Always at nightfall

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Movie
German title Always at nightfall
Original title The vampires
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1957
length 73 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Paul Landres
script Pat Fielder
production Arthur Gardner
Jules B. Levy
music Gerald Field
camera Jack MacKenzie
cut John D. Faure
occupation

Always at Nightfall (Original: The Vampire ) is an American horror film by Paul Landres that was made at the end of 1956 .

action

When little Tommy is supposed to deliver a package to the eccentric Matt Campbell, he finds the researcher in a desperate state. With his last bit of strength, he asks the teenager who was about to deliver a package to Dr. To cycle Beecher and bring him here. When Beecher wanted to take care of Campbell, Campbell died, not without giving the doctor tablets whose active ingredient Campbell had developed. When Beecher's daughter is supposed to fetch the appropriate tablets for her father, who often suffers from migraines , she accidentally reaches for the Campbell pills. The next morning, Sheriff Donnelly visits Dr. Beecher and reports to the doctor that a sinister figure is said to have roamed the neighborhood last night. He didn't hear or see anything, replies Dr. Beecher, he slept soundly. A little later he is called to the patient Marion Wilkins with a heart condition, who reacts to him completely hysterically. Immediately thereafter, Marion dies of a heart attack. Beecher sees two wounds on her neck. The sheriff also recognizes the bite marks on Marion's neck when he pays a visit to the town house of the dead. A little later, the psychologist Will Beaumont, a college friend of Beecher's, arrives in town. His colleague Henry Winston, who came with him, wants to continue Campbell's research activities - it revolves around the study of primitive instincts. Beecher begins to be very interested in this matter and asks Will to see him and Henry doing research.

The next night, Beecher's daughter Betsy wants to go to her father's room because she cannot sleep, but Dr. Beecher has locked his room. The window to the outside is open and pills are strewn across his desk. Meanwhile, Henry Winston is busy with the chemical analysis of Campbell's tablets. He found out that they contain parts of bat viruses. Suddenly a monster appears from behind and kills Henry. The next morning, Will Beaumont and Sheriff are present when Henry's body is discovered. A little later, Dr. Beecher in addition. Here, too, he notices wounds on the murdered man's neck and points out that he saw these bite marks, which he had initially taken for insect bites, also on Marion Wilkins' neck. Beecher suspects that his migraines, taking the tablets and the weird deaths are connected and therefore asks his office assistant Carol to cancel her planned date with the sheriff and to take care of him in the evening. Both decide to visit a restaurant together. Beecher received a phone call there and he urgently had to go to the hospital for an operation. He uses a trick to steal the Campbell pills that he had given her for safekeeping from her purse.

At the same time, the sheriff has Marion's body exhumed. Beecher feels how his body goes through a metamorphosis during the operation. The dead woman in Marion's coffin has long since rotted away, so she is probably not Mrs. Wilkins. Carol no longer wanted to wait in the restaurant for her boss to return and is on her way home. In the dark she feels chased by someone and at the last moment she can find shelter in her house. An old lady who walks her puppy dog ​​is not so lucky and is attacked and killed by the wandering beast. The monster lurking behind a tree is without a doubt Dr. Paul Beecher, who evidently mutates into a beast more and more often due to the pill taking. Beecher, who knows how dangerous he can become in his transformed state, first wants to send his daughter Betsy away to her aunt Sally. Paul told his old friend Will Beaumont that he was concerned that he had to stand behind the murders because he had taken Campbell's pills three times. The transformation would always take place around 11 p.m. Will is at his side when Beecher's metamorphosis begins again in the laboratory. Once mutated into a monster, Paul now also attacks Will and kills him too. He disposed of his body in the laboratory's own incinerator.

The next day, Sheriff Donnelly, accompanied by another police officer, visit the laboratory to find out about Dr. Beaumont to ask about Campbells, Winstons and his research. Since a tape was playing in the laboratory when Paul murdered Will, the police now also know about the connections. Beecher wants to kill himself in his practice, as the transformations are happening more and more frequently, so Carol comes into his office and tries to keep him from the act of desperation. At this very moment, Beecher's metamorphosis begins again. As a monster, Beecher knocks down his office assistant and tries to kill her as a beast. Carol screams when she wakes up, runs out of the house and is heard by the approaching sheriff and the simple patrolman at his side. The Beecher monster pursues his office hours assistant and is in turn pursued by the two police officers. It comes to a duel between monster and sheriff Donnelly, whom the sheriff threatens to lose. The second policeman arrives and shoots the monster that threatens to strangle the sheriff. At the moment of death, the monster turns back into Paul Beecher.

Production notes

Always at Nightfall was composed in just one week, from December 10th to 16th, 1956, and was premiered in June 1957. The German premiere took place on February 20, 1959.

criticism

The Movie & Video Guide stated: “Not without some merit. Beal is excellent. "

Halliwell's Film Guide saw the film as a "stupid attempt to turn a legend into science fiction" and concluded with the conclusion: "More laughable than scary."

"The film knows how to use the common effects of the horror genre in a clever way."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Certificate of release for good at nightfall . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1404
  3. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 1075
  4. Always at nightfall in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on October 5, 2018 Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used

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