I had the good fortune to watch Jess Franco's 1970 classic Euro-sexploitation film "Vampyros Lesbos" last night. The title tells you everything you need to know about the film: vampires and lesbians. It's an atmospheric and erotic film, with little gore. Very much of its time, it has the usual gratuitous zooms, cutaways to unrelated subjects (in this case, a scorpion), and a schizo, psychedelic soundtrack by Manfred Hüber & Siegfried Schwab.
"Vampyros Lesbos" concerns a beautiful countess (Soledad Miranda, billed as Suzanne Korda) who lures a young woman (Ewa Strömberg) to her mysterious island and indoctrinates her into the world of the supernatural. There are scenes in a mental institution, where Heidrun Kussin, playing the Renfield role, goes insane as she waits for the Countess to visit her cell. The opening scene, in which Miranda dances around on a stage, dressing and fondling a women acting as a manequin is unforgettable.
Soledad Miranda was 27 when the film came out. She died in a car crash in Lisbon shortly after her last film, "Devil Came From Akasava" was released. Jess Franco has made almost 200 films.
Read more about Soledad Miranda at the Cult Sirens Website.
Three tracks from the soundtrack ("The Lions and the Cucumber," "Shindai Lovers," and "The Ballad of a Fair Singer")
