The Return of Count Yorga (1971)

Robert Quarry returns as Count Yorga, brought back to life by the Santa Ana winds after having been killed at the end of the prior film. Yorga then begins to prey on the residents of a nearby orphanage and seems to lavish particular attention on a young teacher at the orphanage, Mariette Hartley. As with the first film, it's rather low budget, but makes up for it in enthusiasm and gore. This sequel gave more screen time to the Vampire Brides of Yorga, which was kind fun and provided some good creepy visuals, but overall this is an awfully silly film. Producer Michael Macready's father, Hollywood veteran George Macready made his final film appearance here as Prof. Rightstat and a young Craig T. Nelson made his film debut on this picture playing a cop. And not that you would notice it, the director of photography on this film was Bill butler, who's later go on to film "Jaws" and several "Rocky" pictures.

Director / writer Bob Kelljan, producer Michael Macready and star Robert Quarry as well as some of the supporting cast all return for this immediate follow-up to the very successful COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE from the previous year. If you recall at the end of the first, Yorga had been staked through the heart and his manservant Brudah had been stabbed in the chest. This sequel pretty much asks us to forget about all that and just concentrate on what's essentially a brand new story where the vampire is somehow resurrected by the "Santa Ana Wind" (don't ask - it didn't make much sense to me either). Yorga takes up residence in the nearby Gateway Mansion along with his facially-scarred half wit sidekick Brudah (again played by Edward Walsh) and a stable of lethal vampire brides dressed in nightgowns, who all miraculously rise from a nearby cemetery to do his bidding. I suppose the wind did that, too. The mansion is near the Westwood Orphanage, so there's a lot of female flesh for the evil Count to sink his fangs into.Pretty orphanage worker Cynthia Nelson (Mariette Hartley) is tops on the love-struck vampire's list. Yorga sends his brides to massacre her parents and transform her sister Ellen (Karen Ericson) into a vamp. He then kidnaps Cynthia and uses his mesmeric powers to hypnotize her into forgetting the event and believing she's had a car accident (though she still frequently has flashbacks that threaten to knock her out of her trance). After several other ladies disappear and a few dead bodies turn up, Cynthia's psychiatrist fiancé (Roger Perry, in a role similar to the one he played in the first film) attempts to convince the police (Rudy De Luca and a young Craig T. Nelson in his film debut) to accept the possibility there's a vampire on the loose.In many ways, this is exactly the type of sequel one would expect to a modestly-produced original film that went on to become a hit. The budget is clearly larger, the photography is cleaner, the camera-work is more imaginative and fluid, the sound design is more intricate, there are a few more recognizable names in the cast and the film delivers 'more' in nearly every regard. There's more Quarry (always a good thing), more victims, more bloodshed (enough to earn it an R rating as opposed to the original's PG-13), more vampires and slightly more plot this time out. There are also many more characters added to the works to complicate matters. The most interesting of these is a little orphan boy named Tommy (Philip Frame), who is put under the count's spell early on and from then on helps to cover up his activities and even lures people to their deaths (or just kills them himself).Other characters of note are a witch consultant of sorts living inside Yorga's mansion, a priest who runs the orphanage and is later tricked into a quicksand bog and Cynthia's mute sister (played by Yvonne Wilder, who also co-scripted the film), who hauls off and slaps the s*** out of little Tommy after he lies to the police. In addition to them, Michael Pataki (who went on to play an excellent bloodsucker himself in the following year's GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE) shows up long enough to get strangled and there are special guest appearances from character actors Walter Brooke and George Macready (father of producer Michael); the latter getting to ham it up as a half-senile vampire expert in his final film appearance.The debonair Quarry does about as well here as he did in the first film, gets plenty of amusingly pompous dialogue and is especially creepy wearing white makeup and rushing toward the camera in slow motion, though the character is not quite as intriguing and mysterious this time out. Though the plot meanders a bit in the middle, the lively finale - featuring numerous characters trapped inside Yorga's manor where they face off against the count and numerous other vampires while doors automatically close or open to either reveal the vampires or trap victims - really comes through. While less direct and focused than the first, "Return" still does what any worthwhile sequel SHOULD do by retaining the best qualities of the first film while also giving audiences something new. At one point there were even plans for a third "Yorga" film, which would have paired up the vampire with Vincent Price's "Dr. Phibes" character. Unfortunately, that idea got scrapped after the second "Phibes" outing disappointed at the box office. Too bad. I for one would have liked to have seen more!

Equally scary revision of the Count Yorga story finds the debonair Count (Quarry) and his henchman Bruder (Walsh) up to no good at a children's orphanage where the lovely Cynthia (Hartley) works as a carer. Enchanted by the impressionable Hartley, the Count offers her eternal life, risking his longevity for the frail human emotion of love. But, Roger Perry returns as the proverbial fly in Yorga's ointment, and another tense stand-off ensues.Director Kelljan returns for the revision, bringing his highly visual sense of haunting romance, and employing a more experienced cast that includes Walter Brooke in a brief but memorable role as Cynthia's ill-fated dad, and George MacReady as a hard-of-hearing expert in the occult. Film buffs will also relish early performances by Mike Pataki, Jesse Wells and future "Poltergeist" leading man, Craig T. Nelson. Special mention must also go to comedian Rudy DeLuca for his comic timing as the police chief. The dialogue is once again poetically bent with subtle, dry humour, and the sometimes hand-held cinematography adds that element of realism that gets the pulse racing.While it's essentially much of the same (the scene in which Lampson and Perry postulate the implausibility of vampires is almost identical in both structure and content to Perry and Michael MacReady's discussion in the first film), "Return" doesn't diminish the Count Yorga character or its cult status. Quarry plays his role straight, and with the conviction of a consummate professional, which in spite of its relative obscurity, elevates Count Yorga beyond most of its more commercial peers.

Despite being slain at the end of the first film, Count Yorga is back for more bloodthirsty mayhem! This is a sequel to the first film, but it's effectively the same story, only a little bit different. It isn't really any better or worse than it's predecessor, but the fact that it doesn't do anything new either prompts me to give it a lower rating. The film seems suspiciously like another excuse to launch the dapper vampire on the box office again. Anyway, Robert Quarry returns in the role that made him, and once again has fun and does well with it. This time, the count has relocated to a place near to an orphanage. The vampire continues to prey on the local population, while also looking for a new bride whom he can spend eternity with. Despite a very silly vampire conversation at the start, this may even be a slightly better film than the first; but the fact that no effort has been made to make it a real sequel, it becomes boring rather quickly and it's really hard to rate it much above average. The lack of invention is shown best by the way that a bumbling police force has been thrown in. Bumbling police forces are often funny, but the one here is making too much of a big deal out of trying to be funny; and it never really works. The plot is also quite slow, thus making the film overlong – which is very annoying. Really, there isn't much to recommend this film on; but if you really liked the original, I suppose it's worth a look.