The Vampire and the Ballerina (1960)

A troupe of beautiful young dancers find themselves stranded in a sinister, spooky old castle, not knowing that it is home to a group of vampires.

Director:

Renato Polselli

Writers:

Ernesto Gastaldi (screenplay), Ernesto Gastaldi (story)

Stars:

Hélène Rémy, Tina Gloriani, Walter Brandi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hélène Rémy	...	Luisa (as Helene Remy)
Tina Gloriani	...	Francesca
Walter Brandi	...	Herman
Isarco Ravaioli	...	Luca
Gino Turini	...	Giorgio (as John Turner)
Pier Ugo Gragnani	...	Professor (as Ugo Gragnani)
Brigitte Castor
Lut Maryk
Ombretta Ostenda
Bava Sanni
Marisa Quattrini
Giorgio Braccesi
Titti Valeri
Stefania Sabatini
Franca Licastro

Storyline

A troupe of beautiful young dancers find themselves stranded in a sinister, spooky old castle, not knowing that it is home to a group of vampires.

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Plot Keywords:

ballet | ballerina | burial | coffin | female vampire | 

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Taglines:

BLOOD-LUSTING FIEND WHO PREYS ON GIRLS! VAMPIRE-QUEEN WHO FEEDS ON LIFEBLOOD OF MEN!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

31 October 1962 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Vampire and the Ballerina

Filming Locations:

Istituto Nazionale Luce, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Consorzio Italiano Film (CIF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min 92 min (video)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film has been released for home viewing by Amazon Instant Video and on an English-friendly DVD by NoShame in Italy. Scream Factory released the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the U.S. on May 22, 2018 with a new high definition transfer of the film sourced from the last surviving film elements.

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Connections

Featured in Shiver & Shudder Show (2002)

User Reviews

Well paced vampire madness

Before television presenters, members of parliament, glam rockers, Hollywood producers, cigar-toting disc jockeys, Australian artists and weird haired American actors, all a young person had to worry about was attacks by classic monsters. This cautionary tale warns us that if you're looking after a troupe of ballerinas, it's best not to put them up in a village where there's a vampire on the loose.

A young, non-dancer girl from the village is attacked first and brought to the huge mansion all the girls are staying in. Turns out half the village believe there's a vampire loose, whereas the other half think that's a load of crap, including the dance troupe leader's uncle – and it's his house all these scantily clad girls are lounging about. So he sits them all down and tells them the story of a curse – you know, the one you've heard about a million times.

The village girl dies and there's a creepy scene where she wakes up in the coffin shortly before being buried. Later that night the vampire turns up and offers to take her to his castle to start a new life as a bloodsucker, but this is a ruse when he stakes her instead – looks this vamp doesn't want any rivals. But never mind that – these vampire attacks have inspired the dance troupe to do a vampire themed performance, so we get a great Fame-like sudden improvised dance workout!

Of course two of these girls have boyfriends and some of them end up in the vampire's castle getting their necks sucked on and one of the boyfriends gets seduced by a female vampire. It's this kind of thing that gets in the way of one's marriage plans, so the boyfriends have to band together to take on these anaemic goth bastards.

An early Italian horror with a lot of campy atmosphere, fast paced and gorgeous looking. It's not scary but it has a beautiful cheese level. And the vampire looks like a contemporary Mickey Rourke! Some of the 'vampire melting' effects are quite good too.

Due to it being so early, there's not too much gore and no nudity, but that doesn't stop them trying! There's even a slightly implied lesbian relationship between the two main girls (and it seems to be symptom of vampirism in that it makes you bisexual). It's short too, which is good after sitting through so many gialli.