cult film freak: ROBERT QUARRY SINKS HIS TEEH INTO 'COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE'

Title: COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE Year: 1970 Rating: ****

A hybrid of late-1960's leading to early-1970's low-budget exploitation horror and the classic horror genre, COUNT YORGA VAMPIRE balances rough, grainy exterior with an American actor seeming extremely British... so formidably sophisticated yet wonderfully underplayed, he was supposed to replace an aging Vincent Prince for American International Pictures...

Consisting of sparse-setup interiors, gothic mansion exteriors and stolen shots of various characters having looped-in conversations throughout daylight Los Angeles, YORGA not only made money but was critically praised... mainly because of Robert Quarry's titular role, more befitting a higher-budgeted, Victorian-era Hammer production...

Michael Macready and Donna Anderson in COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE

Making sense since this vampire's from the same lavish ancient times while the comparably mundane current era's punctuated by Microbus-driving Michael Murphy, the glib boyfriend of lead ingenue Judy Lange, who, despite being Yorga's first bitten-victim, has the most screen-time as her transition from lithe beauty to kitten-eating monster takes up the most screentime in both suspense and overall energy...

Leaving Roger Perry as a deliberately bland blood-doctor turned wannabe vampire hunter, so familiar from having appeared in movies and sitcoms he equally represents mainstream-modern times as Quarry does enigmatic timelessness while producer/co-star Michael Macready... son of the deep-voiced narrator George Maccready... is linked with the more subtle beauty/final girl in Donna Anderson and yet, by the end, there's no escaping the hypnotically suave power of a deadly antagonist the audience not only roots for, but who makes the most sense in a world created specifically for his character (and performance) to legitimize.