THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE (1960), THE EMBALMER (1965)

PHENOMENALITY: (1) *marvelous,* (2) *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*

CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical, psychological*

While I’m judging these two Italian horror-flicks by their 1960s dubbed versions, this time I believe that the creativity behind both was of such a pedestrian nature that the dubbings were unlikely to have done much damage.

Piero Regnoli’s THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE came out in the same year as Polselli’s THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA, but PLAYGIRLS doesn’t even come up to the modest entertainment-level of the latter film. One might’ve thought that Regnoli—whose wriring-credits outnumber his dozen-or-so directorial efforts by a factor of ten—might’ve scored better with his vampire outing, since he contributed script-work to Italy’s breakthrough horror-film, the 1956 I VAMPIRI. But though both of the 1960 films involve a group of showgirls stopping at a vampire’s castle, and though both are mostly vapid sexploitation, PLAYGIRLS doesn’t have much fun with the concept.

Walter Brandi is the headliner here, playing Count Kernassy, the lord of the castle. He particularly takes a shine to a dancer named Vera, and she reciprocates his interest, but his interest may originate in Vera’s resemblance to a dead woman, seen in a wall-portrait. The big reveal is that Kernassy’s not the vampire, but his lookalike brother is, and he wants to chow down on Vera because of her resemblance to his late wife. PLAYGIRLS’ main distinction is that there’s a romantic vibe between Vera and Kernassy, and so for a time it looks as though Regnoli might’ve have been referencing a passage in Stoker’s DRACULA, wherein it’s implied that the Count pursues Mina because of a resemblance to an earlier love. But this trope would not be fully exploited until the debut of Barnabas Collins in DARK SHADOWS.

Since the brothers look the same age one must assume they’re contemporaries, though it’s never clear as to what sort of curse befell the vampire-twin. Thus, when PLAYGIRLS concludes with the vampire dissolving in the rays of sunlight, apparently it’s not because he’s super-old, which is always the rationale for dissolution in the Stoker ur-text.

Mild entertainment though PLAYGIRLS may be, it’s gold next to Dino Tavelli’s leaden THE EMBALMER. A maniac preys on Venetian women by emerging from the canals in frogman-gear, abducting his targets and transporting them underwater, to an underground catacombs. He then doffs his scuba outfit, dons a monk’s robe and a skull mask, and devotes himself to embalming his victims and gloating over an art-gallery of preserved corpses.

Tavelli often seems more interested in grabbing colorful shots of Venice than in fleshing out either the fiend or the Venetian cop who eventually brings him down. Having watched these two sixties thrillers, though, makes me aware that most European thrillers portray women as completely vulnerable to male attack, unable to mount the slightest defense. American stalker-films took a lot of heat for their supposed hatred of women, but characters like Laurie Strode or numerous other “final girls” seems completely beyond the scope of earlier European filmmakers.