original production:

EL VAMPIRO SANGRIENTO

Cast: Carlos Agosti (as "Charles Agosti") (Count Siegfried von Frankenhausen), Erna Martha Bauman (Countess Eugenia Frankenhausen), Raúl Farell (Dr. Ricardo Pizarro/Peisser/Pizano), Begońa Palacios (Anna "Ines" Cagliostro), Bertha Moss (Frau Hildegarde), Lupe Carriles (Lupe, the innkeeper), Francisco A. Córdova (Gestas), Rafael Etienne (Torture Chamber Master), Enrique Lucero (Lázaro), Antonio Raxel (Count Valsamo de Cagliostro), N. Leon "Frankenstein" (Torturer), Raoul Farell

PLOT OUTLINE: A doctor vows to fight vampires.

SYNOPSIS:
(from AFI): Count Cagliostro, whose family has tried for generations to rid the world of vampires, instructs his daughter, Ines, and her fiance, the physician Richard, to protect several valuable documents. When the doctor is summoned to the bedside of the ailing Countess Frankenhausen, Ines enters the castle disguised as a servant. In this guise she attracts the amorous count, who is unaware of her conviction that he is a vampire, and incurs the wrath of Hildegard, the jealous housekeeper. Although the countess confides her fear of her husband to Richard, the doctor chooses to believe the vampire's assertion that his wife is mad. Unmasked by the angry Frankenhausen, Ines is rescued by Richard. The enraged vampire kills his wife, quaffs her blood, and escapes.

GUEST SYNOPSIS:
by David Wilt
At midnight, a spectral coach glides silently across the countryside. Meanwhile, three people--two men and a young woman (Ricardo, Gestas, and Inés)--approach the body of hanged criminal, searching for the rare Mandragora plant, which sprouts beneath his feet. The coach approaches, and they remark on the total absence of hoofbeats or other noise. The coach pauses briefly, and the sinister inhabitant stares at the Mandragora, then urges his driver to whip the horses--they must arrive at their destination before the full moon rises!

Ricardo, Gestas and Inés uproot the Mandragora plant and take it back to Count Caligostro. "The roots of the plant may be made into hallucinatory drugs, love potions, hate potions, aphrodisiacs: my family is the only one which knows of the existence of this species and its uses." Gestas, the faithful retainer, is of course considered a family member; Ricardo, engaged to marry the Count's daughter, Inés, is now privy to the family's secrets. For generations, the Caligostros have been using their vast knowledge of science and the occult to battle evil, although many people don't understand their ways.

Outside the fog-shrouded Hacienda of the Spirits, a woman waits. She is Hildegarda, the servant of Count Frankenhausen, whose spectral coach has earlier been viewed. The coach pulls up and the Count disembarks. Hildegarda confirms that she has given the Count's wife a narcotic, so she won't be aware of his absence. But they have to hurry, the full moon is nearly risen. The Count and Hildegarda take a large trunk into a secret underground crypt, and the servant is dismissed. The Count calls forth a young woman, kept inside the trunk in a trance. She is dressed as a housemaid. As the moon rises, the Count has her lie in a coffin, and he drinks her blood, converting her into one more victim of the Frankenhausens, as the other coffins piled in the crypt attest. Changing into a huge bat, the vampire flies away.

Gestas disinters a young woman's body from the local cemetary and brings it to the Caligostro mansion. Caligostro has assembled a small group of scientists of like mind for a demonstration of his method of destroying vampires. A device invented by an ancestor could be used to fill the veins of vampires with a special acid, distilled from the roots of the Black Mandragora, thus destroying them. Ricardo asks if the disease of vampirism is contagious. Caligostro says, "Remember what you have learned from me." Ricardo recalls: "There are two types of vampires--Living vampires, who may walk about like normal humans, but who are forced by their illness to drink the blood of mortals; and Dead Vampires, who are the moribund victims of Living Vampires, who stay in their coffins in an Undead state." Caligostro is planning to leave the next day on a dangerous journey--he gives a large manuscript to Inés for safe-keeping. It is the history of the vampires. Suddenly, the doorbell rings.

Gestas, although sure it isn't the police (who might suspect his grave-robbing), answers the door with trepidation. It is his friend Lázaro, the servant of a neighboring family. Lázaro says his mistress, the Countess Frankenhausen, has fallen into a mysterious coma, and might even be dead. He asks Gestas if Caligostro, a renowned physician, can come help. Gestas lies and tells his friend that Caligostro is out of town, but that a family friend--also a doctor--might be able to help. Gestas apologizes to Caligostro and Ricardo (the other doctor) for the imposition, but says "Enrique is my only friend." Ricardo agrees to go. After Ricardo has departed, Caligostro reads from the book of vampires. His ancestor became interested in vampirism after his second wife was killed by a famous vampire, the "Vampire of the Moon" (for that is when he killed), in Europe. After that, he dedicated his life to exterminating the plague of vampirism, which is largely spread by one family--the Frankenhausens!

Ricardo examines the Countess. Lázaro doesn't know what plunged her into unconsciousness. Although Ricardo doesn't have anything to help her at the moment, he tells the servant that he will try to make up a potion to alleviate her symptoms. As they prepare to leave, they run into the just-arrived Hildegarda and Count Frankenhausen. The Count tells Lázaro that no one is ever allowed to visit their house, and tells Ricardo that the Countess's condition isn't serious. When Ricardo has gone, the Count viciously slashes Lázaro's face with a whip, and Hildegarda says "That will remind you that you're only a menial servant in this house."

The Count enters his wife's bedroom and wakes her. She immediately orders him out. She demands to know why she hasn't been able to visit her father or daughter for so long. The Count tells her she's been sick, but she drives him out of the room at the point of a javelin. She knows he's a vampire, a soul-less, evil being, and has only spared his life because he's the father of their child. He leaves, but tells her she's mad.

Caligostro is still demonstrating his vampire-killing device. "Vampirina" is a substance replacing blood in the vampires' veins. It makes them crave human blood; by replacing the "vampirina" with the acid of the Mandragora, the vampires will be destroyed. However, he reminds the others that--if the Living Vampire is destroyed by having a stake driven through his heart--the Dead Vampires he created will all rise from their coffins and become Living Vampires, seeking new victims. Only his plan will end the menace for ever.

At the local inn, Lázaro pays Lupe--the shifty innkeeper--to find another servant girl for the Countess. Another one has disappeared. She agrees to try. Gestas arrives but Lázaro leaves when his friend stares at the scar on his face. Gestas and Lupe discuss the mystery of the Frankenhausen mansion--she is paid to supply servant girls, who always disappear: that's why she has to get girls who have no relatives or friends.

Inés, reading the book of vampires, shows Ricardo and Gestas the coat of arms of the vampire family, the Frankenhausens. Ricardo and Gestas are shocked--that's the name of their neighbors! Gestas never told Count Caligostro (now away on his trip), because he didn't know it was important. Besides, he is only friends with Lázaro, the servant, not the family members. There is only one way to learn if the Frankenhausens are the same family--check on the coat of arms. But how? Inés says she is the logical one: no one in the Frankenhausen house knows her, she's been away at school in the capital until recently. And so, Inés is presented to Lupe, who introduces her to Frau Hildegarda, the housekeeper of the Count. Hildegarda isn't too impressed, thinking Inés looks too well-bred to be a servant, but Lupe warns the vampire's servant that help is hard to get, particularly those who have no relatives in the area. Hildegarda agrees to hire Inés, but warns her to take off the crucifix she's wearing: those aren't allowed in the house.

Inés is waiting on the Countess in her room, when the Count arrives to check out the new maid. But as the Count is applying his hypnotic powers, Lázaro bursts in and breaks the spell, and the Count storms out angrily. The Countess asks Lázaro why he hasn't been around for a few days, and then sees the scar on his face. He tells her the Count did it, and she says she'll handle matters. She also warns Inés that the door to her bedroom must remain locked at all times, "And you would be advised to do the same with your bedroom door." As the servants leave, Lázaro tells Inés she shouldn't have taken the job at the house, but she must be very careful now that she's there: "Don't trust anyone except the Countess," he warns her. In her bedroom preparing for bed, Inés hears stealthy footsteps in the hall, and stares in fear at the locked door--but whoever it is goes away after futilely trying the lock.

The next day, the Countess says she'd like to have Ricardo return to the house to help solve the mystery that involves her. Inés volunteers to go find him, once the coast is clear. "Don't worry about the Count, he sleeps all day," the Countess says. Inés, brushing the Countess's hair, remarks on the absence of mirrors in the house.

Meanwhile, Hildegarda is buying a sleeping potion from Lupe. "By the way, keep an eye out for a new servant girl," she adds. "The one we have will be leaving soon." Back at the house, Ricardo tells the Countess he will help her any way he can, but she must trust him completely. Hildegarda comes in and is surprised to see Ricardo: "You should have listened to the Count, and stayed away." The Countess is angry, and to show her authority, invites Ricardo for dinner that night, over Hildegarda's vehement objections.

That night, Ricardo talks about his work over dinner. He believes that natural remedies can cure many ills. The Countess hopes she can be cured by his science, and the Count concurs. They go into the drawing room for coffee. Ricardo knows of coffee only by reputation, as a drink brewed from particular beans. The Count says he picked up the habit in Africa, and now imports his own beans. Ricardo likes the brew, but the Count warns him it can become habit-forming. Meanwhile, the Countess has been surreptitiously drugged by Hildegarda, and goes off the bed. "Perhaps it was the coffee that did it," Ricardo suggests. No, the Count replies, coffee has the opposite effect. He says the Countess's problems are mental, not physical.

The Count surprises Inés, ministering to the drugged Countess. He struggles with her, but they are interrupted by Hildegarda's entrance. The Count storms out again, and Hildegarda orders Inés to leave the Countess. Inés refuses and forces Hildegarda out at spear-point.

Meanwhile, Ricardo tells Gestas that he is fairly sure Frankenhausen is a vampire: the absence of mirrors, the fact that he isn't seen in daylight, all point to vampirism. However, they still need the coat of arms to confirm it. Gestas goes to the cantina, where he meets Lázaro. Lázaro tells him that the Countess wants to see Ricardo as soon as possible. Gestas asks him about the Count, but Lázaro only knows that the Count arrived many years ago, and that he has a house called the Hacienda of the Spirits fairly nearby (the house he lives in now is the Countess's family home). When Gestas tells him that Inés is Ricardo's fianceé, and the daughter of Caligostro to boot, Lázaro rushes out, agitated.

Ricardo, summoned to the Frankenhausen home, is searching the library for clues when Inés greets him. They hear a scream, and find the Countess on the floor of her bedroom in a faint. Revived, she says the Count attacked her, although her doors were locked securely. She didn't see him, just felt herself enveloped in darkness, like the wings of a huge bat. The Countess begins to drift off into unconsciousness again, but gives Ricardo the key to a secret passage into the house, one even the Count isn't aware of. However, she refuses to leave: "The Count would find me anywhere I went in the world. Furthermore, my flight would endanger my father and my daughter." Inés tells Ricardo she has to stay with the Countess that night, and she will also make one more attempt to learn if Frankenhausen is really a vampire. Ricardo asks her to be careful.

Hildegarda and the Count are having an argument. She says he's been neglecting everything since Inés arrived. The Count admits it: he's in love with Inés, and won't make her his next victim at the full moon. Hildegarda has to find another girl, "Or the Countess or you will be her substitute!" That night, the Count catches Inés prowling through the house. "You will be the next Countess Frankenhausen," he tells her. "The Countess will die during the next full moon." He shows her his coffin, and the famous coat of arms on the wall. They struggle, and Inés gets a bleeding lip. The Count flies into bloodlust at the sight of this, and has to be held off with a crucifix. Inés manages to lock herself in another room.

Hildegarda tells the Count that they're in danger. She takes him to the dungeon, where Lázaro is being tortured. He admits that Inés is the daughter of Caligostro, the Count's enemy. He also tells the Count that he revealed the location of the Hacienda of the Spirits. The Count realizes Inés has played him false, and says she will be his next victim. And for talking too much, Lázaro will have his tongue cut out!

Gestas tells Ricardo the Frankenhausen home is deserted. They enter through the secret passage, and find the mutilated but living Lázaro, who directs them to the Count's bedroom. There they see the coffin and family crest. They realize they must get to the Hacienda of the Spirits before the moon rises. Gestas and Ricardo arrive at the Hacienda in time to see Hildegarda emerge from the hidden crypt. They burst in, in time to stop the Count from vampirizing Inés. The Count changes into a bat and attacks the two men--Gestas holds him off with a torch until Ricardo has taken Inés outside, but is trapped in the burning crypt and dies. Meanwhile, the Count has escaped and returned to the house. He awakens the Countess, places her in a trance. "We're going for a ride beneath the full moon. And we're going to visit your favorite place: the Lagoon of Death!" The next shot shows the Countess, the marks of the vampire on her neck, lying beside the lagoon.

Caligostro tells Ricardo and Inés that Gestas died as he wanted to, helping others live. However, the vampire is still at large, and dangerous. The final shot shows the vampire bat flying away.

TO BE CONTINUED: in EL INVASION DE LOS VAMPIROS!!!

GUEST REVIEW
by Brendan O'Brien
THE BLOODY VAMPIRE is a completely bipolar movie, alternating between B brilliance and sheer tedium. At times the dubbed dialogue creates a kind of bizarre poetry that must be heard to be believed. The music of Luis Hernandez Breton is nothing short of hallucinatory and adds immeasureable atmosphere to the proceedings. In relation to the other pair of Murray vampire flicks (THE VAMPIRE and THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN) THE BLOODY VAMPIRE takes a far more serious tone, aided greatly by it's titular villain, who is only occasionally derailed by pure "what the hell" moments.

The film opens quite effectively with a memorable sequence. As the wind and unseen wolves howl, a horse-drawn carriage rolls across a landscape noiselessly. It is noticed by three people in a nearby forest who are searching for the mandragora root, a plant that only grows under the feet of hanged men. The coach rolls past them as they find their plant, spurred on by the passenger crying "whip those horses, for Satan's sake!!" We learn that the passenger is Count Frankenhausen and the plant seekers are the daughter, future son-in-law, and lackey of Count Cagliostro. The Cagliostro family has spent centuries trying to eliminate the world of the scourge of vampirism which takes form in the lineage of the Frankenhausens, making an interesting Dracula / Van Helsing relationship between the two Counts.

Or at least it would, if Count Cagliostro didn't disappear after two brief expository scenes. And perhaps it's just as well, because his science is, well, a little questionable. His two great breakthroughs are the isolation of "vampire blood" which he dubs "Vampirina" and a transfusion machine that looks like Rube Goldberg took up vampire hunting. It is in these scenes, first when he talks with the aforementioned trio, and later on to them and an assembled group of (Scientists? Spectators? Neighborhood committee?) scientists, that Murray's dubbing takes on it's inspired poetic hilarity. Cagliostro's daughter Ana uncorks the classic "Don't let stupidity block your way, papa!" and every time their servant Gestis opens his mouth something at least mildly funny comes out.

Count Frankenhausen, in essence, is a badass. No question, this guy could kick Count Lavud's ass from one end of the ossuary to the other without even getting his cape dirty. His look is less traditional than Lavud's Halloween costume, he opts for a more severe all-black outfit. He wins in the fang department too; he's got a scary row of choppers that make Lavud's oversized fangs even more comical. There's a more palpable sense of menace with Frankenhausen and he proves himself capable of exceptional cruelty in his treatment of his servant Lazaro. It's Frankenhausen's peripherals that drag him down a bit. There has never, ever, been a more comical bat in vampire film history. It has Mickey Mouse ears and makes kissy noises, for crying out loud. His hideout, "The Haunted Hacienda" (I kid you not) is goofy just in name, and Frankenhausen's rituals therein are saved from utter hilarity only by Breton's music. In said Hacienda, Frank is stockpiling vampirized servant girls, all conveniently stored in collapsible caskets that pop open when the girls are named. In one scene, as Frank is apparently doing an inventory check and naming all the girls, I half-expected Don Pardo to ask him to pick what was behind casket number three.

Despite the fact that Count Cagliostro decides to skip town therefore denying us a one-on-one showdown, the plot adheres to the common (to Murray's horror films) basic theme of Good vs. Evil. In this case, the English dialogue explicitly states the battle in terms of God vs. Satan. Frank calls upon Satan to speed his horses, and his captive wife Eugenia states that "he and the devil are strong allies". On the good guy side, Cagliostro refers to God as "the only supreme being" and his son-in-law, Doctor Richard, calls on God's help in his rescue attempt. Only ten years later in the last of the Hammer Dracula films is the God / Satan theme stated so baldly.

THE BLOODY VAMPIRE at times comes quite close to surrealism. For example, a scene that boggles the mind of anyone who watches it: the coffee conversation. At dinner, Frank and Doctor Richard discuss this "amazing new drink" that Frank has discovered in his travels and imported. On the surface this is just a totally random conversation. But what is Frankenhausen really saying when he tells Richard: "Allow me to be the first to offer you a cup of hot coffee"? Is Murray really using this as symbolism for the vampire offering his potential victim a baptism in his own blood? Legions of coffee addicts nowadays may snicker when Frankenhausen warns Richard that coffee can be hard to live without once one grows accustomed to it, but this is clearly a metaphor for the vampire's need for blood. Goofy dialogue or clever symbolism? You make the call!!!

There are other strange elements that seem like careless mistakes. Be they mistakes or not they create a mood that destroys logical expectations, leaving the audience totally off-kilter. When Richard and the servant Gestis search the house of Frankenhausen they find it completely abandoned except for the mutilated Lazaro. However, minutes later when Frankenhausen returns, his wife Eugenia is in bed and plainly has been there for some time. Is it careless oversight or is the Satanic Frankenhausen unhinging reality?

THE BLOODY VAMPIRE is plagued by this dichotomy of creepy effectiveness and goofiness. At times a scene of the former balances a scene of the latter and sometimes they merge, creating an impression that almost goes unmatched. It's summed up perfectly in the final scene of the downbeat ending when Cagliostro tells his daughter; "It's all over now. Except for the danger threatening humanity".

I couldn't have said it better myself.

REVIEW:
This fantastic installment in the "Death by Cross-Cultural Harvest" Sweepstakes opens with those drippy main titles we know and love, this time hovering over a cheesy cartoon graphic (either inspired by, or taken directly from, the Mexican poster art) composed of a bat, a laughing skull, a moon replete with moonbeams, and a simplistic crown, surely a crown of evil; it rests on top of Murray's production credit, to reiterate, in case we had any doubt, that Murray is not only the "King of the Kiddie Matinee", but also the "King of 60's Occult Cinema!"

The prologue features an effective slow-motion scene of a horse-drawn carriage galloping across a foggy hilltop, in a sequence reminiscent of one in the 1932 DRACULA, and similar scenes in Carl Dreyer's same-year expressionist gem VAMPYR.

The following scene, with Count Cagliostro arriving at a distant castle, is also a rip-off of the Lugosi/Universal classic. A coffin falls away like a college foot locker. Frankenhausen raises his slave-woman, in another powerful slo-mo scene.

Much of the subsequent action takes place in Cagliostro's home, in an immense room, in which rests a ridiculous family crest, a silly four-part graphic that looks like something a first-year design student might concoct in a mid-term rush.

Meanwhile, the evil Frankenhausen pontificates ad nauseam on the tiresome pseudo-superiority of evil, and seduces young innocents in a sexually perverted subplot which owes much to de Sade... In fact, there is more than one passing plot reference to de Sade's ecstatic apocalypse thriller, "Justine".

The saucy maid gets alot of screen action, including an undressing scene, and one in which she gets vigorously molested by the lord of the manor. In fact, this movie has a lot of pissed, saucy chicks telling off dolts; somehow sexy, in a 60's TV way!

A seemingly superfluous dialogue scene, which pops up out of nowhere, features a protracted debate on the origins and virtues of coffee (!), and turns out to be a theological turf war in code, involving both "Good" and "Evil" and their uses of organic herbs and roots to achieve their various political ends! This eccentric, shrewd scene is, like, almost DEEP!

I love this movie! In color and with a little more skin, this flick would be a legend...

The pre-finale is seriously sexy (for that innocent time), and the juxtaposition of sex and religion is provocative as hell!

The finale takes place in a torture dungeon, replete with a skeleton on a rack, not unlike one Murray showed to US kiddies a year before via his blockbuster fairy tale, PUSS N' BOOTS.

The (very) end is quite cool: the screen goes blank after the final speech, with swelling music, then lightning, and only then, THE END! Whew!

And all of this to a memorable, downright avant-garde score by Luis Hernandez Breton (which combines weird electronic riffs with majestic religious choral arrangements, synthesized).

THE BLOODY VAMPIRE is a terrific flick, a rich and dense period piece, perhaps even a classic of obscure gothic horror, with much to recommend it, including an abundance of atmosphere, some respectable shock f/x, an adherance to cine-vampire tradition, a tangible sexual subtext (the scene where Frankenhausen gets cursed by his poker-holding servant/lover Eugenia is real strong), and pages upon pages of swift, convoluted, empassioned dialogue (some lines straight out of pulp fiction). Talky to a fault, and grandiose to boot, like a reckless, overwrought horror soap opera (can you say "Dan Curtis?"), much of the script appears to be a hasty, casual attempt to create a Euro-Anglo vampire legend after the fact. And brought to life, fun all the way.

HEAR THE ORIGINAL PROMO SPOT!
CLICK ON K. GORDON MURRAY!

COMMENTS:
* (updated 02-14-06) Thanks to a terrific new book we just received, "Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold" by Kevin Heffernan, (2004, Duke University Press), we have been able to update the U.S. television release date for this Murray horror title to 1965. The appendices to this study of the horror film in America, circa 1955-1968, include complete listings of syndication feature film packages from many distributors, including American International Television, who subleased the K. Gordon Murray film catalog under the title THRILLERS FROM ANOTHER WORLD. It seems that 1965 was the watershed year for genre film sold to television, with a veritable flood of titles released by both domestic and foreign distribs.

* (effective 05-01-03) After a very brief window of availability, this long-sought K. Gordon Murray title is once again out of print, due to international copyright issues. Used video tapes of this title may be found on online video dealers and auction sites. Stay tuned for further developments!

* THE BLOODY VAMPIRE beget a sequel, INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES. According to Mexican film historian David Wilt, EL VAMPIRO SANGRIENTO and INVASION DE LOS VAMPIROS were shot back-to-back in December 1961-January 1962. EL VAMPIRO SANGRIENTO was released in September 1962, and INVASION..., the sequel, was released the following summer.

NOTABLE DIALOGUE: