Rating: 
Summary: excellent in every way!!!!
Review: MGM has done an amazing job of remastering these great films from 1970. These two films belong to the era when Hammer Films was trying to update their image by featuring nudity and more violence in their films. Both of them star sexy, enigmatic Ingrid Pitt. "Vampire Lovers" is the superior movie with good suspense sequences, very sexy scenes with Ingrid and Madeline Smith and a great cameo by the wonderful Peter Cushing. The transfer on this movies is amazing. It has never looked so good. It also restores a deleted scene cut by AIP that features full frontal nudity by Ingrid Pitt.
"Countess Dracula" is also a good Hammer Film. It is loosely based on the legendary Blood Countess Elizabeth Bathory. It is less explicit both in terms of violence and nudity. It could easily carry a PG-13 rating today. It's worth seeing for some great supporting actors including a very young Leslie Ann-Down. The sets are very lavish for Hammer standards since they were left over from "Anne of a Thousand Days".
The DVD features some very interesting commentaries by directors and scrrenwriters. I'm usually bored by these commentaries, but I wasn't by the ones here.
This DVD is a true Hammer lover's dream and for such a low price!!!!!! Thank you, MGM!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: What a pair!
Review: My hat is off to the folks at MGM/UA for this fabulous pair-of films, that is, on this DVD. Luscious, Polish-born Ingrid Pitt scored a triple home run in 1970, appearing in 3 entertaining horror films, "The Vampire Lovers", "Countess Dracula", and "The House That Dripped Blood". Ms. Pitt had lived through real-life horror, having been born in a Nazi concentration camp. Hammer executive James Carreras was charmed by Ms. Pitt (they met at a dinner party), and cast her as Carmilla in "The Vampire Lovers", based on Sheridan leFanu's famed vampire novella. To be brief, the story is about Countess Mircalla Karnstein, (she uses her name as an anagram, i.e. Marcilla and Carmilla),undead for 250 years, who ingratiates herself into various households, and preys upon the young daughters of her hosts. The film, directed by Roy Ward Baker, follows the book fairly closely, though Ms. Pitt's Carmilla is not the morose, wan girl as depicted by leFanu. Pitt's Carmilla is a worldly, enticing, and very sexy woman. She is also a voracious predator, and does not discriminate. Men and women, especially women, are all fair game to her! The film plays up the lesbian angle of the story, and Ms. Pitt's gorgeous figure is displayed to great advantage. Her husky, "continental" accent and style make a great contrast to the "English roses" of Madeline Smith and Pippa Steel. Hammer great Peter Cushing lends his usual fine presence to the film, as well as a young Jon Finch, Ferdy Mane, Kate O'Mara, and Dawn Addams as "The Countess", working a hairdo that would fit right in with the B52s! My only real gripe about this film is the women's hairdos, which date the film "big time". The women look like escapees from "Love American Style", with the exception of O'Mara's accurate Regency-style hairdo. The sound and picture quality are superb, and Harry Robinson's musical score is a winner. Some purists may balk that the film does not live up to leFanu;s book, but in my opinion, it comes pretty darned close! This is a good-looking, shocking film. The other film on this DVD is the much-maligned "Countess Dracula", based on the exploits of real-life 17th century Hungarian countess Elisabeth Bathory. Bathory had a unique beauty treatment-she bathed in the blood of virgins, in the belief that it kept her young and beautiful. Some 600 girls disappeared from neighboring villages before Ms. Bathory was finally "put away". In this film, the premise is taken a little further, ala "The Leech Woman". Elisabeth's "beauty baths" DO work, but like collagen and Botox, their effect is only temporary, and when they wear off, she becomes uglier, leading to a very bad habit! Ms. Pitt is a lot of fun to watch, tho for some strange reason, her voice was dubbed by another actress. Virile Nigel Green plays Elisabeth's cast-off middle-aged lover Captain Dobi, Sandor Eles plays her boy-toy Imre Toth, and a very young Lesley-Anne Down plays her daughter, Ilona. The sets, costumes, and music are great, and the film does have a real flavor to it, no doubt helped by the fact that its director, Peter Sasdy, is Hungarian, as well as co-star Sandor Eles, and screenwriter Alexander Paal. The picture and sound quality are excellent as well. There are some wonderful extras on the DVD as well, such as an audio commentary by Ms. Pitt, and excerpts from "Carmilla" read by her as well, accompanying a terrific photo gallery. And you can't beat the price! Ingrid Pitt in "Countess Dracula" and "The Vampire Lovers". What a pair!
Rating: 
Summary: Enigmatic Ingrid Good Reason to See Film
Review: The centerpiece of "Vampire Lovers," and the reason it is particularly intriguing, is Ingrid Pitt who stars as Carmilla a.k.a. Marcilla Karnstein, an enigmatic vampire who wreaks havoc on several virginal beauties in 17th or 18th century England. The Vampire Lovers is known as a "later" effort from Hammer, since the studio was on a wane, but it's a fairly good representation of their output, in spite of an addition of sex and nudity. Both of the latter are fairly mild, anyway, certainly nothing like the explicitness found in films today. Subsequent Hammer horror films did up the ante a bit more and came off as seedy, but this film still has quite a bit of good taste and fairly high production values to make it more in line with the earlier Hammer than the later. Plus Ingrid Pitt, an exotic and almost hypnotic presence, is really something to see. Some critics mentioned that she is more of a presence than an actress, but whatever the case may be, this Polish beauty projects much of the mysterious, along with the seductive, and she gives the role an emotional core with her sympathetic interpretation that is quite unusual. This is perhaps why she is remembered so vividly as a Hammer queen, even though she actually only did two films for them. She's also incredibly sexy and a perfect choice for a vampire with the powerful allure and yet an almost hunted, alien feeling about her -- her throaty accented voice wonderfully separates her from the "others" in the household.
The film opens well with great titles and most importantly, wonderful music. The soundtrack, in fact, is fabulous - truly movie music, not "songs" and the mood of the music adds much to the film. Based on the short story "Carmilla" by Sheridan LeFanu, the story involves Carmilla insinuating herself into the stately homes of two young women (played by Pippa Steele and Madeleine Smith); after killing the first (Steele), she successfully is established in the second girl's home (Smith). She seems to fall in love with each of them, although of course, she intends to kill them. The very beautiful Smith as Emma becomes the focus of her obsession, but Emma's father (Peter Cushing) is already suspicious of his houseguest Carmilla. Also on hand is Kate O'Mara who falls under Carmilla's spell.
The film may not be a truly great film and yet it is a special film: enjoyable and alluring. As I say, the production values are high and they're fun, too. How many vampires of the 17th or 18th Century wore 60's eye makeup? Hammer did feature some of the best looking women of the decade in its canon and used a lot of imagination in creating these rich supernatural worlds, particularly with its use of the forest around Bray Studios. The stage coaches were really spectacular with their black steeds thundering along winding roads in a forest. Lots of the images from these films remain planted on my brain from childhood. It's a good thing. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The best, such as it is, of Ingrid Pitt's Hammer films
Review: The commonality between these two Hammer films is that they both star Ingrid Pitt, which means they are both driven more by eroticism than horror. "Countess Dracula" is really a metaphorical title because we are not talking about a true member of the Dracula family (or even a vampire for that matter) but rather a figure clearly based on the historic figure of the Countess Elisabeth Bathory, a 16th Century noblewoman who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth and whose legend is frequently cited in the historical basis for vampirism. In this 1970 film set in medieval Europe, the aging Countess Elisabeth Nadasdy (Ingrid Pitt), is a cruel ruler who discovers that when she washes in the blood of young girls it makes her young again. So she orders her lover, Captain Dobi (Nigel Green) to go out and find more of them. However, when the Countess starts pretending to be her own daughter, Ilona (Lesley-Anne Down), so she can go out and enjoy the company of the younger Imre Toth (Sandor Eles), Dobi gets jealous. Then the Countess discovers that her rejuvenation requires the blood of only virgins, and Dobi's job gets a lot more difficult. The truth is that the main attraction here is Pitt's countess giving herself a bloody sponge bath, but there is a rather good moment involving a hairpin that stands out in terms of the Hammer films (this DVD package was temporarily withdrawn because "Countess Dracula" was erroneously rated "PG" and you can only wonder how many children were exposed to Pitt's self ministrations). How much you like this film will have to do with what you think about the makeup job on the Countess, because she keeps bouncing back and forth. The subplot with the young lovers Imre and Ilona generates no chemistry and therefore no real interest. In the end, what we keep coming back to is the bloody sponge bath, which becomes the raison d'etre for this film from director Peter Sasdy. This film has nothing to do with the Hammer Dracula series, but that hardly matters to those who like this film. Much the better of the pair, "The Vampire Lovers," directed by Roy Ward Baker in 1970, is the first in the Karnstein trilogy of Hammer films, all based quite loosely on Joseph Sheridan LeFanu's story "Carmilla." The Karnsteins are a clan of vampires, represented in this version by a bunch of scantily clad women. Pitt stars as Carmilla, who also goes under the anagram names of Mircalla and Marcilla at various points in the story (yes, there is a story). The last of her clan, Carmilla is trying to rebuild, turning first to Laura (Pippa Steele), the daughter of General Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing) and then Emma (Madeleine Smith), the daughter of Roger Morton (George Cole). Along the way she turns Mademoiselle Perrodon (Kate O'Mara) into a sexual slave. In the great tradition of Dracula and most other vampire films, Laura dies before anyone recognizes the marks of the vampire and then the goal is to save poor Emma from the same fate. There is a lot in "The Vampire Lovers" that never makes much sense. Who is the countess (Dawn Addams) who travels with Mircalla? What is up with the black-clad vampire (John Forbes Robertson) who keeps hanging around? Supposedly Mircalla is the last of her clan, but maybe not. Mircalla keeps saying she loves her victims, but they all end up dead, which certainly does not help out her clan much. In the end it is clear that Hammer, aided and abetted by American International in this instance, was making a flat-out lesbian vampire film. As such, I can honestly say that you are not going to find a better one out there. Ironically, "The Vampire Lovers" ends up being more erotic than the vast majority of films featuring heterosexual relationships between the undead and their victims.
Rating:
Summary: The best, such as it is, of Ingrid Pitt's Hammer films
Review: The commonality between these two Hammer films is that they both star Ingrid Pitt, which means they are both driven more by eroticism than horror. "Countess Dracula" is really a metaphorical title because we are not talking about a true member of the Dracula family (or even a vampire for that matter) but rather a figure clearly based on the historic figure of the Countess Elisabeth Bathory, a 16th Century noblewoman who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth and whose legend is frequently cited in the historical basis for vampirism. In this 1970 film set in medieval Europe, the aging Countess Elisabeth Nadasdy (Ingrid Pitt), is a cruel ruler who discovers that when she washes in the blood of young girls it makes her young again. So she orders her lover, Captain Dobi (Nigel Green) to go out and find more of them. However, when the Countess starts pretending to be her own daughter, Ilona (Lesley-Anne Down), so she can go out and enjoy the company of the younger Imre Toth (Sandor Eles), Dobi gets jealous. Then the Countess discovers that her rejuvenation requires the blood of only virgins, and Dobi's job gets a lot more difficult. The truth is that the main attraction here is Pitt's countess giving herself a bloody sponge bath, but there is a rather good moment involving a hairpin that stands out in terms of the Hammer films (this DVD package was temporarily withdrawn because "Countess Dracula" was erroneously rated "PG" and you can only wonder how many children were exposed to Pitt's self ministrations). How much you like this film will have to do with what you think about the makeup job on the Countess, because she keeps bouncing back and forth. The subplot with the young lovers Imre and Ilona generates no chemistry and therefore no real interest. In the end, what we keep coming back to is the bloody sponge bath, which becomes the raison d'etre for this film from director Peter Sasdy. This film has nothing to do with the Hammer Dracula series, but that hardly matters to those who like this film. Much the better of the pair, "The Vampire Lovers," directed by Roy Ward Baker in 1970, is the first in the Karnstein trilogy of Hammer films, all based quite loosely on Joseph Sheridan LeFanu's story "Carmilla." The Karnsteins are a clan of vampires, represented in this version by a bunch of scantily clad women. Pitt stars as Carmilla, who also goes under the anagram names of Mircalla and Marcilla at various points in the story (yes, there is a story). The last of her clan, Carmilla is trying to rebuild, turning first to Laura (Pippa Steele), the daughter of General Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing) and then Emma (Madeleine Smith), the daughter of Roger Morton (George Cole). Along the way she turns Mademoiselle Perrodon (Kate O'Mara) into a sexual slave. In the great tradition of Dracula and most other vampire films, Laura dies before anyone recognizes the marks of the vampire and then the goal is to save poor Emma from the same fate. There is a lot in "The Vampire Lovers" that never makes much sense. Who is the countess (Dawn Addams) who travels with Mircalla? What is up with the black-clad vampire (John Forbes Robertson) who keeps hanging around? Supposedly Mircalla is the last of her clan, but maybe not. Mircalla keeps saying she loves her victims, but they all end up dead, which certainly does not help out her clan much. In the end it is clear that Hammer, aided and abetted by American International in this instance, was making a flat-out lesbian vampire film. As such, I can honestly say that you are not going to find a better one out there. Ironically, "The Vampire Lovers" ends up being more erotic than the vast majority of films featuring heterosexual relationships between the undead and their victims.
Rating:
Summary: The best, such as it is, of Ingrid Pitt's Hammer films
Review: The commonality between these two Hammer films is that they both star Ingrid Pitt, which means they are both driven more by eroticism than horror. "Countess Dracula" is really a metaphorical title because we are not talking about a true member of the Dracula family (or even a vampire for that matter) but rather a figure clearly based on the historic figure of the Countess Elisabeth Bathory, a 16th Century noblewoman who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth and whose legend is frequently cited in the historical basis for vampirism. In this 1970 film set in medieval Europe, the aging Countess Elisabeth Nadasdy (Ingrid Pitt), is a cruel ruler who discovers that when she washes in the blood of young girls it makes her young again. So she orders her lover, Captain Dobi (Nigel Green) to go out and find more of them. However, when the Countess starts pretending to be her own daughter, Ilona (Lesley-Anne Down), so she can go out and enjoy the company of the younger Imre Toth (Sandor Eles), Dobi gets jealous. Then the Countess discovers that her rejuvenation requires the blood of only virgins, and Dobi's job gets a lot more difficult. The truth is that the main attraction here is Pitt's countess giving herself a bloody sponge bath, but there is a rather good moment involving a hairpin that stands out in terms of the Hammer films (this DVD package was temporarily withdrawn because "Countess Dracula" was erroneously rated "PG" and you can only wonder how many children were exposed to Pitt's self ministrations). How much you like this film will have to do with what you think about the makeup job on the Countess, because she keeps bouncing back and forth. The subplot with the young lovers Imre and Ilona generates no chemistry and therefore no real interest. In the end, what we keep coming back to is the bloody sponge bath, which becomes the raison d'etre for this film from director Peter Sasdy. This film has nothing to do with the Hammer Dracula series, but that hardly matters to those who like this film. Much the better of the pair, "The Vampire Lovers," directed by Roy Ward Baker in 1970, is the first in the Karnstein trilogy of Hammer films, all based quite loosely on Joseph Sheridan LeFanu's story "Carmilla." The Karnsteins are a clan of vampires, represented in this version by a bunch of scantily clad women. Pitt stars as Carmilla, who also goes under the anagram names of Mircalla and Marcilla at various points in the story (yes, there is a story). The last of her clan, Carmilla is trying to rebuild, turning first to Laura (Pippa Steele), the daughter of General Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing) and then Emma (Madeleine Smith), the daughter of Roger Morton (George Cole). Along the way she turns Mademoiselle Perrodon (Kate O'Mara) into a sexual slave. In the great tradition of Dracula and most other vampire films, Laura dies before anyone recognizes the marks of the vampire and then the goal is to save poor Emma from the same fate. There is a lot in "The Vampire Lovers" that never makes much sense. Who is the countess (Dawn Addams) who travels with Mircalla? What is up with the black-clad vampire (John Forbes Robertson) who keeps hanging around? Supposedly Mircalla is the last of her clan, but maybe not. Mircalla keeps saying she loves her victims, but they all end up dead, which certainly does not help out her clan much. In the end it is clear that Hammer, aided and abetted by American International in this instance, was making a flat-out lesbian vampire film. As such, I can honestly say that you are not going to find a better one out there. Ironically, "The Vampire Lovers" ends up being more erotic than the vast majority of films featuring heterosexual relationships between the undead and their victims.
Rating:
Summary: High quality late-Hammer.
Review: The under-rated Vampire Lovers is one of the better late Hammer films. Strong direction from Roy Ward Baker (Quatermass and the Pit, Asylum) and a sterling performance from Ingrid Pitt combine to make this adaptation of LeFanu an eerie and sexy vampire film. It's much better than the previous Lust for a Vampire, which was sniggeringly directed by Jimmy Sangster, a great screenwriter but a lame director. Countess Dracula was directed by the brilliant Peter Sasdy, the helmsman of the masterpieces Taste the Blood of Dracula and Hands of the Ripper. It seems that this film runs afoul of some rather superficial modern viewers who are amazingly impervious to its refined performances (Pitt is even more impressive here than in Vampire Lovers), intelligent script, and artistic and captivating direction: there are those who accuse both these films of possessing bad scripts, antiseptic cinematography, and perfectly awful acting. (Some viewers judge performances based on how believable the accents are. They must gush over Meryl Streep.) The measured pace may also throw some horror fans for a loop: for much of its running time, the film is more of a drama than a horror movie. While I don't rate Countess Dracula quite as highly as the Encyclopedia of Horror does, I have seen it only once and so I'm not in a position to compare it to the other two Sasdy films. That said, it is still the best movie meditation of the Elizabeth Bathory legend I've seen. In short, this inexpensive DVD is a must for Hammer admirers.
Rating: 
Summary: You must die! Everybody must die!
Review: The Vampire Lovers, while certainly well made and acted, it didn't really live up to the hype of being Hammer's creative high of the 70s. The story has no sense of urgency or menance until the last 3 minutes, and even than it still manages to end with a whimper. On the bright side MGM Technical Services outdid themselves with a superb restoration of the video and audio. If only all catalogue titles received such lavish attention. The commentary is a little dry, but Pitt/Baker/Gates do provide some interesting factoids about the film and Hammer in general. The best feature, for me, is the excerpts of "Carmilla" read by Ingrid Pitt. Apart from the pleasure of hearing her lovely accent, which I adore, it's made me want to track down Le Fanu's original novella. Countess Dracula was more of a chore! Again it's nicely made and the actors all rise to the occassion, but the script pulls them right back down. Peter Sasdy and Jeremy Paul have obviously worked on too many genteel BBC production by this point, because Countess Dracula plays exactly like a plodding early television drama (With blood and ... of course!). Pitt/Sasdy/Paul provide a fairly standard commentary. We learn early on that both Sasdy and Paul have had very good educations, and while Ingrid remains mum for most of the time she does offer some historical notes on the real Erzebet Bathori. After hearing Mr. Sasdy accent on the commentary one wonders why he decided to dub Ingrid's in the film, as Pitt once mentioned in an interview, his could explode a banana! While enjoyable, The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula certainly aren't the creative reawakening Hammer would experience with Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter and Hands of the Ripper they are not without their own charms.
Rating: 
Summary: nice DVD transfer, but as for the content.........
Review: There's something that the delirious Hammer fans seem to forget, in between gushing about the films' pedigree, and the transfer, and the charms of Ingrid Pitt: bad scripts, antiseptic cinematography, operetta costumes straight off the rack, and perfectly awful acting. Plus: lordy, what boredom. Are these films really both less than four hours? Each?
Rating:
Summary: Contess Dracula/The Vampire Lovers
Review: These two long awaited MGM titles come to DVD at last in a nicely rendered double bill that should please most Hammer Horror fans. The first, 'Countess Dracula' gives us Ingrid Pitt in her second starring role for Hammer as Countess Erzebet Bathory an Hungarian noblewoman with a bent for bathing in virgins blood. Based loosely on Valentine Penrose's rather prosaic book The Bloody Countess, the film is lush to look at (aparently benefitting from sets left over from Anne of a Thousand Days)and competently acted. Sadly it is the weaker of the two, suffering from a draggy script and some inappropriate overdubbing. One would have thought that Ms Pitt's accent would have been just right for the character but instead we are tortured with the breathy and unsubtle vocals of an insipid teenage girl. It is a credit to Ms Pitt that this post production tampering doesn't sink her performance into self parody. The commentary is enlightening and I have to agree with Ms Pitt- the film could have been much more than the sum of its parts. Ultimately the script reduces itself to the level of a dull sex driven pulp romance masquerading as an historical tract and would have been far more interesting had it chosen instead to explore The Bloody Countess' recorded atrocities. It is also horribly painful to hear Peter Sasdy shoot Ms Pitt down in the final discussion near the closing credits. Much better and what should be the real A side of this DVD is 'The Vampire Lovers', made earlier the same year and co-financed by American International. This film gives us Ingrid Pitt in her seminal performance as the vampire Carmilla, invading the households of the local gentry to decimate their daughters and revenge the execution of her undead relatives at the hand of Joachim von Hartog. Like all Hammer films this one is beautifully photographed and solidly acted by the likes of George Cole, Ferdy Mayne and Peter Cushing in a cameo as the uncle of an early victim. Also boasting a fine musical score and gorgeous set dressings the film is driven by its fatalistic, if unconventional love story, the cause of much controversy at the time of its release. If the film is slow paced then this works in its favour, adhering faithfully to its source material, Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's 1871 tale Carmilla. The commentary tells us little that we didn't already know about the film; Ms Pitt sounding dreadfully ill and barely able to catch a breath. Having suffered the censors scissors for many years MGM have reinserted the previously edited full frontal hip bath scene but strangely have not restored Kirsten Betts' decapitation in the opening sequence. As Hammer Horror is a neglected cultural institution in its homeland, it would be nice if one day an English distibutor took it upon themselves to rectify this rather odd state of affairs and track down an uncut print. Much has been said about the sexual aspect of this film, that the protagonist is a lesbian and the imagery is the stuff of girlie magazines, but though 'The Vampire Lovers' is admittedly very much a product of its time it has managed to transcend its exploitative origins to become what we see today (thirty years on), a dreamlike gothic masterpiece that still weaves its magic. There is much to be cherished here.
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