Ghoulish, Gory, Ghastly

'Lust For A Vampire' was the second film in Hammer's 'Karnstein' trilogy, and was released in 1971. Whereas the first film, 'The Vampire Lovers', had been bloody and sexy enough to bother the censors, 'Lust', despite it's racier title, is much tamer and almost completely excises the lesbianism of both the literary source material and its predecessor. If it's any compensation, it is, however, much, much funnier.

The star is Danish actress Yutte Stensgaard, who is very pretty but not much of an actress, and Michael Johnson, who resembles a clean shaven Peter Wyngarde but without his presence and sense of humour. There are also parts for Suzanna Leigh and Ralph Bates, as well as an outing for ex-DJ and aspiring horror ham, Mike Raven. Raven looks the part, but was dubbed because his performance was so poor.

In an interesting aside, Yutte Stensgaard auditioned for the role of Jo Grant in 'Doctor Who' but lost out, of course, to Katy Manning. Katy had the right idea and did things in the right order: kids show first, then nudity.