The Playgirls and the Vampire

‘5 playgirls walked innocently into his arms… only to meet the devil in the flesh!’

The Playgirls and the Vampire (Italian: L’ultima preda del vampiro – translation: “The Vampire’s Last Prey”) is a 1960 Italian horror film written and directed by Piero Regnoli. It stars Lyla Rocco, Walter Brandi (The Vampire and the Ballerina; Bloody Pit of Horror), Maria Giovannini, and Alfredo Rizzo (The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance).

Regnoli was a scriptwriter who also co-wrote Riccardo Freda’s I Vampiri, Nightmare City and Demonia. The 1963 US release was by Richard Gordon (Tower of Evil; Horror Hospital). A shortened American TV version was retitled Curse of the Vampire.

Plot teaser:

A feckless troupe of European exotic dancers and their piano player led by a bumbling manager stumble upon a castle after encountering a ferocious storm.

The castle, inhabited by Count Gabor, his assistant and a vampire, is little refuge for the traveling showgirls as they slowly fall under the spell of the un-dead demon.

Vera, one of the reluctant dancers and the living doppelgänger of the vampire’s dead wife, Margherita Kernassy—who has been dead nearly 200 years—becomes the object of affection for both Count Gabor and the vampire…

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Reviews:

The pseudo-scientific approach to curing vampirism is intriguing, the playful ‘comedy’ is self-deprecating and the “playgirls” are a lively distraction but, alas, Walter Brandi is a weak evil count and Aldo Piga’s score recalls the silent era rather than the 1960s. That said, there is an undoubted eroticism to Regnoli’s film that predates Rollin, Franco, Hammer and countless other vampiric ventures.

Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia

“This is a fairly low-level mystery that plods through with some erotic undertones (for the time period anyway), minimal vampirism and only cheesecake variety gore. I liked it despite all of those shortcomings.” A Feast of the Ires

” … plodding and mediocre. On the plus side, it is very atmospherically photographed by Aldo Greci. The film also offers two nice scenes at the climax. In one, the now vampiric Katia comes toward the camera to claim a victim, only to be staked by her male vampire (Brandi in a dual role) counterpart.

The other notable scene is the male vampire’s staking, which leads to a dissolve of images as the 200-year-old vampire crumbles to a skeleton and then fades away.” Dennis Fischer, Cinefantastique

“Playgirls’ Regnoli only churned out five minor period films as a director before settling into a career as a screenwriter on zombie films like City of the Walking Dead and Burial Ground. He does a competent job here and probably could have been a notable player in the spooky-sexy European sweepstakes of the ’60s and ’70s had he chosen to pursue it. Anybody who could deliver naked girls with big fangs con gusto like this definitely deserved to have a longer career.” Mondo Digital