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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
An amazing work composed of parts of three films and several years in the making., 25 January 1999
7/10
Author: H. David Schleicher from Burlington, NJ

One of the most underrated gonzo films of all times! On the surface, this is an atmospheric, low-budget and sometimes confusing horror film. But this amazing work is composed of three separate films and was several years in the making.

Roger Corman, noted producer/director, hired Jack Hill in 1964 to write and direct a horror film with the condition that he make liberal use of footage from "Operation Titian", a thriller Corman produced with Francis Ford Coppola (!) in Yugoslavia, but deemed unworthy of USA release. Hill was given actor William Campbell, Titian's star, and hired Lori Saunders (still using her original name of Linda Saunders, and soon Petticoat Junction-bound).

However, Corman didn't like the resulting film about a murderous sculptor possessed by the spirit of his ancestor, who was killed by a beautiful witch. So he shelved it for a year, bringing it out for director Stephanie Rothman to revise. Rothman turned the possessed sculptor into a vampire, shot extensive new footage (using a few members of the supporting cast) and---bingo!---"Blood Bath" was out in the theaters at last, as the co-feature for "Queen of Blood" in 1966.

Despite its plentiful source materials, the finished film ran only 69 minutes. When it was prepared for TV release, Corman changed the title to "Track of the Vampire" (Rothman's title of choice) and added approximately 11 minutes of additional footage (some of it outtakes from Hill's and Rothman's shoots). Further complicating matters, Corman released the English-dubbed version of "Operation Titian" directly to TV at about the same time as "Portrait In Terror".

Amazingly, this complex mishmash works. Atmospheric, intense and with some violent and original touches, "Blood Bath" is the most successful example of Roger Corman's eclectic approach to creativity. Its current placement in critical limbo is only because the film remains frustratingly difficult to find. But it's worth the search.

A fascinating three-part article by Tim Lucas on the making of this film and its numerous versions provided details for these comments. It appeared in 1991 in "Video Watchdog" magazine, numbers 4, 5 & 7.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Some moments are truly inspiring, 2 September 2003
Author: FINSLAW from United States

It helps to watch Track of the Vampire after seeing Hill's cult film Spider Baby. Not that it helps it make more sense, it just warms you up to weirdness that doesn't always make sense or flow too well. I feel that much of the film could be jumbled around in a different order and possibly feel less like the patchwork it is, and making the main character into a vampire sure shows signs of forcing it all to fit. Many images in the film do command respect, the cut to the dry lake bed, the carousel, the endearingly overlong beach dance, and the comical Bucket of Blood-like scenes. I personally thrive on surreal imagery from the early 60's (Carnival of Souls, I Bury the Living, Night Tide) and this film contains some of my favorites. Still, a definate example of parts being more than the whole.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A mad killer is stalking Bobbie Jo Bradley!, 22 January 2002
Author: reptilicus from Vancouver, Canada

This is complicated so pay attention. Roger Corman bought an unfinished film shot in Europe called OPERATION TITIAN concerning the hunt by both cops and crooks for a stolen Titian painting. Patrick Magee was the star. At the same time Jack Hill was shooting a movie in Venice, CA about an artist (biker film alumnus William Campbell) who kills his models and dips them in boiling wax (where have we heard THAT before?). By combining the footage, a trick he was to do many times in the 60's Corman created a film that essentially made no sense at all. Now that has never stopped our Roger so he brought in new director Stephanie Rothman who added an effect new to American movies, an oil dissolve, and shot even more footage to create a film about an artist who sometimes transforms into his remote ancestor who was falsely accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake only to return as a vengeance seeking vampire. Got all that? The stolen Titian painting was lost in the shuffle and Patrick Magee shows up only briefly as a jealous husband who gets dumped alive into the boiling wax.

Meanwhile watch for Corman regulars Jonathan Haze, Sid Haig and Carl Schanzer turn up as Beatniks (leftover characters from BUCKET OF BLOOD perhaps?) who hang out in a coffee house, argue about art and use the word "quantum" a little too frequently. Also in the cast is Lori Saunders (billed here as "Linda") who went on the play the airhead, would-be journalist Bobbie Jo Bradley on "Petticoat Junction". This time she plays a dancer who is in love with Campbell never suspecting what he does with his models. She has a lengthy (8 minutes by my stopwatch!) scene where she does an interpretive dance on the beach and models 3 bikinis, each one smaller than the one before it, during the film.

I do believe Joe Spinell saw this movie since the ending of his film MANIAC borrows liberally from the climax of BLOOD BATH.

PS: This was not Lori Saunders only encounter with a mad killer. She would be chased by an axe wielding psychopath in a Tor Johnson mask (!) in SO SAD ABOUT GLORIA (1972).

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
I liked it., 27 March 2000
10/10
Author: lartronic from Akron, Ohio

It's too bad this movie is so hard to find on video because it's not bad at all. I liked it since the very first time I saw it on TV. It's basically your standard vampire-stalking-unsuspecting-victims film, but there's something about it that just makes it fun. Find it by all means, you won't be sorry.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
I Shall Astound the World, 24 April 2003
Author: spoono01 from Oviedo FL

Hilarious trash of a movie from Jack Hill blends elements of witchcraft, vampirism, wax murders, and beatniks(?!). Sid Haig, a Jack Hill regular and guest star in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, plays a beatnik. Weird story is about an artist who lures young girls into his studio, turns into a vampire, and dunks them into hot wax, creating his new figures.

My favorite parts involve interpretive dance and the origin of quantum painting. This film offers the rare opportunity for a vampire to stalk his victim in broad daylight ( probably a film flaw, and abeit a cute one ). Recommended for trash fiends.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Very well done., 19 June 2000
10/10
Author: lartronic from Akron, Ohio

I know I've commented on this film before, but my first review made it seem like this was just another movie that I like. Actually, it is so much more than that. The fact that it is actually a couple of films edited together is enough for you to try and find this (it is very rare.) I have the version under the title "Track of the Vampire", which apparently has more footage than the original release in 1966, which was under the title "Blood Bath", and although people say it's confusing, it's rather easy to understand, although the foreign footage is sometimes obvious. This is one of my favorite movies, to say the least. There is something about this certain vampire film that I like more than the others, maybe it's just how it's put together, or how it is sometimes bizarre. The credits were a little strange, or at least how they are listed in movie guides: certain actors are listed as main stars although they have lesser roles. The acting wasn't bad, nothing oscar winning of course, but it wasn't horribly wretched or anything like that. Roger Corman was involved in this, and he did a fine job. When the film was originally released, it was double-billed with "Queen of Blood", which also used footage from a foreign film (a Russian sci-fi.) Now, to say that the film is very scary or exciting would be a lie, but it is entertaining. In fact, it is so entertaining that you should try and find it on video (although I don't think it has been legally released on laser disc or DVD.) The one thing that I really don't understand is why Marissa Mathes was credited before Lori Saunders even though Saunders was the only one to survive in the end and was in it more than Mathes. Another thing about the credits, why isn't Karl Shanzer listed in some movie guides, he seems to be the hero in the film, although there is no particular real hero. Like I said, my print was the one with more footage, so it might seem a little strange. But despite that, you should go out and find this film, because it is somewhat forgotten today, which is un-fair, because it is very well done.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A bit schizo but still an interesting film, 30 April 2007
8/10
Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY

This film was made of pieces of another film done by Roger Corman & Francis Ford Coppola and filmed in Yugoslavia, and additional footage was filmed later, so you get this odd combo of Gothic architecture and beautiful beaches and palm trees. But still, this is an atmospheric film with lots of strange and creepy imagery and even some rather risqué stuff for 1966. William Campbell (Dementia 13) plays a tortured artist who believes himself to be the reincarnation of a vampire that was burned at the stake many years ago and since he seems to morph into that creature from time to time, who are we to argue? He lures young ladies into his studio to pose for his paintings, and if they'd seen any of his other finished results they'd certainly refuse. He seems to excel in "dead red" paintings, rather gory and brutal nasty stuff that collectors seem to go for. When her sister disappears a young woman is trying to find her and all signs point to her having posed for this creepy guy. This is probably one of the few vampire movies where the vampire pursues his prey into water, not once, but twice. And probably the only vampire movie in which the vampire carries his prey out of the surf like he's the freaking Creature from the Black Lagoon or something. This jumps around a bit due to the melding of various films together to make one, but if you stick with it, it's rather rewarding for horror fans. I have this on a cheap double-feature DVD and I'd love to see this in a better form, as in, remastered, but still this version isn't all that bad. Very creepy stuff and well worth seeing. 8 out of 10.

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Trackless, 12 October 2008
6/10
Author: acidxian from Haddonfield, IL

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Unbelievable and nearly incomprehensible mashup of a movie scores anyway due to its wild ride all over the map, constantly changing genres and tone. If you take a step back from it, it's a very unique experience.

An artist named Antonio Sordi makes his living painting images of nude young women in the throes of death. He periodically transforms into the vampiric image of his ancestor, a similar artist who was burned at the stake--the dialogue suggests that his art was just too good, he had to have been in league with the devil. His main accuser in his trial was a beautiful woman who was also his muse, and she too has been reincarnated as a blissfully unaware dancer who thinks she's having a romance with Sordi. Sordi himself seems to only be peripherally aware that he transforms into a vampire and goes out to stalk beautiful women, bringing them back to his spooky studio in a belltower to paint their dead bodies and then boil them in wax.

The movie has an elliptical feel to it, this story has been pieced together from three different films. But somehow there's something here that actually works. The atmospheric scenes of Sordi's vampire doppelgänger stalking his victims are often very scary. The vampire seems to be able to corner his victims no matter where they are, even in broad daylight. There's a doomy, relentless aspect to these scenes, as nearly 100 percent of the stalking victims end up dead. The schizophrenic remainder of the film veers from boring to rapturous--the scenes of Sordi's ancestral counterpart being tormented by his muse in a wide open space are absolutely stunning. One thing that makes this movie notable is that the actresses involved are all very beautiful and, even more odd, their styles and mannerisms seem strangely contemporary.

Just to be clear, I'm also not saying this movie is some kind of classic, unless you count it as a camp classic. The more serious elements of the movie are intercut with bizarre scenes of crazy beatnik art fans (one of them being Sid Haig), a brief and totally unrelated husband-wife soap opera moment, and more than a few of the costumes are silly. Depending on which cut of the film you view, you also might get stuck with a scene where one of the main starlets performs a ballet dance on the beach--for five minutes straight. I recommend the fast forward button for that. Plot threads this drastically different can never be tied together without some serious lapses in logic and a near total absence of motivation for any of the characters. But fans of the offbeat should take note of this film, as it manages to be utterly bizarre without becoming unwatchably bad.

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Plenty of ideas in a very messy movie, 20 June 2008
3/10
Author: The_Void from Beverley Hills, England

This film really is a complete mess so it came as no surprise to me that it's actually made up of about three different films that were spliced together over a period of a few years. It's a shame really because there's several interesting plot elements on show and they could definitely have resulted in a decent movie – as evidenced by Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood which is an excellent movie based on similar ideas. The central plot line revolves around an artist who happens to be the descendant of a man who was put to death for witchcraft centuries earlier. Both men were painters – the modern day one very successful. He paints pictures of beautiful women; before tossing them in a vat of acid when he's finished. He's apparently also a vampire. The film is shot in black and white and features some very interesting visuals, although it does look very cheap throughout. There are a few memorable faces; including those belonging to William Campbell and Sid Haig and the director's credit goes to Jack Hill, although Roger Corman had something to with it too apparently. It's a shame that the film couldn't have come together better because there are some good ideas here, but unfortunately it didn't and Blood Bath will be best be remembered as a bit of a mess. It's an interesting cult film...but I really wouldn't recommend going out of your way to find a copy!

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
surreal horror, 12 November 1998
6/10
Author: Elliot-10 from New York

This film (which I saw years ago) seems to be two (or maybe more) different movies edited together-- a contemporary psychological horror film with "flashbacks" to a character's ancestor who was a witch. The "flashbacks" are, I suspect, part of another film entirely-- perhaps a Mexican horror film. Whatever budget reasons led to this unconventional method of film-making, the result can best be described as unintentional surrealism. A unique experience, to say the least.

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