I haven’t seen as many of her films as I’d like, and I’m not sure when the phrase “scream queen” was coined, but I’ve seen enough to know one of the best and sexiest scream queens ever has left us. As you can read in this appreciation by Clark Collis over at EW, the feisty and outspoken Miss Pitt had an amazing life.
She was apparently saved from death as a child at a Polish [note: see comments] Nazi concentration camp near the end of World War II when the gas chamber failed to work as Russian troops were invading. Later, she swam her way out of Soviet-dominated East Berlin before being rescued by an American soldier whom she later married. She eventually headed to England and, ultimately, the Hammer Film studios where she became one of the studio’s regulars in such horror outings as “The Vampire Lovers” and “Countess Dracula.” She also appeared, briefly but memorably, in one of my favorite movies, 1974’s “The Wicker Man.”
In celebration of her life we present a clip and a complete film after the clip.
Here’s a sexy same-sex seduction scene (NSFW for some 1970 style full-frontal nudity) from Ingrid Pitt’s most famous starring vehicle, “The Vampire Lovers.”
Don’t ask me why, but while the trailer for Pitt’s other best known starring vehicle, “Countess Dracula” is non-embeddable, below is the entire freaking movie. If you have time to watch it right now, I seriously envy you.
Director Peter Sasdy replaced the actress’ voice during post-production on Countess Dracula, a decision that drove her “absolutely berserk.” Pitt later took her revenge upon him at a Spanish film festival. “I knew he couldn’t swim so I pushed into the sea,” she told Marcus Hearn, author of the recent book Hammer Glamour.
You might also want to take a look at a tragically non-embeddable scene featuring Ingrid Pitt’s typically sexy and feisty breakthrough role in “Where Eagles Dare” at TCM. Considering what she experienced, I imagined Ms. Pitt didn’t mind being in a movie with probably a record number of dead Nazis.
