INCENSE FOR THE DAMNED (1971)

Richard Fountain (Patrick Mower), a young respected Oxford don, is unofficially engaged to Penelope Goodrich, daughter of Walter Goodrich (Peter Cushing), a influential Oxford professor. But while studying ancient Minoan rites in Greece, Fountain cut off all contact back home and more or less disappeared, with ominous threats of scandal in the air. Penelope and two of Richard's friends, Bob and Tony, go to Greece and get a British military attaché named Longbow (Patrick Macnee) to help investigate Richard's disappearance. It seems that Richard had fallen under the spell of a cult led by a mysterious woman named Chriseis, whose followers take drugs and engage in orgies. Tensions percolate within the trio, primarily between Penelope and Bob, a Black student whom Richard had been mentoring (and maybe sleeping with). But we learn that Richard has not consummated his relationship with Penelope due to impotence, and in fact has never successfully had sex with anyone. They trace Richard to the ruins of an ancient temple, and somewhat implausibly carry out a midnight raid to save him from the cult. Discovering him in a catatonic state, they fight off the other cult members. As Longbow pursues Chriseis, he is caught in a rockfall and falls off a cliff to his death. Back in England, they put things together, with the help of an anthropologist (Edward Woodward), and figure out that Richard had joined a group of vampires, but psychosexual rather than supernatural ones, as the drinking of blood causes an orgasm which they cannot achieve any other way. A celebration is thrown for Richard's return at an official dinner, but he gives a rabidly anti-establishment speech, accusing the Oxford dons of being vampires themselves, leeching off of their students and society. When Chriseis shows up at Oxford, Richard seems doomed.

I watched this for its interesting title, though it's never explained, and in the States, it was released under the boring but more appropriate title Bloodsuckers. Frankly, it's a mess. The director, Robert Hartford-Davis, disowned the film when the producers changed the ending, throwing in a scene involving death by wooden stake which contradicts the non-supernatural explanation given earlier. But the ending (which I think works fine) is the least of this movie's problems. The storyline is murky, production and editing border at times on incompetent, and the direction of the actors is lackluster. Macnee is top billed, but his death halfway through feels almost improvised, as if he realized how bad the movie was and took off with little notice. Cushing's role amounts to a cameo. The handsome Mower (pictured) plays the same kind of role he did in THE DEVIL RIDES OUT as the passive would-be hero who needs to be rescued by his friends. He makes little impression until he gives his speech at dinner, but it's too little too late. Alex Davion (Ted Casablanca in Valley of the Dolls) is good as Tony but given little to do. The less said about the others, the better. Vampirism as sexual perversion is a unique theme—it has always had a sexual element, but here it effectively replaces sex—and had the movie been made a few years later, the sexual element might have given it a needed jolt. As it is, we only get one gauzy psychedelic scene of an orgy (which ends in bloody violence) and the barest hint of homoeroticism. An unusual movie, yes, but not a very good one. [YouTube]