You Don't Own Me, Continued...
The whole production has an amateurish look and feel to it, but what makes it so compelling is the core idea of a war being fought by soldiers without will. In the end, when their will is returned to them... Well, let's just say they're not especially pleased with the fellow who took their will away. Coercion is a double-edged sword. It cuts both ways.
Coercion also cuts--and bites--both ways in The Devil Bat from 1940. Bela Lugosi plays a scientist who makes sweet-smelling products for a perfume company. His inventions help the owners to become millionaires, but they don't cut him in on the big money. They think they've got him pinned down as a faithful servant, eager to accept whatever hand-outs they're willing to share. Theirs is the subtle coercion of financial dependency. They're also counting on the fact that Bela is so wrapped up in his experiments, he doesn't need or care about money. Taking someone for granted is another subtle form of coercion: it conveys the message, "Of course you're going to do what I say! What other choice do you have, you poor thing?"
We learn that Bela is an evil genius who has developed a clever means of growing bats to jumbo size and training them to do his murderous bidding. Pretty soon, the only odor coming from those perfume tycoons is the sickly-sweet stench of dead meat.
In the 1960 Roger Corman production, The Fall of the House of Usher, somber Roderick Usher, played by suavely menacing Vincent Price, tries to prevent his sister Madeline from having a life outside of the House of Usher by constantly telling her that she is hypersensitive and sickly. He is using coercion to keep her to himself--and Madeline's boyfriend ain't too happy about that particular development. He keeps rambling on about how she's going to set up house with him in Boston, and all Madeline can think about is her eventual interment in a narrow pine residence.
Brother Roderick is using the oldest coercive trick in the dysfunctional book: holding a loved one back by filling them with low self-esteem. He feels that he is doomed, and since misery loves company, he has to convince her that she should stay right by his side. Their relationship has an incestuous creepiness to it that's pretty appropriate for a Poe story, since his sweety-pie was also his cousin.
Coercion takes many forms--most of them erotic--in Lust For A Vampire, based on the story Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu. In this 1970 Hammer Films heart-stopper, the wicked, vampiric inhabitants of Castle Karnstein terrorize and feed upon the good people of the local village and the nearby finishing school for genteel young ladies. The most eye-catching of the castle creatures is Mircalla, played by the vivacious Yutte Stensgaard. Mircalla is not your typical vampire. For one thing, she walks around during the day, flaunting way more cleavage than Gloria Holden ever did in Draculaç—´ Daughter. Plus, Mircalla is flirtatious and curvaceous, with long, curly platinum-blonde hair and big fawn-like eyes that start to cross whenever she's aroused. She looks more like a soft-core porn stewardess than a member of the living dead.
The inhabitants of Castle Karnstein coerce their victims through either brute force or sexual allure. Let's break that down a little further: the unattractive vampires use brute force, and Mircalla uses sexual allure. The vast majority of Mircalla's victims do not want to become the human equivalent of a vampire's lunchbox--but what can they do? Sex is a compelling coercer. One look into the vampire's addled eyes and before they can say, "Love slave," their jugulars are squirting with the cheery gusto of a grade-school water-fountain.
You'll note that above, I said the "vast majority" of the vampire's victims don't really want to be chewtoys for the living dead. There is one victim who is very eager to receive a Mircalla hickey--a nerdy, bespectacled teacher played by Ralph Bates. Ralph was a semi-regular in old Hammer Films productions who played everything from a decadent lord (in Taste the Blood of Dracula... which he did) to Dr. Jekyll (in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde... Martine Beswick played Sis). When folks talk about great horror actors from earlier decades, they often leave out Ralph Bates, which is a pity. Just watching him, you can tell he really relished his roles.
Even Mircalla is coerced by love. A handsome, horny novelist named Richard LaStrange gets a job at the finishing school teaching English, and soon he is enthralled with the perky vampiress--and she thinks he's pretty hot stuff, too. In fact, she becomes so enraptured with LaStrange, she doesn't even drink his blood. The greater goodness of love forces her to spare him. So coercion isn't always bad. Sometimes wicked folks can be coerced into doing the right thing.
Uh-oh, our discourse is gettin' kind of warm and fuzzy... Time to wrap it up! Thank you for stopping by. Have a pleasant evening, and... and...
Hooo-boy, I'm feeling a little woozy! I don't think those crab-cakes agreed with me. Either that, or--Hey, what's this white sediment at the bottom of my drink? When I was in the kitchen, did you--?
What's that you say? "It's not coercion if the one being coerced is unconscious." Hmmm, interesting point, but I can't say that I agree wi--
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