The vampire's kiss

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Movie
German title The vampire's kiss
Original title The Kiss of the Vampire
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1963
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Don Sharp
script Anthony Hinds
(as John Elder)
production Anthony Hinds
music James Bernard
camera Alan Hume
cut James Needs
occupation

The Kiss of the Vampire is a British horror film by the English film production company Hammer from 1962 (the film was withheld for a few months and only released in 1963). The original German cinema title was The Kiss of the Vampire .

action

Bavaria at the turn of the century: The prologue leads us to a cloudy morning cemetery where a young girl is to be buried. Her drunk father, Professor Zimmer, approaches the grieving village community. When Professor Zimmer wants to throw earth on the grave with a shovel, he takes the spade and angrily thrusts it into the bursting coffin: a shrill scream can be heard and blood gushes from the broken coffin. This is how Professor Zimmer redeems his daughter. You can see the resting blonde with sharp vampire teeth lying through the coffin lid.

The honeymooners Marianne and Gerald Harcourt have an accident in their automobile below a magnificent castle - the two are stuck for the time being. In the nearby village, the hotelier Bruno gives you the most beautiful of the vacant rooms in his shabby dugout. It's not very cozy there: the grieving landlady Anna weeps softly in one of the empty rooms and covers for an additional guest who will never come. The Harcourts found the drunken only remaining guest, Professor Zimmer, even stranger. When an elegant servant in livery invites the Harcourts to dinner in the magnificent castle in the evening, the two Dr. Ravna's invitation is only too happy to accept. There, in a more sophisticated setting, the Harcourts meet the charismatic Dr. Know Ravna and his children. Carl is his sensitive young son, a talented pianist, Sabena his lovely daughter. The Harcourts missed the fact that shortly after the guests arrived, a very young, exceptionally beautiful girl in a red dress secretly slipped out of the castle.

The beautiful girl in the red dress roams the night cemetery. It kneels at a fresh grave and begins to speak: why “she” didn't come to “them” yesterday. With the announcement to help “her”, the girl begins to dig up the earth until it suddenly exposes the handle of a spade - she wanted to free Professor Zimmer's vampirized daughter from her grave. With a blank look she understands what happened, and Professor Zimmer is already standing next to her. The girl bares her sharp vampire teeth, the two fight briefly, where she manages to bite Professor Zimmer's hand. He collapses in horror and the girl runs into the night laughing.

Professor Zimmer burns the vampire's mark out immediately. Marianne and Gerald return elated from the stimulating evening at the Ravnas. Marianne in particular seems very impressed with Carl's piano playing, which has almost put her in a hypnotic state. The next day, the Harcourts research the reason for Anna's sadness and find a framed photo of the vampire girl from the cemetery in her communion dress in the empty room. It is Tanja, Bruno's and Anna's daughter who apparently serves the vampires as a willing tool. Although Professor Zimmer urgently warns Gerald and Marianne about Ravna, both Sabena and Carl accept the invitation to a masked ball. Frightened, the Ravnas leave the hotel courtyard in their carriage when the sun shows up between the rain clouds.

At the masked ball it is Sabena's task to get Gerald drunk quickly, with Carl Ravna approaching Marianne wearing Gerald's mask. He guides Marianne into a room, where she sees Ravna lying behind a curtain in his coffin. Blood runs from the corners of his mouth. The next day Gerald has a hangover and is upset when the Ravnas throw him out of the castle. You don't know your wife. He believes it is a bad joke, but the nightmare continues in the hotel: the landlords pretend they have never seen Marianne (the Ravnas blackmail her with Tanja's disappearance) and the gendarme who is summoned finds nothing that reminds of Marianne's existence: her clothes and the luggage is gone.

Professor Zimmer is his only ally and lets him know what actually happened to his wife: Hypnotized by Carl's piano playing and seduced by Dr. Ravna (like his own daughter before) is now a disciple of the vampire cult. Gerald breaks into the castle under cover of night. He convinces Tanja to take him to his wife, but Gerald is lured into a trap by the vampire girl - Dr. Ravna, Sabena and Carl show him his wife, but she is completely enraptured. Ravna explains to Gerald that Marianne has renounced him; she even spits on her husband. Tanja is given the task of introducing Gerald to the vampire community and approaches him with a diabolical smile. Tanja tears up Gerald's shirt, scratches his chest and presses him with her vampire teeth, which Marianne looks at first with a mocking smile and then with undisguised pleasure. When Gerald draws a cross from his blood on his chest, all the vampires shrink back in horror. Gerald pulls Marianne with him. Professor Zimmer barricades all doors with crosses and thus banishes the vampire cult in the castle.

In the hotel, Professor Zimmer is preparing a major exorcism in which the forces of darkness stand against themselves through a special ritual. In the meantime, Father Xavier and Gerald hold back the raging Marianne from giving in to her urge to return to Ravna. While the followers of the vampire cult gather in the main room in the castle (they are the party guests of the masked ball), Ravna has gone into the tower room with his children and Tanja. Meanwhile, Marianne cannot resist the urge and runs away, but Father Xavier and Gerald can catch her again, the men hold the unwilling girl down on the floor while Father Xavier makes the sign of the cross on her sweaty skin. Zimmer's ritual brings the desired result: a large swarm of vampire bats soars, all cult members, including the Ravnas and Tanja, are bitten to death by the creatures and Marianne is redeemed with Ravna's destruction.

Reviews

  • David Pririe wrote in his book "The Vampire Cinema", which Isobel Black's powerful presentation "a very zealous " (extremely zestful) Vampirjüngerin almost leads "to bring the whole movie out of balance " (unbalancing the whole movie).

"Apart from the original final gag (...) this film offers solid and entertaining average food."

- Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Horror Films, Bergisch Gladbach 1989.

Film historical notes

  • Title of the American TV version with changed content: Kiss of Evil.
  • The film served Roman Polanski with many elements as a source of inspiration for his film Dance of the Vampires .

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