! Soledad Miranda is astonishing, and the jerky zooms and pans, mixed with bright colorations and simple techniques only accentuate how much can be said, without actually saying a great deal. And if it's plot you're looking for? Well, it's certainly here. Do any of the 'horror' or 'vampire' films of today have much more of a plot? Not really; and consider the slew of flicks that are released each year whose ONLY redeeming qualities are a pair of silicone that everyone's seen before...Not here baby; ain't nothin' like the real thing. So, to sum up this work, if you dig 1970, if you've heard the music (or know what true 'sexadelic dance music sounds like) and if you can appreciate a period piece that showcases the mediocrity of minimalist film-making techniques (including beautiful girls and fab color/sound) then this DVD is for you. And on a technical note...the remastering for this film is terrific. There are few glitches in the transfer (aside from a few scratches and 'greyed' scenes) and the MONO soundtrack (though suffering from some bad tape-edits) is clear and effective. So sit back, take a trip, and put yourself in 1970...and be on the lookout for Vampyros Lesbos!
Rating:
Summary: Psychadelic-lesbian soft-core vampire-horror action!
Review: In the early 70s, some filmmakers did a lot more experimenting with sexuality and art than happens these days. Many of them combined the psychadelia movement of the time with the laissez-faire sexual attitude in their movie expression. You can see this in many of the "midnight movies" of the 70s. Vampyros Lesbos certainly is a midnight movie, but unlike many midnight movies this one seems to click together a lot more. The scenes may be overpretentious at times but there are times when the film works, in its erotic-acid-trip imagination. Part of the reason for this is the tape-loop accented psychedelic-bachelor-pad score, which adds a lot to the mood and seperates this film from some of Jess Franco's other efforts. I wouldn't call this a "good" film but it is a very effective "genre" film. This is one of the better examples of midnight arthouse out there. The DVD gets one higher star than I'd assign to the movie itself, because the movie picture quality looks much better than I've ever seen it before.
Rating:
Summary: ultimate sleazeadelic film!!
Review: ive waited a LONG time to see this film and its exactly what i expected and more!!Soledad Miranda is truly a goddess in this one.she mesmerises you time and time again.this is a true time-piece with that crazy decor and vibrant psychedelic colour,not to mention the score!!!theres nothing i can say that you havnt read before,but if you know anything about Soledad Miranda or Jess Franco,this film truly is a masterpiece of euro-trash sleaze.Countess Carody,long may you live,wherever you are.......
Rating:
Summary: Very challenging but wonderful
Review: Jesus "Jess" Franco is a director that's sort of a secret amongst serious horror film fans. If you're the type of casual fan of the genre who thinks that "Friday the 13th," "Halloween," and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" are the best films the horror industry ever made, you have never heard of Jess Franco. If you think the "Leprechaun" franchise constitutes the apogee of the horror genre, you have never heard of Jess Franco. If you think collecting Wes Craven and John Carpenter films are as far as you need to go to balance out your DVD collection, you have never heard of Jess Franco. I don't mean to give the impression that Franco is the best directorial talent ever seen in the field, because he definitely isn't, but I have found that knowledge about some of this man's films is one of the best ways to distinguish the novices from the veterans. His best known film remains "Vampyros Lesbos," a fascinating take on the age-old vampire legend. This movie isn't for everyone, so look for something milder like "The Blood of Fu Manchu," "Faceless," or "Ilsa, The Wicked Warden" if you wish to adapt to his style by degrees. Whatever you decide to do, Jess Franco might just surprise you.
"Vampyros Lesbos" is an amazing film in ways not initially obvious. The plot is as thin as a communion wafer, and on the surface about as interesting as one. Linda Westinghouse (Ewa Stromberg), a beautiful blonde, heads to Turkey to assist the enigmatic Countess Nadine Carody (Soledad Miranda) clear up some paperwork about an inheritance. That the inheritance has something to do with a Count Dracula never impresses itself on Westinghouse's mind. Weird things start happening shortly after the affable Linda turns up; she starts having strange dreams about Nadine, and her meetings with Carody take on a decidedly sensual subtext. As for the Countess, she spends her free time performing erotic dance routines at a local club. It takes awhile to get around to specific plot points, but when the movie does "Vampyros Lesbos" takes off. We learn that Carody is, of course, an ancient vampire, and we also learn she has designs on the clueless Linda. Recall how nearly every vampire movie you've ever seen has a male bloodsucker preying on women? Well, Franco was one of the few who turned that archaic formula on its head by having a female vampire seek female companionship. Without coming right out and saying it, you do know what I mean, right? Look at the title of the movie again. Yep, you got it.
As the movie progresses, we see Linda rapidly falling under the spell of Countess Carody. The two women spend an inordinate amount of time frolicking together before Linda heads off to an asylum. Her husband Omar (Andres Monales) arrives on the scene and sees what's happening, so he enlists the aid of the asylum's doctors to figure out what his wife is up to. One of the shrinks, Doctor Seward, seems to know more about vampires than any reasonable person should. It turns out that Seward and Carody know each other, but the doctor has had enough of the Countess and tries to destroy her in order to free Linda. Confused? Yeah, you should be. The plot IS convoluted. Jess Franco even shows up in a strange minor role as Memmet, some weird killer that lives in a basement abducting women. But don't worry; the film does make sense as you watch it, and is in fact a fairly dutiful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. See if you can match the characters in the movie with the characters in the novel. That ought to help. But "Vampyros Lesbos" differs from Stoker's novel in fundamental ways. Miranda's vampire sunbathes, and religious iconography almost never appears in the film. Even the way to slay a vampire differs from nearly all other film versions of the Dracula legend.
I think the obtuseness of the film, and it can be obtuse when it wants to be, is due to the dreamlike quality of the production. Franco relies heavily on symbolism, hazy cinematography, zoom shots, and the sun blasted atmosphere of Turkey to realize a beautifully complex film. The best aspect of the movie will always be the luscious Soledad Miranda. This is one beautiful woman, and it's quite tragic that she perished in a car accident shortly after production wrapped on this film. I suspect if all vampires looked like the Countess Carody, there would be a rush of male suitors willing to bare their necks at the drop of a hat. Aside from the wondrous Miranda, and the abundant nudity in nearly every scene of the film, the music usually draws many comments. I didn't think the organ heavy psychedelic score was that spectacular, which surprised me because I'm a big fan of organ heavy psychedelic music, but I began losing enthusiasm for it after the same pieces kept playing over and over.
I would like to personally thank Synapse for putting this film out on DVD. The version here is in German with English subtitles, and although the quality looks bad thanks to a lot of jumping around every time a scene changes, that's more the fault of the source material than it is of the company that put this film on disc. Unfortunately, this DVD edition contains only a trailer as an extra. Hopefully, a new edition will contain interviews with Franco and some other much needed goodies. I really liked "Vampyros Lesbos." It's a strange film that intrigues viewers who watch it with the right frame of mind. Don't go into this expecting a bloodbath because you will be disappointed. Instead, look for something more cerebral and you should have a good time.
Rating:
Summary: Alas, Soledad Miranda
Review: Let yourself fall under the spell of this campy, corny and yet quite effective little '70s Eurotrash remake of DRACULA. I'd been wanting to see this film for well over a decade when I first heard of it in a book called THE SEAL OF DRACULA that contained some enticing photos from it. Finally, with the advent of DVD, movies previously difficult to obtain on VHS are now on sale down at Best Buy! Oh hooray for mass market American culture. In VAMPYROS LESBOS, director Jess Franco inverts the story so that all the male characters are female and has all the action take place in broad daylight. Perhaps the best example of this is is when Linda Westinghouse (Ewa Stromberg as the Harker character) meets Countess Carody for the first time--it's Soledad Miranda, the mysterious, exotic and doomed Portugese beauty in all her resplendent glory: tanned, moist and clad in a white bikini, her depthless eyes shielded by huge sunglasses. A vampire sunbathing! How cool. Of course they promptly head to a secluded beach for some nude frolicking. Delightful! Along with the well-known soundtrack, VAMPYROS LESBOS offers lots of funny arthouse satire, and a fairly efficient plotline. But the real reason to watch this film is for the one and only Soledad Miranda, who across thirty years still has the power to captivate viewers. With those surreal, dreamy sequences of her dancing with a mannequin, and her frequent nude scenes, you too will find her clouding your mind. Sadly, she was killed in a car accident not long after finishing this film. Alas, Soledad Miranda...
Rating: 
Summary: Vampyros lesbos
Review: not a vampire or a lesbian film. Funny title.Not. Pitty about the quality, special effects, acting, continuity, camera work. If it wasn't for all these things and more it would still have been a bad film. If you want a film from the 1970's this could be it. If you don't ........well stop reading. I speak both German and English, Not being able to understand German, would make this film less understandable and so more viewable. Hmmm and I actually bought this and waited 4 weeks for it. Well it just goes to show you there really are some stupid people still out there who will buy anything. Signing off with egg on my face.
Rating: 
Summary: Soledad Yes, Franco No
Review: Soledad Miranda, the star of the film, is beautiful, tantalizing and hypnotic to watch, and for about 10% of the film naked, which means 10% of this film is superb. The remainder is an editor's and screenwriter's nightmare. Now there's the european artsy filmaking style and there's just plain inept. This film jumps back and forth between the two. Yes, the psychedelic soundtrack is great -- too bad director Franco could not have put together a coherent fun film that fully exploits Miranda's talent.
Rating:
Summary: franco's most talked about film
Review: sure, we've all heard about this one throughout the years & some of us even own the soundtrack which is still big in clubs throughout the world even today. but how many of us can actually say we've had the chance to see this fun film? if nothing else, you should atleast view vampyres lesbos for the performance of the late, but lovely soldedad miranda. if you love watching salma hayek grace the screen, you will nearly die while watching ms. miranda indulge in sensual, vampiric activity. contrary to what the title might suggest or what mr. franco's films are normally like, this one is rather tame but artistic nevertheless. i couldn't say that i would watch this with my religious grandmother. here we have a beautiful countess carody who has inherited all dracula's wolrdly goods & she has an insatiable taste for women's blood. to make things more complicated, we have a pyschopath running around the island who has lost his wife to the countess. if this weren't enough, we have a dcotor who's been doing pyschological research on vmapires & he treats a woman named alga who constantly swears the countess carody is coming or that she can feel her presence. at the heart of all this, we find our heroine who dreams of countess each nite & then meets her in the person to assist her with business. needless to say, our heroine has been somewhat drawn to the countess since the beginning of the film through her dreams initially & then later on dancing with a mannequin on stage. instead of bats & rats, we have flying kites & a water creature. obviously, franco does want to stay true to the campy horror genre but i love his campy twist. lesbos is wicked, sinful, & ironically funny but sure to please. get your copy today before this goes out of print for a million years.
Rating:
Summary: LESSON LEARNED
Review: The Lesson: Read reviews. Carefully. Read past polite code words to reveal the real worth of the movie. This movie is no 'Masterpiece'. If it has a reason for existence it's to show how not to make a film. Static camera for every shot, punctuated by jerky zooms and awkward pans. The scripting, editing and acting were even worse. It's 90 minutes of frustration and irritation... So folks, read reviews and CAVEAT EMPTOR! Well, gotta go watch Battlefield Earth again. Yup, I ignored the reviews there too.
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