The Count Yorga Collection, consisting of 1970's COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE and its 1971 sequel THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA, both starring Robert Quarry as the title character and directed by Bob Kelljan, is due out in a bit from Arrow Films.
But hang on a minute, I hear you cry! Didn't Arrow Films already release The Count Yorga Collection back in 2016? And you'd be quite right. But the Count has had an upgrade, with both films getting brand new 2K restorations from 4K scans of the original negative (they look fantastic, by the way) and a whole host of new extras. So let's dive in and take a look.
Disc One: Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
With the vampire being so much of the gothic it's perhaps surprising to realise that the USA has a long tradition of presenting movie vampires in modern-day settings. Even Tod Browning's 1931 DRACULA is set in the 'present day' and here we have Robert Quarry's suave Count Yorga, popping up in Los Angeles (or rather, being delivered in a crate from the docks) and setting himself up as a medium in order to avail himself of the city's bright young things.
Shot with virtually no money at all, COUNT YORGA VAMPIRE still holds up as a smart, witty, and dead serious when it needs to be, contemporary vampire tale. Quarry is excellent in a pitch-perfect performance, but I'd agree wholeheartedly with Tim Lucas in his brand new commentary that the secret weapon of this one is Roger Perry's haematologist who has to do the heavy lifting in getting the cast (and the audience) to take the vampire threat seriously and is the closest thing this movie has to a Van Helsing. He was always my favourite character when I watched this & it's good to see both the character and the actor getting some recognition.
As well as the extremely listenable Lucas commentary, David Del Valle's and C Courtney Joyner's 2016 commentary track has been ported over. Other new extras include The Count in California in which Heather Drain discusses the film for ten minutes, and I Remember Yorga in which Frank Darabont reminisces about watching the film both as a child and an adult. A Vampire in LA is ten minutes of Michael Murphy talking about the making of the movie, while Fangirl Radio is a 45 minute podcast in which Jessica Dwyer talks to Tim Sullivan, close personal friend of Robert Quarry and director of I WAS A TEENAGE WEREBEAR amongst others. You also get trailers, radio spots, an image gallery with 83 still and poster images, and another gallery of Tim Sullivan's own personal Quarry memorabilia.
Disc Two: The Return of Count Yorga (1971)
A year later Robert Quarry was back in what's most likely a sequel but could also be considered a 're-imagining with more money and a better director of photography' to quote David Del Valle from the 2016 archival commentary he does with C Courtney Joyner that's been ported over. There's a new commentary track as well, this time from Stephen R Bissette who is so clued up he's even listened to Tim Lucas' new commentary on the previous film to avoid repeating anything on the first disc. Now that's dedication, and the extra detail here makes this commentary track also well worth a listen.
Despite there being more money this time around the music is still performed by a small group of only eight players. We learn this in David Huckvale's excellent 35 minute piece 'Chamber Music of Horrors' in which he goes almost note by note over Bill Marx's score to both films. I'll admit I've never taken that much notice of Mr Marx's score before but having the influences and structure pointed out means if you're a movie music nut (and I certainly am) and you've already seen the movies before you might like to watch this before revisiting them.
Maitland McDonagh provides an 18 minute piece on 'The Count and the Counterculture' in which she discusses vampires with specific reference to how America was changing at the time the Yorga movies were made. You also get a trailer, radio spots, and a massive gallery of 148 stills and another of poster and front of house images.
But that's not all. Arrow's new Yorga set comes with a perfect bound book featuring new writing on the films, double-sided fold-out posters for both films, twelve double-sided lobby card reproductions and a reproduction press book:
Bob Kelljan's The Count Yorga Collection is out on Limited Edition Blu-ray from Arrow Films on Monday 24th October 2022
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