As our pal Christopher so deftly pointed out, the Karnstein family of evil has been around for quite a while, serving up all kinds of nastiness! Long before the "Twins Of Evil" ever made the scene, there was a film released in 1964 titled "Crypt Of The Vampire" that starred Christopher Lee as Count Ludwig Karnstein, then in 1970 there was "The Vampire Lovers" that starred the marvelous Ingrid Pitt as Mircalla Karnstein, which brings us to tonight's feature released in 1971, right before the "Twins" that was called
"Lust For A Vampire" and starred Mr. Mike Raven as Count Karnstein, and by no means should "Lust For A Vampire" get confused with the Mario Bava film that came out in 1956 called "Lust Of The Vampire," or
"I, Vampiri!"
Even before the opening credits roll, the first sacrificial lamb is abducted with a closeup shot that you will notice gets used quite frequently throughout the whole picture!
It takes a lot of blood to awaken the ancient carcass of Carmilla/Mircalla which is understandable once you witness the transformation!
Literally the man in black, Mike Raven is Count Karnstein, the guy in charge of calling all the shots! Mike Raven was a popular Saturday night rhythm and blues DJ for a time in the UK, something that led insult to injury when they dubbed in his voice in "Lust For A Vampire" using the voice of veteran actor Valentine Dyall instead! Creepy Mike also starred in and helped finance "Crucible Of Terror," and "Disciple Of Death," and also was in "I, Monster." That's it, four films and on to be a sculptor and sheep farmer! What a guy!!
Just in case you thought things couldn't get any worse for Mike, in this closeup of Count Karnstein, they used Christopher Lee's eyes instead of Mike Raven's! Ouch!!
At least all that blood didn't go to waste, as Carmilla/Mircalla arises from her 40 year nap, lookin' pretty damned good!!
The locals are never too happy when a stranger comes to town, especially when there's been a string of murders of young nubiles going on!
Not wanting to mind his own business, and snooping around, the stranger has apparently run into a brood of hooded devil worshipers!!
Turns out it was only a bunch of beautiful girls from the local finishing school just out playing around!
As it states in the dreadful trailer, "Welcome to the finishing school, where they really do finish you!!"
I thought "Lust For A Vampire" was going to be just a soft-core vampire boobfest, and don't get me wrong, it does have it's fair share of pairs, but for the most part, "Lust For A Vampire" is misnamed, and is actually intelligent, and not too bad of a film! The newest student at the school is none other than a lovely young lady named Mircalla, who gets a little massage here from one of the other students!
The music used in "Lust For A Vampire" was written by a certain Mr. Harry Robertson, working here as Harry Robinson! Among his incredible accomplishments, Harry wrote the music for the 1960's musical variety TV show "Shindig!" In 1958 Harry had a chart topping hit for three weeks with a little ditty called "Hoots Mon" that was performed by Harry and his band working as Lord Rockingham's XI!!
The stranger that came to town was the guy on the right, Michael Johnson as author Richard Lestrange! With that hairdo, Richard looks like a cross between Chuck Barris of "The Gong Show" fame and some UK rocker! Most of Michael's work was for TV, starting his career in 1959 on "Manhunt," and closing it out in 1990 on "Perfect Scoundrels!" The Tiny Tim lookin' guy on the left is Jonathan Cecil as the new teacher Biggs!
Sly dog Richard has just tricked Biggs into leaving, so he can go teach at the girl's school in his place, and have all the girls to himself, and he is particularly interested in the one named Mircalla!
I honestly don't ever recall seeing this many closeups of different kinds in one movie lately!!
Ozzy Osbourne lookalike is Ralph Bates as Giles Barton! Giles has a skull on his desk because he's the spineless Headmaster at the school!! Ralph was the real life great, great nephew of Louis Pasteur, and was in a number of Hammer films like "Horror Of Frankenstein," "Taste The Blood Of Dracula," and "Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde!"
The gorgeous Dane Yutte Stensgaard is heavenly evil in the role of Carmilla/Mircalla! The former au pair changed her first name from Jytte to Yutte to make it easier for people to pronounce! Yutte's first appearance was in the 1968 film, "La Ragazza Con La Pistola," or "The Girl With The Pistol," she was also Robot Number Two in the Bulldog Drummond feature, "Some Girls Do," and was Erika in "Scream And Scream Again!" Unfortunately for us, Yutte got fed up with the whole scene and quit acting in 1973!
Comparing the olde and new, it's all starting to make sense now!
The only real problem is that even though Richard knows the truth about Carmilla/Mircalla, and here's the catch,
the crazy guy's in love with her!!! 
Stranger than anything I'd ever heard of in any Hammer vampire flick before, there's actually a pretty cool and moody little tune right in the middle of this big love making scene that musically puts this movie heads and pierced throats above your normal vampire film! The song was called "Strange Love," and was performed by Tracy! The music was written by Harry Robertson, and the lyrics were written by Frank Godwin!
As you watch Mircalla's eyes roll into the back of her head, you can listen to
"Strange Love" as it was released as a single! It appears for all rights and purposes that Richard was quite the lover!!
It's amazing, Carmilla/Mircalla doesn't even bite him, because she's actually in love with him too! Now that's a twist, an undead person with a heart!
So they bring in Jack Melford as The Bishop, and it's a whopping big red on red ordeal. This would be Jack Melford's last appearance, as he died a few months later! He'd been acting since 1931!
The only real reason they brought The Bishop into the story was so that he could try to stop the villagers from burning up The Karnsteins, because he's the only one intelligent enough to know that it only burns their physical bodies, and that their undead souls will return to do more mayhem and damage to the innocent unless they get a stake through the heart!
Carmilla/Mircalla on the other hand wasn't as lucky as the other Karnsteins, and the living dead game is over for her!
You've had over 60 years to see "Tower Of London!" The movie was made in 1939, and is just as classic as "Frankenstein" or "Dracula!" Why this film is not shown in classrooms across the globe is anybody's guess, because in a sane world, it would be mandatory, but we don't live in a sane world, now do we?
A time when forward was actually backward, not so different from today! Watch this movie and you'll never ever wonder again why the masses hate the rich, the politicians, and the royalty of the world! "Tower Of London" comes right out and says it, they're all a bunch of cutthroat evil bastards of the lowest kind, and yet they wield all the power!
Workhorse composer Frank Skinner has some 266 composing credits, and the vast majority, like this film are uncredited. Frank did get credits on "Hellzapopin'" but on movies like "The Invisible Man Returns," "The Mummy's Hand," and "The Wolf Man," he was sinfully just 'the guy' who provided the music! 
Boris Karloff is Mord the executioner and the dude in charge of the torture dungeon! Check out the raven perched on his shoulder!
Mord decides this guy ain't hurting enough, so he adds on another weight! Look how he has different size weights, so he can distribute the discomfort and pain to his liking!
Boris! What a piece of work!
The King is dead! Long live the King! Just a little bit unclear on the whole royalty concept! Miles Manders is King Henry VI.
Leo G. Carroll has the role of Lord Hastings! Leo has a permanent spot in The Dungeon Hall of Fame, not only for his archetypal role in "Tarantula," but also for his masterful TV caricatures in 53 episodes of everybody's favourite ghost show "Topper," and for another 102 episodes of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." as the man in the know, Alexander Waverly!
One of the first squared circles has an early Gorilla Monsoon doing the blow by blow commentary!
Long before "All The Young Dudes," Ian Hunter has the role of King Edward The IV, and Basil Rathbone is his brother, Richard - the Duke of Gloucester, or as Frank Zappa would say, "The Duke Of Prunes!" It's a dog eat dog world, and the play fighting is fun, but Richard really doesn't like playing second fiddle to his brother, and has some grandiose plans for his family members! Indeed, Richard is a real Dick!
The brothers were so busy playing around that the King is almost late for the execution, that's what kind of a caring person he is! His wife, Barbara O'Neil as Queen Elyzabeth makes an appearance, but doesn't really like these kinds of events, and would much rather be home with her kids!
John Rodion as the about to be executed Lord Devere, and his pal John Sutton as John Wyatt, the Queen's cousin, are added to the basic tale of Shakespeare's "Richard the III" to flesh out the tale a bit! John Sutton was also in two classic Vincent Price films in 1959, "The Bat," and "Return Of The Fly!" John Rodion was only ever in one other film, "The Dawn Patrol," made a year earlier! John Rodion's birth name was actually Basil Rodion Rathbone! That's right, he was Basil Rathbone's son, but raised by his Mother, because they split up when he was two!
Mord and Richard make quite a couple! Richard is a hunchback, and Mord has a clubfoot, but together, they plan to rule the world!
While not exactly a true horror story, "Tower Of London" is pretty creepy, especially this little dollhouse that Richard has of his family. One by one he knocks them all off!
Dungeon Hall of Famer Vincent Price is Richard's younger brother, George, the Duke of Clarence. This was only Vinnie's third appearance on the big screen!
The combination of Boris's chrome dome, and those helmets, makes this scene where they take John Wyatt down, look like it could have come from some Space Ranger serial!
Richard is the master bastard of working both sides, or maybe even three sides at the same time!
These people are unscrupulous and will stoop at nothing to set themselves up, including forced marriages of children and even killing them when they become the next heir to the throne!
This would be a good candidate for one of those 'Come up with a caption for this picture' contests! I don't know why, I just like this shot! Everybody just looks so suspicious!
Richard tells George he can beat him in any kind of contest, so George challenges Richard to the only thing he knows he can win, a drinking contest!
It's a great piece of cinematic history after many rounds of wine, George does beat Richard who is totally passed out, and is just getting the last laugh when.......
......Richard miraculously comes back to life!!
After knocking him out, Richard and Mord stuff George in a vat of wine, and put the lid on it!
Sorry Basil, the secret is out, "Tower Of London" is not history, but it is a great story! I don't even particularily like period pieces, but this is a good one! Last time I checked, it was still available on Netflix!
