La comtesse noire

Plot synopsis:
Beautiful but mute Countess Irina Karlstein [Lina Romay] suffers from the curse of her ancestors--vampirism. She is doomed to go from victim to victim, making love to them but taking their lives at the height of their orgasms. It means a life of loneliness, punctuated only with a lot of one-night stands and dead bodies.After claiming her first victim, a birdfarmer at the edge of the forest, Irina leaves her home in the mountains of Madeira (Portugal) to spend some time at the seashore. While lounging at the hotel pool, she is approached by a journalist named Anna [Anna Watican], who wants to interview Irina regarding her bloody family. Later, when Irina is getting hungry again, her renfield [Louis Barboo] sends up the hotel masseur with a note saying that she needs his services. The next time she gets hungry, Irina drains Anna. She pays a visit to a dominatrix [Monica Swinn] and ends up draining her. And so the cycle continues.Irina's murders are raising suspicion with Dr Roberts [Jesus Franco], who takes his autopsy findings to his friend Dr Orloff [Raymond Hardy], a blind metaphysician. They both agree that it looks like the work of a vampire. Roberts suspects Irina Karlstein and wants to destroy her, but Orloff questions whether the experience of being drained by a vampire might actually be worth it. Irina finds herself attracted to Baron Von Rathony [Jack Taylor], who is himself in love with Irina, and they go to her ancestral home in the mountains. He thinks that it's destiny that they be together, but Irina's destiny is different from his. She ends up taking his life, too. Dr Roberts decides to put an end to Irina. He breaks into her house, kills her renfield, and finds Irina in the bath. As he watches her luxuriating in the red water, however, he cannot bear to kill her. And so Irina goes back into the mountains the same way she came...alone.

Tags: paranormal, murder

Review:
Female Vampire (1973) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Jess Franco's erotic twist on the vampire legend has Lina Romay playing Countess Irina, the last member of a vampire family who plans on ending the legacy.
I've seen the XXX version, which is just downright ugly and kills the beauty of the original film but I'm still trying to seek out the horror version and will hopefully come upon it sometime soon.Female Vampire (1973) Horror version *** (out of 4)I finally managed to get a copy of this alternate version of Female Vampire, which is better known as Erotikill or The Bare Breasted Countess.
In this horror version everything is basically the same story wise with the major exception being that Countess Irina (Lina Romay) sucks blood and not other things.
Female Vampire, or whatever you'd like to call it, is maybe a difficult film to rate/review, because there are supposedly so many different versions floating around.
This is the first Jesus Franco film I've seen so far that I have hated, but admittedly, I don't think I've even seen a quarter of them.At least for this version of Female Vampire, there's an easy way to tell if you might like it.
The film is basically 10  15 minutes of dialogue, scattered throughout, with ridiculously bad English language dubbing (no subtitles were available), and about an hour and 20 minutes of poorly filmed softcore porn, featuring mostly unattractive looking people (Lina Romay, the star, doesn't do much for me), alternated with scenes of people sitting and staring, random ocean shots, shots of an odd hood ornament from a car's windshield, etc.
Basically, if you're into early 1970s softcore porn, then you should like Female Vampire.Since Romay ended up as Franco's wife (I'm not sure if they were married before Female Vampire or not), it seems like maybe the film was just an excuse to get her naked and encourage her to have sex with a bunch of different people, including women (by the way, there was one woman whom I thought was attractive--the strawberry blonde--but she doesn't get very physical with anyone).I actually watched the dialogue scenes twice to try to make some sense of the plot, because it's very "poetic" if we're being overly generous, and mostly incoherent gibberish if we're being honest.
Once it stopped making sense, my attention would wander.But as far as I can tell the plot is something like this: Countess Irina Karlstein (Romay) ends up on the island of Madeira, off the coast of Portugal, presumably because her family owns some property there.
The other characters include Baron Von Rathony (Jack Taylor), who likes to sit and stare at nature and read us passages from a travel guide, Dr. Roberts (none other than Jesus Franco, using the pseudonym of "Jess Franck" in this version), who does the autopsies on the bodies--which we unfortunately never get to see except for one humorous occasion, Dr. Orloff (Jean-Pierre Bouyxou), a blind doctor of something or other who gives us the weird autopsy occasion (it involves manually checking a female corpse's bite wound), Anna (who seems to have been played by two actresses, Gilda Arancio and Anna Watican), who is a journalist, and some other assorted men and women whom I could never figure out who they were.
Maybe Romay has a voice like Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) in Singing in the Rain (1952).Anyway, some of these characters encounter each other at various times and talk about Irina, the bodies, read more travel guide passages to us, randomly start muttering gibberish--er, uh, getting poetic--and so forth.
Don't forget that this "plot" stuff takes up only about 10  15 minutes.What happens instead is that Franco gives us a lot of lingering shots of Romay in various states of undress, occasionally wearing lingerie, with random out of focus zooms into her breasts, crotch, and so on.
"La Comtesse Noire" is a soft-core movie of sexploitation without story and the only intention is apparently expose the naked body of Lina Romay that works naked all the time.
This version has an explicit fellatio of Irina with one of her victims and seems to be a home video, with a messy screenplay and an annoying music score that is repeated every time that Lina Romay is naked meaning that along the entire movie.
Even though the film sometimes has got some lengths and real dialogues are quite rare, "The Female Vampires" can be truly enjoyable as long as you are a serious fan of early 1970s Euro sleaze!
This film was released under dozens of titles like "La Comtess Noire", "Lady Dracula 2", "Erotic Kill"..., but I think the number of all different cut versions is not much lower..!
Beautifully shot by Joan Vincent, this is serious erect-nipple vampirism, with all the longing and the loneliness that goes with belonging to the undead...although there are not many people who look as alive as Lina Romay does in this movie.
Irina is linked to the forest - she IS sexuality - and the film is full of gorgeous colours, and a use of red filter which might be a tribute ot LE MEPRIS.But, perversely for a film featuring a mute and a blind man, the film is best enjoyed ,as Sirk desired, with one's eyes closed - whatever one thinks of the movie, the soundtrack is a masterpiece, enriching what we're watching; a magnificently varied mix of lounge, jazz, Legrandesque romanticism, 60s pop etc.
I can now see the real thing; a beautiful film set in Portugal.All vampire tales are erotic, but Romay takes it to new heights, as the eroticism is open and highly graphic.
My only experience with sleaze master Jess Franco's lesbian-vampire films before this one was the brilliantly titled 'Vampyros Lesbos' (which I happened to see just before I saw this).
The seductively sexy Lina Romay leads the film, and although she doesn't have any lines in the movie - she still manages to put in a great performance!
As usual for Franco, the plot is very brief and this one has something to do with a vampire countess who is unlucky enough to have wander around having sex with people shortly before killing them...Jess Franco has made a lot of films, and that is evident on numerous occasions throughout this film, as it would seem that Franco has only put about ten percent effort into it.
Lina Romay plays Countess Irina Karlstein,who is the last in the line of the vampires.She sucks the life force from her victims during sex.The film opens with wonderfully erotic sequence in which Irina wanders out of the early morning mist,clad only in a belt,knee-high boots and cape."Female Vampire" is very slow-moving,but it offers plenty of nudity,sex and lesbianism.Franco clearly takes a voyeuristic delight in Romay's body and activities.There is no horror whatsoever,but if you like Jesus Franco's movies give this one a look.I still think that there are far better movies made by Franco,for example "Faceless", "Bloody Moon","Barbed Wire Dolls" or "Women in Cellblock 9".My rating:7 out of 10..
Things going out of focus all the time is not art, it's laziness and incompetence on the part of someone more interested in zooming in on unkempt crotches than making a decent erotic vampire film.
(aka: EROTIKILL or FEMALE VAMPIRE)I saw the Image DVD and although there may have been some hard-core sex scenes that were deleted from it, I doubt I'd do anything for this film.
Still, I don't mind watching.We get to see Lina as a Austrian countess who if you watch the EROTIKILL version, sucks blood out the traditional vampire way, or if you watch the FEMALE VAMPIRE version, sucks sperm (or other sexual bodily fluids) out of her victims the untraditional soft-core way.Most of the film involves soft-core scenes of Lina having sex with men, women, bedposts, pillows, herself, etc.
That's about the only blood you'll see in this film, and it's not even in the FEMALE VAMPIRE version.Sorry Lina but even you can't carry it.2 out 10.
Along with the original Dr. Orloff, this is probably one of Franco's best films (although I can't claim to have seen even a high percentage of them), and its mostly down to the extraordinary presence of Lina Romay and the lush score which accompanies her every move.
A meandering dull-fest directed by the notorious Jess Franco, and "starring" Lina Romay as a mostly nude vampiress who sucks the life out of men and women "orally," if you get what I'm driving at.
Well this is pure Franco that's for sure.The story, to put it mildly, is not it's strong point - a female vampire goes around killing people by means of oral sex and that's basically about it.Female Vampire shares many of the traits of Franco's earlier Vampyros Lesbos, i.e. a stultifying pace, an iconic female lead, uninteresting male characters, lots of sex, half-hearted horror, low production values and a persistent score.
Lina Romay is this movies strong point but she does not have the sheer magnetism of Soledad Miranda; where Vampyros Lesbos had a definite erotic style, Female Vampire is mostly endless ugly softcore scenes; and this film's very turgid score is simply not in the same league as the lounge classic that accompanies Lesbos.This is effectively a softcore sex movie with a very loose horror angle.
Female Vampire represents one of his most off-kilter efforts to date.The story is nearly impossible to describe, but here goes; Countess Barthory (the lovely Lina Romay) is on vacation in Europe.
Wisely choosing not to go down the hardcore road (unless your watching the badly re-edited German X-rated version) the nudity and sex come off as genuinely erotic.Romay spends almost all of her screen time almost completely nude; either rolling about in some kind of horny-angst or fulfilling the same desires.
"Lina Romay" may look a bit like Soledad Miranda but she has none of the screen presence which was Soledad's.Also, let's face, this is a very silly film.
A beautiful female vampire (Lina Romay) lures men to their doom.Depending on which version you watch, you might get a more or less pornographic film with horror themes or a horror film with some sexual themes.
Not at all what I expected, and frankly it disappoints me that this version is not more horror.Concerning the sexual scenes, Franco has said, "There was a need to show it, like you must show how Dracula sucks his blood, you need to show how this Countess sucks the semen." I am not sure if I buy that..
SPANISH director Jess Franco discovered Lina Romay and she was to reward him with an incredibly erotic performance as the blood/semen sucking vampire in this 1973 film, better known in the UK as The Female Vampire.
Jess Franco is skilled director,made a lot of good movies,but this is awful and don't dignifies his extensive career,a low profile movie drives to a peeping audience,a vampire without blood and a propper teeth,who sucks blood in another place of body,soft porn without plot,sexploitation that almost reach a point of pure porn movie,lack of soul and veracity!!Lina Romay had a great potential to do a real scary female vampire!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 4.
Lina Romay plays wanton vampire Countess Irina Karlstein, who wanders around in a sheer black cape and a big leather belt, sucking the life out of her victims, not from their necks, but from a bit further south (this is a Jess Franco film, so I think you know where I mean).I bought an uncut and uncensored Dutch 'Collector's Edition' DVD of Franco's Female Vampire from eBay quite a few years ago believing it would have English subtitles (not unreasonably so, since the seller said it had).
Despite the usual Franco quota of bare boobs and close-up crotch shots courtesy of star Lina Romay (and a few other strumpets), the film had me struggling to stay awake, its dreamlike (ie., uneventful and painfully slow) approach and almost complete lack of plot making for a really dull experience.1/10, although I was very nearly tempted to give it 2/10 for Romay's hilarious self-gratification involving a phallic bedpost and cylindrical pillow, and for the bit where a blind man fondle's a dead woman's snatch..
The fact is, that director Jess Franco was out to make a film where he could show the world as much of his wife Lina Romay in the nude as possible - and he succeeded.
Most film fans will likely be put off by the lack of an actual plot or story to THE FEMALE VAMPIRE - instead, it's just a number of scenes linked together with some added filler in-between to stand in for the plot.
It's clear that Franco desperately wants to make a film in the style of Jean Rollin and he does succeed to some degree - scenes of Romay stalking the woods looking for victims are done quite effectively.
Lina Romay spends most of the film wandering around dressed in a)a long open cloak, knee high boots and very wide boots b)a large see through net curtain c)nothing at all.The story is she is last of the Karstein line and vamps her male and female victims using oral sex instead of the usual blood and fangs, although there are various more conventional alternative versions of this film to get round the censor.
"Female Vampire"/"Bare Breasted Countess"/"Erotikill") of 1973 is, without any doubt, an incredibly nonsensical film that is more Porn than it is Horror and ranges among the most shamelessly plot-less Euro-Exploitation features ever produced.
Sexy Lina plays Countess Irina Karlstein, a female vampire who walks around wearing only a cape and a belt, who kills her victims (of both sexes) during sex, and who does not limit herself to sucking blood exclusively.
About 90 per cent of the film are soft-core porn (or hard-core porn, depending on which version you see), sleaze, and shots of beautiful Lina Romay walking naked through the forest.
The star in this film is Franco's favorite toy-girl, the astonishingly beautiful (at least back then) and sexy Lina Romay, who definitely makes up in charisma what she lacks in experience and acting skills.
Like several of Franco's film, this "Female Vampire" is rather meaningless and overall incompetent BUT also very sensual!
That actress is Lina Romay, the sexual obsession and wife of the infamous director, Jesús "Jess" Franco, starring frequently his sexploitation trash B movies.
Though, not everything (but almost everything) is awful in this boringly slow-paced movie: at least the atmosphere of horror is better than many other vampire B films.
The movie is basically Lina Romay walking around naked and literally bumping into the camera, while she is also occasionally having sex with both males or females.
All of its hardcore moments are incredibly poorly filmed and actually look like it comes straight out of Jesus Franco personal home shot videos.
Les Avaleues, or under one of it's many alternate titles such as Bare Breasted Countess, Erotic Kill, Female Vampire, Insatiable Lust, Jacula (!), The Last Thrill & The Loves of Irina as they get more & more obscure, starts on the Portuguese island of Maderia where Countess Irina Karlstein (Lina Romay) is living in her ancestral home.
I am aware that Les Avaleuses exists in several different versions & I would be willing to bet that almost all of the comments found on the internet refer to the version titled Female Vampire released on DVD in the states & UK, this version is basically the worst soft-core sex film ever & pretty much every other element is inconsequential.
The script by Franco & Gerard Brisseau is so bad it's unbelievable, there is no story, the character's are virtually none existent, nothing even remotely interesting or exciting happens & I struggle to see why Les Avaleuses is even described as a film because it doesn't feel like one while watching it.
I have not one good thing to say about this piece of crap on which I wasted 100 odd minutes of my life, one of the worst 'things' (I simply refuse to call it a film) I've ever had the misfortune to watch.Director Franco again proves that he is totally incompetent both in front & behind the camera, random shots of speed boats & the local scenery, totally unnecessary slow pans & zooms which are both pointless & take up a lot of the running time, he can't keep his camera in focus & he films everything in a flat, boring & throughly dull manner.
It's sad that Franco cared so little at times for his own aesthetics and tolerated shabbiness.Lina Romay, Franco's replacement muse after Soledad Miranda died tragically, plays the bloodsucker of the title, a tragic figure doomed to wander in the shadows of the Spanish countryside, her thirst for blood eternal, her hunger for sex insatiable.The film is a series of erotic encounters (some hardcore) interspersed with meandering dialog scenes and pretty scenery.
This film starts out with a semi-clad female by the name of "Countess Irina Karlstein" (Lina Romay) walking in a forest in Spain on a foggy evening.
Not only was the entire film extremely slow and boring but the director (Jesus Franco) kept playing the same awful music to each scene over and over again which really got on my nerves.
"Female Vampire" isn't that bad of an adult vampire film, but it's still pretty flawed.**SPOILERS**Living alone on an island, Countess Irina Karlstein, (Lina Romay) spends her time laughing off rumors that she's a vampire while enjoying the steady stream of gigolos who come for her.
Dreamy and erotic vampire horror outing from the unbeatable exploitation duo of Jess Franco and Lina Romay.
Not more than 1 year ago I thought the worst movie was O.C. and Stiggs, but after having watched D'Amato and Franco I kind of like the Altman-film a bit.