original production:

EL MUNDO
DE LOS VAMPIROS

Cast: Guillermo Murray (as "William Murray") (Count Sergio Subotai), Erna Martha Bauman (Martha Coleman), Silvia Fournuer (as "Syliva Fournier") (Leonore Coleman), Mauricio Garces (as "Maurice Garces") (Rudolph Summers), Jose Baviera (as "Joseph Baviera") (Julius Coleman), Alfredo Wally Barron, Alicia Moreno, Carlos Nieto (as "Charles Nieto"), Mary Carmen Vela, Yolanda Margain

SYNOPSIS:
A ghoulish creature rises out of a coffin; it is the dreaded vampire, Count Subotai! He climbs out of his coffin; the lid closes. He walks slowly through his great catacombs. He raises his hand, and a door opens to his secret caverns. He walks down into his underground lair, and approaches a most diabolical invention: an immense pipe organ made out of human remains!

The Count plays the organ, falling into a reverie at the weird, unearthly sounds it emits.

Meanwhile, above ground, a man and a woman drive their Land Rover through a lonely woods at night. It is late; the woman yawns.

The couple see a strange column of white smoke rising in the road before them. The man slams on the brakes.

From out of the smoke appears Count Subotai! The couple stare at the strange apparition. The man beeps the horn, but the odd creature does not move.

The Count is suddenly surrounded by dozens of screaming vampire bats! The bats attack the Land Rover. The woman screams. The man seems paralyzed with fear.

The woman gets out of the vehicle, screaming. She looks at the Count, who bares his fangs for her. The woman screams again.

The horrible bats have now turned into hideous bat-men, with humanoid bodies and bat faces! The Count summons his bat-men to approach and capture the poor woman, who faints dead away.

Later, in the Count's underground lair, the Count plays his organ. Coffins open up, and the Count's undead bat-man army emerges. The bat-men slowly converge and approach their master, surrounding his gigantic organ.

The Count stops playing just long enough to bare his fangs and growl at his men, and then returns to playing his organ. Two of the bat-men carry an urn and a sacred knife to an altar table, in preparation for a ritual!

Some lovely vampire woman bring the kidnapped woman, who is now dressed in a flowing robe, and secure her to the altar.

The man screams for his mate, whom he calls Anna, but he is in chains. The Count approaches Anna who, seeing the monster's fangs, screams. The man struggles to escape, but he is instead bitten to death by bat-men!

The Count bites Anna, who is now unconscious. The Count then recites a prayer to his god: the demon Kaygor!

The Count offers Kaygor this woman as a sacrificial bride. He then picks up the sacrificial knife, and relates how he was killed by that very knife 100 years ago, by a man named Henry Coleman, and how his destiny now is to murder all remaining heirs to this mortal who damned him to Hell!

The Count then commands Anna, who is in a trance, to tell him where the remaining members of the Coleman family are.

Anna relates that there are three heirs left; an old man, and two young women; they are gathered at a party.

The Count relates that he must destroy the three remaining Colemans this very week, if he is to be successful in his bid to conquer the world and turn all of its members into bloodthirsty vampires!

The Count stabs Anna with the sacrificial knife, but she does not die; she becomes one of the undead, like he! Anna rises from the altar, kisses her master's hand, and laughs maniacally.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a cocktail party is in progress. The host of the gathering, Julius Coleman, introduces his special guest, Rudolph Summers, and asks him to play the piano.

Rudolph hesitates. He explains that while he is a musician, he studies music as a tool of behavioral science, specializing in exotic, obscure melodies which have unusual effects on man and animal. In short, his music is weird, and he feels it may be inappropriate for this light-hearted gathering. The guests insist, however, and Rudolph graciously agrees to play.

Rudolph begins to play a little sonata, and while it does contain certain atonal qualities, it is certainly not unpleasant. Shortly after, however, a dog starts to howl fiercely.

Rudolph stops playing, and the dog stops howling. A woman asks if Rudolph's music could have caused the howling, and he confirms this. The guests find this unbelievable, so Rudolph expands on his theories which claim that music can have profound psychological and physiological effects on both man and animal.

To demonstrate this, Rudolph beings to play another piece, and this morbid dirge causes visible discomfort in all the guests. When it ends, Rudolph asks for everyone's feelings about the music. The consensus is unanimous: the music made everyone think about death!

Rudolph explains that this reaction is not a fluke; the piece was played in Transylvania many years back, to bring dead men back to life!

A horse cries outside. Rudolph starts to play yet another piece of music, but stops when the guests turn to see Count Subotai, who has appeared out of nowhere.

Coleman invites the Count in, and introduces him to Rudolph, who appears to take an immediate dislike to the cold stranger.

The women at the party are all magnetically attracted to this charismatic gentleman, and there are whispers about his wealth and background. One woman, Leonore, goes so far as to ask the Count if he likes music and other things artistic. the Count replies that art is in the eye of the beholder...

Coleman asks Rudolph to continue playing. As he does, another woman, Martha, glances in a mirror, and is horrified to discover that Count Subotai casts no reflection!

Coleman next asks Rudolph to play the Transylvania tune again. As Rudolph plays the scary piece, the Count becomes agitated, twitching and convulsing.

Finally, the Count covers Rudolph's hands with his own, forcing Rudolph to stop playing the piece which was causing him such grave reactions.

The Count immediately apologizes for his indiscretion, and explains that the tune unfortunately brought up disturbing memories of a "family tragedy". He says he must leave, and apologizes again.

Leonore blames Rudolph for the incident, insulting him in front of everyone. But Coleman graciously forgives the Count, and invites him back at his leisure.

The Count graciously accepts the invitation, and prepares to leave. Leonore offers to walk the Count outside, much to Rudolph's dismay.

Martha approaches Rudolph, and asks him why the Count reacted so violently to the music. Rudolph says that the music was supposedly supposed to scare away vampires, and jokes that the Count must therefore be a vampire! Martha doesn't find this crack funny at all.

Leonore escorts the Count outside. He confesses that his real reason for attending the party was to see her. Leonore finds this odd, but not unpleasant. Soon, she is in a trance, as the Count professes his love for her, how he wants to make her his vampire bride throughout eternity!

The Count is just about to bite Leonore's neck, when Coleman comes out onto the patio, looking for her. The Count turns into a bat and flies away. Coleman asks Leonore to come inside.

Inside, Rudolph tells the guests a stupid joke about Viennese fleas. Leonore walks to her bedroom, still in a trance, and puts on her nightgown.

The party ends, and the guests depart, thanking Coleman and Rudolph. Martha bids the two men good night. Coleman asks Rudolph if anything is the matter. Rudolph remarks that he felt the women were acting strangely, especially after the Count arrived, but Coleman chalks it up to mere jealousy on Rudolph's part.

Rudolph retires to his bedroom, as does Martha and Leonore.

As soon as Leonore turns out her light, we see the Count stands at his window, thinking of her. A moaning hunchback enters the room, but the Count tells him to leave.

The Count then calls for Leonore to join him in undeath. Leonore hears him, and responds. She gets up and sleepwalks out of the house and through the woods, towards the Count, and certain death!

Leonore arrives at the Count's place. The Count is pleased, and tells Leonore she is one of the chosen ones, and is to help him vanquish his enemies: the Colemans!

The Count tells Leonore of his background, while banging angrily on his coffin. Leonore informs the Count that Coleman is her uncle!

The Count orders his vampire bats to begin their reign of terror against the family Coleman.

The Count tells Leonore she is about to become one of them; he bites her neck, as she moans meaningfully.

Meanwhile, back at the Coleman estate, the Count's bat-men approach and kidnap Mr. Coleman. Martha thinks she hears something, but dismisses it.

Soon, Martha hears Rudolph playing the piano, and decides to join him. She puts on her robe and walks into the living room, while a bat-man waits in the shadows!

Martha joins Rudolph, and they both confess that the strange events of the evening have left them sleepless. Rudolph begins to play again, as Martha listens, entranced.

Meanwhile, the bat-man who waits in Martha's room also seems affected by the music. When Rudolph again plays the Transylvania vampire song, the bat-man becomes highly agitated, and leaves.

Rudolph finishes playing, and decides they should both try to get some sleep. Rudolph escorts Martha to her room. Martha, just for the heck of it, picks up her holy cross, and brings it to bed with her.

Meanwhile, back at the Count's caverns, bat-men are torturing Anna's boyfriend, who is slowly transforming into a hairy monster before our eyes!

Coleman is escorted into the torture dungeon by more bat-men, and is horrified at what he finds. The Count tells Coleman to prepare to die.

The bat-men then drag poor Coleman to the edge of a large pit, at the bottom of which are a collection of giant metal spikes!

Coleman pleads for his life, as the Count picks up the sacrificial knife, and repeats his story to the horrified man.

The Count says he is not to die presently, but first must watch one of his bat- men being thrown into the stake pit for failing his master's orders.

Then Coleman watches, horrified, as Leonore is brought in by the vampire women, and lain upon the altar. The Count stabs Leonore, making her one of the undead. As he does this, Martha is woken by a bad dream.

The deed done, the undead Leonore rises to join her master. The Count commands her to go out and find Rudolph, and turn him into one of their own! Leonore turns into a bat, and leaves.

The Leonore bat swoops into Rudolph's open window, and turns back into Leonore. She approaches the sleeping man, and bites him on the neck. Then she returns to her bed and falls asleep.

Early next morning, Rudolph awakens, and finds himself already transforming into some sort of monster! Martha calls for him, but he puts on a robe before he lets her in. She informs him that both Coleman and Leonore are missing!

The two go to Leonore's room to investigate, but the door is locked. Rudolph breaks in, and find Leonore gone; she has turned herself into a bat. Martha hears the bat crying, but Rudolph doesn't.

As Leonore the bat listens, Martha informs Rudolph that she told the servants to search every house in the area, except Count Subotai's house!

Rudolph decides that he must visit the Count himself. Martha insists that he take her along.

After they leave, Leonore turns back into humanoid form, and contemplates how she will tell her master that her enemies approach.

Back at the Count's house, the hunchback sees Martha and Rudolph approaching, and runs to tell his master, who sleeps in his coffin. The hunchback knocks on the coffin lid, and instructs his servant telepathically to let the couple in.

Rudolph knocks on the Count's door; the hunchback answers, and waves them in. When they aren't looking, the hunchback grabs a candlestick, and bashes Rudolph in the head, knocking him out. Martha screams, as the hunchback chases her all over the house. Finally, Martha passes out, enabling the hunchback to carry her into a room.

In the living room, Rudolph comes to just in time to engage the hunchback in a fight. The two struggle, and Rudolph finally overpowers the deformed cretin.

Rudolph then goes searching for Martha, as the hunchback comes to. Rudolph finds the hatchway to the Count's underground caverns, and sneaks downstairs.

Calling for Martha and Coleman, Coleman finally answers Rudolph. The hunchback finds the hatch open, and closes it. Meanwhile, Rudolph searches the immense underground caverns for his friend, and eventually locates him, chained to two pillars.

Rudolph unties Coleman, as Anna's boyfriend, now almost completely transformed into a monster, begs with the two men to kill him.

The two men look at the man-monster, and compare his markings with those starting to appear on Rudolph. Coleman thinks the Count is a vampire!

The two men leave the man-monster growling. Rudolph looks at his now-furry hand, and feels the transformation beginning. Coleman tries to escape, but the hatch is securely locked.

Sunset approaches. The coffin opens, and the Count rises up to do his nightly mischief!

Martha awakens, sees her surroundings, and screams. She opens a curtain, sees the skeleton of a former prisoner. Martha then sees the Count standing before her, and she screams again. The Count approaches Martha...

Meanwhile, the two men have all but given up trying to escape the caverns. Rudolph hears footsteps approaching, but they are only from a spider. His hearing has grown ultra-sensitive. He must now accept that he is indeed being turned into a monster!

The two walk further, and almost fall into the stake pit. Rudolph asks Coleman to help him defy this horrible transformation.

Further down the caverns, the men find upright coffins. Leonore approaches the two men, and they ask her what has happened, not knowing that she is a vampire!

Leonore leads the men to where the Count is. The other coffins open, and the vampire women emerge. Leonore leads the men to where the Count is playing his organ, and watches as his undead army of bat-men arise from their coffins!

The Count tells Coleman that his time has come to die. Vampire women lead Martha towards the sacrificial altar, and although Coleman and Rudolph try to intervene, they dare not just yet.

Rudolph theorizes that the Count's bat-men are animated by the strange notes he plays on his organ.

Right when the Count is about to bite Martha's neck, making her his slave forever, Coleman and Rudolph break free. Coleman rushes towards Martha, but is stopped by Leonore.

Rudolph races to the organ, and begins to play another tune, one which has a disruptive effect on the bat-men.

The bat-men return to their coffins to escape the music, and the Count is disoriented as well.

Coleman is finally able to rescue Martha, and the two try to find an exit as Rudolph continues playing the healing anti-vampire music.

The Count turns into a bat and tries to attack Coleman and Martha, but he is weak from the music. Turning back into a vampire, the Count manages to capture Martha. Rudolph rescues her just in time.

Rudolph and the vampire fight, and the struggle leads them closer, ever closer to the stake pit. Finally, Rudolph manages to overpower the hideous monster, and he falls headlong onto his own pit of stakes!

As soon as the Count is dead, Rudolph finds that his monsterization has been rescinded. Martha and Coleman join him.

Leonore arises from slumber and, finding her beloved Count dead, rushes to his side, jumping right into the stake pit after him!

Our three heroes console each other, and decide that they won't tell anyone what happened. After all, who would believe that they were almost lost forever in THE WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES?!?!

THE END

REVIEW:
THE WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES has many touches found in several other of the Mexican vampire films, all of which, it could be argued, utilize the Bram Stoker novel "Dracula", and specifically the 1932 Universal film of the same name, as their primary role model.

Yet THE WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES is different, somehow. Perhaps it is the contemporary setting, the intrusion into the Mexican bourgeois, or the fact that the vampire/villain is unusually sexual.

This film uses music as a pivotal plot point, as in THE MAN AND THE MONSTER. Here, however, music has uses both as behavioral science and weapon. The familiar, spooky cues of Gustav Cesar Carrion are enhanced by some truly avant-garde piano and organ pieces.

The contemporary setting is, as in THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN and other genre entries, sort of a surprise. The credits roll over scenes of the vampire in his musty catacombs, implying a distinct 19th Century period; suddenly, a Land Rover roars into view! This tendency of Mexican horror-makers to shock us with temporal shuffling is weird, and alotta fun.

This film, like many of its brothers, is simply dripping with atmosphere, and boasts many impressive sets, including a hell of a pipe organ, with its pipes topped with human skulls.

The f/x range from trivial to very impressive. We have, of course, the obligatory rubber bats, but they're kinda creepy here, and they fly pretty well. Much cooler are the Count's army, a bunch of rubber-faced vampire-ghouls who look like something you'd more likely see in a Grade-C "Son of Hercules" movie. The Count's caverns, and his pit of spikes, are great, as well as the aforementioned organ.

The all-important transformations from bat to vampire this time around are accomplished by means of quick dissolves, some with zoom shots. (Perhaps we should mount a study of the various vampiric entrances/transformations in the Mexi-Murray horror canon; there are likely a dozen or more!)

One amazing shot shows vampiress Leonore as the grimacing face on a rubber bat! This quick, not repeated shot is a shocker. There's also a humorous shot of a bat hiding in the rafters, peeking out and then scooting back upstairs, a shot that simply shouts "I'm a puppet, damnit!"

And of course there's the inevitable occurrence of the old "I can't see the new guy in the mirror!" trick.

There are some impressive scenes throughout of sacrificial occult rituals, involving a fairly large cast of vampirettes.

Count Subotai is an unusually "pretty boy" vampire, more akin to a charismatic bum or one of deSade's "voluptuaries" than a gruesome undead seducer.

For some reason, the Count's seduction of Leonore, a typical 60's suburban housewife, suggests garden-variety adultery, "Thy Neighbor's Wife" and all that rot. It is both common, yet somehow quite erotic, even "dirty".

Indeed, THE WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES is highly erotic, and may be the most overtly sexual of the Mexican vampire films. In addition to the Count and Leonore being singularly handsome, there are scenes which are very steamy. When the Count first bites Leonore's neck, not only does she crane her neck yieldingly, she moans, as if in the throes of orgasm! Later, we are treated to a "toothy" (literally) closeŠup of Leonore that's also quite sexy, with her gaping, glistening mouth and all.

And then there's our hero, Rudolph, a cross between Beethoven and Valentino, with his skinny mustache and his cutting-edge theories on music-as-social engineering tool. He comes across as ultra-cool, especially as voiced by the ultra-cool Paul Nagel.

Together, these three make a most odd sort of love triangle, with artist/scientist battling vampire/seducer for the prize of woman.

People at a cocktail party freak out over different bits of music which Rudolph plays. When the Count soon appears at same cocktail party, all the "birds" immediately start clucking over him; one might imagine that Rudolph sees competition! This is verified when Leonore virtually "flies" into Subotai's arms.

The Count has, as an assistant, a goofy moaning hunchback who looks like John Astin. His actions are entirely comical; he is second only to Nostradamus' familiar, Leo, as "the clown prince of hunchback flunkies". A fight between the hunchback and musicianĒscientist Rudolph provides some amazing acrobatics as the two hop over furniture, dancing like they're in a ballet.

Overall, the film is a structural mess, meandering all over the place. But that's fine, when we're watching for other reasons...

A good deal of time is spent ruminating on the subtle yet dreadful horror of making an excruciatingly, slow, inexorable transformation from man into monster, watching helplessly as your very limbs are turned into monstrosities. This is good stuff, heavy and powerful for this vintage cheapie-creepie.

We follow our heroes through Subotai's dark caverns in thrilling last reel, racing towards an implausible yet effective ending, in which the Count trips and falls onto his own stake pit, followed by his grief-stricken, undead bride! Wow! Now that's an ending!

THE WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES is strange, different, and quite entertaining. It could be called an odd duck, in a family of odd ducks. To some, this would be the highest honor.

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!

* Here's an odd and wonderful thing, which makes one wonder if this was a dubbing liberty, or a direct translation: the "devil" which Subotai prays to is called KAYGOR. As in "KAY GORdon Murray"!!! Weird, huh? Alright, let us all get on bended knee now and

* For all hopeless WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES fans (like us!), Steve Ring of PROCESSION OF THE DAMNED has come up with some TERRIFIC B-Movie wallpapers for your computer, including a boffo one for WOTV:

NOTABLE DIALOGUE: