FANGS OF THE LIVING DEAD (1969), aka MALENKA, THE NIECE OF THE VAMPIRE

Director: Amando de Ossorio

Writer: Amando de Ossorio

Producers: Aubrey Ambert, Rosanna Yanni

Cast: Anita Ekberg, Julián Ugarte, Diana Lorys, Adriana Ambesi, Rosanna Yanni, Gianni Medici (as John Hamilton), César Benet (as Guy Robers), Fernando Bilbao, Carlos Casaravilla, Paul Muller, Adriana Santucci, Juanita Ramírez, Aurelia Treviño, Keith Kendal

Model Sylvia Morel (Anita Ekberg) is notified that she has inherited Walbrooke castle and will be a countess. She leaves Rome to visit her new property and meets her strange uncle, Count Walbrooke (Julián Urgarte). He informs Sylvia that her lookalike grandmother, Malenka, was burned as a witch, but not before discovering the secret of immortality. Malenka made her husband immortal by turning him into a vampire. That vampire is actually the present day Count Walbrooke. The Count will not allow Sylvia to return to Rome as he tries to convince her that she is no longer fit to live with mortals.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Originally titled Malenka, the Niece of the Vampire, Fangs of the Living Dead was Spanish writer-director Amando de Ossorio’s first horror film. Perhaps that explains why it is so uneven and confused in terms of its tone and its logic. Some of this is due to the ending being tampered with by the producer, yet that is no less satisfying than the main characters’ behavior at the finish of the film in its original form.

The gorgeous Anita Ekberg stars as Rome model Sylvia Morel. As simplistic as her character is and as nearly uneventful as her situation plays out, her beauty and some of her wild outfits do manage to maintain some interest.

For all of its faults, this flick certainly does not skimp on the feminine eye candy. Joining Ekberg in the cast are Euro-beauties Diana Lorys, Rosanna Yanni, and Adriana Ambesi. It is Ambesi who provides the most eroticism with the low-cut gown she nearly pops out of and the lesbian vibes in her character’s behavior when she first meets the rather submissive (and receptive?) Sylvia. With all of this pulchritude about, it is a shame that de Ossorio did not make this film just a few years later when the film market became more permissive. Whether these ladies would have been game for it or not, I am sure that de Ossorio would have contrived to have made things much more revealing.

Gianni Medici plays Sylvia’s fiancé, Dr. Piero Luciani. He’s the straight man alongside Max (César Benet), his tagalong best friend. It seems as though Max is around to send up the situations a bit, which just diffuses what little menace the story is trying to generate.

Julián Ugarte, having been featured in Paul Naschy’s debut horror film, Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror (1968), stars here as the main source of malevolence in the form of Count Walbrooke. He is always fine as a cold and aristocratic presence.

Speaking of Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror, that film’s great dungeon and some other castle interiors were also used in this film. These sets being actual locations lend a lot of authentic character to the Walbrooke Castle setting that much of the story takes place in.

Writer-director de Ossorio has some terrific assets to exploit in this film, yet his story does not seem willing to really let loose and provide the horror payoffs that the audience is expecting. He is trying to surprise the audience with his climax, yet along the way he rarely provides the thrills to sustain involvement in his story and characters. I am always willing to allow a filmmaker to confound expectations for a satisfying variation that may actually engage one’s attention, but de Ossorio seems to have taken all the bite out of this film’s premise. The final denouement, as originally presented, is dramatically limp. However, the producers-decreed, last-ditch-alteration ending is either totally contradictory, or meant to be a bit ambiguous. Oh hell, they were just trying to salvage this by tossing in a traditional terror tidbit that they thought the fright flick fans would swallow. It still doesn’t go down easy.

Director Amando de Ossorio will always be best known for his four Blind Dead films of the 1970s. The director would go on to become nearly as important an exponent of the Spanish horror film as Paul Naschy. His other horror efforts varied in quality and were often compromised by inadequate budgets, yet he wrote script after script that he kept ready for future production opportunities.

Amando de Ossorio’s Fangs of the Living Dead is chiefly of interest to his fans that want to see how he tentatively approached horror in his debut genre effort. All others should probably steer clear. Sylvia may be allergic to castles, and Max is allergic to garlic, but the most severe reaction will be suffered by an audience allergic to films with the ripe potential for Gothic horror spoiled by plot twists that result in a lot of illogical behavior.

TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD (1972)

Director: Amando de Ossorio

Writers: Amando de Ossorio, Jesús Navarro Carrión

Producers: José Antonio Pérez Giner, Salvadore Romero

Cast: Lone Fleming, Maria Elena Arpón, César Burner, José Thelman (as Joseph Thelman), Verónica Llimerá, Maria Silva, Rufino Inglés, Simón Arriaga, Francisco Sanz, Juan Cortés, Andrés Isbert, Antonio Orengo, José Camoiras, Carmen Yazalde (uncredited), Pedro Sempson (uncredited) 

In the 13th century town of Berzano along the Portugal/Spain border, there was an occult order of knights that held the region in a grip of terror. They abducted virgins to torture and drink their blood in rituals meant to endow the knights with eternal life. Eventually, the knights were condemned to death for their evil deeds and executed. The knights’ bodies were not buried until crows had eaten their eyes. In the modern day, a young woman named Virginia White (Maria Elena Arpón) spends the night in the abandoned ruins the knights once inhabited. Her presence seems to rouse the desiccated corpses of the knights from their graves to stalk the living and feed on their blood. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Tombs of the Blind Dead is the first in a four-film series by Spanish filmmaker Amando de Ossorio. It introduces the ongoing menace of the Blind Dead that is surely de Ossorio’s lasting claim to fame among horror fans. While it is tempting to say that this film was inspired by George A. Romero’s revolutionary classic Night of the Living Dead (1968), there is a very different take on reanimated corpses happening here. Unlike the ambiguity of reason for Romero’s dead to return to life, this film gives us a clearly defined old world supernatural horror. The appearance and behavior of these Blind Dead are quite unique. They are skeletal creatures with empty eye sockets in hooded robes brandishing swords and riding horses. They hone in on their prey with hearing so acute that they can even detect a frightened heartbeat. They are without expression or voice but have established an iconic image as synonymous with the Spanish horror film as Paul Naschy’s werewolf Waldemar Daninsky.

I suppose that to many American sensibilities the story is frustrating because we always want to see characters taking charge of a situation and furthering the plot. However, in this story everyone is unprepared for what they are encountering. Frankly, that is probably a more realistic, if simplistic, take on horror. Unless there is a lot of foreknowledge and experience that people have to cope with dangerous situations, they are probably not going to fare well. 

What little story there is in Tombs of the Blind Dead seems almost inconsequential. There is just enough character conflict to prompt people to place themselves in positions of jeopardy. This film’s primary effect is to create an atmosphere of uncanny dread. The people involved are merely there to react to the awesome horror confronting them and to stir that fear in us. 

Virginia is the only character motivated by any emotional turmoil in this story. This results in her rash action that seems to be the catalyst for the horror to come. She has an unexpected reunion with Bet (Lone Fleming), the girl she had a lesbian relationship with in college. Virginia gets jealous that her friend Roger (César Burner) is showing Bet a lot of attention. Whether she is jealous of Bet or of Roger or of both of them is never made clear. Virginia impulsively jumps off of the slow moving train the three of them are traveling on and hikes up to the nearby ruins of Berzano. Then the Blind Dead show their lovely guest the most appalling hospitality. 

All of the other characters are presented with a bit of attitude or no personality whatsoever. Character arcs and backstories are not what this film is concerned with. Bet and Roger only become involved in the horror by trying to find their friend Virginia. That’s almost all that we ever get to know about these two. 

Two other characters that are probably the most interesting because they are so sleazy are the couple Pedro (José Thelman) and Maria (Maria Silva). The gorgeous Maria gets some of the best lines as she is always horny, jealous, or both. Pedro is the smuggler and conceited stud that you really hope gets what he deserves. His sense of afterglow is lighting up a cigarette after rape and offering one to his victim. That inappropriate bit of etiquette is as repugnant as the Blind Dead themselves. 

The simplicity of this story lets the imagery of those great Berzano ruins and the undead horde of bloodthirsty knights make the strongest impression. There are also creepy scenes in a morgue, at Bet’s mannequin factory, and aboard the old steam engine train. This film’s focus is on visually interesting settings and horrific situations that present its unique menace to the best advantage. Tombs of the Blind Dead makes its audience experience a wide-awake nightmare.