Count Yorga
Encyclopedia
Count Yorga, Vampire is a 1970 vampire
/horror
movie starring Robert Quarry
. It was followed by a sequel, The Return of Count Yorga
.
AIP had planned at one stage to revive Count Yorga as an adversary for the abominable Dr. Phibes in Dr. Phibes Rises Again
. This plan was dropped, however, and Robert Quarry appeared as the artificially young Dr. Biederbeck.
Robert Quarry later played another vampire, the messianic Khorda in 1973's The Deathmaster, which is often confused with the Yorga films because AIP
picked up the distribution rights and began using the term "The Deathmaster" to promote the Yorga sequel, The Return of Count Yorga
.
(whose son Michael produced the film) about the superstition of vampires as we see a truck carrying a coffin into Los Angeles.
The movie then shifts to a séance
where those involved try to contact the spirit of the recently deceased mother of one of the participants, Donna. It is here we meet the title character, Yorga (Robert Quarry
), who holds the séance at Donna's home and manages to charm the other guests while there. After the party is over, two of the guests, Erica and her boyfriend Paul, offer to drive the Count home. Experiencing car trouble outside of Yorga's mansion, the two resign to stay in the van during the night.
Yorga watches the couple make love, then attacks them, knocking out Paul and biting Erica. The next day Erica starts is shown eating a cat, and acts a lot more aggressive and seductive.
It doesn't take long for the male protagonists to suspect a vampire is at work. As they ponder the possibility of the undead, Yorga visits Erica during the night, biting her once again, making her undead, and bringing her back to the mansion to join his other two brides.
Paul goes to Yorga's mansion to get her back, but Yorga expects him and easily subdues and kills him with help of his deformed servant, Brudah. The rest of the remaining characters come by for the night to ask of Paul's whereabouts and one of them, Dr. Hayes (Roger Perry), trades wits with Yorga during their visit. But Yorga easily deflects Hayes' verbal tricks, and manages to hypnotise Donna when the others aren't looking.
During the day, Yorga calls to Donna and, in a trance, she heads back to his mansion, where Brudah rapes her. Hayes and Donna's boyfriend, Michael, find out she is missing and head to Yorga's mansion as it gets dark. There they split up, and Hayes is confronted by Yorga again. He offers proof that he is a vampire, leading the unknowing doctor into a trap in his basement where the vampire's brides are sleeping. As Hayes calls out to Michael, the brides awake and attack him.
Michael meanwhile makes his way through the mansion, finding Paul's body and coming into a confrontation with Brudah, whom he manages to kill. Meanwhile, upstairs, Yorga reunites Donna with her mother, who happens to be one of Yorga's brides. Michael finds Hayes, bloody and dying in Yorga's basement. With his last breath, Hayes tells Michael of Donna's whereabouts just as the vampire Erica and Yorga's other bride try to attack him.
Michael fends them off then proceeds upstairs, where he confronts Yorga and Donna's mother. Yorga pushes his bride onto Michael's stake and makes a run for it. Michael goes after him and almost gets choked to death. But he manages to ram the charging Yorga with his stake. Yorga dies and turns to dust as Michael and Donna look on.
As they attempt to leave, they're confronted by the two remaining brides. Michael manages to hold them back with a cross and chases them off. Unfortunately, as he turns around, Donna, now transformed into a vampire herself, attacks him.
"Superstition?" the narrator's voice says in his last moment of the film before we hear him laughing in the night and "The End" appears on the screen, showing us a very bloody and dead Michael.
, the actress who played Donna's mother, had previously starred in such fare as Marsha, the Erotic Housewife.
(formerly known as M, later renamed to PG) from the Motion Picture Association of America
, which initially was divided as to whether to give the film an R or X rating. AIP insisted that they needed an unrestricted GP rating for the film in order to get the film released into the largest possible number of theaters, most importantly drive-in theater
s. The film ended up going before the MPAA ratings board six times before being granted the GP rating, and two or three minutes of violent and sexual content were ultimately removed by AIP. Alterations to the movie's soundtrack were also required to lessen the impact of violent scenes that remained in the film. The current MGM DVD
release of the film carries a PG-13 rating, indicating the possibility that some of the deleted footage may have been restored.
The most obvious excision was the scene wherein a woman, having succumbed to bloodlust after having been bitten by Yorga, is discovered with her dead pet cat in her hands. In the theatrical version, the scene is so brief that it was hard to tell what was happening. Complete prints of the film show the bloody cat quite clearly.
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
/horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
movie starring Robert Quarry
Robert Quarry
Robert Walter Quarry was an American actor, known for several prominent horror film roles.Quarry was born in Santa Rosa, California, the son of Mable and Paul Quarry, a doctor. His films include Count Yorga, Vampire , its sequel The Return of Count Yorga , and Dr...
. It was followed by a sequel, The Return of Count Yorga
The Return of Count Yorga
The Return of Count Yorga is a 1971 vampire/horror film starring Robert Quarry. It was the sequel to the 1970 film Count Yorga, Vampire.The film features Robert Quarry returning as the infamous vampire Count Yorga, along with his servant Brudah...
.
AIP had planned at one stage to revive Count Yorga as an adversary for the abominable Dr. Phibes in Dr. Phibes Rises Again
Dr. Phibes Rises Again
Dr. Phibes Rises Again! is a sequel to The Abominable Dr. Phibes. It was directed by Robert Fuest, and stars Vincent Price as Dr. Anton Phibes.-Plot:...
. This plan was dropped, however, and Robert Quarry appeared as the artificially young Dr. Biederbeck.
Robert Quarry later played another vampire, the messianic Khorda in 1973's The Deathmaster, which is often confused with the Yorga films because AIP
AIP
-Computing:* Adaptive Internet Protocol, a protocol used by Sun Secure Global Desktop* Application Infrastructure Provider, an IT role for software support-Financial:...
picked up the distribution rights and began using the term "The Deathmaster" to promote the Yorga sequel, The Return of Count Yorga
The Return of Count Yorga
The Return of Count Yorga is a 1971 vampire/horror film starring Robert Quarry. It was the sequel to the 1970 film Count Yorga, Vampire.The film features Robert Quarry returning as the infamous vampire Count Yorga, along with his servant Brudah...
.
Synopsis
The movie opens with narration by character actor George MacreadyGeorge Macready
George Peabody Macready, Jr. , was an American stage, film, and television actor often cast in roles as polished villains.-Background:...
(whose son Michael produced the film) about the superstition of vampires as we see a truck carrying a coffin into Los Angeles.
The movie then shifts to a séance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
where those involved try to contact the spirit of the recently deceased mother of one of the participants, Donna. It is here we meet the title character, Yorga (Robert Quarry
Robert Quarry
Robert Walter Quarry was an American actor, known for several prominent horror film roles.Quarry was born in Santa Rosa, California, the son of Mable and Paul Quarry, a doctor. His films include Count Yorga, Vampire , its sequel The Return of Count Yorga , and Dr...
), who holds the séance at Donna's home and manages to charm the other guests while there. After the party is over, two of the guests, Erica and her boyfriend Paul, offer to drive the Count home. Experiencing car trouble outside of Yorga's mansion, the two resign to stay in the van during the night.
Yorga watches the couple make love, then attacks them, knocking out Paul and biting Erica. The next day Erica starts is shown eating a cat, and acts a lot more aggressive and seductive.
It doesn't take long for the male protagonists to suspect a vampire is at work. As they ponder the possibility of the undead, Yorga visits Erica during the night, biting her once again, making her undead, and bringing her back to the mansion to join his other two brides.
Paul goes to Yorga's mansion to get her back, but Yorga expects him and easily subdues and kills him with help of his deformed servant, Brudah. The rest of the remaining characters come by for the night to ask of Paul's whereabouts and one of them, Dr. Hayes (Roger Perry), trades wits with Yorga during their visit. But Yorga easily deflects Hayes' verbal tricks, and manages to hypnotise Donna when the others aren't looking.
During the day, Yorga calls to Donna and, in a trance, she heads back to his mansion, where Brudah rapes her. Hayes and Donna's boyfriend, Michael, find out she is missing and head to Yorga's mansion as it gets dark. There they split up, and Hayes is confronted by Yorga again. He offers proof that he is a vampire, leading the unknowing doctor into a trap in his basement where the vampire's brides are sleeping. As Hayes calls out to Michael, the brides awake and attack him.
Michael meanwhile makes his way through the mansion, finding Paul's body and coming into a confrontation with Brudah, whom he manages to kill. Meanwhile, upstairs, Yorga reunites Donna with her mother, who happens to be one of Yorga's brides. Michael finds Hayes, bloody and dying in Yorga's basement. With his last breath, Hayes tells Michael of Donna's whereabouts just as the vampire Erica and Yorga's other bride try to attack him.
Michael fends them off then proceeds upstairs, where he confronts Yorga and Donna's mother. Yorga pushes his bride onto Michael's stake and makes a run for it. Michael goes after him and almost gets choked to death. But he manages to ram the charging Yorga with his stake. Yorga dies and turns to dust as Michael and Donna look on.
As they attempt to leave, they're confronted by the two remaining brides. Michael manages to hold them back with a cross and chases them off. Unfortunately, as he turns around, Donna, now transformed into a vampire herself, attacks him.
"Superstition?" the narrator's voice says in his last moment of the film before we hear him laughing in the night and "The End" appears on the screen, showing us a very bloody and dead Michael.
Origin
The film was originally to have been a soft core porn film called The Loves of Count Iorga, and some prints of the film display this as the on-screen title. Actor Robert Quarry told Michael MacReady he would play the vampire role if they turned the story into a straight horror film. Marsha JordanMarsha Jordan
Marsha Jordan is an American actress active during the Golden Age of Sexploitation films in the 1960s and early 1970s. She was known as the "Queen of Soft Core".-Filmography:* From Woman To Woman To Woman * Brand of Shame...
, the actress who played Donna's mother, had previously starred in such fare as Marsha, the Erotic Housewife.
Difficulties with the MPAA
Stephen Farber's 1972 book "The Movie Ratings Game" details the problems that the film's distributor American International Pictures had in securing a GP ratingMPAA film rating system
The Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences. The MPAA system applies only to motion pictures that are submitted for rating. Other media may be rated by other entities...
(formerly known as M, later renamed to PG) from the Motion Picture Association of America
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
, which initially was divided as to whether to give the film an R or X rating. AIP insisted that they needed an unrestricted GP rating for the film in order to get the film released into the largest possible number of theaters, most importantly drive-in theater
Drive-in theater
A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars.The screen can be as simple as a...
s. The film ended up going before the MPAA ratings board six times before being granted the GP rating, and two or three minutes of violent and sexual content were ultimately removed by AIP. Alterations to the movie's soundtrack were also required to lessen the impact of violent scenes that remained in the film. The current MGM DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release of the film carries a PG-13 rating, indicating the possibility that some of the deleted footage may have been restored.
The most obvious excision was the scene wherein a woman, having succumbed to bloodlust after having been bitten by Yorga, is discovered with her dead pet cat in her hands. In the theatrical version, the scene is so brief that it was hard to tell what was happening. Complete prints of the film show the bloody cat quite clearly.