The Vampire Lovers movie storyline. In Styria, Austria, General von Spielsdorf gives a party and a countess explains to him that she needs to travel immediately to visit a relative that is ill. She leaves her daughter Marcilla under the care of the General. Marcilla befriends his daughter Laura and then the teenager has nightmares, where she is attacked by a dreadful creature.
The doctor finds that Laura is anemic and soon she dies. Marcilla leaves the house and the countess fakes a carriage accident to leave Marcilla, now known as Carmilla, with the wealthy Mr. Roger Morton. Camilla befriends Emma Morton and soon she starts having nightmares. Her governess Madame Perrodot is seduced by Carmilla and helps her to be close to Emma. Mr. Morton travels and the butler Renton and the doctor suspect that Madame Perrodot might be a vampire but they do not suspect of Carmilla. Will Emma be saved from Carmilla?
The Vampire Lovers is a 1970 British gothic horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, George Cole, Kate O’Mara, Madeline Smith, Dawn Addams and Jon Finch. It was produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is based on the J. Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla and is part of the so-called Karnstein Trilogy of films, the other films being Lust for a Vampire (1971) and Twins of Evil (1972). The three films were somewhat daring for the time in explicitly depicting lesbian vampire themes.
The film was a co-production between Hammer and American International, who were interested in a vampire movie with more explicit sexual content to take advantage of a more relaxed censorship environment. It was decided to adapt Carmilla. Harry Fine and Michael Style were the two producers.
Before production, the script of The Vampire Lovers was sent to the chief censor John Trevelyan, who warned the studio about depictions of lesbianism, pointing out that a previous lesbian film, The Killing of Sister George, had had five minutes excised by his office. In response, Hammer replied that the lesbianism was not of their doing but was present in the original story by Le Fanu. Trevelyan backed down.
Production of The Vampire Lovers began at Elstree Studios on 19 January 1970 and used locations in the grounds of Moor Park Mansion, Hertfordshire (standing in for Styria, Central Europe). Produced on a relatively low budget of £165,227, it was the final Hammer film to be financed with American money—most of the later films were backed by Rank or EMI.
While filming the scene in which Carmilla attacks Madame Perrodot, Ingrid Pitt’s fangs kept falling out and dropping into Kate O’Mara’s cleavage, prompting gales of uncontrollable laughter from both actresses. Finally, Pitt grabbed some chewing gum from the mouth of one of the crew members and used it to secure her vampire teeth.
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Directed by: Roy Ward Baker
Starring: Ingrid Pitt, George Cole, Kate O’Mara, Peter Cushing, Dawn Addams, Kirsten Lindholm, Shelagh Wilcocks, Charles Farrell, Joanna Shelley, Olga Anthony, Joanna Shelley
Screenplay by: Harry Fine, Tudor Gates, Michael Style
Production Design by: Tom Sachs
Cinematography by: Moray Grant
Film Editing by: James Needs
Costume Design by: Brian Cox
Art Direction by: Scott MacGregor
Music by: Harry Robertson
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: MGM-EMI Distributors (UK), American International Pictures (US)
Release Date: October 4, 1970
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