Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) is a title I had heard many times, but never seen. With little more than that to go on, I queued it up. Once more we see the importance of adequate research.
It takes place in modern day LA. Several friends are meeting for a seance, held by the mysterious Count Yorga (Robert Quarry). The crowd is a little too rowdy for him to contact the mother of one of the crew. But Yorga does calm her down with hypnosis. When two of the others give him a ride to his canyon home in their VW microbus, they get stuck in mysterious mud puddle on their way back. They decide to sleep in the van until morning, but are attacked by Yorga and his henchmen. He is a vampire! Not a spoiler, it's in the title.
When the woman who was attacked starts acting listless and eating kittens, the crew starts to suspect vampirism. The visit Count Yorga in the middle of the night and try to get him to stay up until dawn, and then sunburn him. This is a long section of cringe - a couple of guys coming to visit at 3:00 AM who just won't leave. They aren't even good conversationalists. And it comes to naught, when the Count kicks them out before the sun rises.
At that point, he goes into his basement full of undead women. Sadly, these women do not perform the traditional gratuitous interpretive dance scene.
What else do you need to know? Quarry is an acceptable, but not great vamp. The rest of the acting is sub-TV production level, as are the sets, direction, etc. There's a little bit of 1970 LA location filming, as two guys have brunch and walk around while working out the plot of the movie in dialog added in post. That's about it for entertainment value here. There isn't even any semi-nudity or gratuitous go-go dancing.
I'm not sure why this is considered a classic, or even if it is. I can say I've watched it now. If you haven't seen it, skip it. You'll be glad you did.
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