CHAMBER OF FEAR (1968) see La Camara del Terror

THE CHAMBER OF TORTURES (1971) see Orrori del Castello di Norimberga

CHARRO DE LAS CALAVERAS (1966/Columbia) BW. Mexico.
Credits: Dir: Alfredo Salazar.
Cast: Dagoberto Rodriguez, David Silva, Alicia Caro, Pascual Garcia Pena, Laura Montez, Rosario F. Montez.
In three episodes a masked cowboy battles a vampire (El Vampiro Humano), a headless horseman (El Jinete Sin Cabeza) and a werewolf (La Lobo Humano).
The title translates as The Rider Of The Skulls.

CHELOVIEK AMPHIBIA (1962/Lenfilm/NTA.) 98mins. USSR.
Aka: THE AMPHIBIAN MAN; THE AMPHIBIOUS MAN.
Credits: Dir: Gennadi Kazansky & Vladimir Chebotaryov; Sc: Alexander Xenofontov, Alexei Kapler & Akiba Golburt; Ph: Eduard Razovsky; Mus: Tirentev. From a novel by Alexander Belyayev.
Cast: William Koren (Vladimir Korenev), Anastasia Virtinskaya, Mikhail Kozakov, Anatoli Smiranin, Nikolai Simonov, Vladimir Davydov.
An evil scientist captures a young man with gills to do his bidding.

CH'IEN-NU YU HIN (1959/Shaw) 85mins. Hong Kong.
Aka: ENCHANTING SHADOW; SOUL OF A BEAUTIFUL GIRL.
Credits: Dir: Li Hanxiang (Li Han Hsiang); Prod: Yuan Qui Feng; Sc: Wang Yueh-ting; Ph: Ho Lu-Ying.
Cast: Le Di (Betty Lo Tih), Zhano Lei, Yang Zhiquang (Yang Chih-Ching).
Based on the story "Strange Stories From a Chinese Studio" by Pu Songling.
A student, (Lei), encounters a pretty girl, (Di), when he spends the night in a temple, but slowly he realises that she is a ghost and is plotting with the ghost of his evil aunt to kill him. Only his moral fortitude saves the young scholar.
A moody romantic horror story regarded by many as the director's finest work.

CHI O SUU NINGYO (1970/Toho) 71mins. Japan.
Aka: NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE; THE VAMPIRE DOLL.
Credits: Dir: Michio Yamamoto; Prod: Tomoyuki Tanaka & Fumio Tanaka; Sc: Hideo Ogawa & Hirochi Nagano; Ph: Kazutami Hara; Art: Yoshifumi Honda; Mus: Riichiro Manabe.
Cast: Kayo Matsuo, Akira Nakao, Yukiko Kobayashi, Yoko Minazake, Atsuo Nakamura, Kaku Takashina, Junya Usami.
A doctor hypnotises a woman at the point of death causing her damned soul to return as a ghostly vampire Yuko, (Kobayshi), that avenges herself against those who treated her badly, but when she kills her father, (Usami), who is revealed to be the doctor who raped her mother, her body turns to dust.
A vampire tale for the art house that avoids the usual vampire clichés.

CHIKYU BOEIGN (1957/Toho/RKC.) 85mins. Japan.
Aka: EARTH DEFENCE FORCES; THE MYSTERIANS.
Credits: Dir: Inoshiro Honda; Prod: Tomoyuki Tanaka; Sc: Takeshi Kimura; Adapted: Shigeru Kayama; Ph: Hajime Koizumi; Art: Teruaki Aba; Sfx: Eiji Tsuburaya; Mus: Akira Ifukube. From a story by Jojiro Okami.
Cast: Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Momoko Kochi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura, Susumu Fujita, Fuyki Murakami, Yoshio Kosugi, Hisaya Ito, Minosuke Yamada, Harold S. Conway, Harvo Nakajima as the robot.
Although a nuclear war destroyed Mysteroid, the fifth planet from the sun 100 thousand years ago, some surviving male Mysterians moved to Mars. Now the humanoid cockroach creatures arrive on Earth with a giant robot to help them capture fertile Earth women with whom they wish to breed. After the robot tramples villages and topples mountains, some people booby trap a bridge and send the metal monster plunging into a ravine. The Mysterians are despatched with a powerful "Markalight" raygun.
One of the better offerings from the Toho studios with a well crafted and original plot, but surprisingly the film is rarely screened in the cinemas or on television.
Mogella is the name given to the robot only in the publicity tag lines.

CHILDREN OF BLOOD (1968) see Cauldron of Blood

CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1962/Bachmann/MGM.) 87mins. BW. UK.
Aka: HORROR! Sequel to: Village of the Damned.
Credits: Dir: Anton M. Leader; Prod: Lawrence P. Bachman; A.Prod: Ben Arbeid; Sc: John Briley; Ph: Davis Boulton; Ed: Ernest Walter; Art: Elliot Scott; Sfx: Tom Howard; Mus: Ron Goodwin. Based on the "The Midwich Cuckoos" by John Wyndam.
Cast: Ian Hendry, Alan Badel, Barbara Ferris, Alfred Burke, Ralph Michael, Clive Powell, Lee Yoke-Moon,Roberta Rex, Frank Summerscale, Gerald Delsol, Mahdu Mathen, Patrick Wymark, Patrick White, Andre Mikhelson, Bessie Love, Martin Miller, Harold Goldblatt, Shelia Allen.
"So young, so innocent, so deadly--they came to conquer the world!"
Six children, (Powell, Moon, Rex, Delsol, Mathen & Summerscale), with exceptionally high IQ's are gathered from around the world by a child psychologist, (Hendry), and his associate for a special UNESCO. project in London, but when the individual governments realise the potential of their progeny they try to get them back. However, the children stay in an old disused church and use their immense powers to destroy anyone who might harm them. As it becomes apparent that the youngsters are from the future, and can pass on any information to each other telepathically, the governments of the world authorise a plan to destroy them.
An imaginative and gripping sequel burdoned with an obscure message.

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT (1970) see Le Rouge Aux Levres

CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS (1969/Geneni Prod./Major Films) 101mins.
Credits: Dir: Benjamin (Bob) Clark; Prod: Benjamin Clark & Gary Goch; Sc: Benjamin Clark & Alan Ormsby; Ph: Jack McGowan; Ed: Gary Goch; Art: Forest Carpenter; Mu: Alan Ormsby; Mus: Carl Zitther.
Cast: Alan Ormsby, Jeffrey Gillen, Valerie Mamickes, Paul Cronin, Jane Daly, Anya Ormsby, Bruce Solomon, Seth Sklasey, Roy Engleman, Bob Filep, Alecs Baird.
Five young members of a theatre company take a boat to an old burial island and dabble in witchcraft to try and raise the island's dead as a bit of fun. Practical jokes give way to real terror as grotesque forms rise from their graves seeking revenge on those that have disturbed them.
Made in 14 days for $70,000 and becoming a minor cult success mostly because of the powerful zombie scenes.

CHOSEN SURVIVORS (1974/Columbia/Alpine/Curubusco/Metro Media) 98mins. US.
Credits: Dir: Sutton Roley; Prod: Charles Fries & Leon Benson; Sc: H.B. Cross & Joe Red Moffey; Ph: Gabriel Torres; Mus: Fred Karlin.
Cast: Jackie Cooper, Alex Cord, Diana Muldaur, Richard Jaeckel, Bradford Dillman, Gwen Mitchell, Barbara Babcock, Christina Moreno, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Kelly Lange, Pedro Armendariz Jr.
Eleven people have been chosen by the powerful government to live underground in futuristic conditions for a test of human survival in the event of a thermonuclear war being waged on the surface. What the eleven don't know is that they are actually under observation for their reaction to hundreds of vampire bats that are released into the test site.
About 4000 real bats were used in the film, some of them were specially trained by Dr. Clay Mitchell. Despite the attempt, the bats are the only actors worth watching.

CINQUE TOMBE PER UN MEDIUM (1965/MBS.& GIA. Cinematografica) 90mins. BW. Italy.
Aka: TOMB OF HORROR; TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE; CEMETARY OF THE LIVING DEAD; FIVE GRAVES FOR THE MEDIUM.
Credits: Dir: Ralph Zucker (Massimo Pupillo); Prod: Frank Merle; Ex.Prod: Felix C. Ziffer & J.R. Coolidge; Sc: Roberto Natale & Romano Migliorini; Ph: Carlo Di Palma; Ed: Robert Ardis; Mus: Aldo Piga.
Cast: Barbara Steele, Ennio Balbo, Romano Ferrara, Marilyn Mitchell, Richard Garret (Ricardo Garrone), Walter Brandt (Walter Brandi), Alfred Rice (Alfredo Rizzo), Tide Till, Alan Collins (Luciano Pigozzi).
Cleo Hauff, (Steele), the wife of a dead doctor who had indulged in occult research in Central Europe, summons dead twelfth century plague victims from their graves to avenge his murder. Two people are saved by pure water in the form of rain.
Gory and unpleasant fun featuring disembodied hands and elaborate murders.
Originally double billed with Il Castello di Artena.

CIRCUS OF BLOOD (1967) see Beserk!

CIRCUS OF FEAR (1967/Circus/Henley) 65mins. (American prints in BW.) UK/Germany. Aka: PSYCHO CIRCUS.
Credits: Dir: John Moxey; Prod. & Sc: Harry Alan Towers. Based on "The Man Without a Face" by Edgar Wallace.
Cast: Christopher Lee, Leo Genn, Maurice Kaufmann, Anthony Newlands, Suzy Kendall, Heinz Drache, Klaus Kinski, Victor Maddern, Skip Martin, Margaret Lee.
Investigations into an armoured car robbery lead the police to suspect a circus of harbouring a murderer. Gregor the mutilated, hooded lion tamer is of special interest to detective Elliott.
An attempt at a revival of Tod Browning's Freaks. Some prints feature John Carradine in an introduction and some additional footage. This was shot simultaneously in German and in colour with a different director.
The shorter versions are better paced.

CIRCUS OF HORRORS (1960/Independant/Lynx/Anglo Amalgamated) 91mins. UK.
Credits: Dir: Sidney Hayers; Prod: Julian Wintle & Leslie Parkyn; Co-Prod: Norman Priggen; Sc: George Baxt; Ph: Douglas Slocombe; Ed: Reginald Mills; Art: Jack Shampan; Mu: Trevor Crole-Rees; Mus: Franz Reizenstein & Muir Mathieson.
Cast: Anton Differing, Jane Hylton, Yvonne Monlaur, Kenneth Griffith, Conrad Phillips, Colette Wilde, Jack Gwillim, Vanda Hudson, Yvonne Romain, Donald Pleasence, Ericka Remberg, William Mervyn, John Merrivale, Peter Swanwick.
"One man's lust turns men into beasts, strips women of their souls!"
A plastic surgeon, (Differing), avoids the inevitable enquiries after he badly botches an operation, and flees to France where he becomes the owner of a circus through the death of the previous owner, (Pleasence). He packs the circus with criminals whose faces he has changed and blackmails them into staying. Those that try to leave are killed while performing to make the deaths seem to be plausible accidents. The police become suspicious when too many accidents occur and the circus' profits go up.
The plot is unimaginatively handled and the sadistic content becomes tiresome.

CISARUV PEKAR A PEKARUV CISAR (1951/Vypravny Film/Dvou Castech) Czechloslovakia. Aka: THE EMPORER'S BAKER.
Credits: Dir: Martin Fric.
Cast: Jan Werich, Marie Vasova, Frantisek Cerny, Natasha Gollova, Bohuslav Zahorsky, Jiri Plachy, Zdenek Stepanek.
Prague 1610 and Emporer Rudolph II finances the construction of a Golem while his people starve. The Golem is eventually tamed by a baker, (Werich), who uses him to fuel the hearth with his breath and he is able to bake bread to feed the whole country.
A comedy vehicle for the first Golem to be seen in colour.

CITY OF THE DEAD (1960 /Vulcan) 78mins. BW. UK. Aka: HORROR HOTEL (US.)
Credits: Dir: John Moxey; Prod: Donald Taylor; Ex.Prod: Seymour S. Dorner & Milton Subotsky; Sc: George Baxt; Ph: Desmond Dickinson; Ed: John Pomeroy; Art: John Blezard; Sfx: Cliff Richardson; Mus: Douglas Gamely & Ken Jones.
From a story by Milton Subotsky.
Cast: Venetia Stevenson, Patricia Jessel, Betta St. John, Norman MacOwen, Dennis Lotis, Christopher Lee, Valentine Dyall, Ann Beach, Tom Naylor, Fred Johnson, William Abney, Jimmy Dyrenforth, Maxine Holden.
"Scream with guests from the Other World when you ring for doom service!" – American posters.
In Whitewood New England, 1692, a notorious witch is burnt at the stake, but her curse on the town demands Satan's eternal wrath. Centuries later, Nan, (Stevenson), is urged to visit and research in Whitewood for her thesis on witchcraft by Professor Driscoll, (Lee). She quickly becomes a sacrifice to a witches cult on Candlemass Eve. Her brother and her girlfriend arrive in the town to try and find her and discover that Nan's professor is the cult's leader.
Although the story is set in New England the film was shot entirely at Shepperton studios, with Dickenson's photography and the inordinate amount of dry ice creating a wonderful atmosphere. Milton Subotsky added 20 minutes to Baxt's original 60 minute script and the widescreen production was made for £45,000.
"Horror Hotel" keys were given to patrons at the American box office.
American Subotsky's first British production. He later became the head of Amicus productions.

THE CITY UNDER THE SEA (1965/Bruton/AIP.) 84mins. UK.
Aka: WAR GODS OF THE DEEP (US); WAR LORDS OF THE DEEP.
Credits: Dir: Jacques Tourneur; Prod: Daniel Haller; Ex.Prod: George Willoughby; Sc: Charles Bennett & Louis M. Heyward; Ph: Stephen Dade; Underwater Ph: John Lamb; Ed: Gordon Hales; Art: Frank White; Sfx: Frank George & Les Bowie; Mus: Stanley Black. From the 1831 poem "City in the Sea" by Edgar Allan Poe.
Cast: Vincent Price, David Tomlinson, Tab Hunter, Susan Hart, John Le Mesurier, Henry Oscar, Derek Newark, Roy Patrick, Anthony Selbey.
"They dared the most romantic journey that has ever challenged the imagination!"
In 1903 Professor Benjamin Harris, (Hunter), a mining engineer and Fellow of the Royal Society investigates the appearance of strange red stains in the sea near the coast of Cornwall and the mysterious death of a solicitor who was washed onto the shore. Professor Harris stays at Tregathion Manor which has been converted into a hotel by the owner Jill Tregellis, (Hart), who is then abducted by a Gill-man through a secret passageway and taken to Lyonesse, the City in the Sea. Professor Harris and another guest in the hotel, Harold, (Tomlinson), attempt to rescue her and descend into the sunken city populated by the half-man, half-fish creatures and a Captain, (Price), with his crew from the Seventeenth century who have been kept alive by the qualities of the air. The Captain organised Jill's abduction as she reminds him of his dead wife Beatrice, but one of the crew, a pastor, helps the three newcomers escape as a volcano threatens to destroy the city.
Jacques Tourneur's last film is a juvenille family adventure that provides a few thrills and is highlighted by Price's mournful performance.

THE CLAW MONSTERS (1955) see Panther Girl of the Congo

COBWEB CASTLE (1957) see Kumonosu-Jo

COFFINS OF TERROR (1963) see La Lunga Notte del Terrore

COLD BLOOD (1969) see The Ice House

EL COLECCIONISTA DE CADAVERES (1968) see Cauldron of Blood

THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (1958/Alland/Paramount) 70mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Eugene Lourie; Prod: William Alland; Sc: Thelma Schnee; Ph: John F. Warren; Ed: Floyd Knudtson; Art: Hal Pereira & John Goodman; Sets: Sam Comer & Grace Gregory; Sfx: John P. Fulton; Mu: Wally Westmore; Mus: Van Cleave. From a story by Willis Goldbeck.
Cast: Ed Wolff, Mala Powers, Otto Kruger, John Baragrey, Charles Herbert, Robert Hutton, Ross Martin.
Dr. Jeremy Spenser, (Martin), a scientist of some repute is killed by a car when he tries to retrieve his son's toy aeroplane, but his father and his brother Henry, (Baragrey), bring his brain back to life so that he can continue his important research. They house the doctor's brain in a clumsy, giant mechanical man, (Wolff), but due to anger and frustration the brain malfunctions within the metal monstrosity, develops a deadly ray and embarks on a murderous rampage. Realising that he is going insane, the scientist asks his small son, (Herbert), to pull the lever that will destroy him.
An entertaining science fiction film featuring an impressively designed monster, and quite possibly the worst music score ever written which consists mainly of vigorously thumped off-key piano notes.

COLOSSUS - THE FORBIN PROJECT (1970) see The Forbin Project

THE CONQUERER WORM (1968) see Witchfinder General

CONQUEST OF SPACE (1955/Paramount) 80mins. US.
Credits: Dir: Byron Haskin; Prod: George Pal; Sc: James O'Hanlon; Ph: Lionel Lindon; Art: Hal Pereira & James McMillan Johnson; Sfx: John P. Fulton, Irmin Roberts, Paul Lerpae, Ivyl Burks & Jan Domella; Mus: Van Cleeve. Adapted by Barrè Lyndon, Philip Yordan & George Worthing Yates from the book by Chesley Bonestell and Willy Ley. Also based on a technical paper "The Mars Project" by Wernher Von Braun.
Cast: Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Iphigenie Castiglion, Mickey Shaughnessy, Ross Martin, William Hopper, Phil Foster, Benson Fong, William Redfield, Michael Fox, John Dennis, Joan Shawlee, Vito Scotti.
"See how it will happen--in your lifetime!"
A rocket base is established by The Supreme International Space Authority 500 miles from earth to send ships to Mars and obtain much needed raw materials. Unfortunately, one such mission is sabotaged by someone who believes that such ventures are blasphemous. When the rocket lands on Mars the crew realise that they are stranded there unless they can straighten the ship for take off by blasting the caves below it.
A prophetically accurate account of a mission to Mars, but the film unfolds slowly with very little to sustain interest.

IL CONTE DRACULA (1970) see EL Conde Dracula

CONTRONATURA (1969) Italy. Aka: THE UNNATURALS.
Credits: Dir: Antonio Margheriti.
Cast: Alan Collins (Luciano Pigozzi), Marianna Koch, Joachim Fuchsberger, Claudio Camaso.
Travellers are stranded at an isolated castle where a strange man, (Collins), lives with his elderly mother, (Koch). After a seance a series of brutal murders occur, but it has all happened before and will happen to them again.
An old dark house mystery with gore.

LE CORONA NEGRA (1950/Suevia Film) 94mins. BW. Spain.
Aka: THE BLACK CROWN.
Credits: Dir: Luis Saslavsky; Prod: Cesareo Gonzalez; Sc: Miguel Mihura; Ph: Antonio Lopez Ballesteros & Valentin Javier. From a story by Cocteau.
Cast: Maria Felix, Rosanno Brazzi, Vittorio Gassman, José Maria Lado, Antonio Plana, Julio Caba Alba, Piéral, C. Lopez Silva, F. Fernandez.
In Tangier, a woman, (Felix), loses her memory after killing her husband for attempting to divorce her because of her affair with Maurico, (Gassman). She befriends an engineer, (Brazzi), but Maurico is after trying to find her and the whereabouts of her dead husband's jewels. Somehow Maurico and the woman are buried with the dead husband's corpse, but his murder is discovered and Maurico is the prime suspect. In a bid to escape, he is killed. The woman descends into complete insanity and embraces the corpse of the only man she ever truely loved.
The convoluted plot is shown through a series of flashbacks and dream sequences including scenes of witches clutching hands emerging from the grave and the symbolic "Black Crown" formed by ravens circling the corpse.

LE CORPS ET LE FOUET (1963) see La Frusta E Il Corpo

THE CORPSE (1969/Abacus/London/Cannon) 90mins. UK.
Aka: CRUCIBLE OF HORROR; THE VELVET HOUSE; THE VELVET HOUSE CORPSE.
Credits: Dir: Viktor Ritelis; Prod: Gabrielle Beaumont; Ex.Prod: Dennis Freidland & Christopher Dewey; Sc: Olaf Pooley; Ph: John Macky; Ed: Nicholas Pollock; Art: Peter Hampton; Mus: John Hotchkis.
Cast: Michael Gough, Yvonne Mitchell, Sharon Gurney, Simon Gough, Olaf Pooley, David Butler, Nicholas Jones,Mary Hignett, Howard Goorney.
A sadistic stockbroker, (Gough), continues his perverted assaults on his wife, (Mitchell), and his daughter, (Gurney), even after they have planned his death and killed him.
Inspired by Les Diaboliques the good cast supply exemplary performances amidst the gore and nudity. The fact that the only horror films from Britain at this time seemed to be Hammer Studio remakes only heightened this films impact.

THE CORPSE COLLECTOR (1968) see Cauldron of Blood

THE CORPSE MAKERS (1963) see Twice Told Tales

CORRIDORS OF BLOOD (1958/MGM/Producers Ass.) 86mins. BW. UK. Released 1964.
Aka: THE DOCTOR FROM SEVEN DIALS; CORRIDORS OF DEATH.
Credits: Dir: Robert Day; Prod: John Croydon & Charles Vetter; Ex.Prod: Richard Gordon; Sc: Jean Scott Rogers; Ph: Geoffrey Faithfull; Ed: Peter Mayhew; Art: Anthony Masters; Mus: Buxton Orr.
Cast: Boris Karloff, Francis Matthews, Christopher Lee, Betta St. John, Adrienne Corri, Francis DeWolff, Finlay Currie, Marian Spencer, Frank Pettingell, Basil Dignam, Carl Bernard, Nigel Green, Charles Lloyd Pack, Robert Raglan, Yvonne Warren, John Gabriel, Howard Lang.
Dr. Bolton, (Karloff), is determined to discover a way to acheive a painless operation. Other surgeons scoff at the idea and adhere to the practise of strapping their patients down while their limbs are either operated on or amputated. Sadly in his experiments with certain drugs, Bolton becomes addicted to opiates, and is blackmailed into signing false death certificates so that Resurrection Joe, (Lee), can obtain money for the corpses he provides. Finally the police raid the Seven Dials slums and Bolton is killed by Joe, but he has time to ask his son to continue his experiments before he dies. The epilogue shows his son performing painless surgery while his father's early paraphernalia is on display in the operating theatre.
The film is far better than it should have been thanks to a good cast and effective design, but it lacks excitement and only offers a few amputations to maintain interest.

CORRIDORS OF DEATH (1958) see Corridors of Blood

CORRUPTION (1967/Titan/Columbia) 91mins. UK.
Credits: Dir: Robert Hartford-Davis; Prod. & Ph: Peter Newbrook; Sc: Donald Ford & Derek Ford; Ed: Don Deacon; Des: Bruce Grimes; Sfx: Mike Albrechtsen; Mus: Bill McGuffie.
Cast: Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Noel Trevarthen, Kate O'Mara, David Lodge, Anthony Booth, Wendy Varnals.
A surgeon, (Cushing), accidently disfigures his fiancee's, (Lloyd), face during a confrontation with a photographer at a party and turns to murder for the pituitary glands he needs to restore her beauty. He decapitates prostitutes and keeps their heads in the refrigerator, but when demented hippies break into his house and discover the heads his laser drill goes out of control and kills the intruders. The surgeon then wakes from his dream and takes his fiancee to a party.
An unoriginal thriller without any cleverness and an excessive amount of gory detail. Only the reliable cast give the film a quality it doesn’t deserve.As a gimmick a ban was imposed at theatres on all women without an escort.

THE COSMIC MAN (1958/Futura/Allied Artists) 72mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Herbert Greene; Prod: Robert A. Terry; A.Prod: Harry Marsh; Sc: Arthur C. Pierce; Ph: John F. Warren; Ed: Helene Turner; Sfx: Charles Duncan; Mus: Lou Kosloff, Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter.
Cast: John Carradine, Bruce Bennett, Angela Greene, Paul Langton, Scotty Morrow, Lyn Osborne, Walter Maslow, Herbert Lytton, Ken Clayton, Alan Wells, Harry Fleer, Jean Hagen.
An alien, (Carradine), arrives on earth to preach peace before it is too late for us all. To prove his good intentions the alien cures the crippled son, (Morrow), of his landlady and then travels about undetected to elude the authorities who want to find out more about him and his strange spherical spacecraft. The alien is eventually shot and wounded when he is deemed to be a threat to national security.
The use of the negative image for the alien is quite effective and original, however, as a blatant copy of The Day the Earth Stood Still the film cannot compare to the classic and remains a cheap imitation.

THE COSMIC MAN APPEARS IN TOKYO (1956) see Uchujin Tokyo Ni Arawaru

THE COSMIC MONSTERS (1957) see The Strange World of Planet X

COUNT DRACULA (1977/BBC-TV) 150mins. TVM. UK.
Credits: Dir: Philip Saville; Prod: Morris Barry; Sc: Gerald Savory; Ed: Richard Bedford & Rod Waldron; Des: Michael Young; Vis.Fx: Tony Harding; Mu: Suzan Broad; Mus: Kenyon Emrys-Roberts. From the novel by Bram Stoker.
Cast: Louis Jourdan, Frank Finlay, Susan Penhaligon, Judi Bowker, Jack Shepherd, Mark Burns, Bosco Hogan, Richard Barnes, Ann Queensbury, George Raistrick, George Malpas, Michael MacOwen.
An extremely faithful adaptation of the novel, with some effective and chilling scenes. Watch for Dracula appearing as half man and half bat climbing down the castle walls.
An overlong adaptation that has moments of brilliance. Originally shown in 3 parts.

COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE (1973) see The Satanic Rites of Dracula

COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE (1970/Erica/Movielab/AIP.) 90mins. US.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: Robert Kelljan; Prod: Michael MacReady; Ph: Arch Archambault; Mus: William Marx.
Cast: Robert Quarry, Michael Murphy, Judith Lang, Roger Perry, Donna Anders, Marsha Jordan, Edward Walsh, Michael MacReady. Narrated: George MacReady.
"Don't dare come alone!"
In modern day Los Angeles, Count Yorga, (Quarry), and his selection of vampire women live in a Spanish mansion, and torment the area with their bloodlust. A man, (Murphy), goes to the mansion to rescue a relative and finds himself in a nightmare of vampiric terror.
Set against a backdrop of gritty city realism, police enquiries and seances, the film is better than the majority of modern placed vampire tales. Originally this was intended to be a soft porn sex film which explains why so many of the actresses have been seen in that genre. The moods are inspired by NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD especially in the make up of the vampire's brides.
Sequel: THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA.

COUNTER ATTACK OF THE MONSTER (1955) see Gojira No Gyakushyu

COUNTESS DRACULA (1970/Hammer/Rank) 93mins. UK.
Credits: Dir: Peter Sasdy; Prod: Alexander Paal; Sc: Jeremy Paul; Ph: Ken Talbot; Ed: Henry Richardson; Art: Philip Harrison; Sfx: Burt Luxford; Mu: Tom Smith; Mus: Harry Robinson.
Based on "The Bloody Countess" by Valentine Penrose and a story by Alexander Paal, Peter Sasdy & Gabriel Ronay.
Cast: Ingrid Pitt, Nigel Green, Lesley-Anne Down, Sandor Eles, Maurice Denham, Patience Collier, Peter Jeffrey, Andrea Lawrence, Jessie Evans, Leon Lissick, Nick Arrighi, Susan Broderick, Charles Farrell, Hulya Babus.
Countess Elizabeth Nadasdy, (Pitt), has found a cure for old age by bathing in virgins blood. Looking ever more youthful she pretends to be her own daughter, but at her wedding she suddenly ages horribly before her groom and the priest, struggling to obtain the youth giving blood she needs.
More of a horrific tale about murder, corruption and decay rather than actual vampirism. The format is of the usual Hammer formula and lacks imagination and excitement.