O Beijo do Vampiro

As I lay watching this film, I was reminded all over again why Horror is my favorite cinematic genre: despite the absence in the cast of any major stars from the Hammer stable, this well-directed shocker is arguably one of their best efforts. The film is bracketed by two bravura sequences: the opening scene at the graveyard where an obviously drunk and distraught Professor Zimmer (the Van Helsing figure here vividly essayed by Clifford Evans as a boorish and cynical man) unceremoniously plunges a spade into the wooden coffin of his dead daughter thus releasing her soul from the curse of the undead; and the startling climactic destruction of the vampiric cult at the hands of (irony of ironies) some admittedly fake-looking vampire bats! As usual with this type of film, the young leads (Edward De Souza and Jennifer Daniel) are merely adequate but the film benefits immensely from a deliciously villainous turn by Noel Willman as Dr. Ravna, a worthy Dracula stand-in, whose soothing, calm composure and tonality starkly contrast with the more energetic antics of a Christopher Lee, but exude just as much evil. Although judging from the IMDb synopsis, the added-for-TV scenes (for an alternate version of the film entitled KISS OF EVIL) are nothing to write home about, I would still like to have seen them included as a supplement to the DVD - although apparently that would have been too much to expect from Universal...

"The Kiss of the Vampire" has one hell of an opening scene, but after that, the viewer must endure about thirty minutes of Dullsville as a newlywed couple arrives in a creepy European town and interacts with the strange, subdued locals. Note that the entire village seems to consist of only three people: Professor Zimmer, the innkeeper, and the innkeeper's wife. There's the Hammer casting budget for you!

Thankfully, the action picks up during the creepy masquerade ball. I also enjoy watching our hapless hero (played by the somehow likable Edward DeSouza) get humiliated by the vampires when he attempts to rescue his wife.

The sets are cool and Gothic, if obviously studio-bound; this is the kind of movie that many would call cheap, but tolerant and loving horror fans would probably describe it as quite lavish.

I have some plot-related problems. Professor Zimmer's transformation from tottering drunkard to know-it-all savior is too abrupt and unconvincing. I can't understand why he doesn't stop the Harcourts from visiting Ravna, since he's so sure that the latter is a vampire. All he does is issue cryptic warnings - who's that going to put off? I also don't understand why the vampires try to convince de Souza that he never had a wife. Do they really think that trick's going to work? Of COURSE he knows he had a wife! They really should just kill or convert him; setting him loose to make trouble is an unconscionably stupid decision. Anyway, they drop this little lie so quickly that one wonders why they bothered in the first place.

Other problems include a scene involving whiny, panicking vampires (hardly the most terrifying villains), and the strange lack of music in the climatic scene. As usual for a horror film, certain casual asides in the dialogue are more interesting than the story itself; Zimmer describes his daughter's conversion into a vampire in the most fascinating terms, and even suggests that vampires can be redeemed through faith in God. All of which amounts to nothing, of course, since Hammer films can never be too deep. What we get is the usual fight over a pretty girl, the staple of vampire movies for way too many years.

Groaning aside, all Hammer films do have a certain charm, including the slow ones. A worthwhile attempt is made to make the vampires seem elegant and mysterious, and their eerie piano song does add to the atmosphere. I just wish the movie held up a little better; with a rewrite and some nips and tucks, this could've been one of the greats. Alas, as it stands, it's merely mediocre.

Stylish Hammer production involving a honeymooning couple lost in the Bavarian woods and their encounter with a (literally) hypnotic doctor who lives in a castle, which is a front for a cult of vampires. The couple are invited to attend a masquerade party there and (big mistake) they accept.

Originally intended by the studio as a Dracula film, the count's name is never mentioned in this film. The young couple (Edward De Souza, Jennifer Daniel) have much of the screen time and are both pretty bland as performers. De Souza's character is a bit of a dope (at least to experienced horror fans who can well see ahead in the story as to what is about to happen to them) while Daniel adequately serves her role's requirements by being young and attractive. Let's face it, folks, the cult of vampires don't want her attendance at the party because of her conversational ability.

The two most noteworthy cast contributions to the film are provided by Noel Willman, as the aristocratic Dr. Ravna, the cultured castle owner and head of the cult (watch out for those teeth when he gets up close and personal) and Clifford Evans as an alcoholic professor, the Van Helsing rep here, so to speak, who previously lost his daughter to the cult but knows the black arts and how to summon demonic forces in order to destroy the cult.

James Bernard supplies a big, booming musical score bringing impact to the visuals and handsome sets, in much the same manner as he had a few years before with Horror of Dracula. The climax, originally intended for that of Brides of Dracula, has special effects that seem barely adequate by today's standards but still remain fun to view even if you can't take them too seriously.

While Kiss of the Vampire is not quite in the same league as a blood chilling horror entertainment as the studio's Horror of Dracula or Brides of Dracula, fans of the genre should still be satisfied with the end results. It certainly plays much better than some of those later films in the Dracula series with Christopher Lee.

Don Sharp directed this entertaining vampire tale(not connected with the Dracula series) that sees honeymooning Gerald and Marianne Harcourt(played by Edward De Souza & Jennifer Daniel) develop car trouble on their driving trip in Europe, but are aided by a Count Ravna(played by Noel Willman) who invites them to his castle for a costume party after they check into a local inn. The party takes a dark turn after Gerald is drugged, and told that he has no wife! Confused and outraged, he seeks the help of Professor Zimmer(played by Clifford Evans) who is also staying at the inn, and informs him that Ravna leads a vampire cult that turned his own daughter, and now wants Marianne... Another atmospheric horror from Hammer with a fine score and direction. A pity it couldn't have brought back Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, but performances are still good, and leads to an exciting finale.

"The Kiss of the Vampire" is a Hammer Studios film from 1963 that should manage to surprise and impress even the most jaded horror fans. In it, British honeymooning couple Gerald and Marianne Harcourt run out of petrol near "Kronenbourg," Germany in the year 1910 or so (judging from their vintage automobile), and are soon befriended by the area's most prominent citizens: the family of castle-dwelling Dr. Ravna, a debonair host who just happens to head a clan of blood-loving vampires! Interestingly, these vampires differ somewhat from the type we've all come to know and love, in that they have a fondness for ordinary food and wine, and can walk about during daylight hours...as long as it's fairly cloudy outside. Still, they remain averse to garlic and definitely suffer from, uh, crucifixaphobia. But this film offers us much more than just a group of atypical neck noshers. "Kiss" has been beautifully photographed, boasts some truly striking sets (an "ornate coffin," Ravna calls his sumptuous home), and features a literate script and fine acting from its relatively no-name cast. There are also several impressive sequences: Ravna's son, Karl, playing his eerily dreamy piano composition; a flaming-hand cauterization following a vampire's "kiss"; a vampire masquerade ball; and perhaps the best pentagram/conjuration scene ever shown on film...at least, until "The Devil Rides Out" came along in 1968. And, without giving anything away, let me just say that the vampires are undone in this film in a manner I have never seen before. From its deliciously morbid vampire-funeral opening to its (perhaps too) abrupt conclusion, this concise little picture is still another winner from the great House of Hammer.