Themes: Vampires, Nothing Goes Right, Woman In Jeopardy
Main Cast: Roman Polanski, Jack MacGowran, Alfie Bass, Jessie Robbins, Sharon Tate
Release Year: 1967
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
A pair of bumbling vampire-hunters attempts to destroy an undead nobleman and his cronies and rescue a buxom maiden in actor/director Roman Polanski's playful update of the venerable vampire genre. Bat expert and vampire obsessive Professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran) barely survives his journey through the Alps into snowy Slovenia to continue his oft-maligned research into the undead. Thawed out by his hapless assistant, Alfred (Polanski), and the frisky local innkeeper, Shagal (Alfie Bass), Abronsius quickly notices the overabundance of raw garlic as a decorating motif in the inn and its environs. Too ineffectual to save Shagal from having his blood sucked, the professor and Alfred miss the boat again when the mysterious Count Von Krolock (Ferdinand Mayne) kidnaps Shagal's built, beautiful daughter, Sarah (Sharon Tate). The itinerant vampire hunters must travel through the icy wilderness to Von Krolock's abode and evade his manservant and his effete son Herbert (Iain Quarrier) before Sarah joins the ranks of the ghouls. They soon learn, however, that the luxury-starved lass actually enjoys her captors' lavish attentions. The action climaxes during a costume ball attended by a phalanx of blood-suckers, although the laughs and surprises continue until the very end. Sixteen minutes of unauthorized cuts have been restored in some video editions of The Fearless Vampire Hunters, although the animated credits sequence that replaced them is also retained. The film marks the feature debut of Tate, who replaced Polanski's original choice, Jill St. John, on the advice of producer Martin Ransohoff. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
Despite the black humor of its ending, this mixture of spoofy horror and naughty Euro hijinks remains one of auteur Roman Polanski's least weighty directorial efforts. Full of elaborate slapstick, cheesecake semi-nudity, clever parody, and fine performances, The Fearless Vampire Killers is at least as entertaining as the Hammer horror outings it intends to, ahem, de-fang. Polanski himself proves no slouch when it comes to exaggerated, farcical acting, his Alfred a perfect compendium of gawky physical tics and bumbling-assistant clichés. Sharon Tate, meanwhile, plays it straight and saucy, investing her buxom Eastern European maiden with an enjoyably sexist mixture of glamour, sass, and stereotype. Some of the gags take too long to set up and execute, leaving no doubt as to why the film was trimmed against Polanski's will in its original release; the script takes forever to get to Count Von Krolock's castle, although once there it treats viewers to an enjoyable parade of Baroque set pieces, genre hamminess, and amusing bit parts. Iain Quarrier in particular has lots of fun as the "sensitive" young vampire Herbert, while Ferdinand Mayne displays such a perfect countenance as the number one bloodsucker that it's a shame he didn't do more straightforward horror work. (Instead, he played in several other spoofs, from 1971's Gebissen Wird Nur Nachts to 1991's My Lovely Monster.) As for Fearless Vampire Killers' place in the Polanski canon, its acute attention to horror conventions surely helped in the construction of Rosemary's Baby the following year. The only difference between parodying and reinvigorating a genre is the emphasis, and these two films, taken together, leave no doubt as to Polanski's ability to do both. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Fred Carter - Art Director, Tutte Lemkow - Choreography, Sophie Devine - Costume Designer, Roy Stevens - First Assistant Director, Roman Polanski - Director, Alastair McIntyre - Editor, Martin Ransohoff - Executive Producer, Krzysztof Komeda - Composer (Music Score), Tom Smith - Makeup, Wilfred Shingleton - Production Designer, Douglas Slocombe - Cinematographer, Gene Gutowski - Producer, George Stephenson - Sound/Sound Designer, Gérard Brach - Screenwriter, Roman Polanski - Screenwriter
