Murder, Torture And Depravity With Ingrid Pitt

interviewed by Vic Buckner

If actors and actresses are lucky, they can enjoy a second life as a writer after the glory days of their primary profession are over. Dirk Bogarde accomplished this, and so, in her way, has Ingrid Pitt. Pitt is unquestionably the Queen of British horror, even though her actual body of work is small. But such was her huge impact in a few short years, that she has become a much-loved feature of the film festival circuit and (with an entertaining series of books) is now a writer who may not ever be reviewed in the serious press, but is assured a healthy readership. Pitt (her real name is Ingoushka Petrov) was born in Poland, and is certainly best remembered in the blood-boltered Hammer epic Countess Dracula (1970). Her actual genre debut was in the Spanish Sound of Horror (1964), but the real impact came with her performance as the highly sensuous, lesbian vampire in The Vampire Lovers (1970). It's difficult after so many years to remember the amazing impact this movie made in its day. The film upset the more fastidious critics as well as the moral guardians of the day, and Hammer movies (which now look models of restraint, full of the cream of the British acting profession) had many critics reaching for their most vituperative adjectives. However, by the 1970s Hammer realised that it was losing its capacity to shock - and that was bad news for them. With The Vampire Lovers they upped the ante in terms of sex and violence, with the bloody mayhem of the movie matched by the statuesque, sultry Pitt providing a sensuousness which had previously been relegated to the bosom-heaving victims of Christopher Lee's Dracula. Her nude scenes inaugurated a new frankness in the genre, and transformed the British horror film until The Exorcist which (to all intents and purposes) drove a stake into the heart of the industry. With Countess Dracula, Pitt took on the role of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a real-life female monster who believed that bathing in the blood of virgins would keep her young. After the up-front horrors of The Vampire Lovers, Countess Dracula (while stylish enough) seemed a tad restrained (a subject which Pitt feels strongly about), and, despite her blood-drenched nude scenes, the film did not make the expected impact. Nevertheless, her career continued with appearances in the cult classic The Wicker Man and a notable turn as a ruthless terrorist in Who Dares Wins.

Since those heady days, she has been a familiar figure at film festivals celebrating horror and the macabre, with her vampire associations much to the fore. And a new book has appeared: The Ingrid Pitt Book of Murder, Torture and Depravity (Batsford), an intelligently written history of such monsters as the demented Roman Emperor Caligula, the ruthless Torquemada and the murderer of Ten Rillington Place, Christie. The grisly cover is Caravaggio's study of Judith and Holofernes: a close-up of a detail showing Holofernes having his head hacked off by Judith's sword as blood spouts onto the pillow. This classical reference is gorily echoed inside by illustrations that are redolent of the most unbuttoned excesses of mid-1950s horror comics. Countess Dracula herself, Elizabeth Bathory, is the subject of the first chapter, accompanied by a picture of the naked Countess ecstatically rubbing over herself the blood dripping from the screaming young woman (also naked) in the spiked cage directly above. While these images may help to sell the book, it's actually well written - and as a concise history of some of most memorable monsters of the past, it takes some beating. But getting the ebullient Pitt to discuss the book is initially a little difficult: she's talking about Christopher Lee, whom she regards as a 'gorgeous' man, and mentions that he is related to both Rasputin and Ian Fleming (admittedly, a pretty interesting genealogy).

Can we talk about the book now? No, Pitt has moved onto a new Constable anthology to which she has contributed, called (at present) Vampires, along with such luminaries as Anne Rice.

It's going to be a very fat book, and I'm glad to say that they seem to be really happy with my contribution - they said it's really unusual.

But back to Murder Torture and Depravity: was this book Pitt's idea, or did the publishers come to her with the concept?

Oh, the books are always my idea. Good or bad, the concepts are mine. I had seen nothing quite like this book (although, of course there are similar volumes), and I'm happy with the way it's turned out.

Why so few female monsters?

Well, I begin with a lady with whom I have a certain association (having played her in the Hammer movie), Elizabeth Bathory. But a woman who kills on this scale is unusual. After all, the epic killers are usually men - because they have the power which makes it possible to commit mayhem on a massive scale. Caligula, for instance. And (in any case) don't you think that men have pretty well cornered the market in monsters? Nevertheless, Bathory was a serial killer on the epic scale, and she really did bathe in the blood of young girls, which she believed would restore her youth. In a remake of the film, I could play her again - but this time as the older Countess. I wouldn't need the latex any more!

It's a well-known fact that the crime genre has a very large female following. Why does she think that is?

Actually, I think it's fear. We are (unless trained in martial arts) less equipped to deal with the threat of violence, and women can certainly relate to that. But as for enjoying that frisson of fear - well in books and films, it's safe. The reader or viewer is never in any real danger. Ironically, when I lived in Hollywood, I spent a lot of time living in fear of being mugged. In fact, I actually learnt karate! But fear is an interesting thing. After my success in the vampire movies, I used to be asked at children's parties to play a vampire and pretend to frighten the kids. While a lot of the children had great fun with this, I quickly realised that some of them were not able to perceive that this was play-acting and were genuinely scared, so I quickly started refusing to do it.

Pitt, of course changed the course of British horror films by doing the central female character in a movie, instead of screaming at the sidelines.

Yes. I was the first female predator. It's interesting that now most of those films are regarded affectionately, but they were criticised as beyond the pale in their day. Even the beheading in The Vampire Lovers was cut, and most TV prints don't have it. Look at all the beheadings in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow today! I'm glad to say that the new DVD issue will restore the film.

Had she ever seen the quote about her own career in Kim Newman's BFI Companion to Horror: 'the British cinema was no longer able to accommodate her predatory beauty'?

No, I hadn't seen that... that's really interesting! But it wasn't just me the British cinema couldn't accommodate any more. When American movies like The Exorcist and A Nightmare on Elm Street came along, the writing was on the wall for the British period horror film. Now horror had to be very much set in the present day, and those Hammer trappings began to seem old-fashioned. Ironically, that's the very thing that has made the films more and more fondly remembered as the years passed by. But those movies were considered very strong stuff in their day. Except that I always felt that Countess Dracula (for censorship and other reasons) pulled its punches somewhat. On the set, I tried to insist they made more of her bathing in blood, but the director Peter Sasdy mentioned censorship, and I think it would have been a far more powerful film if we'd been able to show just how depraved Bathory was. That's actually the case with most real-life monsters and their equivalents in film. Ed Gein (who is in my book) inspired both Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and did far more horrible things than either of those films showed, but I suppose that it's inevitable such changes will occur.

In Countess Dracula, she was supported by one of the very finest British character actors, the late Nigel Green. What were her memories of him?

Nigel was wonderful, but he wouldn't take my advice. At the time they were making the film of Nicholas and Alexandra, and I suggested that he would be perfect for the part of Rasputin. I told him he should speak to Sam Spiegel, but he said, "If he wants me, he can come to me." And he never really got the parts he deserved, although he's wonderful in The Ipcress File and Zulu. As well as in Countess Dracula, of course.

Had Pitt ever suffered from the obsessed, stalker type of fan, as Janet Leigh did after Psycho?

No, I've been very lucky - that's never happened to me. Thank God! Look at what happened to Jodie Foster... it's really worrying that people like her stalker are out there.

So what led Pitt to undertake the literary career she's carved for herself?

Desperation! The parts weren't there any more, and I was a survivor.

But although the vampire industry may have been what made her successful, hasn't it been something of an albatross?

No - I don't think so. After all, I find vampires great fun, and the genre has been kind to me.

Before she began making her films for Hammer, vampirism had always been something that happened instead of sex. But Pitt ushered in an era in which both could take place. How did she feel about being in the vanguard of this innovation?

Well, when Jimmy Carreras offered me the part in The Vampire Lovers, I really did my homework about the phenomenon. And in Le Fanu's story Carmilla, there is this strong sexual element. I think the director, Roy Ward Baker, really made it work - although the producers were two lascivious little chaps. On the way to do my nude scene with Madeleine Smith, I came out of the trailer with my dressing gown on and nothing underneath, and I saw these guys walking towards me with their heads down. I thought, what the hell, I'll make their day and just flung open the dressing gown. Their reaction was priceless!

Time for a final question: if there is a connection between the sexual and bloodthirsty aspect of those films, is that healthy?

Why not? Sexuality is a complicated thing, and films should reflect that.