Books, Plays, and Films Based on Le Fanu's Works

Anon.  Olympia Films - Carmilla.

A site about this film version of "Carmilla."

Burston, Paul, and Colin Richardson.  A Queer Romance: Lesbians, Gay Men, and Popular Culture.  New York:  Routledge, 1995.

An essay studies two of the film versions of Le Fanu's "Carmilla," Crypt of Horror and The Vampire Lovers.

Campton, David. Carmilla: A Gothic Thriller in Two Acts.  London: G. Garnet Miller, 1973.

First performed at the Library Theatre, Scarborough on 19 June 1972 with the following cast:  Captain Field (Ray Jewers), Ivan (David Hayward), Laura (Philippa Urquhart), Madame Perrodon (Matyelock Gibbs), Colonel Smithson (Piers Rogers), Carmilla (Jennifer Piercy), Doctor Spielsberg (Christopher Godwin).

Carmilla: Gothic Classics. Text by Rod Lott; Illustrated by Lisa K. Weber. Eureka Productions.

A Graphic Clasics illustrated edition of "Carmilla."

Carmilla: A Vampyre Tale.  Audio Book.  Read by Megan Follows.  Audio Partners. Audio Books on Cassette and CD - Audio Editions audio books on tape and CD.

Anon. Review of Carmilla: A Vampyre Tale.  Publishers Weekly, 4 Dec. 2000, p. 32.

A favorable review of the audiobook (above) and notes that Megan Follows's reading is "flawless."

Carmilla; Game of Pleasure. (1998) A Tom Le Pine Production.  Cast:  Stacia Crawford, Marina Morgan, Bootsie Cairns, Dawn Marie, Kevin Summerfield,   Written and Directed by Denise Templeton and Tom La Pine.  Game of Pleasure is a video game that is a companion to the film.  Available on DVD.

Anon. Review of Carmilla: A Vampyre Tale (audio tape above).  Booklist 98 (Aug. 2002): 1986.

Carmilla. (1966)  The Mystery and Imagination teleplay.  Screenplay by Stanley Miller.  Cast: Terence Bayler, Vernon Dobtcheff, Sonia Dresdel, Roy Marsden, Laurel Mather, Jane Merrow, Aubrey Morris, Joseph O'Conor, Natasha Pyne.

Carmilla.  (1999) Screenplay by Jay Lind.  Directed by Jay Lind and Denise Templeton. Cast:  Maria Pechukas, Dawn Marie Psaltis, Heather War, Tiffany Barron, Hugo Boteler, Colleen Van Ryn.

Carmilla.  Radio Play in the cassette Nightfall: Buried Alive.  dhaudio.com, 1981.  Canadian Broadcasting Production. Adapted by John Douglas and Graham Pomeroy.  Dorothy Ann Haig (Margaret), Eve Crawford (Carmilla), Douglas Campbell (Father), Maureen Fitzgerald (Madame Perodon), Eric Haus (Doctor), Martha Henry (Dark Lady), Douglas Raine (General Spielsdorf).  Produced and Directed by Bill Howell.

Much abridged radio play of Le Fanu's novella.  The acting is rather perfunctory, and the actress who plays Margaret (Carmilla's victim) speaks so softly that it is difficult to understand her at times.

Carmilla and Green Tea.  Audio book.  Jimcin 1989.

Carmilla: Le couer petrifie. (1988).  Television play in France. Written and Directed by Paul Planchon. Cast: Emmanuelle Meyssignac (Carmilla), Aurelle Doazan, Roland Kieffer, Andre Pomarat, Yvette Stahl.

Cox, A. H  The Hawthorn Tree: A Song. London:  Weekes, 1871.

Sheet music and lyrics based on a poem by Le Fanu.

Creed, Barbara.  The Monstrous-Feminine:  Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis.  London: Routledge, 1993.

This excellent gender-based and psychoanalytic study discusses the film The Vampire Lovers (see the appendix to my Greenwood bibliography) based on Le Fanu's "Carmilla."  Notes that the film sets up a dichotomy between lesbian vampirism and male heterosexuality.  The stiff, awkward, puritanical men in the film set up the main thrust of the film, in which the heterosexual men destroy the lesbian vampire.  Here the theme of the patriarchal family is set up in opposition to to the supernatural, feminine nature of the vampire.

Dickon the Devil.  Great Classic Hauntings.  Read by Geraint Wyn Davies. Audio Books on Cassette and CD - Audio Editions audio books on tape and CD.

The Flying Dragon.  (1966) The Mystery and Imagination television play.  Directed by Bill Bain.  Screenplay by John Bowen. Based on Le Fanu's "The Room in the Dragon Volant."  Cast Ann Bell, John Bryans, David Buck, Mark Burns, John Franklyn-Robbins, John Moffatt, Aubrey Morris, John Phillips, Derek Smith.

Freeland, Cynthia A.  The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror.  Boulder, CO:  Westview Press, 2000.

Discusses the few female vampires in film, but notes Ingrid Pitt's portayal of "Carmilla" in the film The Vampire Lovers.

Great Ghost Stories.  Audio Book Contractors 1984.

Green Tea.  Audiobook of Le Fanu's story. Audiobooks for Free.

Green Tea and Squire Toby's Will.  Audio Book Contractors, 2001.

Audio editions of the short stories.

Hearn, Marcus, and Alan Barnes.  The Hammer Story. London: Titan Books, 2007.

Photographs and commentary on what is noe called, "the Karntein trilogy," the three films drawn from Le Fanu's "Carmilla."

Hogan, David J.  Dark Romance: Sexuality in the Horror Film. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1986.

Discusses the lesbianism implicit in "Carmilla," noting that Carmilla feels some remorse, and horror at her own existence as an evil creature.  Discusses the three Hammer films of the Karnstein trilogy:  The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, and Twins of Evil.  Also brings into the discussion the French film by Roger Vadim, Blood and Roses.  Regards Carmilla as both a victim and a victimizer.

Holte, James Craig.  Dracula in the Dark:  The Dracula Film Adaptations.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Hughes, William.  Lust for a Vampire.  London: Sphere, 1971.

A novelization of the Hammer Films sequel to The Vampire Lovers. This novelization was released in conjunction with the 1971 film drawn from Le Fanu's Carmilla.

Johnson, Tom, and Deborah Del Vecchio.  Hammer Films:  An Exhaustive Filmography.  Jefferson, North Carolina:  McFarland, 1996.

The three Hammer Film Productions based on Le Fanu's "Carmilla" are discussed: The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, and Twins of Evil.

Jones, Stephen and John Ross.  Carmilla: The Erotic Horror Classic of Female Vampirism.  Newbury Park, CA:  Aircel Comics, 1991.

A comic book rendering of the Le Fanu original.

Kelly, Tim.  Say Uncle, Uncle Silas! or, Trapped in a House of Fiends.  New York and London:  Samuel French, 1991.

A stage adaptation of  Le Fanu's Uncle Silas for a high school audience.

Kinnes, Sally. "The One to Watch."  The Sunday Times (5 March 2000).

Discusses the BBC film adaptation of Le Fanu's The Wyvern Mystery.  Notes that Le Fanu "was the Stephen King of his day."

Kinsey, Wayne.  Hammer Films:  The Elstree Studio Years.  Sheffield, England:  Tomahawk Press, 2007.

A fascinating and detailed commentary on the Hammer Films "Karnstein trilogy"--films based on Le Fanu's "Carmilla."  Discusses changes in the shooting scripts and the cutting of the films to please British censors.

Knight, Amarantha.  The Darker Passions: Carmilla. Masquerade.

A cheap spin-off novel drawn from Le Fanu's "Carmilla" that tends toward pornography.

Lampolski, Mikhail.  The Memory of Tiresias:  Intertextuality and Film.   Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Discusses Carl Theodore Dreyer's adaptation of Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly, Vampyr (1931).

Lott, Rod, and Lisa K. Weber.  "Carmilla."  Gothic Classics.  Ed. Tom Pomplun.  Mount Horeb, WI: Eureka Productions, 2007.

A cartoon adaptation of Le Fanu's story.  The adaptation by Rod Lott retains most of the major scenes of the novel, but Lisa K. Weber's cartoons are unintentionally funny.

Magistrale, Tony.  Abject Terrors: Surveying the Modern and Postmodern Horror Film. New York:  Peter Lang, 2005.

Discusses the lesbian vampire film, such as The Vampire Lovers and Twins of Evil in which the vampiric relationship of two women emerged in the films of the 1960's and 1970's drawn from their precursor in Le Fanu's "Carmilla."  Notes that these films also reflect the women's liberation movements of the time, threatening male authority.

Marffin, Kyle. Carmilla: The Return. Darien, Illinois: Design Image Group, 1998.

A sequel to Le Fanu's "Carmilla."

McKay, Sinclair.  A Thing of Unspeakable Horror: The History of Hammer Films.  London: Aurum Press, 2007.

A rather superficial and light-hearted history of Hammer Films that mentions at many points the films based on Le Fanu's "Carmilla."

Miller, Ron.  Mystery! A Celebration Stalking Public Television's Greatest Sleuths.  New York:  Bay Books, 1991.

Discusses the British Broadcasting Corporations adaptation of Le Fanu's Uncle Silas, The Dark Angel.

Milne, Tom.  The Cinema of Carl Dreyer.  New York: A.S. Barnes, 1971.

An excellent analysis of Dreyer's Vampyr based on Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly that praises it as being a superb achievement for Dreyer, since the film is often dismissed as a failure.  Follows the film closely, noting that most of the actors were amateurs.  Even so, the film has a certain coherence that echoes the mysticism of the Le Fanu original.

El Misterioso tio Sylas. (1947) Argentina. Director: Carlos Schlieper.  Screenplay: Jorge Jantus.  Cast:  Homero Carpena, Cesar Fiaschi, Ricardo Galache, Elisa Galve, Norma Gimenez, Marga Landova.

An adaptation of Uncle Silas.

Pirie David.  A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema.  London: I.B. Tauris, 2008.

This revised and expanded edition of Pirie's classic study devotes three pages to the "Karnstein trilogy," the three Hammer Film Productions derived from Le Fanu's "Carmilla."  Comments mainly on the dealings of Hammer with the British censors, and devotes no real extended commentary to the films themselves.  Places the films in the short-lived "sex vampire film."

Prawer, S.S. Caligari's Children:  The Film as Tale of Terror.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1980

An excellent chapter on Dreyer's film Vampyr and Le Fanu's original In a Glass Darkly upon which it is based.  Prawer says that Dreyer "is inviting us to compare, inviting us to see what happens when the creative imagination of an original film-maker is stirred by a literary work into activity that results in a new--and truly cinematic--creation."

Rigby, Jonathan.  English Gothic:  A Century of Horror Cinema. London: Reynolds and Hearn, 2000.

The book devotes three pages to The Vampire Lovers, the Hammer production of Le Fanu's "Carmilla."  Notes that plot of the film is similar to the original, and remarks that the film was very financially successful.  Also discusses Twins of Evil, the third film that features the vampire Carmilla, and shows how much of surprise it was at the time after the dispiriting second film in the Karnstein trilogy, Lust for a Vampire.

Robertson, Hugh S. Celtic Hymn to the Outgoing of the Boats. London: J.Curwen, 1917.

Based on Le Fanu poem.

Rudkin, David.  Vampyr.  London:  British Film Institute, 2005.

A revisionist study of Carl Theodor Dreyer's famous 1931 horror film based on Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly.  See the appendix to my Greenwood Le Fanu bibliography.

Schalken the Painter. (1979). British Broadcasting Corporation.  "Omnibus" series.  Director: Leslie Megahey.  With Jeremy Clyde, Maurice Denham, and Charles Gray.

Silver, Alain, and James Ursini.  The Vampire Film: From Nosferatu to Interview with the Vampire.  3rd. ed. New York:  Limelight, 1997.

This revision of the ground-breaking study of the vampire film discusses all of the major films based on "Carmilla."  There are penetrating insights into all of the films from Carl Theoodor Dreyer's Vampyr to Gabrielle Beaumont's Carmilla.  A very important book discussing in varying ways the eroticism of Le Fanu's vampire.

Skal, David J. The Monster Show:  A Cultural History of Horror. Rev. ed. New York:  Faber and Faber, 2001.

Discusses the implied lesbian sequence in Dracula's Daughter and relates it to Le Fanu's "Carmilla."

The Sleep of Death.  Also known as The Inn of the Flying Dragon. (1981). Sweden.  Director: Calvin Floyd.  Screenplay:  Calvin Floyd, Yvonne Floyd. Cast:  Per Oscarsson. Patrick Magee, Marilu Tolo, Barry Cassins, Curt Jurgens, Brendan Price, Niall Toibin.

A film based on Le Fanu's "The Room in the Dragon Volant."

Stanford, Charles Villiers.  Phaudrig Crohoore:  An Irish Ballad for Chorus and Orchestra.  London:  Boosey, 1896.

Music and lyrics based on Le Fanu.

Tudor, Andrew. Monsters and Mad Scientists:  A Culural History of the Horror Movie. Oxford:  Basil Blackwell, 1989.

A page is devoted to the three Hammer films based on Le Fanu's "Carmilla."  Notes the blatant sexuality, lesbianism, and blood and gore of the films and relates it to the many vampire films of the 1970's.

Uncle Silas.  Audio Book.  Assembled Stories, 2006.

An audio cassette of the novel. Also available as CD.  Narrated by Peter Joyce.

Uncle Silas.  Audio Book.  Audio Book Contractors, 1994. (Classic Books on Cassette).

An audio edition of the novel.

The Wyvern Mystery.  British Broadcasting Corporation.  Screenplay: David Pirie. Producer: Ruth Baumgarten. Director: Alex Pillai. Executive Producers: Gareth Neame and Jane Tranter. Starring Derek Jacobi, Jack Davenport, Aisling O'Sullivan, and Naomi Watts.

A very well done adaption of Le Fanu's novel that makes up for the deficiencies of the original.  Beautifully photographed and well-acted film.

The Wyvern Mystery.  Read by Flo Gibson.  (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection). Audio Book Contractors, 2001.

An audio edition of the novel.

Webber, Christopher.  Green Tea.   London: Couthurst Press, 1999.

A one-act play based on the story.