The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)

When car trouble strands a honeymooning couple in a small Southern European village, an aristocratic family in the area reaches out to help them with sinister consequences.

Director:

Don Sharp

Writer:

Anthony Hinds (screenplay) (as John Elder)

Stars:

Clifford Evans, Edward de Souza, Noel Willman

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Clifford Evans	...	Professor Zimmer
Edward de Souza	...	Gerald Harcourt
Noel Willman	...	Dr. Ravna
Jennifer Daniel	...	Marianne Harcourt
Barry Warren	...	Carl Ravna
Brian Oulton	...	1st disciple
Noel Howlett	...	Father Xavier
Jacquie Wallis	...	Sabena Ravna
Peter Madden	...	Bruno
Isobel Black	...	Tania
Vera Cook	...	Anna
John Harvey	...	Police Sergeant
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Carl Esmond	...	Anton (US TV version)
Virginia Gregg	...	Rosa Stangher (US TV version)
Sheilah Wells	...	Theresa Stangher (US TV version)

Storyline

Gerald and Marianne Harcourt are traveling by car when the car breaks down and they have to spend a few days in a small, remote village. It doesn't take long before they are invited to Dr. Ravna's castle. Without their knowledge, Dr. Ravna is the leader of a vampire cult, and he has become astonished by Marianne's beauty...

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Plot Keywords:

abduction | funeral | honeymoon | blood | vampire | 

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Taglines:

Giant devil Bats...summoned from the caves of Hell to destroy the lust of the Vampires!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English Latin

Release Date:

11 September 1963 (USA)

Also Known As:

Kiss of the Vampire

Filming Locations:

Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal International Pictures (UI), Hammer Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The director Don Sharp admitted years later, that he wasn't keen on horror films. However, he decided to make "Kiss of the Vampire" slightly different to the usual "Hammer" movies.

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Goofs

Marianne is seen wearing modern high-heeled shoes.

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Quotes

Professor Zimmer: When the devil attacks a man or woman with this foul disease of the vampire the unfortunate human being can do one of two things. Either he can seek God through the church and pray for absolution or he can persuade himself that his filthy perversion is some kind of new and wonderful experience to be shared by the favoured few. Then he tries to persuade others to join his new cult.

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Alternate Versions

Retitled "Kiss of Evil" for American TV, and considerably tampered with. Bloody scenes are cut: e.g., when Herr Zimmer cauterizes his wrist after Tanya bites him, and the pre-credits scene in which blood gushes from the coffin of Zimmer's daughter after he plunges a shovel into it (even her scream is cut from that scene). A couple of the cuts result in scenes that don't make sense any more: in the cut-for-TV version, we never do find out what Marianne sees behind the curtain, a sight which makes her scream. And when Harcourt frees his hands after being clawed by Tanya, the TV version has him escape by running across the room untouched by the vampires, who just watch him get away. As originally filmed, Harcourt, after freeing his hands, immediately smears the blood on his chest into a cross-shaped pattern: the vampires now *can't* touch him. The cut running time was made up for by the addition of scenes of a family (middle-aged husband and wife; teenage daughter) who fret and argue about the influence of the vampiric Ravna clan, but never interact with anybody else in the movie. The married couple are inserted into the pre-credits graveyard scene in place of a couple of old crones. Even the final scene of the tampered-with version features this family, instead of the original cast! The theme of the family's scenes is the social disruption the vampires bring to town: specifically, women get uppity. The wife becomes the breadwinner (by sewing the vampire clan's white robes!) as the husband's business suffers, and she browbeats him about it. The daughter disses her boyfriend in favor of Carl Ravna. Carl, unseen in these scenes, has given her a music box which plays the same hypnotic tune that he plays on the piano elsewhere in the movie. The final scene has the men magnanimously forgiving the women, who meekly apologize as they all head off to church.

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Connections

References The Lady Vanishes (1938)

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Soundtracks

Vampire Rhapsody
Performed by James Bernard

User Reviews

Non-Dracula Vampire Film From Hammer.

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.