The Vampire (1957/I)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Paul Landres

Writers:

Pat Fielder (screenplay)
Pat Fielder (story)

Release Date:

June 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

It claws! It drains blood!

Plot:

A small town doctor mistakenly ingests an experimental drug made from the blood of vampire bats which transforms the kindly medic into a bloodthirsty monster.

Plot Keywords:

Pill | Vampire | Vampire Bat | Doctor | Nurse

Cast

John Beal	...	Dr. Paul Beecher
Coleen Gray	...	Carol Butler
Kenneth Tobey	...	Sheriff Buck Donnelly
Lydia Reed	...	Betsy Beecher
Dabbs Greer	...	Dr. Will Beaumont
Herb Vigran	...	George Ryan, Police Sergeant
Paul Brinegar	...	Willy Warner
Ann Staunton	...	Marion Wilkins
James Griffith	...	Henry Winston

Also Known As:

It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn (USA) (working title)
Mark of the Vampire (USA) (TV title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for some scary images and monster attacks. (re-rated)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (certificate #18438) | Sweden:15

Company:

Gramercy Pictures (I)

Goofs:

Continuity: When the boy enters the doctor's house in the first scene, the doorknob changes. The exterior clearly doesn't match the interior.

Quotes:

Dr. Paul Beecher: Oh, Will, you told me yourself these pills were from vampire bats.
Dr. Will Beaumont: Exactly, Paul, but that doesn't make you another Dracula.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Svengoolie: The Vampire" (1995)

A thoroughly enjoyable B horror movie.

Reliable small town doctor Paul Beecher (John Beal) gets a hold of some experimental regression pills extracted from vampire bats; mistaking them for his migraine pills, he starts taking them and becomes addicted to taking them. Slowly it dawns on him that it's causing him to mutate into a hideous fiend that preys on both male and female victims at night.

I'm always going to be partial to any film featuring Kenneth Tobey or Dabbs Greer, and since this likable little programmer has both of them, that's all the more reason to watch it. They're both solid, and Coleen Gray ("Kiss of Death" '47, "Red River", "The Killing") is a beautiful and appealing female lead, but Beal does the standout job in a committed and sympathetic performance.

The film has one good stalking sequence, and a good murder sequence. It's a compulsively watchable little genre item that is always interesting and reasonably chilling and offers a new twist on the vampire story. Beals' makeup is rather different; more to the point, he resembles a werewolf more than a vampire, and the film doesn't play out quite like what we're used to with vampire movies, so I found it quite intriguing. It's entertaining from scene to scene and doesn't waste time - once it's over, it's over.

I thought it was a fun little movie, and enjoyed it very much.

8/10