#count yorga

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Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) dir. Bob Kelljan

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Robert Quarry as Count Yorga in The Return Of Count Yorga

Watercolors on Paper, 8.5" x 11", 2024

By Josh Ryals

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Movie Macabre 111 - Count Yorga, Vampire

Movie Macabre Season 01 - Episode 11 (111) Original Air Date: 05 December 1981

Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) Written and directed by Bob Kelljan

Starring: Robert Quarry Roger Perry Michael Murphy Michael Macready Donna Anders Judy Lang

"A couple invites a Count from Hungary, who recently immigrated to America, to conduct a seance for the woman's recently deceased mother, oblivious to the fact that he is actually a vampire." (IMDb)

Count Yorga is a fairly standard Dracula story. Foreign man arrives and starts bewitching some women. Some men are suspicious and planning to kill the foreigner based on their suspicions. Unfortunately, the movie never really does anything interesting or unique with the premise.

There's nothing to the story beyond the surface level. Visually, the movie is forgettable. Count Yorga's house has some good sets, but nothing particularly special. Perhaps, for the time, this was a more interesting movie. While there was a proliferation of vampire movies in the 60s and 70s, the ones that have stood the test of time are the ones that put their own unique spin on the idea. Count Yorga never seems to have its own point of view, relying solely on the standard Dracula story to keep it going.

After seeing the movie, I learned that the original intention was to film a softcore vampire film (as if the film needed to be any shallower). Ultimately, the best thing I can say about Count Yorga, Vampire is that it's not the worst movie of all time. It's mostly competently made (except for the terrible day-for-night shots). The character motivations are at least logical. Just skip this one.

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Count Yorga Vampire (1971)

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“You can not threaten the dead with death. Only life… life eternal!”

Dr Phibes (Vincent Price) to his adversary Darius Biederbeck (Robert Quarry) at the climax of “Dr. Phibes Rises Again” (1972)

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Count Yorga, Vampire has one of the most vampire acting motherfuckers of all time who isn’t outed immediately when everyone he meets starts disappearing or losing blood because it’s 1970. Some good interplay between the Count and his would be destroyers but little between the humans themselves.

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On August 24, 1974, The Return of Count Yorga debuted in Mexico.

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Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) - Original Italian poster art by Sandro Simeoni.

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This week on Content Abnormal we present Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce in "The Canary Trainer", one of The New Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes!

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Robert Quarry in "Count Yorga, Vampire" (1970)

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Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes”

1. One of Vincent Price’s greatest roles was in “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (1971). In it he played a brilliant artist and scientist who was horribly disfigured and thought dead as he raced back to London to see his wife. She was undergoing a life and death operation which, alas, she died. Phibes swore revenge on the 10 doctors and nurses who participated in the surgery.

2. Phibes murder spree was inspired by the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament. Each was more gruesome than the last, but they were all done with panache. Phibes was assisted by Vulnavia (a beautiful but silent young woman) and he was accompanied by a stylish life-size clock work band.

3. After neatly eliminating all his targets, Phibes evaded capture by laying down in a hidden double sized coffin with his wife body.

4. Dr. Phibes (and Price) rose again in the 1972 sequel. After a few years of literally laying low, he returned so that he could bring his wife’s body to Egypt and resurrect her via ancient secrets he had discovered. Somehow Vulnavia returned to assist him again (even tho she died in the last movie).

5. But Phibes’ Egyptian cure-all is also sought by Darius Biederbeck (Robert Quarry) who is suffering with a kind of Dorian Grey type curse. Quarry is best known for his Count Yorga movies (Dracula knock-offs).

6. Sooner than you can say cruise-ship, the adversaries are headed off to Egypt, with Phibes leaving a trail of victims behind him.

7. The cast included three actors from the original. Peter Jeffrey returned as Inspecter Trout. After a few odd murder victim are found, Trout suspects Phibes has returned when he learned the cruise ship’s cargo included a life-size clock work band. Terry-Thomas returns in a new role (his character was exsanguinated in the first film). And Hugh Griffith who survived the first film but not so the second.

8. Although I enjoyed seeing Price as Phibes, the sequel didn’t reach the heights of the original. In the first, Phibes was driven by revenge, with a clearly set list of victims. That helped drive the plot. He also had clever ways of killing via the ten plagues of Egypt - so you could wonder or anticipate how he would accomplish the next.

9. But in the sequel, those key elements were gone, and while some of the murderer were inventive, they were just a series of people who got in his way.

10. A third Phibes movie was discussed but It didn’t help that Quarry and Price didn’t get along during production. It was reported that one day, Quarry was singing in his dressing room and he asked Price:

Quarry: "You didn't know I could sing did you?"

Price replied: “Well I knew you couldn't act."

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On February 20, 2009, cult film icon and Count Yorga, Vampire star Robert Quarry died in Los Angeles, California.