LAS VAMPIRAS vs VAMPYROS LESBOS

COMMENTARY BY ROBERT MONELL: The white hot stripteases performed by the Countess Korody (Soledad Miranda) with a living "mannequin" were heavily suppressed in the Spanish version of VAMPYROS LESBOS. The famous  Hubler-Schwab score was also replaced by cues written by Franco himself, under his David Khunne cover. Released in Spain to in 1973, LAS VAMPIRAS plays and sounds quite differently, but it's a nonetheless fascinating artifact and contains some footage (the Countess standing in a boat; some shots of her dance) not in VL. Franco's score is in some ways even less conventional and stranger than the more familiar Hubler-Schwab cues, which remain more immediately listenable and propel the images with a tremendous pace while creating an outre atmosphere which hasn't dated at all. There have been two US DVD's of VL, but the DVD presentation we would include the version with the onscreen title VAMPYROS LESBOS-ERBIN DES DRACULA. We'll outline the reasons when we return to this subject...

COPYRIGHT BY ROBERT MONELL: 2006