Blood of the Vampire (1958)

... aka: Der Dämon mit den blutigen Händen (The Demon with the Bloody Hands)

... aka: El venganza del vampiro (Vengeance of the Vampire)

... aka: In de macht van de vampier (In the Power of the Vampire)

Directed by:

Henry Cass

You ever wondered what the very first horror film made commercially available on home video was? Apparently it was this one, which was issued on both Betamax and VHS all the way back in 1978 by an early label called Magnetic Video. That makes this of some historical significance and also probably explains why the Magnetic release is a big collector's item now that sells for about 100 bucks on Ebay. Blood was made by the short-lived production company Artistes Alliance Ltd., who were also responsible for The Cosmic Monsters (1958) and The Giant Behemoth (1959), and clearly green lit due to the massive theatrical success of Hammer's THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957). This was actually in production at around the same time as Hammer's inaugural vampire film HORROR OF DRACULA (1958), though it wouldn't make it to theaters until three months later. Due to the fact it's a British Gothic horror film shot in color, written by Jimmy Sangster and has a period setting, good production values and several actors the studio would later use, this has often been mistaken for a Hammer film.

Things open in 1874 as a group of men haul a shrouded corpse high up the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania. One of the men drives a stake through the corpse's heart and all but the gravedigger tasked to bury the body leave. A mysterious figure watching the proceedings from the brush then kills the gravedigger and steals the corpse. The killer turns out to be Carl (Victor Maddern), the crippled, mute, droopy-eyed and facially disfigured henchman of a scientist rumored by villagers to be a vampire. Carl enlists the aid of a scuzzy alcoholic doctor (Cameron Hall) to perform a heart transplant (!) on the vamp. After he's done with that and demands more money for the operation, Carl simply stabs him to death.

We then jump ahead six years to Carlstadt. In a courtroom, brilliant young surgeon John Pierre (Vincent Ball) is being tried on malpractice / murder before the medical board for attempting a blood transfusion as a last ditch attempt to save a dying patient's life. Despite being innocent, a letter from a colleague (which he strongly suspects has been forged) incriminates him and he's found guilty by a judge (John Le Mesurier) and sentenced to an island prison for life. Before being transported to the island, however, he's taken out of his holding cell, thrown into a carriage and whisked away far into the woods to a mountaintop castle doubling as a prison / asylum for the criminally insane. There, he's roughed up by sadistic, snarling main guard Wetzler (Andrew Faulds) and thrown into a rat-infested cell, where his new cellmate Kurt Urach (William Devlin) informs him that the guard is "the least of the evils you have to contend with here" and that the asylum itself is "the bottomless pit of hell." Sounds reassuring.

Lashings, beatings and mysterious disappearances are the order of the day at the asylum. Prisoners are threatened by vicious dogs in spiked collars and are forced to do manual labor, which involves digging holes in a graveyard that's already so full that bodies have to be buried on top of bodies. Everyone seems in fear of Dr. Callistratus (the amazingly-eyebrowed Donald Wolfit), who is deemed "absolute lord and master" As it turns out, Callistratus has arranged for John Pierre to be sent there after hearing of his crime. The blood transfusion part especially interests him. He immediately puts John to work identifying and classifying the various blood groups in his lab, using fellow prisoners as blood donors, with the end goal being finding a cure for a rare and peculiar blood disorder that he suffers from. For cooperating, Dr. Pierre is given special privileges (having his manacles removed so he can walk around freely) and better accommodations (his own vermin-free bedroom).

Meanwhile, Dr. Pierre's lovely fiancee, Madeleine Duvaal (Barbara Shelley), manages to prove the letter that put her love away is a forgery and demands he be released. Not so easy considering prison commissioner / inspector Monsieur Auron (Bryan Coleman) is being paid off by Callistratus and is actually the one who intercepted and forged the fake letter to begin with. After Pierre and Kurt attempt to break out, Kurt is killed by the dogs and Callistratus falsely sends back word that Pierre has also been killed. Not believing it, Madeleine gets a job there to replace the former housekeeper (Barbara Burke), who was found snooping around in the cellar where most of the grislier experiments have been taking place.

Despite the title, this is a very non-traditional "vampire" tale. There are no fangs here nor any blood drinking nor supernatural powers nor any of your usual vampire mythology. The villain is simply a mad scientist who's been resurrected from the dead with a heart transplant but now suffers from a disorder that requires him to receive blood transfusions. While the lack of traditional vampire movie tropes has been known to disappoint certain viewers, if you know what you're getting yourself into here, this really isn't bad at all. There's a lot of gloomy, gray, oppressive atmosphere within the grimy stone-and-steel prison, it's briskly paced, fairly well-plotted and all of the technical aspects, from the make-up to the photography to the art direction, are professionally handled. In addition, the cast all do a good job, particularly Wolfit and Maddern in the showier roles. I almost gave this three stars except the finale was too predictable and thus a little underwhelming.

Faulds, who also appeared in small supporting parts in The Crawling Eye (1958), The Flesh and the Fiends (1960) and Ken Russell's The Devils (1971), would later go into politics and, as a member of the Labour Party, served in Britain's House of Commons from 1966 to 1997. He passed away in 2000. This was also an early genre role for Shelley, who'd go on to earn the title "First Lady of British Horror" for her various appearances in horror films, including a number for Hammer. Director Cass also made the ghost comedy Castle in the Air (1952) and The Hand (1960). Promotional materials for the film show several other scantily-clad ladies chained up in the cellar, though none are actually in the film.

Unlike many other genre releases of the time, this received fairly good reviews upon release with a number of critics appreciating its offbeat plotting and production values. Contemporary viewers, I've noticed, haven't been quite as kind for some reason. After its initial VHS release, Vampire seemed to all but disappear for decades. Later prints of this Eastmancolor film that were circulated around were severely washed out and had a drab, reddish hue to them, though that issue has since been fixed with subsequent releases. In the U.S. this was released to theaters on a double bill with Monster on the Campus (1958). The first DVD release through Dark Sky in 2006 paired it with the swashbuckling adventure The Hellfire Club (1961), which was co-directed by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman; the producers of Blood of the Vampire. Berman also shot this.

★★1/2

Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966)

Directed by:

Don Sharp

Review coming soon.

★★1/2

Gorgon, The (1964)

Directed by:

Terence Fisher

Review coming soon.

★★1/2

Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

...aka: Five Million Years to Earth

...aka: Mind Benders, The

Directed by:

Roy Ward Baker

Workers at the Hobb's End Underground Transport unearth skeletal remains that seem to date back five-million years. They also hit a strange non-metallic plate that ends up being part of an alien spacecraft. Perplexed by the substance, which is harder than diamond and resistant to the 3000 degree flames from a blow-torch, some conflicting experts are called in to investigate. Derelict apartments across the street from the excavation site have strange claw marks on the walls. A hidden compartment on the ship also houses some dead, medium-sized, horned, green, insect-like creatures. But it's really the ship itself that poses the strongest threat. And what is lying dormant in all of our minds. The military, of course, continually butt heads with the scientists and call the whole discovery a hoax (a "German propaganda item" from World War II). But Professor Bernard Quatermass (Andrew Keir) thinks otherwise and proposes a theory that offends just about everyone involved; managing to question both creationism and evolution. Quatermass comes to the conclusion that millions of years ago, aliens landed on Earth, removed primitive apes and took them back to their home planet (which may have been Mars) for experimentation. They continued to do so, each time making them more intelligent until man was eventually born… He could be right, but not necessarily. The government definitely is on the wrong track and open up the site to the general public. The dormant evil is unleashed and those exposed to it become mindless and violent. Buildings collapse, fires start, citizens go on a rampage and London will eventually be completely leveled if Quatermass and chief archaeologist Dr. Roney (James Donald) can't stop it. Barbara Shelley co-stars as Barbara Judd, an assistant who has visions of an alien colony and becomes possessed, eventually getting socked in the face by Quatermass himself! Julian Glover is the close-minded militarist who's fried into a crispy critter.

All four of the principal actors are excellent in this intelligent, thoughtful and multi-layered science-fiction film, which raises an impressive number of interesting questions. And it's not without a sense of humor. The "Hammer Collection" DVD has both the UK and US trailers ("It could happen in your lifetime!"), plus the science fiction episode of the ho-hum 1990 WORLD OF HAMMER TV documentary series (narrated by Oliver Reed), which covers the titles DICK BARTON STRIKES BACK, THE DAMNED (aka THESE ARE THE DAMNED), FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN, QUATERMASS 2, QATP, QUATERMASS XPERIMENT, SPACEWAYS, X THE UNKNOWN and a few others.

★★★1/2

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

...aka: Bloody Scream of Dracula
...aka: Disciple of Dracula
...aka: Revenge of Dracula

Directed by:
Terence Fisher

Hammer Studios wanted to make an immediate sequel to their international hit HORROR OF DRACULA (1958), but star Christopher Lee did not, so they made the unrelated vampire movies BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960) and KISS OF THE VAMPIRE (1962) instead. A few years later, Lee changed his mind and headlined a long series of Dracula sequels; the first of which was DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS. After a narrated replay of the original film's ending with Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) pulling down the curtains on Count Dracula (Lee, naturally) before staking him, this new story (with a Victorian era time setting) begins. Brothers Charles (Francis Matthews) and Alan Kent (Charles "Bud" Tingwell) and their wives Helen (Barbara Shelley) and Diana (Suzan Farmer) are British tourists vacationing near a desolate region of the Carpathian Mountains. They stop at a tavern, where villagers live in fear of vampirism and friendly, rifle-wielding vampire expert and monk (!) Father Sandor (Andrew Keir) warns them to steer clear of Carlsbad, where they were intending to go.

.

Despite super-prude Helen's best attempts to talk them out of it, they continue on as planned, but when they near a large Gothic castle, the coach driver refuses to go any further, pulls a knife on them, kicks them out, throws out their luggage and says he'll be back at dawn; leaving them stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Despite super-prude Helen's insistence they sleep in a woodman's shack and not go to the castle (they'd been forewarned by the monk), a driverless coach mysteriously pulls up, they climb on board and the horses head straight for the castle. Despite super-prude Helen's bad vibes about the castle looking "frightening," the horses take off again with their luggage on board and the four are forced to enter, where they find that preparations have already been made for four guests (plus their missing bags are already upstairs in the bedrooms). Despite super-prude Helen's constant bemoaning that all of these events are incredibly weird, sinister and/or evil and that they should serve as some kind of warning to high tail it outta there, the rest of the gang think she's just exaggerating. Well, they should have all listened to super-prude Helen.

Before long, a tall, glowering butler named Klove (Philip Latham) pops in scare the bejesus out of the ladies, serve up some dinner and tell them that his "master" Count Dracula is already dead, but in his will wanted to keep the home open for guests and waylaid travelers. Later on that night, Helen is awoken by someone calling her name and loud footsteps. She wakes Alan and the two catch sight of Klove dragging a large trunk through the hallway into a secret room hidden behind a tapestry. Alan follows and ends up getting stabbed to death by the faithful servant. Klove then hangs him upside down over Dracula's crypt, slits his neck over the vampire's remains, where the blood (there's a lot of it) helps to revive the red-eyed bloodsucker. This time-lapse special effect is very good for the time and cleverly employs some fog to help camouflage the fact they had to stop the camera at least a half dozen times for the desired effect. Helen is lured into the secret room to become Dracula's very first victim. The next morning, Charles and Diana manage to escape after discovering that Alan is dead, Helen has been turned into a vampire and that Dracula has returned to life.

So far, so good. The first hour or so of this film is very atmospheric and very good. However, the momentum is lost once the surviving couple make it to the monastery and join Father Sandor in fighting off the undead (who show up to try to get their hands on Diana). Toward the end, Sandor reveals that vampires can be killed by running water and the finale is a battle between Charles and Dracula atop a frozen pond. Hmm. Lee isn't on screen as much as I'd like and doesn't have a single line of dialog here (unless you count hissing and screaming as he dies), but delivers plenty of imposing menace when he's present. Shelley has a lot of fun playing opposites here; going from stuffy and bitchy (dressed in restrictive clothing and tied-back hair) to seductive and evil (in a loose gown and letting her hair down). It is one of the actresses best roles, actually, and she has a great death scene being held down by monks and staked! Philip Latham is great as manservant Klove, who is thankfully played not as a half-wit, but as a calculating, smart and menacing emissary of evil almost on part with his master. The rest of the cast acquit themselves very nicely, as well. Since they removed the Renfield character from HORROR OF DRACULA, they try to make up for it here with "Ludwig" (Thorley Walters), a mentally-disturbed monk who eats flies and helps out Dracula.

Hammer’s Dracula series continued with DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1968), SCARS OF DRACULA (1970), TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA (1970; with Linda Hayden and Ralph Bates joining Lee), DRACULA A.D. 1972 (1972; this marked the return of Peter Cushing to the series after an over-a-decade long absence), THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA (1973) and LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES (1974; with John Forbes-Robertson filling in for Lee).

★★1/2

Shadow of the Cat (1961)

Directed by:
John Gilling

On a stormy night, elderly Ella Venable (Catherine Lacey) reads aloud a passage from Poe's "The Raven" before a man sneaks up behind her and clubs her over the head. Her body is wrapped up and carried outside as the woman's cat Tabitha, who witnessed the crime, quickly rushes out the door. The victim turns out to be a very wealthy woman who has been trapped in a loveless 30-year marriage to Walter (André Morell), who made no qualms about marrying her for her money. We also learn that her killer, Andrew the butler (Andrew Crawford), as well as the maid, Clara (Freda Jackson) are also in on the murder and have been promised a healthy cut of the inheritance if they play along. Ella's body is buried in a shallow grave somewhere on the property. A few days after the murder, Walter contacts the police to let them know his wife has disappeared. He's also taken provisions to ensure he's left everything in the estate by forging a will. However, the actual will is hidden somewhere in the home and must be found and destroyed before anyone else can get their hands on it. Promptly following Ella's disappearance, several relatives arrive at the home. First up is Ella's beloved niece Elizabeth (Barbara Shelley), who seems to be the only person her dead aunt actually loved. Also coming in for a visit are Walter's brother Edgar (Richard Warner), his sleazy, skirt-chasing son Jacob (William Lucas) and Jacob's smarmy wife Louise (Vanda Godsell). Those three are also in on the murder and, just like the two servants, have been payed off to keep quiet and assist in locating the missing will as well as helping throw off the investigators.

So who's going to teach these greedy, murderous, thieving scumbags a lesson? Why Ella's beloved pet puss Tabitha, of course! She makes life a living hell for each of the conspirators; clawing, hissing and causing a general uneasiness and panic amongst them. They all want her captured and killed, which makes them look all the more suspicious to both Elizabeth and the investigators. Hey, it's just a cat, right? But this cat is no ordinary cat. It ignores plates of poisoned meat left around the house and when it's lured into a trap by the tempting treat of live mice, put in a sack and stands the chance of being dunked in the backyard swamp waters, it manages to escape and knock someone into a quicksand bog in the process. The kitty also finds ways to start killing them off one by one; knocking one down a flight of stairs, giving the weak-hearted one in the group a heart attack by rushing at his head and finding other methods of punishing the guilty. Tabitha has plenty of clever tricks up her, uh, paw.

Naturally, a film portraying a domesticated animal going about getting revenge for its slain owner by committing premeditated murder is going to be called far-fetched by some, but this is a horror film we're talking about. I don't see why such nonexistent creatures as vampires, zombies and unkillable slasher maniacs who get shot hundreds of times but keep on tickin' are tolerated but people have a hard time accepting a vengeance-minded domestic cat doing the same thing. Any film with fantasy content requires the suspension of disbelief, and this is no different. But the movie is very well done for what it is. The cast is excellent, it's well paced, the Gothic mansion setting is perfect for this kind of material, the cat itself is fun to watch and there's an interesting score from Mikis Theodorakis, which alternates between commanding to almost whimsical. There is also some clever distorted camera-work to represent the cat's point of view.

Even though the production company is listed as BHP (who according to IMDb only did two other films), it might as well be considered a Hammer Production. In fact, the director, the writer, the editor, the cinematographer, the production designer, the makeup artist and much of the cast frequently worked for Hammer. It was also filmed at Bray Studios. I don't know if the studio lent its resources out to an independent producer or what, but this definitely has that Hammer feel to it and will probably be appreciated by any fan of their usual films.

.

★★★