Classic Horrors Club

Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! Writer/director Riccardo Freda made I Vampiri (1957) on a bet that he could complete it in 12 days. Accounts vary on the details, but at some point he realized it couldn’t be done and left the production. Cinematographer Mario Bava took over and finished it in one or two days, rewriting parts of it. For the first Italian horror film of the sound era, it ended up pretty good. The only problem is I like lemonade only on rare occasions.

Pierre Lantin (Dario Michaelis) is a journalist seemingly more interested in solving a string of murders in Paris where young female victims with the same blood type are found drained of their blood, sans the traditional bite marks on the neck. Simultaneously, he’s avoiding the romantic advances of Giselle du Grand (Gianna Maria Canala), whose now-elderly aunt, Margherita (also Canala) was in love with his father. The plot feels organic to me. Had I not known, I wouldn’t have guessed that Bava rewrote it. 

Reflecting on my experience watching it, the story seems straightforward. However, the movie feels like so much more is happening. There are subplots about families of the missing victims and Pierre’s colleague, photographer Ronald Fontaine (Angelo Galassi), declaring his love for Giselle. However, when answers are provided, it’s through dialogue that explains everything rather than events that demonstrate anything. That’s all to say that the movie feels a little “off.”

However, when you focus less on the story and more on the atmosphere, I Vampiri feels like a classic. Taking place during the time it was made, it’s nevertheless gothic, with key events unfolding in a dusty old castle with hidden passages that include a full laboratory behind the family crypt. (If you go beyond that, you come out of the fireplace.) Thick, heavy cobwebs decorate the interior while broken windows cause the torn curtains to blow in the howling wind.

The wildest ride belongs to a character named Joseph Signoret (Paul Muller), a junkie doing the dirty work for the professor, Julien du Grand (Antoine Balpetre), who’s taking orders from a mysterious source. Beware of variations of the original. Released in the UK as Lust of the Vampire and in the US as The Devil’s Commandment, there are various cuts and additional footage. You know, the fact that it all comes together as seamlessly as it does in the original makes me want to drink a glass of lemonade, after all. 

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