Reply to Topic
Okay, fine. I'll retract the second part of my post, be confident in thinking it's bad, and not plan on watching it ever again, assuming that's what you're referring to.
Welcome To Our Nightmare II: The Return of Terror and Wooley
COUNTESS DRACULA (1971)
Decided to carry on with the Sexy Hammer theme one last time.
The legend of Elizabeth Bathory seems to be pretty well-known. Bathing in the blood of virgins and so on. So I don't know why Hammer felt it necessary to add Dracula to the title, when this film involves neither Dracula, nor vampires in general.
Anyhow, Ingrid Pitt is the aging Bathory, living a miserable life.
In a fit of cruelty aimed at a young servant, she gets blood splattered on her which acts as a magical wrinkle cream which leads to her light-bulb moment. What if she bathes in the stuff? See for yourself:
Luckily, her estranged daughter is scheduled to visit, which gives a convenient alibi for the sudden appearance of this youthful lady. She hides the daughter in a dungeon and pretends to be her, and woos the daughter's intended suitor, even though Bathory has an age-appropriate suitor of her own who loves her wrinkles-and-all.
So this one is light on the Gothic trappings. I mean, girls are murdered and literal blood-baths happen and stuff. But this is less about graveyards and more about the cruelty of a mother willing to imprison her daughter in order to get it on with her boyfriend. So maybe not something for the Halloween season but a pretty good one nonetheless. Pitt is great in what amounts to a dual role.
(PS- the daughter is played by Lesley Anne Down who is practically an infant here.)
Man, Lesley-Anne Down was the bomb, though, yo? Loved her in The Great Train Robbery.
Been a long time since I saw this one so my memory is a little fuzzy. I do remember the literal blood bath and Ingrid Pitt going young, locking up her daughter, and trying to steal her man. And that poster makes me feel like I should revisit it. But, no fog, no graveyards, no thanks.
Man, Lesley-Anne Down was the bomb, though, yo? Loved her in The Great Train Robbery.
Man, Lesley-Anne Down was the bomb, though, yo? Loved her in The Great Train Robbery.
The Countess Dracula BluRay has a bonus segment about Ingrid Pitt, and here's some stuff I learned:
Ms. Pitt was born in Poland on Nov. 21, 1937. Her father was German, her mother a Polish Jew, and in 1942 (age 5) the Nazis picked the family up. Separated from her father and older sister, she was sent with her mother to the Stutthof concentration camp. They were held there for three years.
In the 1950s she joined the Berliner Ensemble based in East Berlin. A vocal critic of the East German Communist government, Ms. Pitt was pursued by the police on the night of her debut performance, in Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children.”
Fleeing, she jumped into the River Spree with her costume on, only to be fished out by an American serviceman, Laud Roland Pitt Jr. In fitting dramatic style, she married him soon afterward.
She also had a pilot's license and was a black belt in karate. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and rethink my life.
In the 1950s she joined the Berliner Ensemble based in East Berlin. A vocal critic of the East German Communist government, Ms. Pitt was pursued by the police on the night of her debut performance, in Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children.”
Fleeing, she jumped into the River Spree with her costume on, only to be fished out by an American serviceman, Laud Roland Pitt Jr. In fitting dramatic style, she married him soon afterward.
She also had a pilot's license and was a black belt in karate. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and rethink my life.
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
As I work my way through my favorite October movies of all-time for my 50th Halloween, I come to one of the more recent additions to this list from just a few years ago. I think I first saw it about 12 years ago and I really enjoyed it but it took another 10 years of seasoning on me for it to become a favorite. Even so, I thought maybe this was at the very fringe of the list and could easily get bumped by a number of movies, but alas, it did not and I'm glad it didn't.
A number of people seem to also be watching this recently so I won't spend much time on plot.
Tickets are being mysteriously distributed to the premier of a movie no one's ever heard of at a theater no one remembers ever existing before. And as the events on the screen begin to be mirrored in the audience members, the theater begins to fill up with Demons while the patrons find the doors inexplicably walled-up and no escape in sight.
Probably you shouldn't just accept tickets from this guy:
Wow, right away this movie reminds me why I like Euro 80s so much. There is just nothing ever like it, I always enjoyed the American and English music-videos and films influenced and by it I sure do love the real thing.
The vision, the design aesthetic of this film is just so far up my ass it really doesn’t matter what actually “happens” in this movie.
I mean, one of the things that I love is that I think these Italian Horror force me to engage with the film in such a different way than I would an American or English or even Australian film that everything feels fresh and exciting. It's a rip-roaring good time from the moment Rosemary puts on the mask (above) and when she - and pretty much everyone else - turns into a Demon...
... it could very well be the end of the World.
It is amusing how you just have to get to that point where you can overlook the dubbing and whether the dialogue is even what was intended because it sure is horrible and all to really enjoy these great Italian Horror movies, but jesus does this movie look good and grip you so hard with its aesthetic and its attack (visually, narratively, musically) that I almost feel like it’s canon.
(I believe that’s Boris’ birthday party on the set of Son of Frankenstein. The other fellas are supposed to be Basil Rathbone and Rowland V. Lee.)
X
User Lists
Nice of the bat to give his or her friend the snake a lift.
Exactly. That's the kind of help-your-brother mindset we try to foster around here.
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
"You've got a friend in me...."
That second one is like my new favorite thing.
