The Kiss of the Vampire

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The Kiss of the Vampire
Directed by	Don Sharp
Produced by	Anthony Hinds
Written by	Anthony Hinds
Starring	Clifford Evans, Edward de Souza
Release date(s)	1963
Running time	88 minutes
IMDb profile

The Kiss of the Vampire is a 1963 British Hammer Horror film directed by Don Sharp and starring Clifford Evans, Edward de Souza, Jennifer Daniel, Noel Willman, Barry Warren and Jacquie Wallis.

1 Plot synopsis
2 Production
3 Cast
4 Credits
5 Trivia
6 Alternate version
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman) initiates Marianne (Jennifer Daniel) into his vampire cult

Gerald (Edward de Souza) and Marianne Harcourt (Jennifer Daniel), are a honeymooning couple in 19th-century Bavaria who become caught up in a vampire cult led by Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman) and his two children Carl (Barry Warren) and Sabena (Jacquie Wallis).

[edit] Production

Originally intended to be third Dracula movie in Hammer's Dracula series (which began with Dracula and was followed by The Brides of Dracula); it was another attempt by Hammer to make a Dracula sequel without Christopher Lee. The final script, by Anthony Hinds makes no reference to Dracula, and expands further on the directions taken in Brides by portraying vampirism as a social disease afflicting those who become decadent. The film went into production on 7 September 1962 at Bray Studios.

Quotation

I cannot remember how this came to be written. It is just possible that Chris Lee's agent was asking too much for him. I was asked to make a film that did not require him... I really have no idea whether Kiss was successful. I guess, over the years, and with TV sales, it must have been. I wish I had a share in it. I wish I had a share in any of them.

Writer (as John Elder)/Producer Anthony Hinds (Little Shoppe of Horrors #10/11, 1990)

[edit] Cast

Clifford Evans (Professor Zimmer)
Edward de Souza (Gerald Harcourt)
Noel Willman (Dr. Ravna)
Jennifer Daniel (Marianne Harcourt)
Barry Warren
Brian Oulton
Noel Howlett
Jacquee Wallis (Sabena Ravna)
Peter Madden
Isobel Black
Vera Cook
John Harvey

[edit] Credits

Directed by Don Sharp
Screenplay by John Elder (Anthony Hinds)
Produced by Anthony Hinds
Music by James Bernard
Musical supervisor: John Hollingsworth
Director of photography: Alan Hume
Production design by Bernard Robinson
Art direction by Don Mingaye
Supervising editor: James Needs
Make-up by Roy Ashton
Special effects by Les Bowie

[edit] Trivia

This film played once again with the rules of cinematic vampire lore by allowing the vampiric Ravna family to move about during the daylight hours, albeit in a limited fashion.

This is the only known feature film appearance of Jacquie Wallis who portrays the very significant role of Sabena Ravna.

The film's climax, involving black magic and swarms of bats, was originally intended to be the ending of The Brides of Dracula, but the star of that film Peter Cushing objected. In fact, the paperback novelization of Brides does end this way.

[edit] Alternate version

Retitled Kiss of Evil for American TV, Universal trimmed the original film for its initial television screening so much that more footage had to be shot to pad out the missing time. Additional characters - that didn't appear at all in the original release - were added, creating a whole new subplot. Every scene that showed blood was edited out (e.g. the cinema release's pre-credits scene in which blood gushes from the coffin of Zimmer's daughter after he plunges a shovel into it (note: her scream was cut from the scene as well), or, when Harcourt frees his hands after being clawed by Tanya, the televised version has him escape by running across the room untouched by the vampires, who just watch him get away. The theatrical release instead had Harcourt, after freeing his hands, smearing the blood on his chest into a cross-shaped pattern. 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.

Gerald (Edward De Souza) is held by the evil Ravna clan against his will

The abbreviated running time was made up for by the addition of scenes of a family (middle-aged husband and wife; teenage daughter) who argue about the influence of the vampiric Ravna clan, but never interact with anybody else in the movie. The daughter throws over her boyfriend in favor of Carl Ravna (unseen in these scenes) who has given her a music box which plays the same hypnotic tune that he plays on the piano elsewhere in the movie. Carl Esmond, Sheila Welles and Virginia Gregg (who gained fame by voicing Mother in three of the Psycho films) appear in the TV version.