- Director: Don Sharp
- Writers: Anthony Hinds
- Stars: Clifford Evans, Edward de Souza, Noel Willman
- Run time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes
- Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/38hLooe
Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
Synopsis
We begin at a funeral. A well-dressed man in a top hat watches from above, and as the funeral progresses, he comes down to stand over the grave. He sprinkles some holy water on the coffin and then drives a shovel through it. Whoever was in the coffin screams, bleeds profusely, and everyone runs away. We see the dead woman in the coffin with her fangs hanging out as the credits roll: she was a vampire.
A man in a big house on the hill watches a car below through a telescope as the car breaks down. A pair of newlyweds, Gerald and Marianne Harcourt, have run out of gas, and he goes off walking toward a gas station. Marianne runs from the car, and she runs right into the man from the funeral, who warns her to go back to her car.
Gerald eventually returns, and they get “towed” into town, where they are going to be stranded for a couple of days. The innkeeper and his wife are very strange people, who look and act like they haven’t had a guest in years. The man is overjoyed to have them, but his wife would rather they weren’t there at all.
That night, a carriage arrives to deliver a letter. It’s an invitation for Gerald and Marianne to come have dinner with Dr. Ravna, who lives in the big house on the hill. The innkeeper says that Ravna throws a great dinner and recommends that they go.
Dr. Ravna welcomes them in, and he looks at Marianne hungrily. He introduces then to Carl and Sabena, his children. We soon see Sabena digging up the grave where the woman got “shoveled.” She sprouts fangs and then fights with the man in the top hat, bites his hand, and runs away. Marianne and Gerald, along with Dr. Ravna, listen to Carl play the piano, while the top-hat man disinfects the wound on his hand and burns it to keep from getting infected. Carl’s music seems to mesmerize Marianne.
They go back to the hotel for the evening, where they find the innkeeper’s wife crying over some things she had hidden inside a bench. The next morning, the innkeeper’s wife sets one place too many for breakfast, almost as if she were expecting one more visitor. It seems the innkeeper and his wife lost their daughter, Tania, not so long ago under mysterious circumstances. The Harcourts meet the man in the hat, whose name is Professor Zimmer.
Carl shows up, and says the petrol won’t be delivered until Sunday, and he invites Gerald and Marianne to a big formal party tonight. Since they’re going to be in town anyway, they agree to attend. Zimmer walks in on the conversation, who mentions that the weather is getting brighter outside. Carl and Sabena look surprised, then rush outside to the carriage, which speeds away. Do they not like the sun?
That night at the party, they all wear masks. There’s a lot of dancing, and Marianne wanders off and finds Dr. Ravna asleep in a coffin with blood running from his mouth. He gets up, not as dead as she thought. He hypnotizes and bites her while Gerald and Sabena celebrate in the main ballroom. She drugs him and takes him upstairs, but he passes out before even getting up there.
Downstairs, the band leaves, and the other guests all unmask themselves. They’re all vampires. They all dress in white and watch while Ravna brings out Marianne, also dressed in white and clearly under Ravna’s control. He introduces her as a”new disciple,” and we see that this is basically a vampire cult, with Ravna as their leader.
Gerald confronts Carl, and Carl explains that he has no idea who Marianne is. Everyone insists that Gerald came to the party alone and got drunk. They nearly run him over with their carriage, but Gerald is rescued by Professor Zimmer. He wakes up in the hotel, and the innkeeper doesn’t remember Marianne either. He calls the police, and they don’t believe him, since everyone says he came to town alone.
On the other hand, Zimmer believes him. Zimmer explains about vampires, and says that Ravna is one of them. His daughter had the disease, and it was her that he killed her with the shovel. Zimmer gives Gerald something to make him sleep.
That night, Gerald heads up to the big house and is immediately captured by the vampires. They bring in Marianne, and she doesn’t show any interest in Gerald. Ravna orders Tania (the innkeeper’s not-really-dead daughter) to “initiate” Gerald into their group. Zimmer comes to the rescue, and the three of them all run downstairs and out of the house. Since it’s daylight, the vampires cannot follow. Marianne passes out, but for some reason isn’t injured by the daylight any worse than that.
Zimmer has been planning to perform a ceremony for months, and tonight is the full moon, so it’s time to try it. The vampires are all trapped inside the big house, since Zimmer has warded it with crosses. Meanwhile, Marianne wakes up and starts back to rescue Ravna and the other vampires. Gerald and the priest catch up to her as Zimmer’s spell takes over. A thousand rubber bats on strings flood the castle, killing all the vampires except Marianne, who wakes up feeling much better.
Commentary
This film plays up the evil, demonic, magical nature of vampires rather than the simple, blood-starved Christopher Lee vampire movies also by Hammer. Everyone always says vampires are creatures of the devil, and this film shows us what that means.
This was really very different. I’m surprised that I don’t remember seeing this one before, as it’s really good. It’s not just another rehashing of the Dracula story, it goes to some new places, and isn’t nearly as predictable as many vampire films.
Still, it does have some dumb points. “Wife? What wife? You came here alone!” They expected that to convince him that he’d imagined his wife? Really?