Count Yorga, Vampire

The early 70s were a great period for vampire movies. In England Hammer released some classics like 'The Vampire Lovers' and 'Vampire Circus', while Europe gave us some gems by Rollin, Franco and Larraz. America was not to be left out, and Bob Kelljan's 'Count Yorga, Vampire' is a great little movie that is often unfairly overlooked. Kelljan had acted in a couple of Richard Rush movies in the 60s including 'Psych-Out', before making a few exploitation movies of his own in the early- to mid-70s. For the rest of the decade he mainly concentrated on TV before sadly having his career cut short by cancer. As well as two Count Yorga movies he also directed 'Scream Blacula Scream' and the notorious 'Rape Squad'. 'Count Yorga, Vampire' is interesting because it is set in contemporary America, quite a rarity at the time. Robert Quarry ('Dr Phibes Rises Again') is excellent as Yorga. He's very charismatic and cool and I think this character deserved more than only two movies. The rest of the cast are pretty much unknown to me apart from Michael Murphy, an Altman semi-regular who also later appeared in 'Manhattan' and 'Magnolia'. He has made very few genre films but he can also be seen in 'Strange Behavior' and Wes Craven's 'Shocker'. I enjoyed 'Count Yorga, Vampire' a lot and highly recommend it to fans of 60s and 70s vampire movies.