Movie review – “Kiss of the Vampire” (1963) ***1/2

Part of the great appeal of Hammer was the attractiveness of their films – this would be one the most stunning, a gorgeous looking work which might be Don Sharp’s best film. 

 

John Elder’s script is actually pretty good – he’d learnt from Curse of the Werewolf… mind you, it might have helped that he ripped off 1934 The Black Cat. For this too is about a couple honeymooning in Europe who break down and get involved in a cult led by a charming middle aged man and are rescued by another charming middle aged men. 

 

(There’s also a dash of the Lady Vanishes, with the wife going missing and everyone denying her existence to her husband.)

The cult here are vampires – this was meant to be a Dracula film apparently, although you get the feeling it could have been written as a non vampire film. The hero uses black magic of all things to defeat the vampires – years before The Devil Rides Out this has a climax involving a bunch of vampire/cult members dressed up in white toga sheet things.

This is a really excellent Hammer film. The story won’t give you many surprises, but has strong emotional undercurrents – the bond between husband and wife, the fact that the cult has taken so many children of the village. The sexual politics are also interesting (the wife is abducted – she doesn’t want to join her husband!) and there is great spooky atmosphere plus a terrific opening scene where the father rams a stake into a coffin at a funeral.

But most of all you’ll remember the look – the masked ball, the desolate roads, the final attack (okay the sfx are a little hokey here). The cast lacks star power (Clifford Owen? Barry Warren?) but they can act and the women are all very pretty.