Scream of Fear (1961)

... aka: Ein Toter spielt Klavier (A Dead Man Plays the Piano)

... aka: Kyôfu (Fear)

... aka: La casa del terrore (The House of Terror)

... aka: Pelon tunne (A Feeling of Fear)

... aka: Taste of Fear, A

... aka: Un grito de terror (A Scream of Terror)

Directed by:

Seth Holt

Director Seth Holt started out as an actor before transitioning into editing at Ealing Studios, where he worked as an assistant (usually sans credit) on such classics as Dead of Night (1945) and, one of my personal favorites, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1948). From there, he moved on to primary editing, producing and, finally, a single shot at directing (the crime drama Nowhere to Go) at Ealing before the studio was absorbed by the BBC in the late 1950s. While Nowhere to Go was a box office flop and critical failure, it was enough to get his foot in the door with Hammer, who hired him for Scream of Fear (originally titled Taste of Fear). Instead of suffering from a sophomore slump, Scream was both a commercial and critical success in the UK, U.S. and throughout much of Europe. Despite that, he'd have a difficult time securing directing jobs until his death and was involved in a number of projects that either ultimately got assigned to other filmmakers or were abandoned altogether.

Holt is almost exclusively known these days for a trio of genre films he was able to make with Hammer, which also included the excellent The Nanny (1965) starring Bette Davis, and the lesser but still not bad Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971), which he was never able to finish because he died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack at the age of just 47 (producer Michael Carreras had to step in and complete the final week of shooting). What's obvious in retrospect is that he clearly should have been given far more chances to direct than he was, and Hammer in particular should have utilized him far more than what they did.

Having spent ten years away in Italy, wheelchair-bound Penny Appleby (Susan Strasberg), who was crippled in a horse-riding accident, returns to France to stay with her estranged father (Fred Johnson). Expecting him to meet her at the airport, she's surprised to instead see he's sent his chauffeur Robert (Ronald Lewis, who also starred in William Castle's MR. SARDONICUS this same year) to retrieve her. On the drive to the family villa, Robert informs Penny that her father went away four days earlier, he doesn't know where he went, doesn't know when he'll be back and that he has recently been ill but is now apparently doing better, at least well enough to travel abroad.

Upon arriving at her new home, Penny meets her stepmother Jane (Ann Todd) for the very first time and, bucking the evil stepmother stereotype, she seems friendly, affectionate, compassionate and even a bit motherly. They've transformed the father's sitting room into a bedroom for her, purchased new furnishings, put in ramps for her chair and even installed a buzzer that rings down to the kitchen and the parents' bedroom if she ever needs anything. As for the whereabouts of the father, Jane informs her that he went out out of town on a "business deal," even though she pleaded with him not to. Seeing how he's not seen her for an entire decade, it's basically impossible for Penny to not feel just a little hurt by his absence.

Penny has recently been through a lot of trauma and is in an especially vulnerable, perhaps even emotionally unstable, state. She didn't want to leave Italy, which has been her home since her parent's divorce, but felt she had no other choice after the passing of her mother and then the death of her nurse / best friend (perhaps even lover) in a mysterious drowning accident. After losing the two closest people to her, she grew depressed and suicidal, and that's when she received a letter from her father asking for her to return to France. It doesn't take her long to regret taking him up on the offer.

Her first night there, she gets up to fix a rattling shutter, sees a candlelight flickering in the summer house across the courtyard and goes to investigate. Inside, she's startled to discover what appears to be the corpse of her father. Panicking, she tries to wheel away and ends up falling into a swimming pool. She's saved by Robert and, when she awakens, she's being tended to by local physician Dr. Pierre Gerrard (Christopher Lee), who also happens to be her father's personal doctor (and his chess buddy). Robert had made mention already that Gerrard has recently been a regular presence in the home, and he appears to be plotting something with the stepmother. Determined to prove she's not a "mental defective," Penny insists they all go to where she saw the corpse, but no body is there and everyone claims the summer house is always kept locked up, anyway.

Unlike most other victimized, weepy heroines in films like this, Penny is refreshingly not about to just roll over and play the victim. While she's emotional and a bit neurotic, she's also smart, plucky, headstrong and maintains her wits. She knows what she sees isn't a delusion, senses some scheming going on behind her back and acts accordingly, approaching everyone around her with suspicion and distrust. She snoops around. She asks questions. She refuses pills from Dr. Gerrard, starts growing a bit distant from Jane and, while Robert seems like a potential ally (and a potential love interest), she has her apprehensions about him, as well. She's also careful about giving certain characters information that may conceivably be used against her, including additional sightings of her father's corpse around the house. Strasberg is one of those actresses who usually doesn't make an overwhelmingly positive nor negative impression on me, but she's pretty wonderful in this particular role.

Though Lee spoke highly of this film and the director in interviews, and said it was perhaps Hammer's best overall production, he's interestingly the weakest link of the central cast. That's due in part to his failed attempt at a French accent and in part to the fact his character simply isn't all that interesting. Thankfully, the other three stars are all great. Lewis is extremely magnetic as the chauffeur and had all that it took to become an A List leading man. Sadly, that never happened due to his alcoholism, which eventually led to bad press, troubles with the law, divorces, bankruptcy and a damaged career, culminating in his suicide in the early 80s. Often unfairly overlooked here is Todd, who gives an excellent performance; perhaps the best performance. The way she uses subtle facial expressions and body language to show cracks beneath the surface of her warm, caring exterior tells you this woman was a complete pro.

In addition to the strong direction and acting, this excels in the screenplay department too, with fine dialogue, characterizations and plotting. Just when you think you're getting a handle on what's going on and working out who's conspiring with who to get what (a sizable inheritance is naturally at stake), Jimmy Sangster's script pulls the rug out from under you and unleashes some genuine surprises in the last 20 or so minutes. These aren't surprises pulled out of thin air either, but one's carefully built into the story. This is also a handsome looking film. Multi-BAFTA winner and three time Oscar nominee Douglas Slocombe (who'd go on to work with Steven Spielberg, Roman Polanski and other notables) does a great job shooting it, using lots of low lighting, shadows and lush soft focus. Other production people, from composer Clifton Parker to production designer Bernard Robinson, offer up strong work, as well.

This film's success led Hammer to branch out from their usual period-set classic monster movies to produce more modern psychological genre films. The initial cycle of these (there would be another in the early 70s) included Maniac, Paranoiac (both 1963), Nightmare (1964), Fanatic (aka Die! Die! My Darling!), Hysteria and the aforementioned The Nanny (all 1965). Though some of these are better than others, all of them are at least decent.

Released theatrically here in the U.S. by Columbia (who also handled the British, Canadian and Mexican releases), this then turned up on home video (with rather horrible-looking box art) by RCA / Columbia in 1989. Since, there have been quite a few Blu-ray and DVD releases, including from Sony (as part of their "Icons of Horror" series) and Mill Creek (as part of their "Hammer Horror Collection" series).

Easily besting the above is the 2019 BR release on the UK label Indicator ("Volume Four" in their Hammer line of box sets). It not only comes with three other films; THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958), THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL (1960) and The Damned (1962), plus plenty of accompanying materials for each of those, but also a wealth of Scream of Fear extras. Included are over three hours of archival interview material with Sangster (some video, some audio), an 82-minute archival audio interview with Slocombe, new interviews with Desmond Davis (the camera operator) and John Crome (the assistant sound editor), a rare condensed Super 8 version, profiles on actress Todd and composer Parker, a 36-page booklet and much, much more.

★★★1/2

Dracula père et fils (1976)

... aka: Die Herren Dracula (The Dracula Gentlemen)

... aka: Dracula and Son

... aka: Dracula padre e figlio (Dracula, Father and Son)

... aka: Pure, vampyyri, pure! (Bite, Vampire, Bite!)

Directed by:

Édouard Molinaro

Despite being mostly associated with Hammer Films in the UK, and British horror in general, Christopher Lee has an impressive and quite varied slate of international productions on his resume as well. Even when he was at his peak with Hammer, he was still simultaneously taking up jobs elsewhere, namely in Italy, where he carved out a niche for himself in their Gothic horror cycle, and Germany, where he did other genre films and took part in their popular Edgar Wallace cycle. That turned out to be a wise career decision on his part. By the mid 70s, Hammer was running into problems and horror films were on the downturn in the UK. Since Lee already had cultivated an international following, he didn't have to look hard to find steady work elsewhere. The late 70s saw him appearing in American, British, Canadian, German and Spanish productions, and he was also shooting numerous films in the Middle East and Africa around this same time.

Dracula and Son, a vampire-themed horror comedy, was one of several French productions he turned up in during the later half of the 70s. He'd already spoofed his own image to good effect in another, earlier vampire comedy called UNCLE WAS A VAMPIRE (1959); a French / Italian co-production. Interestingly, his frequent Hammer co-star Peter Cushing also ended up headlining a French vampire comedy of his own called Tender Dracula (1974).

1784. A stagecoach rushing through a Transylvanian forest trying to reach their destination before nightfall breaks a wheel. Knowing it will take several hours to fix, a second stagecoach swings by and two of the ladies - noblewoman Marguerite (Claude Génia) and her nympho daughter Herminie (played by future director Catherine Breillat in a rare acting role and the same year she made the controversial and oft-banned A Real Young Girl) - decide to catch a ride with them. They don't even make it to the castle before the pale-faced stranger on board (Xavier Depraz) sinks his fangs into the mother's neck. Herminie becomes locked inside the castle grounds and is soon face to face with Dracula (Lee) himself. After he makes a grand entrance from behind a bronze statue of his likeness, Herminie passes out. Next thing we know she's moaning in ecstasy and having sex with a fully-clothed Lee (!) inside a coffin. After they finish, she hops out, runs over to the mirror and starts examining her neck. He assures her, "You will find no marks... I was extremely careful!

The girl's relief doesn't last long. "You are now the bride of the prince of the powers of darkness!," proclaims Lee. He'll now keep her prisoner in the castle until she can produce an offspring. Nine months later, she does just that, delivering him a son / heir he names Ferdinand, which finally makes her worthy of vampire bride status. Lee puts the bite to her, but the resultant creature is a weak, weepy, reluctant whiner of a bloodsucker. It then comes as no surprise that when he sends her out to claim her very first victim on her own, the whole thing backfires when she fails to make it back before sunrise and is reduced to a pile of ashes.

Five years pass and the vampire baby is now a spoiled little brat. He's fed blood in a baby bottle and rolls a skull across the floor to knock over the urn containing his mother's ashes while the sound of a bowling ball hitting pins is heard. He then has a laugh killing his old nanny by tricking her into going outside right before dawn and then locking the door. 116 years pass and the now grown Ferdinand (Bernard Menez) is a lazy, whiny, pale, mustachioed weakling who has thus far refused to claim a victim and is still using a baby bottle. 

Jump ahead to present day and not much has changed but the scenery. When some peasants and communist soldiers invade the castle to throw a party, Dracula and Ferdinand are forced to flee. They make their way into the nearest village, kill a couple of sailors and then try to stowaway in their coffins, hoping they'll be shipped back to France. Nope, they're instead dropped into the ocean.

Ferdinand's coffin ends up hitting shore in France, where he's immediately greeted by some violent xenophobes who get off on attacking "dirty immigrants." He befriends fellow immigrant Khaleb (Mustapha Dali) and the two hitch a ride in the back of a produce truck. They move into a derelict building with other immigrants and Ferdinand is eventually able to gain appropriate employment as a graveyard shift security guard. However, even there he's bullied and exploited by a personnel director using his illegal status to try to blackmail him out of his paycheck. Is this vampire comedy actually striving for a deeper sociopolitical meaning in between all the silly gags? It would appear so! No doubt that Ferdinand is facing the same hardships other Iron Curtain defectors possibly faced in other parts of Europe at around the same time and, sadly, some of this commentary is as timely today as it was back in 1976. Since he's still not worked up the courage to actually attack anyone, Ferdinand is reduced to raiding the local blood bank for nourishment.

Meanwhile, a disheveled-looking Dracula is caught in a fishing net and ends up in London, where his first victim is an inflatable sex doll. Weakened, he's having a hard time catching any prey until he's discovered by actress Anna Gaynor (Anna Gaël) and her movie director boyfriend, who immediately cast him as the Count in their vampire movie. He makes the mistake of vampirizing Anna and taking her home, where she proves to be a little too needy and codependent, so he promptly does away with her. Dracula becomes a huge movie star and starts making global news, which is how Ferdinand discovers he's still alive. He immediately travels to London for a reunion and the two are soon hitting the town doing heartwarming father-son things like casket shopping. 

As a celebrity, Dracula is now being courted by all types, including beautiful advertising executive Nicole (Marie-Hélène Breillat, Catherine's real-life sister and then-wife of the director), who wants him to be the new spokesperson for a brand of toothpaste (!) called Permadent. Nicole bears a striking resemblance to the count's first wife and he becomes romantically interested in her right away. Likewise, she's attracted due to his magnetism and commanding nature (plus, duh, he's Christopher Lee), which means her relationship with campaign designer Jean (Bernard Alane) gets pushed to the side for the time being. However, the lonely Ferdinand has also fallen in love with her, which is kind of weird seeing how she's a dead ringer for his mom, but what have you. This leads to jealousy, tension, sabotage and even murder attempts between parent and child that, thanks to the insanely childish and annoying behavior of the son, will probably have you cheering on Lee as he slaps the shit out of him multiple times and then booing during the conclusion.

The general consensus seems to be that this is bad, but I don't agree, at least when viewed in its original, uncut form. The story structure spanning centuries is pretty neat, with lots of little side characters filtering in and out of the vampires' lives over the years, some more interesting and / or amusing that others. The bits of social and political commentary were an unexpected surprise. The early period-set scenes have a lovely soft focus look to them and the art direction / sets and costumes are all good. Best of all, Lee gives a wonderful performance. There are actually more layers to his character here than he was given to play off of in most of his Hammer Dracula films. The multi-lingual genre icon's voice can be heard in both the French and English language versions.

There are definitely some problems here too, though. Things eventually deteriorating into a dull love triangle seems like a lazy cop out; as if the filmmakers didn't know quite where to go. While there are some clever and amusing moments sprinkled throughout, there really aren't many outright hilarious moments. I also found it almost impossible to care about Ferdinand, which is odd since I typically gravitate toward the black sheep / outcast characters. This guy is really that irritating. Furthermore, believing Nicole would be romantically interested in him is even less believable than when Caroline Munro agreed to go on a date with Joe Spinell in Maniac. To be fair, I did watch the English version and the congested-sounding voice actor for Ferdinand was damn near unbearable to listen to. I'm not sure if he's as bad in the French version, though even without the dubbing the character's actions are annoying enough as is.

Many prolific and well-known French actors appear in small cameos. Jean-Claude Dauphin plays student Christéa Polanski (obviously a reference to the director of The Fearless Vampire Killers), who's working on a graduate thesis entitled "The Existence of the Living Dead in Transylvania." Anna Prucnal (SWEET MOVIE) plays horror film actress Suzanna Podesti, whose cat gets eaten by Ferdinand, Raymond Bussières (THE CURSE OF BELPHEGOR) is a morgue cosmetologist, Robert Dalban (Dialolique) is a hotel receptionist, Gérard Jugnot (co-star of another French vampire comedy; The Crazy Boys vs. Dracula [1980]) is a blackmailing factory manager and Dominique Zardi (LITAN) is an agent.

Just two years after this, Molinaro would hit the big time with the comedy La cage aux follies (1978), an adaptation of the 1973 play by Jean Poiret. The film was a runaway financial success across Europe and even in the United States, where it quickly became the highest-grossing foreign language film up to that time (even over four decades later it's still in the Top 20). In addition, it earned Molinaro a pair of Oscar nominations, including for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Two sequels followed and it later became the basis for the 1996 comedy The Birdcage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, which was also a huge hit.

This was based on a 1974 novel called Paris Vampire by Claude Klotz. The book was later reissued numerous times to tie into the film by re-titling it Dracula père et fils and either reusing the same poster art or showing images of Lee on the cover. A soundtrack album featuring music from Romanian composer Vladimir Cosma was also released in 1976 on the Vogue International label.

The English dubbed version that was released to U.S. theaters by Quartet Films in 1979 was cut down by 20 minutes and completely butchered in the process. (I'm also certain this version is a big part of the reason the film has such a bad reputation in the first place). This same cut was given at least two VHS releases in the 80s, from Columbia Pictures and GoodTimes. It wouldn't be until 2016 when an uncut version was released by Sinister Cinema, who offered an English-subbed, French-language widescreen version. In 2022, Severin finally released it on Blu-ray fully uncut and restored with all available audio options and subtitles one would need. It's available as part of their release "The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee, Collection 2."

★★1/2