The Vampire Lovers is a 1970 British Gothic horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, George Cole, Kate O'Mara, Madeline Smith, Dawn Addams, Douglas Wilmer and Jon Finch. It was produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is based on the 1872 Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla and is the first film in the Karnstein Trilogy, the other two films being Lust for a Vampire (1971) and Twins of Evil (1971). The three films were somewhat daring for the time in explicitly depicting lesbian themes.
The Countess is called away to tend a sick friend and imposes on the General to accept her daughter Marcilla as a houseguest. Some of the villagers begin dying, however, and the General's daughter Laura soon gets weak and pale, but Marcilla is there to comfort her. The villagers begin whispering about vampires as Marcilla finds another family on which to impose herself. The pattern repeats as Emma gets ill, but the General cannot rest, and seeks the advice of Baron Hartog, who once dealt a decisive blow against a family of vampires. Well, almost.
Credits Ingrid Pitt as Marcilla/Carmilla/Mircalla Karnstein Pippa Steel as Laura Spielsdorf Madeline Smith as Emma Morton Peter Cushing as General Spielsdorf George Cole as Roger Morton Dawn Addams as the Countess Kate O'Mara as the governess, Mademoiselle Perrodot Douglas Wilmer as Baron Joachim von Hartog Jon Finch as Carl Ebhardt Ferdy Mayne as the doctor Kirsten Lindholm as the First Vampire (the blonde woman) John Forbes-Robertson as the Man in Black Shelagh Wilcocks as the housekeeper Harvey Hall as Renton, the butler Janet Key as Gretchin, the maid Charles Farrell as the landlord
Screenplay by Tudor Gates Based on Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu Adaptation by Harry Fine Tudor Gates Michael Style Cinematography Moray Grant Edited by James Needs Music by Harry Robertson Production companies Hammer Film Productions Fantale Films Distributed by MGM-EMI Distributors
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