cult film freak: SOLEDAD MIRANDA BITING EWA STRÖMBERG IN 'VAMPYROS LESBOS'

Soledad Miranda in VAMPYROS LESBOS Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2

In what's otherwise infamously campy directing icon Jesús Franco's most creatively/artistic Spanish horror, just the mere casting of perhaps the most beautiful women ever filmed, round-faced brunette Soledad Miranda (who tragically died at 27 one year before release), makes VAMPYROS LESBOS more intriguing than the deliberately basic premise taken straight from both DRACULA and NOSFERATU...

A pawn in the form of contrasting blonde beauty Ewa Strömberg (in place of solicitor Jonathan Harker), an insurance agent sent to the Turkish island lair to resolve an inheritance... where she's instantly smitten and bitten by Miranda's Countess Nadine Carody: followed by the usual sickly withdrawals during the human-to-vampire transition...

Soledad Miranda (billed as Susann Korda) in VAMPYROS LESBOS

The most effective scenes (beyond the token character-actor scientist and stock handsome boyfriend's expository dialogue) occurs between the brunette goddess and her blonde prey... yet they needed more connected chemistry beyond their amazing looks, while the kisses should have been much deeper and longer: not just for the exploitation value but the overall seductive story-arc...

Although this was far ahead of its time in 1971, inspiring even British giant Hammer Films to combine lesbians with vampires, and the funky/groovy guitar/sitar music by Manfred Hübler and Sigi Schwab (later used in JACKIE BROWN)... specifically backing the dark queen's delicious nightclub act... makes VAMPRIOS LESBOS more a hypnotic visual fable than completely effective horror flick.