The Kiss of the Vampire
Encyclopedia
The Kiss of the Vampire also known as Kiss of Evil, is a 1963
1963 in film
The year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....
British vampire film
Vampire films
Vampire films have been a staple since the silent days, so much so that the depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in films throughout the years. The most popular cinematic adaptation of vampire fiction has been from Bram Stoker's Dracula, with over 170...
made by the film studio Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
. The film was directed by Don Sharp
Don Sharp
Donald Sharp is a British film director.His most famous films were made for Hammer Studios in the sixties, and included The Kiss of the Vampire and Rasputin, the Mad Monk . Also in 1965 he directed The Face of Fu Manchu, based on the character created by Sax Rohmer, here played by Christopher Lee...
and was written by producer Anthony Hinds
Anthony Hinds
Anthony Hinds , aka Tony Hinds, aka John Elder, is a British screenwriter and producer. He is the son of the founder of Hammer Film Productions, William Hinds.-Early life:Tony Hinds was educated at St Paul's School...
credited under his writing pseudonym John Elder.
Plot
Gerald (Edward de SouzaEdward de Souza
Edward James de Souza is a British character actor and graduate of RADA with ethnic Portuguese Indian and English origins.-Early life:...
) and Marianne Harcourt (Jennifer Daniel
Jennifer Daniel
Jennifer Daniel is a Welsh actress. Among her film and TV appearances are the Hammer horror films The Kiss of the Vampire and The Reptile .She was married to actor Dinsdale Landen from 1959 until his death in 2003....
), are a honeymooning couple in early 20th-century Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
who become caught up in a vampire cult led by Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman
Noel Willman
Noel Willman was a Irish actor and theatre director of English descent..His films included Androcles and the Lion , The Man Who Knew Too Much , Across the Bridge , Carve Her Name with Pride , The Kiss of the Vampire , Doctor Zhivago , The Reptile...
) and his two children Carl (Barry Warren
Barry Warren
Barry Warren is a British actor. As well as several stage and TV appearances, he played three major characters for Hammer Studios: Carl Ravna in The Kiss of the Vampire ; Don Manuel Rodriguez de Savilla in The Devil-Ship Pirates ; and Karl in Frankenstein Created Woman .-External links:...
) and Sabena (Jacquie Wallis).
Cast
- Clifford EvansClifford EvansClifford Evans was a Welsh actor. As a conscientious objector he served in the Non-Combatant Corps in World War II.During the summer of 1934 he appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Open Air Theatre in London....
as Professor Zimmer - Noel WillmanNoel WillmanNoel Willman was a Irish actor and theatre director of English descent..His films included Androcles and the Lion , The Man Who Knew Too Much , Across the Bridge , Carve Her Name with Pride , The Kiss of the Vampire , Doctor Zhivago , The Reptile...
as Dr. Ravna - Edward de SouzaEdward de SouzaEdward James de Souza is a British character actor and graduate of RADA with ethnic Portuguese Indian and English origins.-Early life:...
as Gerald Harcourt - Jennifer DanielJennifer DanielJennifer Daniel is a Welsh actress. Among her film and TV appearances are the Hammer horror films The Kiss of the Vampire and The Reptile .She was married to actor Dinsdale Landen from 1959 until his death in 2003....
as Marianne Harcourt - Barry WarrenBarry WarrenBarry Warren is a British actor. As well as several stage and TV appearances, he played three major characters for Hammer Studios: Carl Ravna in The Kiss of the Vampire ; Don Manuel Rodriguez de Savilla in The Devil-Ship Pirates ; and Karl in Frankenstein Created Woman .-External links:...
as Carl Ravna - Brian OultonBrian OultonBrian Oulton was an English character actor.Born in Liverpool, he made his acting debut in 1939 as a lead actor...
as 1st disciple - Noel HowlettNoel HowlettNoel Howlett was an English actor, principally remembered as the incompetent headmaster, Morris Cromwell, in the ITV 1970s cult television programme Please Sir!...
as Father Xavier - Jacquie Wallis as Sabena Ravna
- Peter MaddenPeter Madden (actor)Peter Madden was a British actor who was born in Kuala Lumpur in Malaya.Madden was a character actor who made several notable appearances in Hammer films...
as Bruno - Isobel BlackIsobel BlackIsobel Amy Black is a British actress who is noted for her roles on film and television. She is the daughter of the late screenwriter Ian Stuart Black...
as Tania - Vera Cook as Anna
- John HarveyJohn Harvey (actor)John Harvey was an English actor. He appeared in 52 films, two television films and made 70 television guest appearances between 1948 and 1979....
as Police sergeant
Background
Originally intended to be the third movie in HammerHammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
's Dracula series (which began with Dracula
Dracula (1958 film)
Dracula, also known as Horror of Dracula in the United States, is a 1958 British horror film. It is the first in the series of Hammer Horror films inspired by the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. It was directed by Terence Fisher, and stars Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Carol Marsh, Melissa Stribling and...
and was followed by The Brides of Dracula); it was another attempt by Hammer to make a Dracula sequel without Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
. The final script, by Anthony Hinds
Anthony Hinds
Anthony Hinds , aka Tony Hinds, aka John Elder, is a British screenwriter and producer. He is the son of the founder of Hammer Film Productions, William Hinds.-Early life:Tony Hinds was educated at St Paul's School...
makes no reference to Dracula, and expands further on the directions taken in Brides by portraying vampirism as a social disease afflicting those who choose a decadent lifestyle. The film went into production on 7 September 1962 at Bray Studios
Bray Studios (UK)
Bray Studios is a film and television facility at Bray, near Windsor, Berkshire, England. The films Alien and The Rocky Horror Picture Show were shot there...
.
This is the only credited feature film screen role of Jacquie Wallis who plays Sabena.
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
Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...
objected that Van Helsing would never resort to black sorcery. In fact, the paperback novelization of Brides does use this ending.
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. Also, in the televised version we never do find out what Marianne sees behind the curtain, a sight which makes her scream. A couple of the cuts result in scenes that don't make sense any more: while the theatrical release had Harcourt, when he frees his hands after being clawed by Tanya, smearing the blood on his chest into a cross-shaped pattern, keeping the vampires away as he escapes, the televised version omits the blood-smearing, leaving the vampires' inaction unexplained.The abbreviated running time was made up for by the addition of scenes of a family who argue about the influence of the vampiric Ravna clan, but never interact with anybody else in the movie. The teenage 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. The middle-aged parents are played by Carl Esmond
Carl Esmond
Carl Esmond was an Austrian stage actor, born in Vienna, Austria. His birth name was Willy Eichberger which he later changed to Charles Esmond and finally to Carl Esmond. Like many of his fellow actors, Esmond fled Nazi Germany to England during World War II. Esmond continued to appear on the...
and Virginia Gregg
Virginia Gregg
Virginia Gregg Burket was an American actress best known for her many roles in radio dramas.Born in Harrisburg, Illinois, Virginia Gregg was the daughter of musician Dewey Alphaleta and businessman Edward William Gregg.-Radio:Gregg was a prolific radio actor, heard on such programs as The...
(who gained fame by voicing Mother in three of the Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
films), while their teenage daughter is played by Sheila Welles.