The Vampire's Ghost

I had never seen or heard of the Vampire's Ghost until I attended a Western film festival where Peggy Stewart was a guest star. She was a popular Western heroine at Republic, making films with Bill Elliott, Sunset Carson and Allan Lane. When they announced they were going to run it, she made a face and said, "Oh no, you're not." Peggy never attends screenings of her old films because it brings back memories that make her cry. She says she always recalls what went on behind the scenes and would rather talk with the fans. When I saw it, I recall one particular scene where she is supposedly walking in a trance. She had shoulder length hair and a beautiful face. It's no wonder her co-workers and fans love her. At the awards banquet, they presented her with a plaque which had the figure of a ghost on it. She got a big laugh out of that.

Vampire's Ghost, The (1945)

*** (out of 4)

Unique version of a vampire tale from Republic has been forgotten over the years due to its rarity but this here certainly needs to find a new crowd. A 400-year-old vampire (John Abbott) living in Africa sets his sight on a new girl but the voodoo locals and her boyfriend try to stop him. A very intelligent script by Leigh Brackett makes this head and shoulders more original than the Dracula films being delivered by Universal and Columbia. The film throws in all sorts of new ideas surrounding the legend of vampires and that's what makes this film so interesting even if it does drag a bit at 59-minutes. Abbott is wonderful in his role and his strange look is all the more fitting. Nice atmosphere and a terrific mood help overcome the low budget.

While the title hadn't struck me as being familiar when I read Michael Elliott's positive review here, I later found out that it was in fact listed - albeit meriting only a single sentence! - in "Horror Films", a compendium of the genre written by Alan Frank and which basically served as my introduction to many horror classics as a child.

As Michael has said, the script (co-written by Leigh Brackett, future collaborator of the great Howard Hawks) is unusually literate for a low-budget horror film of the Forties, suggesting that its main influence may have been the Val Lewton horror cycle being made contemporaneously at RKO; though it never quite achieves their level of quality, it was a very pleasant surprise and it ought to be better known and, more importantly, seen (alas, given its virtually non-existent reputation and the fact that it's a Republic production, whose catalogue has recently been acquired by Paramount, its official release on DVD anytime soon seems a highly unlikely prospect...though I would love to be proved wrong).

Anyway, the combination of vampirism and voodoo is an intriguing one - though we don't really see much of either. The largely unknown cast responds remarkably well to the fanciful proceedings (which offer some new and interesting variations on the standard vampire lore) - but it's John Abbott as Fallon, the world-weary and rather sympathetic bloodsucker who obviously steals the show. The film features a number of effective sequences during its brief (a mere 59 minutes!) but thoroughly engaging running time: a booby-trap shotgun is fired and the bullet goes right through Abbott (shades of SON OF Dracula [1943]) and lodges itself in the arm of one of the natives; only the vampire's clothes are reflected in a mirror (an effect borrowed from Universal's Invisible Man films) and when he looks at it, the mirror shatters of its own accord; the vampire attacks which mainly rely on Abbott's uneasy glare for their impact; the climax set in an ancient temple.

Looking at Lesley Selander's busy filmography (but whose work I had never seen before now), I'm left with the assumption that he was one of the innumerable unassuming journeyman directors who specialized in B-movies and Westerns in particular (at least 6 of his films are called "Fort Something Or Other"!); as a matter of fact, he inserts the obligatory poker game, followed by a bar-room brawl, even in THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST - having made Abbott the unlikely proprietor of a tavern (albeit using this identity merely as a cover for his true and sinister self). Still, given my enthusiastic reaction to the latter, I'm willing to give his FORT ALGIERS (1953; which has been available for some time at my local DVD outlet, without generating much interest to me personally) a chance - even if I'm pretty sure it won't be anywhere near as satisfying...

Vampire's Ghost is one of those gems that pops up now and again among the old B's. The vampire is multi-dimensional rather than unmitigated evil. There are some metaphysics mixed into the story. If you find this one on late night cable give it a watch.

Last night we watched a 1945 film called 'The Vampire's Ghost'. It was a pick we found included on our Amazon Prime instant video membership. With a name like that I was not expecting much from the film. Instead it turned out to be a very entertaining and offbeat vampire story. It was made by Republic Pictures yet had beautifully artistic B/W cinematography reminiscent of the Universal Horror films of that same time. The title character was played by John Abbott. He will be familiar to fans of the original Star Trek series who remember the episode 'Errand of Mercy'. Mr. Abbott played the vampire as sympathetic and likable at times, unique for Vampire characters of that decade. They were usually more sinister. Still he was a pitiless monster and evil. The film is only about 59 minutes long. At the end I found myself wishing it was longer. I recommend this to fans of 1930 and 40s horror films. I give it a 7 out of 10 rating.