Rank Film Distributors released Kiss of the Vampire in the UK on 26 January 1964. Strangely, Universal Pictures released it earlier in the US. But I’m going with the UK release since it is a UK production.
The film has an interesting history. Hammer wanted it to be the third in its Dracula series. So that makes sense. The Brides of Dracula was the second film. And it is notable as the only film in the series that does not include Dracula. But that wasn’t a problem. I still consider it the second best of the nine-film series.
Kiss of the Vampire is excellent. I would rank it as highly as Brides. Both films show that you don’t need Dracula. Indeed, I find the character annoying. All you need is some rich bloodsucker and you are fine. Dracula comes with so much baggage. It limits what you can do. At the same time, the character just isn’t that interesting.
The plot is pretty well-known at this point. A young couple runs out of fuel in a remote area. They stay with a nobleman who is a vampire. The vampires abduct the woman. And the man fights to get her back. Gérard Brach stole the basic idea for Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers. I like Kiss a lot more — to a large extent because it doesn’t try to be funny.
On its release, the film got pretty much universal praise. Even stodgy film critic Leslie Halliwell wrote, “[It is] handled in lively fashion, with a splendid climax in which assorted white-robed vampires are destroyed by bats.” And psychotronic lover Michael Weldon wrote, “A superior vampire thriller set in Bavaria of 1910… [I]t’s one of the best…”
I highly recommend Kiss of the Vampire. And this is an excellent print. So enjoy!
Kiss of the Vampire (1963) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
