Review of Fangs of the Living Dead

I viewed the 90 minute version, "Malenka, the Niece of the Vampire," and checked all the other comments before deciding to make a few observations of my own. There is precious little atmosphere in this film, Anita Ekberg's character does indeed come off as annoying, engendering no sympathy. It seems to me that Malenka was neither witch nor vampire, but an alchemist who died at the stake, but not before successfully prolonging the life of Anita Ekberg's 'uncle.' The girl in the castle and the one from the tavern were only pretending to be vampires, as we see the latter installing her fangs in a tiny compact mirror, and neither are seen after the fiery demise of the 'uncle,' disintegrating simultaneously with the burning portrait. In the 74 minute TV version, titled "Fangs of the Living Dead," there is a gag ending not seen in the longer print, Rosanna Yanni, sister of the tavern girl, being chased by the dizzy friend of Anita's doctor fiancée, sporting a set of fangs. What appears to be a clichéd retread winds up being a huge disappointment, with no vampires, only one real villain, no sex or nudity, no real violence or gore, and leaving a bad yawn in one's mouth. I first saw this film on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater back in 1978, alongside superior Spanish horrors such as "The Murder Mansion," "Horror Rises from the Tomb," "The Bell from Hell," "It Happened at Nightmare Inn," and "The Night of the Sorcerers," another credit for Amando de Ossorio, who wrote and directed "Malenka." Such features became cherished friends for long-time horror buffs like me, but now we are able to see them in all their uncut gory glory, with nudity intact. In this case entire sequences were missing from the Chiller Theater broadcast (all expendable exposition, as indeed the entire film turned out to be), and today you see what was missing and judge for yourself. Only the gag at the end, running about a minute and a half, remained exclusive to the TV version, plus one scene depicting the burial of the phony vampire Berthe, whose name is prominently displayed on the tombstone.