1963
Directed by: Don Sharpe
Written by: Anthony Hinds
Produced by: Anthony Hinds
Studio: Hammer
Running Time: 88 minutes

Starring:
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

Interesting and mostly effective early vampire offering from Hammer Studios. The vampires drink blood to survive but besides this they seem pretty human. They can tolerate daylight, but not direct sunlight. They also are not all that powerful, but the head vampire can summon one of his brood from afar, and no mention is ever made of immortality.

The opening scene before the credits is a funeral precession for an unknown person. After a minute or two the coffin is being lowered into the earth and a man who had been watching from a distance approaches and without saying anything stops the proceedings. A couple women from the procession exchange glances and call him a drunkard. He gestures that he wants a shovel which the priest approves with a nod of his head. The man then takes the shovel and drives the blade through the wood on the top of the coffin and you hear a woman scream from inside. He then pushes the shovel down and blood spills out from the coffin. Chaos ensues and everyone runs away with the priest barely getting in a blessing before turning and running with the others. What a great way to start a vampire movie!

After the credits a young couple is on their honeymoon and are motoring through Bavarian "Hammerscape" circa 1910 when they run out of petrol. The man, Gerald Harcourt, (Edward de Souza) leaves his new bride, Mariana Harcourt, (Jennifer Daniel) in the car while he goes off in search of a gas station. A man spies on Mariana through a telescope from a nearby castle and after some scary encounters,including a run in with the man from the funeral, she ends up at a local inn with her husband because there is no petrol in the immediate area. The only other person staying at the inn is Professor Zimmer (Clifford Evans), the man from the funeral.

Shortly after arriving at the inn they receive an invitation from the local nobel, Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman), to dine at his castle that evening. During dinner Dr. Ravna is the most gracious of hosts and even admits to having spied on the couple with his telescope. After being mesmerized by the piano playing of Dr. Ravna's son, Carl (Barry Warren), Mariana faints and that pretty much ends the evening and the couple returns to their room at the inn.

The next day the couple is visited by Carl and his sister, Tania (Isobel Black), and are invited to a formal ball coming up at the castle in a couple days. They tell the couple that gasoline is being summoned but is several days away via oxcart. After some prodding and being assured that they have formal outfits that the couple can wear, Gerald and Marianna accept the invitation.

At the ball Gerald and Mariana are given masks to wear and are split up by Carl and Tania. As the evening gets on Gerald is drugged by Tania and Mariana is taken to a room where she is bitten by Dr. Ravna. Gerald wakes up the following day and asks where his wife is. He is told by Carl and a large servant that he came to the castle by himself and got drunk and made a fool of himself. He is then thrown out the front door and is left to make his own way back to the inn. When he gets there his wife's belongings are missing from the room and the innkeeper and his wife tell him he arrived at the inn by himself. Gerald then goes to the local magistrate to make a complaint and after a quick investigation is told that the leading citizen of the area, Dr. Ravna, will not by embarrassed by any further investigation and that the matter is closed.

Gerald by now is completely bewildered and starting to question his own sanity. He goes to Professor Zimmer's room and the professor tells him that his wife has been taken prisoner at the castle and that Dr. Ravna and his followers at the castle are indeed vampires! He then tells the story of how his own daughter years earlier had taken up with the wrong crowd in a nearby city and ended up a disciple of Dr. Ravna's vampire group at the castle.

That evening, Gerald makes his way to the castle while Professor Zimmer is doing anti-evil incantations in a pentagram he drew on the floor of his office. Gerald is quickly captured and is about to be made one of Dr. Ravna's vampire brood by his daughter Tania, when he manages to get out his bonds and make the sign of the cross in blood on his chest. This creates turmoil in the room and Gerald manages to grab his wife and make a dash out the door. The large servant follows but is killed by a large statute that Gerald pushes onto him. The professor makes his final incantations and a large swarm of bats descend upon the castle and devour Dr. Ravna and all his vampire disciples.

I liked everything in the movie until scene where where the vampires are sent into turmoil by Gerald making a sloppy sign of the cross on his chest in blood. The idea of the scene is fine, but a better looking cross would have been much more believable. Besides that, the movie creates a great mood and very watchable, fast-paced story. There is almost no downtime or slow or boring scenes. The Van Helsing like character of Professor Zimmer is unique in that he is a weirdo, reclusive drunk instead of the dashing and able know-it-all Van Helsing.

The dvd looks decent enough in a 1.66:1 transfer, but there were many scenes with an over saturation of red. The sound had many pops and crackles and the disk has only scene access on the menu. There are no extras at all, not even a trailer. Disk shortcomings aside, the movie surprised me with how effective it was and how watchable it was 39 years after release. If you can get the movie for under $15, I would definitely consider adding it to your collection.