Fiction Magazine , January 1988. Reprinted by permission of the author.
'So Runs; the World Away', copyright © Caitlin R. Kiernan 2001.
'A North Light', copyright © Gwyneth Jones 2001.
'Jack', copyright © Connie Willis 1991. First published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine , October 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.
'Vampyr', copyright © Jane Yolen 2001.
Introduction
My Life Among the Undead
Ingrid Pitt
The snow was streaming horizontally along London's Wardour Street as I quit the taxi and cautiously picked my way across the deep slush on the pavement. I had spent quite a lot of time deciding to make the trip and, even now, standing in the shelter of the doorway of Hammer House, I was not sure that the choice had been right.
After all, I had just made a major epic with MGM and it seemed like a step backwards to be considering a cheapo film in the horror genre. I was sure that neither Richard Burton nor Clint Eastwood, with whom I had appeared in Where Eagles Dare , would have considered it for a moment.
I shrugged off the snow and pushed open the door. Who was I trying to kid? Okay, so Where Eagles Dare was great; but since wrapping on that — zilch. It was time to move on. Capitalize on the great publicity I was getting and do something positive.
I ran up the short flight of stairs to the inner door and went through.
The previous evening I had been at an after-premiere party for Alfred the Great and had sat beside Sir James Carreras, the head of Hammer Productions. He told me he was looking for an actress to play the lead in a new vampire film he was making, and asked me if I was interested. I decided to drop the cool pose and looked interested.
And that was why I had braved the snowstorm and was now standing outside his office, dressed to kill and still wondering if I was doing the right thing.
Jimmy was great. He made it sound as if I would be doing him a favour if I took the job. I dimpled prettily and said I would speak to my agent, but we both knew that I was well and truly hooked.
The film was called The Vampire Lovers , and it was scripted by Tudor Gates from J. Sheridan Le Fanu's century-old story 'Carmilla'.
It was one of the happiest productions I have ever worked on. Hammer Films were well known for the sense of camaraderie they fostered, and The Vampire Lovers was no exception.
However, at times it did get a little out of hand.
The two producers, Harry Fine and Michael Style, always made sure that they were around when an 'interesting' scene was about to be shot. Madeleine Smith and I shared a bedroom scene that could be uncomfortable if it was not approached in the right frame of mind. Neither of us had ever been photographed in the nude before, so we asked Jimmy to call Harry and Michael up to London on some pretext.
I was walking along a corridor at Elstree Studios, wearing only a dressing-gown for the scene, when I saw the producers approaching. They looked so unhappy that I could not resist the urge to cheer them up. As we drew level, I threw open the robe! Their step was definitely lighter as they walked on.
One of the best scenes I have ever seen in a vampire film occurs towards the end of The Vampire Lovers . Carmilla, now exposed for what she is and hunted by the avenging vampire hunter General Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing), hurries back to her graveyard tomb. The gravestones stand out as black monoliths in a moon-lit miasma. Carmilla, dressed in a diaphanous white shift, floats through the cemetery no more substantial than the mist that surrounds her.
The atmosphere, at times, was very spooky. But with six young women on the set, it got a little frenetic at times. It was easy to get a fit of the giggles and hold up shooting. Roy Ward Baker, the director, was marvellous. He would wait patiently until everyone had control of themselves, then carry on as if nobody had been rolling around on the floor hooting with laughter.
One particular scene took a lot of work to get 'in the can'. I was supposed to bite Kate O'Mara. Kate is usually in control, but once she goes — she goes. Although my fangs had been specially fitted by a dentist, they did not fit as well as they might have. I had this big struggle with Kate, and my incisors decided to desert my mouth for the more enticing depths of Kate's cleavage. Of course, all the men on set gallantly jumped forward to retrieve them! Kate started to go. I was too concerned with my wayward teeth to be affected at first.
We tried the scene again. My teeth headed for Kate's cleavage like a rabbit down a hole. Kate corpsed. Everybody tried to keep their cool. Kate managed to simmer down. And, would you believe it, those rotten teeth headed for their new home yet again. This time Kate freaked out with everybody else on the set.
All I got was mad. I noticed one of the grips chewing gum. I called him over, took his gum, and jammed the fangs back into my mouth using the gum as a suction pad. Success. But Kate and the rest of the crew were hooting away even more frenetically by then. That finished work for the day. By that time, even I was rolling around in fits of hysteria.
The next day I made sure that my teeth were secure. And everybody made sure that they did not make eye contact with anyone else. That way led to disaster.
Overall, though, it was a wonderful introduction to the world of the vampire and Gothic overkill.
As we were finishing The Vampire Lovers , I heard that Hammer was setting up another film, called Countess Dracula . It was going to be a big, lavish production and the lead character seemed to be right up my street: a sixteenth-century serial killer called Countess Erzsebet Bathory.
I had also heard that Diana Rigg was up for the part. I could not have that, so I cornered Jimmy Carreras and made him promise to give me a chance.
There were also a couple of other vampire films in the early stages of development at Hammer: Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil . I read the first draft scripts. The Carmilla character had another outing, but the part
