Vampyros Lesbos (Spanish: Las Vampiras) is a 1971 West German-Spanish erotic horror film directed and co-written by Jesús Franco. The film stars Ewa Strömberg as Linda Westinghouse, an American who works in a Turkish legal firm. Westinghouse has a series of erotic dreams that involve a mysterious vampire woman who seduces her before feeding on her blood. When she travels to an island to settle an inheritance, Linda recognizes a woman as the vampire from her dreams.
The film was shot in 1970 in Turkey. It was a popular success in theaters in Europe on its release and was the first film to have a more psychedelic score for a Franco film and the first to have a lesbian theme as a prominent feature of the film. The film’s score became popular in the mid-1990s when it was included on the compilation Vampyros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party, an album that became a top ten hit on the British Alternative charts.
On a remote island, the beautiful vampire Countess Nadine Carody lures unwary victims with her seductive nightclub act and sets her sights on Linda. Linda begins dreaming about Nadine and seeks her home on an island. She is interrupted by Memmet, who warns her not to go to the island. Linda follows Memmet to his chamber, where she walks in on him torturing a young woman. She escapes this encounter and proceeds to the island where Linda meets Nadine. The two go swimming, and Nadine notes that the home they are staying at used to belong to Count Dracula. After Linda begins to feel dizzy from drinking wine, Nadine takes her to a room where the two have sex, and Nadine draws blood from Linda’s neck. Linda later finds Nadine motionless in a swimming pool and faints.
The next day, Agra appears in mental distress at a hospital, where she claims to have visions of Nadine. She is under Dr. Seward’s care, who then treats his new patient, Linda, who does not have any memory of what she encountered with Nadine. At Nadine’s home, she appears alive and recounts to her servant Morpho how she became a vampire and her obsession with Linda, who she wishes to become a vampire. Nadine uses her powers to contact Linda to return to her island, where the two drink blood and have sex. On her return to the hospital, Dr. Seward informs Linda that to remove herself from the vampire’s curse she must split the vampire’s head with an axe or pierce it with a pole.
Memmet then kidnaps Linda, and her boyfriend Omar begins to search for her. Nadine later arrives at the asylum to have Linda return with her, where she meets Dr. Seward. Dr. Seward admits that he only attempted to help Linda to draw Nadine to him so he could become a vampire. Nadine refuses and has Morpho kill him. As Omar searches for Linda, she is told by Memmet that all women, including his wife Arga, who return from the island become insane, which has driven him to kill various women around the island. Linda manages to kill Memmet with a saw and escapes to find Nadine. She finds Nadine at her home near death, desperate for blood to survive. Linda ignores Nadine’s plea, bites her neck, and stabs her with a pole through her left eye. Morpho commits suicide, and Linda is found by Omar, who tries to convince her that the whole experience was a dream.
he compilation album Vampyros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party was released on compact disc in 1995 by Motel Records, consisting of music that was first released in 1969 on the albums Psychedelic Dance Party (released under the name The Vampires’ Sound Incorporation) and Sexadelic (released under the name Sexadelic). Franco repurposed music from these albums as the soundtracks for three of his films: Vampyros Lesbos, She Killed in Ecstasy and The Devil Came from Akasava. The 1995 compilation was released during a period where there was a resurgence of interest in space age pop music, a style focused on easy listening music from the 1950s and 1960s. The track “The Lions and the Cucumber” from the album was later used again on the soundtrack of Jackie Brown by American director Quentin Tarantino. The album is dedicated to actress Soledad Miranda.
The soundtrack was a top 10 hit on the British Alternative charts on its release over 20 years after the film was released. On September 29, 1997, a remix album titled The Spirit of Vampyros Lesbos was released. The album was a collection of remixes from various electronic artists including Two Lone Swordsmen, Cristian Vogel and Alec Empire who released their own mixes of the film’s soundtrack. (wikipedia)
The soundtrack was composed by Manfred Hübler and Siegrid “Sigi” Schwab:
The composer Manfred Hübler has worked on countless works in his life. In addition to many pop music productions, he has also composed numerous advertising scores and produced them with orchestras in various instrumentations.
The list of his advertising clients reads like a who is who and includes, for example, Astra, Coca Cola, Fanta, Langnese, Lufthansa, Mercedes, Nivea, Siemens, Sprite, Toyota, and many more.
Manfred Hübler has also worked on many TV soundtracks such as Tatort (Tini, Armer Nanosh, etc.), Anna, Laura & Luis, Unterwegs nach Kathmandu, Polizeifunk ruft, Intercontinental Express, Ein Tod für Herr Krotha as well as composing numerous film scores such as. Aufwind, Liebesnächte an in der Taiga, love on the river, Vampyros Lesbos: A Sexadelic Dance Party, She Killed in Ecstasy, The Devil Came from Akasava, Jackie Brown and many more. (miaumusikverlag.de)
Sig(g)i Schwab, real name Siegfried, (* August 5. 1940) in Ludwigshafen, is a German guitar player and teacher, having performed on more than 15,000 recordings for film, television, and as an accompanist to various artists. He plays in a wide variety of styles, including baroque and jazz. Schwab played in German groups like Et Cetera (German band), Embryo, and with Ramesh Shotham. In 1980 Schwab played with Chris Hinze at the 5th North Sea Jazz Festival.
It’s hard to know how to critique an album like this one. Do you judge it on its musical merits (of which there are none) or on its usefulness as a piece of period kitsch (which is considerable)? To be generous, if you’re throwing a 1960s-themed Halloween party and need mood music, then this album has no peer. Consisting of rock-orchestral music composed by the German duo of Manfred Hübler and Siegfried Schwab, this album is the soundtrack to an obscure softcore horror/porn movie from 1969, and the music would probably give even Austin Powers nightmares. Tasteless fuzz guitar, big echoey horn parts, terribly played sitar, a strange, cheesy organ — this is every ’60s-era musical cliché come to life (or undeath). One track is built on a shameless ripoff of the “Satisfaction” guitar riff; another features yowling, yelping, wordless vocals to unintentionally hilarious effect. Basically, this entire album is excruciating. But again, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its uses. Apart from the party mentioned above, it might also be just the thing for driving cockroaches out of your building. (by Rick Anderson)
I’ve never seen the movie, but I think it’s a lot of nonsense …
But … the musicians certainly had their fun with all these musical experiments in the studios back then … so: good stuff !
Personnel:
Siegfried Schwab (guitar, sitar)
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a bunch of unknown studio musicians
Tracklist:
01. Droge CX 9 5.14
02. The Lions And The Cucumber 5.12
03. There’s No Satisfaction 3.13
04. Dedicated To Love 2.32
05. People’s Playground Version A 0.50
06. We Don’t Care 5.21
07. People’s Playground Version B 1.18
08. The Ballad Of A Fair Singer 4.38
09. Necronomania 2.13
10. Kama Sutra 4.05
11. The Message 3.26
12. Shindai Lovers 4.24
13. The Six Wisdoms Of Aspasia 4.23
14. Countdown To Nowhere 2.30
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15. Konkubination 4.03
16. Ghost Or Good And Bad Onions 4.31
17. Psycho Contact – Part One 1.33
Music: Manfred Hübler & Siegfried Schwab
ManyFantasticColors 