Twin sisters Maria and Frieda (Mary and Madeleine Collinson)
are sent to live with their stern Uncle Gustav (Peter Cushing), who also
happens to be the head of a strict religious sect which is devoted to
persecuting witches and other minions of the devil. When Frieda becomes infatuated with the
debauched Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas), she incurs her uncle’s wrath… but
there are worse horrors still in store…
Carmilla, written by the Irish author Sheridan LeFanu, was
first published in serial form from 1871 to 1872. It told the story of a beautiful young girl
who turns out to be a vampire; she is eventually dispatched, but not before she
claims several victims. The story
contained undercurrents of lesbianism, and indeed its subtle reference to this
has caused some readers to miss this aspect of Carmilla’s character
altogether. The story was first brought
to the screen, albeit obliquely, in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s dreamlike “art”
horror film, Vampyr (1930). With its deliberately
off kilter imagery and sparse use of dialogue and sound effects, Dreyer’s film
failed to find much of an audience, but has since become embraced as one of the
few truly successful attempts at rendering a dream state on screen. In 1960, French director Roger Vadim brought
the story to the screen again, with his French-Italian production Blood and
Roses. The film sought to explore the
lesbian subtext of LeFanu’s novella, but its delicate approach and slow pacing made
it something of a disappointment for many horror fans of the period.
In Italy, director Camillo Mastrocinque and
screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi collaborated on another version, Crypt of the
Vampire (1964), which cast Christopher Lee in the sympathetic role of Count
Ludwig Karnstein. This version also
contained hints of lesbianism, but it failed to capture the lyricism and
intensity of the best Italian horror films of the period. In Britain, the series Mystery and
Imagination added LeFanu’s story to their roster of chillers in 1966, with an
adaptation starring Jane Merrow in the title role. Sadly, this is one of the early episodes of
the series which has failed to survive into the new millennium, leaving one to
speculate how Merrow (who would go on to play a plum supporting role in Terence
Fisher’s Night of the Big Heat, 1967, starring Christopher Lee and Peter
Cushing) fared in the role.
Hammer Films
inevitably caught up with the story, putting The Vampire Lovers (co-produced
with their American “rival,” AIP) into production in 1969. Hammer and AIP sought to capitalize on the
loosening censorship standards of the period by introducing a great deal of
graphic sex and nudity, though director Roy Ward Baker (who always insisted
that LeFanu’s story contained nary a whiff of lesbianism) sought to down peddle
this. The final result was uneasily
couched between Gothic drawing room melodrama and brassiere ripping
exploitation, but it was a financial success, prompting Hammer to further
explore the potential of LeFanu’s characters.
The ill-fated Lust for a Vampire followed in 1970, while Twins of Evil
would emerge in 1971 (or 1972, if you lived in the US).
Twins of Evil is almost certainly the best of the so-called
Karnstein trilogy. Much of this can be
attributed to director John Hough, making his first of several noteworthy
horror and fantasy pictures. Hough was
only 30 years old, a very youthful age for a Hammer director, and he brought a
renewed sense of vigor and experimentation to the proceedings. Unlike Baker and most of Hammer’s other
directors, he also had genuine enthusiasm for the genre and was determined to
make the best picture possible. Despite
a few clumsy moments here and there (think no further than the guffaw-inducing
scene wherein the Count’s mute lackey basically plays charades to convey that
his master is in imminent danger), Hough delivered a sure footed film with rich
gothic flavor. He also proved to be no
prude when it came to the erotic component, resulting in some of the more
overtly blatant moments of sexuality in Hammer’s oeuvre.
The film is also well served by a fine cast. Hammer was well known for employing stunt
casting to help promote their pictures, and Twins was certainly no exception –
the titular characters were played by Playboy’s first-ever twin centerfolds,
the Maltese-born Collinson twins. While
the young women had very little experience in the thesping department, they
certainly looked right – and the use of post synching helped to cover up their
presumably hard to decipher accents and any difficulties they may have had with
the dialogue. Neither actress is really
required to do a lot beyond look ravishing, so their contribution can be
written up as successful where it counts.
To help compensate for this potential void at the center of the picture,
Hough enlisted some top notch actors to help keep things credible. Peter Cushing, of course, was almost a staple
in the trilogy – “almost” only because he was forced to bow out of Lust for a
Vampire when his wife became ill (his replacement, Ralph Bates, looks suitably
ill at ease in a role intended for a much older man). Indeed, Twins would mark Cushing’s return to
the screen following his beloved Helen’s death in early 1971. The change in the man is noticeable right
away. While Cushing had always been a
thin man, here he appears positively gaunt – and he looks a good deal older,
grayer and more severe, to boot. Gustav
Weil provides the actor with one of his least sympathetic
characterizations. He is a sadist and a
hypocrite, hiding behind the word of God as a means of enacting his own special
brand of “justice” on the young women who have offended him.
Cushing tries to bring a bit of pathos to the
character late in the day (“I have tried… always… to be a good man.”) but it doesn’t
ring entirely true – it could be that this was the actor’s attempt to convey
some sense of decency in a character that was written to be totally, well, vile
– but it’s a touch that does little to dispel memories of the cruelty he has
engaged in through much of the picture.
Former matinee idol Dennis Price (Kind Hearts and Coronets, 1949) is on
hand to play the Count’s slimy retainer, Dietrich, but he doesn’t have much in
the way of screen time. Price was a
brilliant actor whose career was self-sabotaged due to alcoholism and an inability
to come to grips with his own sexuality, but even at this stage of the game,
doing quickie cameos in low budget horror and exploitation items for a
paycheck, he brought a sense of droll humor to many of his
characterizations. Dietrich doesn’t
provide him with any of the memorable bits of business which he was able to
bring to his chatty grave robber in Jimmy Sangster’s Horror of Frankenstein
(1970), but it’s still nice to have him on board. Damien Thomas is terrific as the jaded Count
Karnstein, who gives his soul to the devil and becomes a vampire in his pursuit
of the ultimate thrill. Some have carped
that he is cowardly where he should be imposing, but this is precisely the
point – even as a vampire, he’s very much the spineless sociopath, always
looking for a new high but not willing to put his life on the line in the
process. Kathleen Byron, previously so
memorable as the deranged Sister Ruth in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s
masterpiece Black Narcissus (1947), fares much the same as Price – an actor
stuck in a role well beneath their talents, but still adding color and class to
the proceedings.
Future Italian horror
stalwart David Warbeck (Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond, 1981) gives a good account of
himself as the usual colorless heroic figure, while Harvey Hall (the only actor
who DID appear in all three of these Karnstein films), Alex Scott and Isobel
Black all add to the air of cozy familiarity.
Unlike Lust for a Vampire, which had the misfortune of being
part of a slate of lower-budgeted-than-usual Hammer titles filmed at Associated
British Studios, Twins of Evil benefits from the larger resources available at
Pinewood. The sets are impressive, and
cinematographer Dick Bush (who would go on to film Dracula AD 1972, before
becoming Ken Russell’s DP of choice for a period of time) provides some
striking images. Composer Harry Robinson
was also able to indulge his wish to score a western by providing a soundtrack
which sometimes evokes the work of the great Ennio Morricone. The combination of these inspired
contributions help to make Twins of Evil a highlight in the later period of
Hammer horror – and indeed, it is one of the ones which best evokes the style
and flair of their classic period.
