Michel Parry - Countess Dracula

[dem]

Michel Parry - Countess Dracula (Sphere, 1971: Beagle, 1971, Redemption one-we-don't-talk-about, 1995)

Blurb from Beagle edition.

The Countess was old. But she had discovered the secret of eternal youth - a secret which spread death and despair among the peasants on her estates. After her husband’s death the Countess quickly chose a young lieutenant of the Hussars to take his place in her bed.

Occasionally a novelisation can be as entertaining in its own right as the film that inspired it, and such is the case with Michel Parry's loose adaptation of Countess Dracula.

Castle Veres, Carpathian Mountains, Eastern Europe. No sooner is her husband Count Ferdinand Nadasdy in his grave than Elizabath, the Countess Bathory, turns her attention to handsome young Imre Toth, a lieutenant in the Hussars as his replacement. There's just one, seemingly insurmountable obstacle: Imre isn't exactly falling over himself to accept a glamorous granny as his wife.

Elizabeth's cruel streak is the bane of her subjects lives (she once had a girl smeared in honey and fed to the ants for stealing a pear) and when the young maid Teri runs her bath too hot, the Countess lashes out at her, raking her face. Elizabeth takes up her mirror and - what's this? Where the poor girl's blood has splashed across her cheek, the once wrinkled skin is now flawless! Ecstatic at this marvel, Elizabeth has Teri put to death in secret and bathes in her blood!

Meanwhile, her beautiful daughter Ilona, unaware that the Count is already dead, is making all haste to the castle when she's set upon and abducted by bandits in the employ of Dobi, Elizabeth's fearsome henchman.

Elizabeth, completely rejuvenated and possessed of her youthful beauty, is on the verge of seducing Imre when - horrors! - she notices that the skin on her hand is growing hideously old and blotchy again. In desperation the Countess runs shrieking from the room, and Imre is obliged to seek his recreation elsewhere. What is she to do? Informed that a circus has set up camp outside the castle, Elizabeth pays a visit and invites a beautiful gypsy fortune teller to throw a tarot for her. When the girl's corpse is discovered entirely drained of blood the peasants murmur darkly of the curse upon them. Not only do they live in thrall to a sadistic madwoman but now a vampire walks among them!

There now follows a rather spicy interlude which sees Imre accompany the scheming Dobi to a whorehouse where the young hussar gets blind drunk and collapses on a bed. Dobi, who has designs on Eizabeth, seizes the opportunity to bring the old girl to her senses by smuggling the pneumatic sex-machine Ziza into the Castle, and setting her loose on the comatose Imre while he grasses him up to the Countess. Elizabeth is furious at Imre's perceived unfaithfulness until she realises the entire escapade was Dobi's handiwork, and besides, now she's back to her "bent and mouldering" worst, a nice rejuvenating bath wouldn't go amiss.

Ziza, incensed that Imre is beyond appreciating her charms and concerned that she won't get paid, is only too willing to oblige when Dobi offers her a hundred krona's to get it on with the Countess ("For a hundred I'd take on the whole Turkish harem', she said enthusiastically"). Ziza goes the way of Teri and the gypsy girl before her, but this time the immersion in the tub of blood doesn't work. What went wrong?

Luckily Fabio the ancient librarian has been prying undetected at the keyhole for virtually the entire book (the hot lesbo action was a result) and now he's ready to impart his wisdom to the Countess. Killing Ziza was a waste of time because only the blood of a virgin will do.

+++++++To be continued +++++++

[dem]

"Emerging into the cellar, the Sergeant was confronted with rows of huge wine barrels, their shadows flickering blackly against the walls in the flickering glare of the torches. Rats squeaked and scattered unseen in the shadows. It was deathly cold and their breath hung like mist in the air before them. A thunderous rumble sounder as another bailiff rolled away one of the heavy barrels, revealing a dark area behind it. The bailiff swung the flaming torch nearer and what its light revealed made the servants scream with horror and fright.

Lying there clasping each other like sleeping children, were the corpses of three naked girls, their skins strangely blue. Vivid red gashes gleamed at their throats and wrists. One of the girls was young, about fifteen, with an unattractive face. Another was a buxom blonde heavily made up. The bailiff held his torch nearer, lighting the face of the third victim. Despite the work of decay and the rats, the servants easily recognised the body of Teri, the Countess's pretty chambermaid."

Dobi, keen to boost his nasty bastard credentials, hangs Fabio and then leads Imre to Elizabeth's chamber just as she's taking a special bath. Imre is suitably horrified, but still cannot help but look forward to making a wife of this astonishingly gorgeous woman - whom he's been led to believes is Elizabeth's daughter Ilona! The Countess, however, faces another big problem. When the three corpses were found, all the women save for Elizabeth and her constant companion Julie were evacuated from the Castle and guards places at every known entrance and exit. Terrified that the effects of her latest bloodbath will wear off before the Wedding, Elizabeth instructs Dobi to procure another virgin. Dobi Knows just the girl! Tiring of the whole charade, he fetches the real Ilona who has spent the best part of the story imprisoned in Teri's room. Julie is so overcome at seeing her again that she decides perhaps the time has come to switch sides. What better way to bring down her beloved-mistress and set up a terrific climax than to introduce Imre to this little Princess! Sure enough it takes Imre a matter of micro-seconds to go off his Bride-to-be altogether, and plans are hatched for he and Ilona to make good their escape. But first he has a prior engagement in the chapel where the unsuspecting Elizabeth is all dressed up and ready to be wed ....

[bushwick]

Never knew Rememption put out any books. They had a really good catalogue of Euro horror and sleaze flicks (although many unfortunately cut). Never got on with the covers though, though I'm sure a lot of people did...

[dem]

Redemption went in for some kind of pulp paperback revival in the nineties with reprints of Jean Rollins' Little Orphan Vampires, Gordon Williams' Siege Of Trenchers Farm, a Virgin Witch tie-in, etc . Countess Dracula even runs a note "Also by Michel Parry and available in Redemption books - Aggro (sic) but i'm not sure if it ever surfaced. Their books were very Vault interest in content but, as with the DVD's, they got the packaging all wrong and I never got into them, quite simply because they lacked the sheer production tackiness of the originals. But there's no question they revived some class material and, doubtless, some utter pretentious bollocks: anybody remember The Redeemer magazine?. Might scan a few covers up later ....

Meanwhile, here's pulphack with some way more clued-in info.

Jean Rollins - Little Orphan Vampires (Redemption, 1995)

"Now they wanted to find a throat to cut, a tender stomach to slit open with their sharp teeth, a plump pair of buttocks for them to sink their fangs into like hungry young wolves. Just thinking about it makes them lick their purple lips with their pink tongues .... The little orphan vampires dragged themselves up onto the cemetery wall and looked down over Paris..."

Pulphack wrote: This was quite a nice little book - whoever translated it kept a vaguely poetic feel to the prose that seems to fit with the movies. I think this was one of several books he did, and they came before the movie. As I remember, he couldn't get any budgets in the late eighties/early nineties, so turned to pulp writing.

Redemption were crap, really. So much promise and so little result. Paying out hand over fist for product before they had the turnover to pay for both buying and production. The quality of the finished stuff never quite matched the taste, either. I know they paid for some Witches titles that they went under before printing. Wonder what else they bought?

[Johnlprobert]

I remember The Redeemer magazine - very classy production values. Its pages seemed to be filled with black and white photographs of lovely undraped ladies spattered with chocolate sauce. I'm not being funny now but to be honest I have no idea why I bought it.

Redemption did tend to get their packaging wrong, but at least they're still in business putting out classics like Jean Rollin's Night of the Hunted (trust me it's actually quite good) and Pete Walker's Schizo. Nigel Wingrove's problem of course was his complete and utter obsession with naked nuns - one that even Ken Russell at his most Devils-ish couldn't compete with.

I've got the Sphere edition of Countess Dracula

[dem]

Dec 1, 2008 21:19:38 GMT Johnlprobert said:

I remember The Redeemer magazine - very classy production values. Its pages seemed to be filled with black and white photographs of lovely undraped ladies spattered with chocolate sauce. I'm not being funny now but to be honest I have no idea why I bought it.

Nigel Wingrove's problem of course was his complete and utter obsession with naked nuns - one that even Ken Russell at his most Devils-ish couldn't compete with.

Seriously, same here: no idea why I bought it! If you've not seen a copy, John's description of the content is spot on, so what could there be to dislike?

Dunno, really, but I could never get along with Redeemer (199?). Always gave me the impression that it was falling over itself to be cutting edge and the last word in controversial, but all I could make of it was a gored-up Skin II, minus the sense of fun but choc full of pretentious art wank. This is exemplified in a series of fashion shoots so self-consciously "decadent" and "challenging" (Porno Holocaust in issue 2 is a particular joy) you almost want to cry for them that they have to try so desperately hard. Sacred Whores (trademark Lesbo Nuns with their tits out) is "Hey, look at us! We're being blasphemous! Please BAN us!" but poor old Nigel, it probably didn't shift enough copies for that to happen.

In mitigation there are some decent interviews (Madelaine Smith, Caroline Munro, Jean Rollin, Gen of the Geni-Torturers, Michael Goss, Shaun Hutson, uh, Jools Holland), the odd inspired article (Kubrick's ban on his own film, the bizarre fetish art of John Willie) and the ever welcome book reviews - even if they're not necessarily of anything you'd want to buy.

As far as i know there were just the three issues?

[killercrab]

Never got on with the covers though, though I'm sure a lot of people did...>>

No they're bad Bush - make The Witches covers look like high art. I have Redemptions Straw Dogs book and a couple of their dvds / vids and if I had a brain I'd remember which ones.

[Johnlprobert]

Dunno, really, but I could never get along with Redeemer (199?). It always gave me the impression that it was falling over itself to be cutting edge and the last word in controversial, but all i could make of it was a gored-up Skin II, minus the sense of fun but choc full of pretentious art wank. This is exemplified in a series of fashion shoots so self-consciously "decadent" and "challenging" (Porno Holocaust in issue 2 is a particular joy) you almost want to cry for them that they have to try so desperately hard. Sacred Whores (trademark Lesbo Nuns with their tits out) is "Hey, look at us! We're being blasphemous! Please BAN us!" but poor old Nigel, it probably didn't shift enough copies for that to happen.

Mr D is spot on (although I've never perused an issue of Skin II). Certainly I think you would have had to be a very special sort of person to enjoy the 'fashion shoots'. They did nothing for me but then following advice on another thread I'm planning to hang around the 'Bunch of Grapes' tavern in Bristol in a cape and black velvet jacket waiting for Susan Penhaligon.

[dem]

Nov 24, 2010 9:32:30 GMT killercrab said:

Watched Ingrid's tasty Countess Dracula last night , tits and fake beards aplenty ! It's rather an atypical Hammer Horror treading the line between the usual camp excess and a historical seriousness. This could be argued to be her best film - she's certainly more the *star* here than in the excellent Vampire Lovers. Whilst there might be argued to be other Hammer Horror Scream Queens ( Barbara Shelley for instance) - it's true to say Ingrid Pitt brought a popular overt sexuality to Hammer that is a big reason why they remain memorable today!

KC

Am planning to watch my ropey video of this (and The House That Dripped Blood) tonight as a tribute. Much as I adore The Vampire Lovers, would most days agree that Countess Dracula is the 'better' film, but what does it matter when they're both such jolly hammer romps? Interesting to read Ingrid's daughter, Steffanie's comments in The Mirror on Wednesday 24th.

LEGEND

Pitt, Queen of Hammer horror, dies

By MARK JEFFERIES

HAMMER Horror actress Ingrid Pitt has died at the age of 73.
The Polish-born star, who was a pin up for many schoolboys in the 1970s, collapsed in London last week while on her way to an event hosted by members of her fan club.
Pitt was best known as a screen siren in a string of British horror films including The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula.
She later became known as the Queen of Hammer horror and also had a minor part in the 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man.
Her daughter, Steffanie, described her mother as a "fantastic woman".
She added: "It was heart trouble. She had a couple of bad years, health-wise, but she had fought through. She'll be sorely missed."
Steffanie said she wanted her mother to be remembered as the Countess Dracula with the "wonderful teeth and the wonderful bosom".

I'm sure she will be, Steffanie.