The Vampire's Ghost (1945)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Lesley Selander

Writers:

Leigh Brackett (screenplay)
Leigh Brackett (story)

Release Date:

21 May 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Slave of the blood lust!!!

Plot:

In a small African port, a tawdry bar is run by an old man named Webb Fallon. Fallon is actually a vampire, but he is becoming weary of his "life" of the past few hundred years. |

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Exotic Dancer | Beautiful Woman | Jungle | Murder

Cast

John Abbott	...	Webb Fallon
Charles Gordon	...	Roy Hendrick
Peggy Stewart	...	Julie Vance
Grant Withers	...	Father Gilchrist
Emmett Vogan	...	Thomas Vance
Adele Mara	...	Lisa
Roy Barcroft	...	Capt. Jim Barrett
Martin Wilkins	...	Simon Peter
Frank Jaquet	...	The Doctor
Jimmy Aubrey	...	The Bum

Runtime:

59 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:H (1946) | USA:Approved (PCA #10530)

Company:

Republic Pictures (I)

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Creature Features: House of Frankenstein/The Vampire's Ghost (#1.21)" (1971)

Different, effective little film

I've wanted to see this movie for many years, ever since I read that Leigh Brackett had written the script for it. And, now that I have, I'm pleased to find out that it was worth the wait. Produced cheaply, by a second (or even third) rate studio, it replaces budget with story and characterization. John Abbott's Web Fallon (possibly the first sympathetic and world-weary vampire portrayal in the movies), harks back to John Polidori's Lord Ruthven (and Rymer's Sir Francis Varney) as his antecedents, and not the classic Stoker/Lugosi Dracula--one of the very few times the big screen has acknowledged there were literary vampires before Stroker.

It's too bad this one has basically slipped between the cracks and has become almost impossible to find.