1970 Count Yorga, Vampire

• AKA “The Loves of Count Iorga, Vampire”
• Directed by Bob Kelljan
• Written by Bob Kelljan
• Stars Robert Quarry, Roger Perry, Michael Murphy
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DocBJ22qmh4

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was originally intended to be a softcore porn movie. You can still see some hints of that here, but mostly it’s a serious horror film. It’s an updated vampire tale set in the modern age of 1970. It’s a little on the predictable side, but we thought it was quite good.

Spoilery Synopsis

We watch a coffin being loaded onto a truck from a ship and driven through time as we get a voiceover that talks about vampires and their powers and abilities (in case you’ve never heard of vampires). The truck with the coffin arrives at a big house in the country. 

We cut to a group of people sitting in a circle as they prepare to do a seance. The group isn’t taking the whole thing very seriously, but Donna wants this to happen so she can talk to her dead mother. The man leading the group, Count Yorga, is also very serious about the seance. Things take a creepy turn, and there’s a lot of screaming. 

Donna faints, and Yorga takes care of her, but Michael doesn’t like any of this. He hypnotizes her secretly and the others have no idea. He leaves shortly after with eating or drinking anything. 

Later, Donna explains that Yorga was her mother’s boyfriend for the three weeks before she died. He talked Donna out of having her mother cremated. He didn’t come to the funeral, which is odd. 

Some of the guests drive Yorga home, and they meet his creepy servant, Brudah. He invites Paul and Erica in for a drink; she’s interested, but Paul says not tonight. They drive off but soon get stuck. Funny, the road wasn’t wet before. They don’t go back to the count’s house, they have sex in the back of the van. 

Soon, Count Yorga comes to the van, and it’s now obvious that he’s a vampire. Paul is knocked out, and Erica loses all memory of what happened. 

Erica’s lost a lot of blood and is dizzy. Dr. Jim Hayes, tells her to eat lots of rare steaks to fix that. “It must be the two bite marks on her throat” which she can’t explain. 

Paul and Mike talk about hypnosis and how good Yorga was at it with Donna. Erica also lost her memory; could the two be connected? They go over to Erica’s house, which is a mess, and they find her eating her cat. Paul donates blood for a transfusion to Erica administered by Jim and Mike. 

We cut to Count Yorga’s castle, where he has two women sleeping on stone slabs. When he comes in, the two women wake up; they’re vampires too, and one of them is Donna’s mother. 

Jim talks to Paul and Mike about vampires. Yorga is supposed to be from Bulgaria, and that fits the profile. They talk about how unlikely that is, but they don’t really rule it out, either. 

Yorga looks out the window, and somewhere else, Erica wakes up and walks to her window and opens it. Then she waits on her bed as Yorga arrives to bite her again. When Paul comes upstairs, Erica is gone. 

Mike calls Jim, and they head up to the castle. Jim’s girlfriend mentions he read about a baby drained of blood in the newspaper. Jim calls the police with this information, and they have the expected response: they hang up on him. 

Count Yorha is expecting Paul to come to the house, and he even unlocks the door for him. Yorga jumps out and strangles Paul before Brudag breaks his back. Yorga tells his servant “You can expect more guests.” 

Jim, Mike, and Donna knock on the door. Their plan is to keep Yorga occupied until the sun rises. Yorga invites them inside, but he says he hasn’t seen Erica or Paul since the seance last night. Jim is a blood specialist, and Yorga is intrigued by that. Jim asks about the mystic arts, and Yorga admits that he’s interested in those things. 

They note that it’s 4:30 a.m. and the sun should be rising soon. Yorga knows what they’re up to as the men drag out the conversation. Yorga claims to have seen a werewolf, and he absolutely believes they exist. When asked, he also believes in vampires. He insists on retiring for the night, so the guests have to leave. 

At home, Jim tells Mike they have to kill Count Yorga, but Mike isn’t on board with that. Jim says if he is a vampire, he’ll turn to dust and there won’t be any evidence. They plan to go back and do the deed in the early afternoon. That morning, Yorga telepathically calls for Donna to come and join him. 

Mike and Jim both oversleep; it’s nearing sunset already. Donna drives to the Count’s house. Brudah forces himself on her a little before dragging her inside. He apologizes to Master Yorga, but Yorga seems pretty dismissive about it. Meanwhile, Mike and Jim break up furniture to make stakes and crosses at the last minute. 

Inside the castle, Yorga now has a nice collection of women on slabs. He finds Jim on the doorstep and invites him inside. They talk more about vampires. He takes Jim to see Erica, who is now a vampire as well. 

Meanwhile, Mike sneaks in the back door and find Yorga’s empty coffin. He hears Jim calling for help and runs upstairs. The three women wake up and surround Jim. By the time Mike finds them, it’s too late for Jim. Mike and Brudah fight in the dungeon until Mike stabs the brute. Next, he has to fight Erica and the redhead vampire. 

Yorga wakes Donna up to talk to her mother, who is not as dead as she thought. Mike barges in and stabs Donna’s mother. Yorga runs out, leaving Donna to Mike. Yorga does a sneak attack, and Mike stabs him with a broken broom handle. He soon turns to dust. 

One the way out, Mike and Donna run into the remaining two female vamps. He locks them in the basement, but that doesn’t help when Donna turns and bites him…

Brian’s Commentary

This was intended as a softcore porn movie, but actor Robert Quarry insisted it be switched to just a standard horror movie. You can see where this was intended to go with a few of the side characters, like Jim’s girlfriend. 

The Count Yorga character was originally intended to be the villain in the second “Dr. Phibes Rises Again” (1972) movie, but they ended up reworking the character to be a different kind of immortal, still played by Robert Quarry. 

It was an attempt to modernize the vampire story to the “modern” 1970 time period and taking modern science and skepticism into account. 

There’s not a lot here that’s surprising or unexpected, but it’s good if you’re a fan of the movies of that period. 

Kevin’s Commentary

This was my third viewing of this. I’m quite sure I saw this at the drive-in when it came out, though since I was about five at the time, my first memory is hazy. My second time was some years ago. I still found it pretty entertaining this time around. Robert Quarry is quite good as the lead, and it’s decent overall.