Blood Suckers: The Creatures of the Night Collection (1922) (NTSC)

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     Blood Suckers, is a the six film, three DVD collection box from Gryphon of European vampire tales from 1922 to 1974. All films are in the public domain. They are unrestored and all have video and audio elements that, to some extent, leave something to be desired but this is a very strong and entertaining package of films, including a genuine horror classic and some other gems for those interested in European horror films. Some of the films have been released in Region 4 previously but for a RPI of $19.95, the set is an absolute bargain.

     Nosferatu, from 1922, is the grandfather of all vampire films that rightly deserves its cult status, 90 years after the film was made. Vampyr, a German expressionist horror film from 1932, is an audacious film, a mesmerising psychological horror film but it is spoiled by the very poor presentation on this DVD that sometimes borders on being unwatchable. Atom Age Vampire (1960) is not really a vampire film but instead falls into the mad scientist genre, with the scientist giving all for science, and love. From Spanish director Amando de Ossorio, Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) is not to be taken seriously. It has lots of eye candy on show with Anita Ekberg, Adriana Ambesi, Rosanna Yanni and Diana Lorys in low cut dresses and some of the sequences build up tension. The Vampires Night Orgy (1974) is an entertaining vampire film from prolific Argentine born director Leon Klimovsky. If the acting leaves a little to be desired, the film builds upon a number of tense and creepy moments and has a nice touch of black humour. Finally, Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride (1973) features the wonderful pairing of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as well as Joanna Lumley.

    The set also includes an informative 8 page booklet.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Nosferatu (Gryphon) (1922) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Cult	Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1922
Running Time	79:06
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Max Schreck Gustav Von Wangenhelm Greta Schroeder Alexander Granach
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	None Given

     Nosferatu or, to give it its full title, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, is a German expressionist silent film classic from 1922 directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. It is the grandfather of all vampire films and rightly deserves its cult status as it is a great film containing stunning images that are still incredibly powerful.

     Because of legal action – the film is the Dracula story but the rights were never obtained – no original prints of the film exist. As befits a film of this status, there have been numerous releases of Nosferatu around the world with commentaries, extras and restored versions of the film. For a fairly comprehensive listing of the various versions see the dvdcompare site here. For a direct comparison of a couple of the best releases see the dvdbeaver site review here. There was also an excellent release of the film in Australia that was reviewed on this site here.

     Fans of the film will already have one of the better Region 0 releases. The version presented in this three disc, six film Blood Suckers set from Gryphon is a 79:06 minute unrestored print that has English cards and titles that use the Bram Stoker names, not those of the German film. Thus Count Dracula, not Count Orlok, Harker not Hutter, Nina not Ellen, Renfield not Knock.

     In brief, and using the names of this release, Jonathan Harker (Gustav von Wangenheim), leaving his young wife Nina (Greta Schroeder) behind, is sent from Bremen to Transylvania to complete a real estate purchase that Count Dracula (Max Schreck) has made in Bremen. There, in Dracula’s castle he makes some disturbing discoveries, including waking up with two bite marks on this neck and later finding the Count sleeping in a coffin! Leaving Harker, the Count embarks in a coffin on a ship through the Black Sea to Bremen; at each port the ship calls the plague spreads, and when the ship arrives in Bremen the crew are all dead or missing. Harker hurries back to Bremen and is reunited with Nina. The plague is spreading in Bremen and Nina realises she is being watched from across the road. She finds a book that explains that a vampire can only be destroyed by a woman without sin offering her blood to distract the vampire until the cock crows. She sends her husband on an errand and leaves the way open for Dracula: and as he feeds, the sun comes up.

     Nosferatu is a gem of a film and rightly deserves its cult status. Murnau’s use of light and shadow is exceptional and scenes such as the vampire, framed in the doorway (29:13), or the menacing shadows (30:39, 74:56) are still powerful 90 years after the film was made. Max Schreck is not a model for the more recent “sexy” vampires: he is pale, thin and has a mesmerising stillness whenever he appears that can still produce dread. He is, in a word, perfect, and I love the conceit in the excellent 2000 film about the making of Nosferatu, Shadow of the Vampire with Willem Dafoe as Schreck and John Malkovick as Murnau, that Schreck was a real vampire!

     Nosferatu is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world, Germany, Spain, Italy and England, from 1922 to 1974. The full list is Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932) on disc 1, Atom Age Vampire (1960) and Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) on disc 2 and Vampire Night Orgy (1974) and Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973) on disc 3. The set also includes an informative 8 page booklet.

Video

     Nosferatu is presented in a ratio of 1.33:1 and is not16x9 enhanced. The print is NTSC format. The IMDb gives the original ratio as 1.33:1, although I suspect that it might be 1.37:1. This is because the opening credits are very tight on both sides of the screen; this may also explain the issue with the text cards noted below.

     This is a 90 year old film that looks better than I had expected, although it is not the restored version. It is, not surprisingly, a very soft print with continual dirt marks and scratches, most small but some quite big. There are also frequent interlacing errors with rapid movements, and some macro blocking but again I have seen worse in more recent films. Detail is poor, on occasion objects and figures being indistinct (see for example 66:59) and shadow detail was non-existent. Blacks are various shades of grey and brightness and contrast fluctuate. While not a good print, the film is however never unwatchable.

     As this is a silent film there are no subtitles as such, only English cards that are mostly easy to read, although on occasion the card was not centred and words disappeared off the right side of the screen.

     There was a pause at 61:59 which may have been the layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a Linear PCM track at 1536 Kbps. As a silent film, there was obviously no dialogue or effects to comment on!

     No credit is listed for the musical accompaniment to the film on this DVD. Whoever it was, it was pretty horrible and may have been stock audio. For most of the first half of the film the accompaniment is loud and trilling organ music that has no connection with the events on screen. Later, when back in Bremen, the score becomes orchestral, before reverting to the organ for the climax. I found the music mostly annoying. There was hum and hiss evident in the moments when the music was not in full bore.

     Obviously there are no lip synchronization issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Booklet

     A booklet provides some interesting information and a summary for all the films in this set.

     As noted in the review, there are some excellent Region 0 releases of Nosferatu and an Australian release that are far superior in image quality and extras to this release. However, if you are just interested in seeing this cult classic for yourself, the Blood Suckers package for a RRP of $19.95 for six films is a bargain. Indeed, I cannot find an equivalent of this three disc, six film package in any other region.

     Made in 1922, Nosferatu is the grandfather of all vampire films. It rightly deserves its cult status as it is a great film containing stunning images that are still incredibly powerful, 90 years after the film was made. The video is better than expected and the film is never unwatchable, despite this being the unrestored version. It is a silent film, with indifferent music accompaniment.

     Nosferatu is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world from 1922 to 1974. This release of Nosferatu is a long way from the best available, but if you just want a look at this gem the Blood Suckers package for a RRP of $19.95 for six films is a bargain.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Vampyr (1932) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Cult	Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1932
Running Time	62:50
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Carl Theodor Dreyer
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Julian West Maurice Schutz Rena Mandel Sybille Schmitz Jan Hieronimko Henriette Gerard Albert Bras
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Wolfgang Zeller

     Vampyr (or Vampyr – Der Traum des Allan Grey to give it its full title) is a 1932 German expressionist horror film from director Carl Theodor Dreyer. The film was made as a silent movie and voices overdubbed in post-production, so there is little dialogue and the film retains title cards except for dialogue. This is just as well. Without the cards it would be pretty much impossible to work out what is going on, as in the main we have no idea who many of the characters are, or what they are doing. The fact that the print is so soft and lacking in detail or that the subtitles are occasionally unreadable does not help. In fact in many instances I had no idea what was going on, even though (and just as well) I did read a plot synopsis before I watched the film.

     Allan Grey (Julian West) is a researcher into Satanism and vampirism. Staying at an inn one night, a man comes into his room says “she mustn’t die” and leaves Grey a parcel on which is inscribed “to be opened after my death”. Grey goes wandering, as you do, and comes across the town doctor (Jan Hieronimko) up to no good; further on he arrives at the mansion of the man who had given him the parcel, whose two daughters are ill. When the man is shot dead, Grey opens the parcel: it is a book about vampires, their deeds and how to destroy them. Grey gives some of his blood as a transfusion for one of the daughters: afterwards he has an out of body experience, including seeing his own dead body in a coffin being buried. A servant also reads the vampire book, and he and Grey exhume the suspected vampire and drive a stake through it, freeing the daughters. The doctor, who had aided the vampire, comes to a floury end.

     To say that Vampyr is an unusual film is a gross understatement! It is full of shadows, unusual and fluid camera angles and a disjointed dream-like quality matched by a disorientating sound design, with voices and snatches of conversation seeming coming at random. We are never too sure about Grey’s sanity; even before the out of body experience he sees a shadow of a man who was not there as well as a figure with a scythe, who may be death. The cast, almost without exception, were not professional actors including the leading man who, credited as Julian West, was in fact Dutch aristocrat Nicholas De Gunzberg who financed the picture!

     Vampyr was loosely based on the 1872 novel Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu. Director Carl Theodor Dreyer, who had a critical and commercial success with his acclaimed silent film the Passion of Joan of Arc in 1927, was reported as saying that in Vampyr he “wanted to create a visual daydream to demonstrate the psychological dimensions of horror”. He probably succeeded all too well, in a way that alienated his audience, for Vampyr was not a commercial success which caused Dreyer to suffer a nervous breakdown that kept him from filmmaking for a decade.

     Seen today, Vampyr is an audacious film, a mesmerising psychological horror film, where the boundary between reality and the imaginings of a seriously disturbed mind is always in question. Parts of the film are visually stunning, but it is spoiled by the very poor presentation on this DVD; on many occasions it was impossible to see what is going on. However, I did see enough to be interested in seeking this film out in a better presentation; I have a feeling it would be quite special.

     Vampyr is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world, Germany, Spain, Italy and England, from 1922 to 1974. The full list is Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932) on disc 1, Atom Age Vampire (1960) and Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) on disc 2 and Vampire Night Orgy (1974) and Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973) on disc 3. The set also includes an informative 8 page booklet.

Video

     Vampyr is presented in a ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced. The original ratio is listed as 1.19:1. The print is NTSC format.

     This black and white print is so soft and detail so indistinct that on occasion it is impossible to see what is happening. The opening credit sequence is almost unreadable, and see 10:47, 26:21 or 55:00 for only a few examples of places lacking detail. Blacks are anything but black, contrast and brightness vary considerably. There are a number of scratches and dirt marks, but artefacts are not as prevalent as I expected and macro blocking was not an issue. But of course we are talking about an unrestored 80 year old film here!

     There are burnt in subtitles for the infrequent German dialogue; some can be read, others are pretty much unreadable. The English text cards were obviously added some time later as they are much cleaner and easy to read; the contrast with the German opening credits is very marked.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a German Linear PCM track at 1536 Kbps, although in a couple of sections the dialogue is in English for a sentence or two; strange, maybe a couple of different sources were used. The limited dialogue could be heard OK, effects were pretty much non-existent as befitting a film originally made as a silent. Hiss, hum and crackles were a loud constant and are distracting. There is obviously no surround or sub-woofer use.

     The score by Wolfgang Zeller is reasonably effective, but is always in competition with the hiss and hum.

     With so little dialogue, it was difficult to judge lip synchronization, even where the dialogue switched to English. Not a distraction anyway.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Booklet

     A booklet provides some interesting information and a summary for all the films in this box set.

     There have been a couple of excellent restored releases of Vampyr including a Region 1 US Criterion Collection and a Region 2 UK release from Eureka that include commentaries and decent extras. For a fairly comprehensive listing of the differences see the dvdcompare site here. A previous release of the film in Australia in a double feature with Nosteratu was reviewed by a reader of the site here.

     Fans of the film will no doubt already have one of the better releases if their system will support other regions. However, if you are just interested in seeing this gem, even in this poor presentation, the Blood Suckers package for a RRP of $19.95 for six films is a bargain. Indeed, I cannot find an equivalent of this three disc, six film package in any other region.

     Vampyr, is an audacious film, a mesmerising psychological horror film where the boundary between reality and the imaginings of a seriously disturbed mind is always in question. Parts of the film are quite visually stunning but it is very much spoiled by the poor presentation on this DVD. The video and audio are poor, but of course we are talking about an unrestored 80 year old film here!

     Vampyr is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world from 1922 to 1974.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Atom Age Vampire (Seddok, L'Erede di Satana) (1960) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Cult	Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1960
Running Time	86:07
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Anton Giulio Majano
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Alberto Lupo Susanne Loret Sergio Fantoni Franca Parisi Andrea Scotti Rina Franchetti Roberto Bertea Ivo Garrani Gianni Loti Tullio Altamura Gianna Piaz Francesco Sormano
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Armando Trovajoli

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 mono (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Beautiful stripper Jeanette Moreneau’s (Susanne Loret) seaman boyfriend Pierre (Sergio Fantoni) leaves her when she is reluctant to give up her profession. Distraught, she is involved in an automobile accident that disfigures her face. In hospital she is visited by Monique (Franca Parisi) who tells Jeanette that she is the assistant of renowned Professor Alberto Levin (Alberto Lupo) who, following his studies on atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima, has developed an experimental serum that will allow destroyed human tissue to regenerate. If Jeanette wishes to regain her beauty, she must secretly disappear and come to the Professor’s villa.

     The reality is that the serum, called Derma 28, is untested, being a development of an earlier Derma 25 serum that in fact caused horrible deformities. Jeanette comes to the Professor’s villa and is treated with Derma 28, using up all the available serum. It seems to work, and the scars on Jeanette’s face are healed. Levin falls madly in love with her, but it is only a short time before the disfigurement starts to regenerate. With the serum gone, Levin determines the only possibility of a permanent cure is to treat Jeanette with the genes of other young women. Monique becomes the first of Levin’s victims, but her genes are not enough. Levin, reluctant to kill again, takes Derma 25 at night and turns into a murderous beast, killing young women and bringing back what is needed to treat Jeanette before using radiation to turn himself back into a man.

     Things get worse for Levin. The culmination of doses of Derma 25 mean that he starts to turn into a monster without more doses, Jeanette fails to return his love and seeks to escape, and a Police Inspector (Ivo Garrani) and Pierre, returned from abroad, are becoming suspicious. This is unlikely to end well.

     Atom Age Vampire (original title Seddok, l’erende di Satana) is not really a vampire film. Instead it falls into the mad scientist, Jekyll and Hyde, formula, with the scientist giving all for science, and love. The plot has more holes than a colander, but director Anton Giulio Majano, who was primarily a TV director throughout his career as was main actor Alberto Lupo, play it absolutely straight and give it their all. Alberto Lupo is actually reasonably good, as is Ivo Garrani who injects a bit of humour into the Inspector, but both Susanne Loret and Sergio Fantoni are particularly wooden which undermines the tension somewhat.

     Atomic Age Vampire has been released in a diverse range of cuts, ranging from the original Italian cut at about 107 minutes, a US theatrical version at approximately 87 minutes, a US video about 72 minutes and DVD at 69 minutes. The version in this set from Gryphon at 86:07 minutes seems to be the US theatrical release. In any case, the original version of the film may have been lost, so this is about the best one can expect. Atomic Age Vampire is actually not as bad as some critics, or the IMDb rating, contend. While it still has some superfluous scenes, such as those in the night club which seem to be inserted at random, it otherwise speeds along and is a reasonably interesting variation on the Jekyll and Hyde theme.

     Atom Age Vampire is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world, Germany, Spain, Italy and England, from 1922 to 1974. The full list is Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932) on disc 1, Atom Age Vampire (1960) and Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) on disc 2 and Vampire Night Orgy (1974) and Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973) on disc 3. The set also includes an informative eight page booklet.

Video

     Atom Age Vampire is presented in a ratio of 1.78:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. The original theatrical ratio was apparently 1.66:1. The print is NTSC format.

     This unrestored black and white print has some problems but is never unwatchable. The worst section of the video is the opening credits, which are mottled and even have a twinge of purple! After that the print does improve. Much of the film is very soft and lacking in detail, contrast is also poor and blacks are mostly OK but occasionally break up into moving mottled shades of grey; see 50:04 for a good (bad) example. Small artefacts are infrequent, but vertical scratches are quite noticeable (for example 25:21, 38:24 or 45:02). There are also a number of largish marks, reel change markers and interlacing errors with sudden movements.

     There are also a number abrupt scene changes, resulting no doubt to the cutting down of the original movie’s length,

     The layer change at 74:16 resulted in a slight pause.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is an English Linear PCM track at 1536 Kbps. The dialogue is fine, effects tinny but acceptable. There is no surround or sub-woofer use. There are a couple of cracks but no hiss or hum is evident.

     The score is by Armando Trovajoli. Often it sounds like it belongs in a 1960s James Bond film, and is sometimes very inappropriate for what is happening on screen. For example, at 5:00 when Jeanette first looks upon her disfigured face the music is breezy and jazzy! I often found it distracting.

     This is the dubbed English language version of the film and lip synchronization was dreadful.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Booklet

     A booklet provides some interesting information and a summary for all the films in this box set.

     The Region 1 US version of Atom Age Vampire is in a double feature with Bloodlust (1959). I can find no information about the run time, audio or state of the video on this release but one review notes that this is a severely truncated print.

     Rather surprisingly, our version is 16x9 enhanced, and seems to be the original US theatrical release version. There does not seem to be another version available. As such, the film in this Blood Suckers package for a RRP of $19.95 for six films is a bargain. I also cannot find an equivalent of this three disc, six film package in any other region.

     Atom Age Vampire is not really a vampire film but falls into the mad scientist genre, with the scientist giving all for science, and love. The plot has more holes than a colander, but otherwise speeds along and is a reasonably interesting variation on the Jekyll and Hyde theme. This English language version appears to be the US theatrical release version of the film.

     Video and audio are acceptable for a film this age in the public domain. The only extra is a booklet.

     Atom Age Vampire is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world from 1922 to 1974.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Cult	Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1969
Running Time	73:40
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Amando de Ossorio
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Anita Ekberg Gianni Medici Diana Lorys Rosanna Yanni César Benet Carlos Casaravilla Fernando Bilbao Paul Muller Adriana Santucci Aurelia Treviño Juanita Ramírez Adriana Ambesi
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Carlo Savina

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Two weeks before she is due to marry her fiancée Dr Piero Luciani (Gianni Medici, credited as John Hamilton), beautiful model Sylvia Morel (Anita Ekberg) learns that her mother has died and left her a castle. She travels to the castle and meets the Count, her uncle (Julian Ugarte), who looks as youthful as Sylvia. That night, Sylvia is visited by the mysterious Blinka (Adriana Ambesi), whose relationship to the family is never explained. Blinka tells Sylvia a strange tale about her mother and is about to bite Sylvia’s neck when the Count arrives, drags Blinka away and whips her. The Count then proceeds to tell Sylvia about her grandmother Malenka, who experimented in alchemy and was thus burnt at the stake as a witch by the locals. The result was a curse upon the family, such that Sylvia can never marry.

     Sylvia sends Piero a letter breaking off their engagement, but he cannot accept this and arrives at the village with his friend Max (Cesar Benet, credited as Guy Roberts), where they stay at the inn. Owner Freya (Rosanna Yanni) is concerned for her sister Bertha (Diana Lorys) who is ill. Piero examines her and finds little wrong, but that night Bertha is visited by the Count, who is indeed a vampire, and dies. Local Doctor Horbinger (Carlos Casaravilla) shows Piero the two puncture wounds in Bertha’s neck, but Piero is all modern and scientific and refuses to believe in the existence of vampires. The next night, Piero discovers that the dead do in fact walk, and as the Count prepares to turn Sylvia into a vampire, it is up to Piero to save the woman he loves from becoming one of the living dead.

     Fangs of the Living Dead (also known as Malenka) is a Spanish film from director Amando de Ossorio who went on to become one of the main directors of the surge of Spanish language horror films of the 1970s, when his output included La noche del terror (1972) (released as Tombs of the Blind Dead) and El ataque de los muertos sin ojos (1972) (Return of the Evil Dead). In Fangs of the Living Dead he acquired the services of Anita Ekberg, a winner of Miss Sweden in 1950 whose film career highlight was La Dolce Vita (1960) for Fellini but whose subsequent career was better known for her private life than for her acting prowess.

     Fangs of the Living Dead has a nonsensical plot and is played more for campy humour than serious intent. The characters cannot see what is before their eyes and take choices that make no sense at all, and there is a half-hearted attempt at the end to explain away the vampire story. Julian Ugarte as the Count does a reasonable job and Carlos Casaravilla as the local doctor is also good, but the rest of the cast is very wooden, including Ekberg, and Cesar Benet as the “comic relief” buddy is positively annoying. However, there is lots of eye candy on show with Adriana Ambesi, Rosanna Yanni and Diana Lorys in low cut dresses, the castle set is interesting and some of the sequences, such as Sylvia running through the crypt with blue light highlighting the walls, build up nice tension. However, the twist at the end of the film shows that nothing is to be taken seriously.

     Fangs of the Living Dead is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a box set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world, Germany, Spain, Italy and England, from 1922 to 1974. The full list is Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932) on disc 1, Atom Age Vampire (1960) and Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) on disc 2 and Vampire Night Orgy (1974) and Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973) on disc 3. The set also includes an informative eight page booklet.

Video

     Fangs of the Living Dead is presented in a ratio of approximately 1.66:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. The print is NTSC format. The original theatrical ratio was 1.85:1, and this is only the start of the problems.

     First, the film shows clear evidence of cropping at the sides and top. People talking are often out of the frame (an early example is 4:51) and frequently heads disappear out the top of the frame. This is also a soft looking print, although detail is acceptable. Colours are dull and washed out, skin tones vary and brightness and contrast does fluctuate. Blacks are mostly OK, shadow detail is acceptable, if hardly crisp.

     While there are some dirt marks and scratches, most are quite small, although some, such as at 17:26 are more noticeable. A bigger problem is interlacing errors that are frequent and obvious whenever there is movement on screen. Some of the worst examples are during the burning of Malenka (28:07 – 29:14) where the combination of movement and fire is just too much for the print, or during the female fight at the end: stop the film at 69:03, for example, for a screen full of lines. There are also a number of frame jumps, suggesting missing frames in this print.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is an English Linear PCM track at 1536 Kbps. The dialogue is mostly fine, the effects dull and tinny. There was no surround or sub-woofer use. There is some hiss and hum evident, plus the occasional crack.

     The score by Carlo Savina could not be said to be subtle; for example heavy organ music occurs with “scary” parts. As such it could be said to compliment the film.

     The film was not shot in English. This release is an English dub with horrible lip synchronization issues. There really seems little attempt to match the voices to the character’s lips.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     A booklet provides some interesting information and a summary for all the films in this box set.

     The only other version of the film I can find is a Region 1 US release that is 1.33:1, non 16x9 enhanced. It has some liner notes by Mirek Lipinski, but I cannot ascertain its running time. The original Italian version of the film ran 98 minutes, the Spanish version 90 minutes, and the US theatrical version 88 minutes, so however you want to look at it this DVD release is a severely truncated version of the film. However, I cannot find a record of any of these European cuts being available. This Gryphon release may be the truncated version, but it is closer to the original theatrical ratio and is 16x9 enhanced. There does not seem a lot of choice if you want to see this film, and it is included in the Blood Suckers package for a RRP of $19.95 for six films so is a bargain. I cannot find an equivalent of this three disc, six film package in any other region.

     Fangs of the Living Dead is not to be taken seriously. It has a nonsensical plot, however, there is lots of eye candy on show including Anita Ekberg. The video has some of the worse interlacing I have seen for some time, the audio is functional and a booklet is the only extra.

     Fangs of the Living Dead is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world from 1922 to 1974.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

The Vampires Night Orgy (La Orgia Nocturna de los Vampiros) (1973) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Cult	Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1973
Running Time	78:52
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	León Klimovsky
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Jack Taylor Dyanik Zurakowska José Guardiola Charo Soriano Helga Liné Manuel de Blas David Aller Luis Ciges Gaspar 'Indio' González Antonio Páramo Fernando Bilbao Alfonso de la Vega Rafael Albaicín
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     The film commences with a funeral during the opening credits when the coffin splits open to reveal a mouldy, maggoty corpse, before switching to a group of travellers on a bus in the countryside. When their bus driver dies of a heart attack the travellers divert from the main road to the village of Tolnia hoping to find shelter for the night. They find the village totally deserted, but the inn has a fire and is well stocked so they settle in. Shortly after another traveller, Luis (Jack Taylor), arrives at the inn, telling them that he had been in the village for an hour but has also seen no-one. They all decide to stay the night and find rooms. Luis gets lucky; he discovers a peep-hole in his room that allows him to see into the next room where pretty blonde Alma (Dyanik Zurakowska) is undressing. After midnight, Ernesto (Indio Gonzalez) decides to check on the bus. He discovers instead that there are indeed people in the village, who attack him and tear at his throat.

     In the morning, all is normal and the villagers come to the inn to help provide breakfast for the stranded travellers. The village head, Boris, called The Major (Jose Guardiola), tells Luis and Alma that the night before everyone had been at a funeral in the cemetery. Behind the scenes there is a problem: the village does not have enough meat to feed the travellers, so The Giant (a wonderful Fernando Bilbao) uses his axe to cut off the leg of a villager, and a roast is on the menu. And Ernesto turns up, looking very pale.

     When neither Luis’ car nor the bus can be started, The Major takes everyone to meet The Countess (Helga Line) who offers them the hospitality of the village until suitable parts to fix the bus will arrive. What’s more, she will pay for everything. The Countess also takes a liking to young teacher Cesar (David Aller), who stays behind in her villa when the others return to the inn. The Countess seduces Cesar, then sinks her teeth into his neck to suck his blood before throwing his body off the balcony to the ravenous villagers below. It seems the travellers have stumbled onto a village of vampires, and one by one they are caught and converted into the living dead until only Luis and Alma are left to try to make their escape.

     The Vampires Night Orgy (the DVD cover calls the film Vampire Night Orgy but the former is how the title appears in the credit sequence and how it is known in the UK release - original Spanish title La orgia nocturna de los vampiros) is an entertaining vampire film from prolific Argentine born director Leon Klimovsky who made a number of well-regarded Spanish horror and vampire films in his long career. If the acting leaves a little to be desired, the village looks good in widescreen and the film builds up a number of tense and creepy moments, such as the sequence with the child in the graveyard. The film also has a nice touch of black humour. After Luis watches Alma through the peep-hole, he sends her a note telling her not to worry as “someone is watching over you” and when the leg of the villager as served as a roast one man comments “I’ve never tasted anything like this” to which The Major replies “no, you certainly haven’t”. There is also a wonderful scene where Alma finds a finger in her food, and the escape from the village is exciting and well-staged, and with a nice twist as well. The music is fairly typical 1970s, with up tempo horns and is intrusive and tends to undermine some of the tension. The creepy scenes work far better when the music is minimalized.

     As usual for Spanish films made late in Franco’s reign, two versions of the scenes involving sexual content were shot for The Vampires Night Orgy. The version for international release included both Dyanik Zurakowska (when she undresses with Luis watching) and Helga Line (when she seduces Cesar) in nude scenes. For Spanish audiences the actresses were clothed in these scenes, and sadly this is the version that is now available, although Dyanik Zurakowska is topless in one scene.

     Vampire Night Orgy is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a box set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world, Germany, Spain, Italy and England, from 1922 to 1974. The full list is Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932) on disc 1, Atom Age Vampire (1960) and Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) on disc 2 and Vampire Night Orgy (1974) and Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973) on disc 3. The set also includes an informative 8 page booklet.

Video

     The Vampires Night Orgy is presented in a ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio and is not16x9 enhanced. The print is NTSC format.

     This is a nice looking print. The print is quite soft and detail is not great, and colours are dull. Blacks are mostly OK, but do deteriorate on some occasions, shadow detail is not great but is acceptable for an unrestored film that is almost 40 years old. On the other hand, the print exhibits only infrequent small dirt marks and the odd scratch, as well as minor aliasing on surfaces such as the bus grill (2:23) or car grill (54:11). Generally, a nice print to look at.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is an English Linear PCM track at 1536 Kbps. The audio is not in as good a condition as the video.

     This is the English language dub of the film. Dialogue is easy to understand and the effects are actually quite good. Clocks tick crisply, footsteps echo and things go creak in the night to good effect. On the other hand, the audio exhibits a continual hum that is distracting, plus the occasional crack.

     I could not find a credit for the score. As noted in the review, the music was a very 1970s up tempo score that is intrusive and tends to undermine some of the tension created by the visuals.

     The lip synchronization in the English dub is rather better than most, but is still obvious on occasions.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Booklet

     A booklet provides some interesting information and a summary for all the films in this box set.

     There are a couple of releases of The Vampires Night Orgy listed on Amazon. The Region 1 US release is listed as 1.33:1, the Region 2 UK as 2.35:1. Neither is 16x9 enhanced, and both are the “clothed” version of the film. There seems to reason to go beyond our version which has the added benefit of being included in the Blood Suckers package for a RRP of $19.95 for six films. I cannot find an equivalent of this three disc, six film package in any other region.

     The Vampires Night Orgy is an entertaining vampire film from prolific Argentine born director Leon Klimovsky. If the acting leaves a little to be desired, the village looks good in widescreen and the film builds up a number of tense and creepy moments. The film also has a nice touch of black humour. The video is quite good, the audio less so. A booklet is the only extra.

     The Vampires Night Orgy is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world between 1922 and 1974.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride (1973) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Cult	Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1973
Running Time	87:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Alan Gibson
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Christopher Lee Peter Cushing Michael Coles William Franklyn Freddie Jones Joanna Lumley Richard Vernon Barbara Yu Ling Patrick Barr
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	John Cacavas

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     A badly injured man escapes from a facility called Pellham House while a satanic rite is being performed involving a naked woman and the blood of a cock. The man is a secret service undercover operator and before he dies he provides his superiors, Colonel Mathews (Richard Vernon) and Torrence (William Franklyn) with evidence that four of the men involved in the satanic rite are wealthy establishment figures; leaders of science, commerce, the armed forces and a Cabinet Minister in the government. Unable to investigate officially, Mathews calls in Scotland Yard’s Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) who in turn calls in occult expert Lorrimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) and Van Helsing’s granddaughter Jessica (Joanna Lumley).

     One of the men identified at the rite was scientist and Nobel Prize winner Professor Julian Keeley (Freddie Jones), an old acquaintance of Van Helsing. Van Helsing visits Keeley’s laboratory, and finds Keeley almost incoherent in speech and manner. However, Van Helsing learns that at the request of a mysterious benefactor Keeley had experimented and rediscovered a potent version of the Black Death virus, so powerful it could wipe out the entire population of the world in a short time. The benefactor had required the virus before the 23rd of the month, two days away. Before Van Helsing can find out more, an intruder shoots Van Helsing. When Van Helsing regains consciousness, the plague virus has disappeared and Kelley’s body is hanging from a rope.

     While Van Helsing is visiting Keeley, Murray, Torrence and Jessica visit Pellham House. Jessica finds her way into the basement of the house and is attacked by a group of female vampires, but is saved by the others in the nick of time. Escaping the house, all parties meet later. It seems that the owner of the house, and financier before Keeley’s laboratory, is the mysterious businessman D.D. Denham, who Van Helsing believes is really Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). As the evening of the 23rd approaches, the team put Pellham House under watch and prepare their weapons against the vampire menace. Before the night is over, some will pay the ultimate sacrifice, and some be placed in grave peril, in their opposition to the unimaginable evil of Count Dracula and his disciples.

     Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride (also released as The Satanic Rites of Dracula) is a Hammer Production, the last to feature the wonderful pairing of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as well as being the last time Lee played Dracula in a Hammer production. Also of interest is the presence of Joanna Lumley, later of Absolutely Fabulous . Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride does not do anything unexpected or unusual, but the cast alone would be sufficient reason to watch this film even if it didn’t add a reasonably taut script, some good visuals and nice tension in some sequences, such as the attack upon Jessica by the female vampires. An entertaining vampire film.

     Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a box set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world, Germany, Spain, Italy and England from 1922 to 1974. The full list is Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932) on disc 1, Atom Age Vampire (1960) and Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) on disc 2 and Vampire Night Orgy (1974) and Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973) on disc 3. The set also includes an informative 8 page booklet.

Video

     Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride is presented in a ratio of 1.78:1, and is not16x9 enhanced. The print is NTSC format. The original theatrical ratio was 1.85:1.

     First, the good news. This is a reasonably sharp print with nice detail, good blacks and good shadow detail. Colours are natural, if a bit dull, and shin tones fine. Brightness and contrast vary occasionally, but nothing serious.

     On the other hand, scratches and both big and small artefacts are frequent. Most are not too distracting but some vertical scratches are obvious (such as during the opening titles) and other frames have quite extensive damage – see the vertical scratches at 32:39 for example. There are also frame jumps, reel change markers and aliasing (at 61:09). Still, the film is quite watchable.

     Four times a yellow circular “Mill Creek Entertainment” logo appears in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and stays there for over 10 seconds (see 13:39, 36:32, 55:19 and 74:58). It was quite distracting.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is an English Linear PCM track at 1536 Kbps. Throughout the film there is a constant hiss and hum, and occasional cracks. In quieter moments it is quite distracting. Given this, the dialogue is fine and easy to understand, the effects robust. There is no surround or sub-woofer use.

     The score by John Cacavas was quite effective in helping to create atmosphere.

     Lip synchronization was fine.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Booklet

     A booklet provides some interesting information and a summary for all the films in this box set.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

     There have been a number of Region 0 releases of the film, but nothing special. For a look at the various versions see the dvdcompare site here. There has also been a single disc version released in Region 4 under the title The Satanic Rites of Dracula which was reviewed on this site here.

     The earlier Region 4 release seems to have had better video and audio and a trailer as extra. However, if you don’t have the film, this Blood Suckers package for a RRP of $19.95 for 6 films is a bargain. Indeed, I cannot find an equivalent of this three disc, six film package in any other region.

     Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride is the last Hammer film to feature the wonderful pairing of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Also of interest is the presence of Joanna Lumley. Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride does not do anything unexpected, but the cast alone would be sufficient reason to watch this film even if it didn’t add a reasonably taut script, some good visuals and a nice tension is some sequences. The video is not too bad, but a constant hiss affects the audio. A booklet is the only extra.

     Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world between 1922 and 1974.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall