The 1950s: Bat Out of Hell
Coming off a decade of classically eccentric vamp flicks, the 1950s started out with the bang and just kept going. A large contingent of foreign films made their mark on the vampire legacy, and with them began a new renaissance of the vampire film as a cinematic stronghold. Films including Riccardo Freda's 1956 I Vampiri, which follows the legend of the evil Countess Erzébet Bathóry (see Chapter 11), mark the emergence of an Italian legacy of vampiric filmmaking. The 1958 film Blood of the Vampire would also serve as an introduction to the striking Barbara Steele, who would later become one of horror's most recognizable scream queens and a consummate vampire witch in Mario Bava's 1960 cult classic Black Sunday (see Chapter 15).
While there were many classic films to emerge from the fifties, there is one that arguably stands fang and cape above the rest and it can be summed up in two words: Christopher Lee. In 1958, Lee rose from the grave and made his vampiric debut in the Hammer film Horror of Dracula (also called Dracula). Fresh off a stint playing the monster to Peter Cushing's Baron Victor Frankenstein in the 1957 The Curse of Frankenstein, Lee was again partnered with Cushing in Horror. The result was a one of the best Dracula movies to date and the birth of what many assert is the most epic partnership in horror history (see Chapter 15). The film was also a turning point for Hammer, marking the beginnings of its dominance in the horror genre for over a decade.
Unlike Bela Lugosi's Count in the 1931 version, Lee, with his graying locks, red eyes, and bloodthirsty hypnotics, proved to be a stunning Dracula whose athleticism, bold sexual underpinnings, and raw animal instincts brought new life to the character while also proving to be an admirable foe to Cushing's equally provocative, action-oriented Van Helsing. Audiences were enamored by director Terence Fisher's interpretation and the social subtext of the demise of the aristocracy of the nineteenth century. Films of the fabulous fifties include the following:
The Thing From Another World (1951) Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, James Arness
Batula aka Fearless Fosdick meets Dracula (1952) Puppet flick written by Al Capp
Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952) Arthur Lucan, Bela Lugosi, Dora Bryan
The Black Vampire aka El Vampiro negro (1953, Argentina) Olga Zubarry, Roberto Escalada, Georges Rivière
Dracula in Istanbul aka Drakula Istanbul'da (1953, Turkey) Atif Kap-tan, Annie Ball, Bülent Oran
I Vampiri aka The Devil's Commandment (1956, Italy) Gianna Maria Canale, Carlo D'Angelo, Dario Michaelis
Pity For the Vamps aka Pitié pour les vamps (1956, France) Viviane Romance, Giselle Pascal
The Vampire Moth aka Kyuketsuki-ga (1956, Japan) Ryo Ikebe, Asami Kuji, Akio Kobori
Blood of Dracula (1957) Sandra Harrison, Louise Lewis, Gail Ganley
Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957) Gloria Talbott, John Agar, Arthur Shields
Not of This Earth (1957) Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Morgan Jones
Revenge of the Vampire aka Dendam Pontianak (1957, Singapore) Maria Menado, Puteh Lawak, S.M. Wahid
Space Ship Sappy (1957) Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Joe Besser
The Vampire aka El Vampiro (1957, Mexico) Germán Robles, Abel Salazar, Ariadna Welter
The Vampire aka Mark of the Vampire (1957) John Beal, Coleen Gray, Kenneth Tobey
What must be duly noted in this decade is the acclaim of the 1951 Howard Hawks film The Thing From Another World, which crosses the boundaries of the traditional vampire and brings into play the melding of the horror and sci-fi genre and its broad use of vampirism often used in plagues and other sordid bloodsucking monsters. Remade in 1982 by director John Carpenter, the sequel, while also featuring a bloodthirsty alien, is often classified as mainstream sci-fi. Its predecessor, however, toes the line. A classic to be certain,
The Vampire aka Pontianak (1957, Singapore) Maria Menado, M. Amin, Salmah Ahmad
Son of the Vampire aka Anak Pontianak (1958, Singapore) Kemat Bin Hassan, Hasimah, Haj Sattar
The Vampire's Coffin aka El Ataúd del Vampiro (1958, Mexico) Germán Robles, Abel Salazar, Ariadna Welter
Blood of the Vampire (1958) Donald Wolfit, Vincent Ball, Barbara Shelley
Castle of the Monsters aka El Castillo de los monstruos (1958, Mexico) Germán Robles, Antonio Espino, Evangelina Elizondo
Horror of Dracula aka Dracula (1958) Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling
It! The Vampire From Beyond Space (1958) Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith, Ray Corrigan
The Return of Dracula aka The Curse of Dracula (1958) Francis Lederer, Norma Eberhardt, Ray Stricklyn
The Vampire's Curse aka Sumpah Pontianak (1958) Maria Menado, Mustaffa Maarof, Salmah Ahmad
Curse of the Undead (1959) Eric Fleming, Michael Pate, Kathleen Crowley
First Man Into Space (1959) Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Robert Ayres
Plan Nine From Outer Space (1959) Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore
The Woman Vampire aka Onna kyuketsuki (1959, Japan) Shigeru Amachi, Keinosuke Wada, Junko Ikeuchi
Hard Times for Dracula aka Uncle Was a Vampire aka Tempi duri per i vampiri (1959, Italian satire) Christopher Lee, Renato Rascel, Sylva Koscina
