JIMMY SANGSTER demonstrates the staging of PIPPA STEEL’s apparently lifeless Susan Pelley beside the well while RALPH BATES watches from the left in this remarkable black-and-white behind-the-scenes photograph from Lust for a Vampire (1971). Sangster bends over Steel as he physically shows how the body should be positioned and moved for the sequence, while Bates—dressed as Giles Barton—observes the demonstration before performing the action himself. Steel kneels low against the grass in her pale period dress, her loose hair and costume contrasting strongly with Sangster’s darker clothing and the heavy timber-and-stone construction of the well. Several members of the company stand beyond them, giving the photograph a genuine working-set quality rather than the appearance of a posed publicity still.

The image is particularly revealing because it records director, actor and victim performer working through the mechanics of a specific scene. Sangster is not merely watching from beside the camera; he is physically demonstrating the movement required, while Bates studies what he is being shown. For collectors searching for Jimmy Sangster Ralph Bates Lust for a Vampire 1971 production photography, this is precisely the kind of image that exposes the craft behind Hammer’s finished Gothic illusion. The well, costumes, surrounding crew and director’s hands-on involvement make the photograph immediately identifiable and considerably more informative than a standard cast portrait. It forms part of the newly offered production material now being made available to collectors for the first time.

The narrative connection is also unusually specific. Pippa Steel plays Susan Pelley, Mircalla’s roommate at the finishing school, while Ralph Bates plays Giles Barton, the school’s headmaster and an obsessive student of the Karnstein legend. Hammer’s verified production records confirm Steel and Bates in those roles, with Jimmy Sangster directing. Within the story, Susan disappears after becoming one of Mircalla’s victims, and Barton discovers her body and conceals it in the well—giving the apparently grim action being rehearsed here a direct and important place in the plot.

Directed by Sangster from Tudor Gates’s screenplay, Lust for a Vampire stars Yutte Stensgaard as Mircalla, Michael Johnson as Richard LeStrange, Ralph Bates as Giles Barton, Suzanna Leigh as Janet Playfair and Barbara Jefford as Countess Herritzen. The film develops the Karnstein mythology around the resurrected Mircalla and the nearby girls’ finishing school, where attraction, secrecy and murder gradually expose the vampire’s identity. Hammer production records date principal photography from 6 July to 18 August 1970, with studio work at Elstree Studios and finishing-school exteriors at Hunton Park, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire.

The film became the middle entry in Hammer’s Karnstein Trilogy, following The Vampire Lovers and preceding Twins of Evil, with its characters derived from Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. Sangster himself had stepped into the director’s position after Terence Fisher was unable to proceed because of injury, adding further historical interest to photographs that show him actively directing the performers rather than simply posing with them.

Carefully restored from historic photographic source material and professionally lab-developed, this museum-quality photograph is presented uncropped, preserving the complete image area contained in the source. Restoration recovers facial detail, period costume texture, grass, timber and stonework of the well and subtle background production detail while maintaining the natural tonal gradation and character of the historic black-and-white photograph. The finished photograph contains no AI-generated image content.

A superb document of hands-on Hammer filmmaking, this photograph captures Jimmy Sangster directing Ralph Bates and Pippa Steel through the Susan Pelley well sequence while preserving the relaxed working environment behind one of the film’s darker moments.