COUNTESS DRACULA : Screenplay
Original working script for the classic 1971 Hammer horror film — the copy of Ingrid Pitt, "the first lady of British horror cinema" (NYT) who starred as the Countess, with her extensive annotations.
Very good.
Price: $6,500.00
COUNTESS DRACULA : Screenplay
"For the 1st time in my life I see all for what its [sic] worth & laugh about it all. Make audience laugh. Otherwise no horror in it" — ink annotation by Pitt on p. 26v
Based upon the great surrealist poet and collage artist Valentine Penrose's bizarre and brilliant semi-biography of Erszébet Báthory, also known as the Bloody Countess, the Hungarian Dracula, the Beast of Csejthe, the female Gilles de Rais. A notorious bottle-blonde, Liz Bathory has served as the sexy-vampire template for scores of filmmakers and novelists. THE BLOODY COUNTESS was adapted by Paul with enormous liberality as COUNTESS DRACULA. As with other Hammer productions that made the studio's name, the film shows a marked preference for magnificent overacting, blatant eroticism, and rivers of blood.
Ingrid Pitt, the star of COUNTESS DRACULA, developed a cult following for her work on this film and the previous year's THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970). Born in Poland, at age 5 she was interned in a concentration camp; she escaped with her mother into the woods where they had been taken to be shot. Pitt remarked of her childhood, "I was born into the biggest horror show of the century, the brutalities of the Nazi regime" (THE GUARDIAN). Director Peter Sasdy didn't intially have Pitt in mind for the role, but when Pitt heard about the chance to play "the biggest female serial killer of all time," she campaigned aggressively for it (LIFE'S A SCREAM). The annotations in this copy, written in German and English, show her passionate engagement with the role. They include notes for performance ("triumphierend" [triumphantly], NUTS"; "kiss him first"), but also analysis of the screenplay's construction ("climax of the plot"; "transcision [sic], sooo intense!") and, most interestingly, long paragraphs describing the Countess's motivations, background, and responses ("without hate she is nothing"). Pitt clearly enjoyed the filming ("this is so fantastic!") despite the antagonism and chaos on set, as described by her own account in her memoir, LIFE'S A SCREAM. Indeed, in it Pitt provides an interesting account of Sasdy's decision to dub over her voice for the final production in favor of a "prissy and very 'English rose'" voice. While the rest of the team approved of her casting especially for her Eastern European accent, Sasdy objected that it "wasn't the Queen's English [...] if you play a Royal, you [must] speak like a Royal."
A rich artifact of cult horror film, offering glimpses into the art, craft, and working life of one of its best-known actresses.
Read more: Fox, "Ingrid Pitt, Horror Star Who Survived Nazis, Dies at 73," The New York Times, 25 November 2010; Bergan, "Ingrid Pitt obituary," The Guardian, 24 November 2010.
The Object
London: Hammer Film Productions, 1970. 11'' x 8.5''. Original brad-bound yellow wrappers with die-cut title window. Title page dated 1 June, 1970. Approximately 96 mimeographed leaves (printed rectos only), with color revision sheets throughout (latest dated 5 July 1970). Annotated by Pitt in blue ink on most pages.
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