The Vampire and the Ballerina - Discovered Gem

 

The above really reminded me of Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr (1932)

Forgive the television photos below. I tried to capture a few while taking in the film, often popping for the content. This is the kind of film I live for.

 was watching Renato Polselli's Italian Gothic horror film from 1960 for the first time tonight, thanks to MGM HD Channel -- DirecTV offered a free preview for five days last week -- and I was just seduced by all this goodness. That castle was just incredible, found by the director in Artena. Polselli couldn't spend enough time in that castle for my tastes...serious architectural dynamo, still standing, a relic owned by a vampire named Countess Alda (Maria Louisa Rolando), with her servant, Giorgio (Gino Turini), biting a local farmer's daughter, later clinching his teeth into the neck of Louisa, a ballerina among a troupe practicing for a play. While the local farmers claim vampires attack women in the surrounding area, the doctor and a professor (Pier Ugo Gragnani) brush all that off as superstitious nonsense. That kind of disregard is what allows the vampires at a mountain castle to continue their predatory activities.

 Hélène Rémy and Tina Gloriani as the blond bombshells, Louisa and Francesca, are stunningly photographed by Angelo Baistrocchi, with seductive close-ups certainly as aesthetically captivating as the castle of Countess Alda. Both of them are targets of Giorgio, while Countess Alda desires Francesca's beau, the professor's son, Luca (Isarco Ravaioli). Walter Brandi's Herman is Louisa's lover and fellow dancer.

The plot is very traditional and doesn't stray at all from the Gothic norms, but that didn't bother me at all considering the riches of what we see. The incredibly beautiful women (the shapely Italian woman of the 60s is well represented in the cast as the ballerina team features very attractive people), the Italian countryside where the castle, waterfall, and professor's own villa for his students, are located is breathtaking, and the ugly vampire makeup when the servant allows the Countess to feed completely his youth after he also bleeds victims.

Louisa under Giorgio's control is a phenom. The way she touches herself and writhes in her bed while waiting for him, how she seems to be in a totally different place, and just how she moves left me under her spell. Francesca also just cast a spell on me, too. It isn't just their beauty. I guess you could say it is charisma. It could be allure. It could be how they don't have to say a lot, often speaking through a look or motion. The casting of  Hélène Rémy and Tina Gloriani is like this giant neck hug to me. I couldn't take my eyes off them. Add the castle and melting vampires under the sun when Luca combats them with a makeshift crucifix. The Countess is also fine casting, if I say so myself. I know why she has men devoted to her. 4.5/5

A big flatscreen with this woman on it...yes, please

Tina Gloriani blown up...yes, please.

A great scene I could watch on repeat. Rémy dominates this

This deserves a better title. I think the title would stink people off who might otherwise like it. I could definitely partner this with Bava's Black Sunday (1960)