Playgirls and the Vampire
(original title: L’Ultima Preda del Vampiro)
1960, Italy, Directed by Piero Regnoli
Black & White, Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD, Region 2, Salvation, Video: 1.30:1, Audio: Mono
A party of dancing girls are travelling via minibus with their marginally dishonest manager (they leave behind them a trail of unpaid hotel bills) through the mountains when a violent storm prompts them to detour to the nearest castle for shelter. The master of the place, Count Kernassy, initially goes to reject their presence until he notices that one of the chicks resembles a long lost love of his, immediately causing him to change his mind and offer them accommodation. Warning them not to leave their rooms at night one of the party inevitably decides to explore, soon winding up dead by next morning. Rather unhappy about this the remaining girls decide to carry on with their dance practice the following day regardless, one of them cheering everyone up with your run-of-the-mill striptease. But forced by the relentless storm to stay longer at the castle the surviving vixens are about to realise that both their deceased friend and the host are not entirely alive, nor dead.
Continuing with a new wave of gothic films helped along by Hammer’s successful Dracula and Mario Bava’s visually powerful Black Sunday, this is a messy, amateurish, steaming pile of undead dung that also happens to be a little bit entertaining in its naivety and attempts to create an aura of foreboding doom. The girls themselves are quite easy on the eye and they contribute a number of highlights, the aforementioned striptease being one, as well as the wandering naked vampire girl (who we don’t see an awful lot of thanks to some well placed shadows); it was probably very warm in this castle… The film moves along at a slow pace and features lots of creeping around corridors while unfolding a relatively conventional story making it something of minor interest at best. As a fan of this particular sub-genre though, I had to pick it up.
Released in the US by Image a few years ago this later UK disc is slightly better specified containing as it does the unrelated modern short film Blood. This is sort of an art house piece that combines industrial sound design with dreamlike imagery and is probably responsible for getting this disc an 18 certificate, because that certainly wasn’t due to the main feature itself. Playgirls… looks rough around the edges, soft and out of focus sometimes, though watchable. Only the English dub soundtrack is included, this perhaps adding to viewer amusement on occasion (although I’d argue that the script isn’t entirely the work of idiots). Being something of a rarity it’s quite nice to own Playgirls… on DVD, though it will only intermittently excite you…