Count Yorga, Vampire (1971) and The Return of Count Yorga (1972)

When first released, these two films were seen as breaking new territory for the traditional vampire, by placing him in the present day, rather than in a period setting, as Hammer's Gothic horrors had done.  Of course, it wasn't strictly true to say that there hadn't been previous contemporary set vampire movies - let's not forget that Universal's Dracula (1930) had placed Bela Lugosi's count firmly in the then present day, while Columbia's Return of the Vampire (1943), also starring Lugosi, had its vampire twitching his cloak through wartime London.  Other attempts at contemporary vampires included The Return of Dracula (1958), which attempted to put Francis Lederer's count into a contemporary small town US setting and The Vampire (1957), which had a similar small town setting but added a science fiction twist to its story.  By the time the Count Yorga movies were released, however, Hammer's version of the vampire, always portrayed in Victorian or Edwardian settings, had dominated screens for over a decade, so the AIP films seemed fresh and novel in their approach.  Certainly, they were influential enough to persuade Hammer to put Dracula into contemporary London for the next two films in their series, Dracula AD 1972 (1972) and Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), with mixed success.  Hammer never quite solved the problem of properly integrating such an archaic figure into the modern day.  Interestingly, re-watching the two Count Yorga films, it is clear that their makers found themselves running up against the same problems - that a man in a cloak wandering around seventies California is a more than slightly ridiculous sight.

Count Yorga, Vampire (1971) actually starts well in this respect, with Robert Quarry's Count Yorga posing as a medium and running seances for trendy middle class Californian professionals.  In this guise, he fits surprisingly well into the whole late sixties/early seventies West Coast mysticism scene.  Thereafter, though, his presence is confined to his mock-Gothic pile in the country, which just as well be located in nineteenth century middle Europe as seventies California.  The other characters spend plenty of time interacting in seventies San Francisco, but that's already their world, we see nothing of Yorga trying to negotiate the modern world.  Ultimately, the film's latter stages resolve into various characters chasing around a Gothic castle, much like any traditional vampire film.  The approach taken here is remarkably similar to that taken by Hammer in Dracula AD 1972, where Christopher Lee's present day appearances are pretty much confined to a deconsecrated ruined Gothic church, with any depravities in 1972 Chelsea instead being carried out by his acolytes.  Eventually, the forces of good, led by Van Helsing's grandson, (Peter Cushing), are forced to confront Dracula on his own ground in the church, just as Yorga's opponents were forced to meet him on his ground, in his castle.

The Return of Count Yorga (1972) is an altogether better film than its predecessor - a bigger budget and more polished production values are combined with a more inventive script, although the problem of integrating an aristocratic Gothic monster into a contemporary setting still isn't properly resolved.  The problem of Yorga's traditional vampire get up is initially addressed by having him first encounter the film's protagonists at a fancy dress Halloween party, where his Bela Lugosi chic barely raises an eyebrow, ('Where are your fangs?' asks one guest, drawing the retort 'Where are your manners?').  But once again, Count Yorga spends the better part of the film lurking around a Gothic mansion where, once again, various of the protagonists end up, chasing around gloomy corridors and cellars at the film's climax.  This time, though, the Count does make a few forays out into the modern world in search of victims. Unfortunately, these prove to be among the film's weakest sequences - the sight of Yorga, cape flapping behind him, as he charges down a landing pier at a marina, toward a yacht whose occupants he is targeting, for instance, is more than mildly ludicrous.  By contrast, one of the film's most effective sequences comes when, like Dracula in Dracula AD 1972, he sends his acolytes, in the form of his vampire brides, out to do his bidding. Perhaps in a reflection of changing tastes on the part of horror audiences, the brides, in their brutal home invasion, behave more like zombies from Romero's Night of the Living Dead than traditional vampires.  

Hammer's second stab at a modern day Dracula, perhaps coincidentally, follows a similar format to The Return of Count Yorga.  Aside from a sequence in a modern office building, where he masquerades as reclusive businessman DD Denham, Satanic Rites of Dracula sees Lee's Count spending much of the film in full vampire regalia, lurking around an isolated mansion.  Dracula also has a coterie of vampiric brides down in the cellar, but doesn't send them out to commit depravities on his behalf.  Instead, he sends out a bunch of zombie-like motorcycle riding acolytes, who also vaguely resemble Manson-style cultists in their dress.  Like the second Yorga film, overall the Satanic Rites of Dracula feels a more polished production than its predecessor, yet still never really tackles that central problem of how to integrate the Gothic vampire convincingly into the modern era.  While the Count Yorga films, seen today, might not be quite as groundbreaking, or successful, in achieving this task as their supporters would have you believe, they remain tremendously enjoyable films, benefiting greatly from Robert Quarry's central performances as Count Yorga, switching with ease between suave sophistication and blood fuelled savagery, not to mention Bob Kelljan's effective direction, which makes the most of his resources and locations.  Overall, one has to say that, while they never really do quite resolve the problem of bringing the vampire into the present, they still do it somewhat better than the two Hammer efforts, (although, to be fair, neither of the contemporary Dracula films are as bad as meny critics have made them out to be).